Aug 00 - At Yazilikaya (Hittite, mid-early 2nd mill. B.C.), Turkey

In the relief at the left (in the background), a procession of 12 figures stride in tall, conical helmets, short tunics and boots with upturned toes in the ancient Hittite shrine of Yazilikaya (Yazih-lih-kie-yah). This might portray a "mighty festival ... when all the gods gathered at the house of the weather-god [to] eat, drink, and be satisfied and pronounce the life of the king and queen ... of heaven and earth." (Cottrell) I've also read that these are gods of the sky who represent 12 lunar months, and that they're 12 gods of the underworld, representing 12 hours. At the right are depicted the god of the moon (left, see the crescent) and 'the Sun god of Heaven' (right). From the reign of Tudḫaliya III, the 'Sun god of Heaven' was the protector of the Hittite king, indicated by a winged solar disc on royal seals, and was the god of the kingdom par excellence. From the reign of Suppiluliuma I (and likely earlier), he played an important role as the foremost god to whom oaths were taken in interstate treaties. www.wikiwand.com/en/Sun_god_of_Heaven

- 'Cosmic symbolism at Hittite Yazilikaya': www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpe0-xO0OqY

- www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWvwy2zeFa8

- More re Yazilikaya below.

 

- I don't recall where I stayed in Boğazkale (nor in most places that year), nor whether I camped out somewhere, but I arrived by thumb in the late afternoon or early evening and was hungry. I approached a man on the street outside his home (I might have asked him for directions first?) and offered him 5$, @ what I'd pay in a restaurant, if I could join his family as their guest for supper. I was imposing at a minimum, if I wasn't being rude too. People in the Middle East are hospitable as a rule and so my request wasn't denied. I sat on the floor with the man and his wife and his family around a large assortment of bowls of food, and very little was said /b/ them during the meal while of course there was the language barrier for me. I was VERY impressed with the abundance of fresh and delicious food in what looked to me to be a feast. This wasn't a special occasion and I'd arrived just before it was served, so I assumed they ate like that every day, and I thought "Wow!".

 

- I don't recall the Boğazkale museum with its "small collection of artifacts, primarily cuneiform tablets and pottery," from the Hattuşaş site (Hattoo-shash), but I bought a guidebook to the site and a locally-produced booklet, 'The Hittites', by archaeologist Tahsin Özgüç, and it's likely I bought them at the museum.

 

- I headed over to and explored the vast site of Hattuşaş for a full day, guidebook in hand, the great, sprawling late-bronze-age capital of the Hittite empire at its height /b/ 1,600 and 1,200 B.C. when it was one of the 3 great superpowers on earth together with Babylon and Egypt's New Kingdom, and when the Hittites under Muwatalli II famously clashed with Ramesses II at the Battle of Kadesh on the Orontes in latter-day Syria in @ 1274 B.C. That was "the earliest pitched battle in recorded history for which details of tactics and formations are known; it's believed to have been the largest chariot battle ever fought, involving /b/ 5,000 and 6,000 chariots in total; and as a result of the discovery of multiple Kadesh inscriptions and the Egyptian–Hittite peace treaty, it's the best documented battle in ancient history." (Wikipedia) In Egyptian temple reliefs the Hittites are referred to as the "abominable Kheta".

 

- "Enclosed by 7-km.-long walls, Hattuşaş was by the standards of the time an immense city. The site was originally occupied by the Hatti, who established a settlement there @ 2,500 B.C. The Hittites moved in following their conquest of central Anatolia, making it their capital from @ 1375 BC in the period when their empire reached its greatest extent. The arrival of 'the Sea Peoples' had put an end to Hittite dominance of the region by 1,200 B.C.; Hattuşaş was destroyed and the Phrygians then built a large city on the site. It occupies a steeply sloping expanse dotted with rocky outcrops. Of the many bldg.s once scattered over a wide area only limestone foundation blocks survive. The walls of timber frames supporting clay bricks vanished long ago." (RG)

 

- "The 14th or 13th cent. B.C. Büyük Mabet or 'Great Temple', one of 70 (!) that once stood on this site, is "the largest and best-preserved Hittite temple in existence". Dedicated to the storm god Teshuba and the sun goddess Hebut, it consists of a central temple bldg. surrounded by @ 78 storage rooms [!] laid out in an irregular plan. Today the temple site comprises little more than an expanse of stone foundations." Touring the complex involved a fair bit of leg-work and hopping over and @ the ruins. I saw some 'pithoi', very large. earthenware, storage jars in situ (returned to the site following restoration), and a famous, large, squarish, smooth, green stone of serpentinite or nephrite, said to hail from Egypt but its provenance is a mystery, and which was in situ as well, as mysterious and as precious as it is. It's known as the 'wish-stone' and was likely a cult object. (I'll scan a photo. According to the RG it's said to have been "a wedding present from Ramesses II". ?) The worship of stones was common in even the most advanced of ancient societies.

- A walkway paved with slabs had been "a clearly defined processional way" on which "the king and queen, in their roles as high priest and priestess, led processions on holy days." The temple proper "consisted of 12 small chambers @ a central courtyard," incl. rooms that once housed cult statues of Teshuba and Hebut. (RG)

 

- The 14th or 13th-cent.-B.C. Büyük Kale or 'Great Fortress', a fortified palace, consisted of 3 courtyards in tiers. "The middle and lower courtyards are thought to have been given over to servants and aides of the royals, while the upper courtyard was the palace proper. ... The terraces are supported by sheer retaining walls made of vast limestone blocks. A flight of steps leads to what had been the SE gate of the palace. German scholar Hugo Winckler discovered an invaluable palace archive with > 10,000 cuneiform tablets (!!) on the site of a bldg. by that gate in 1906, incl. chronicles of conquests by Hittite kings, legal documents, a code of law, correspondence with foreign rulers, religious literature with hymns and rituals, and a copy in Hittite of the famous Treaty of Kadesh (see above), ratified by Ramesses II and Hattusilis III in @ 1270 B.C., the earliest surviving treaty /b/ 2 nations (!). Many of the tablets were in the yet-undeciphered language then known as Arzawa (Hittite in fact), and some were in Akkadian. (According to the BBC doc. in the 4th link below, 5 libraries with 30,000 tablets were discovered at Hattuşaş!) It was a cerebral site with relatively insubstantial ruins but with good views.

 

- The Yenicekale, a ruined fortress atop a steep hill on-site, was a "considerable engineering achievement" built on an artificial platform. It's perched just below the iconic Aslanlikapi, the 'Lion gate', flanked by 2 roaring, stone lions, convincing copies of the originals in the museum in Ankara. It "marks the beginning of the surviving section of dry-stone [and cyclopean] city walls which run along the top of a massive sloping embankment 10 m.s in height and surfaced with irregular limestone slabs. Rectangular towers were placed along it" and the foundations of some are still in evidence. (RG)

- At the Yerkapi, the 'Earth gate' or Sphynx gate, "2 huge sphynxes once guarded its inner portal but which now live in museums in Istanbul and Berlin". (I think I saw the one in the Pergamon museum, but didn't see the other.) A 70-m.-long tunnel leads from that gate to a point o/s the city, built using the corbel arch technique. It's mysterious, it might have been ceremonial or defensive, but it's not the oldest arched construction anywhere (a claim made in a plaque on-site in 2,000).

- The Kralkapi or 'King's Gate' was named for the relief of "the regal-looking figure" in profile, wearing a conical hat, on a pillar of the inner gateway (a copy, the original's in the museum in Ankara), but which in fact represents the god Teshuba.

 

- I recall two large alcoves under arches, 'Chambers 1 and 2', the 2nd with a frieze of a full-bodied image of the sun-god in relief in mid-stride (typical of Hittite refiefs) on the inner wall facing the entrance @ 5-15 m.s in, an image of Suppiluliuma I or II, and hieroglyphs in the 'Luwian' style on the inner walls. The 'chamber' was reconstructed (as recently as 1988) by archaeologists with blocks used in later period constructions.

The best theories have it that this alcove was an entrance to a supernatural world beyond, through, or represented by the wall with the frieze. The inscription recounts that king's successful military campaigns in Western Anatolia, but refers in the last line to the construction of 'a divine earth-road'. www.hittitemonuments.com/bogazkoy/BOGAZKOY_21.htm

- There were commanding views from the rocky heights at the site over the vast, yellow steppe, with herds of goats at some of the highest points.

 

- Here's as good a 10 min. summary of Hittite history as any I've found online.: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sttutf4P_BY But we're spoilt for choice on youtube.: www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFoU2QMfKBQ

- This next is a marvelous and very informative animated overview of the ancient city. (Youtube's history videos improve daily.) www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgH4CxQrgRc

- www.documentarytube.com/videos/the-dark-lords-of-hattusha

 

- The Hittites, depicted generally as "stocky, hardy, hook-hosed men in conical hats, thick woolen robes and mountaineers' boots", can come off as relatively likable on the spectrum of imperial types in the ancient world (again, relatively), at least until they began to deify their rulers (like everyone else in those days) in the reign of Tudhaliyas I. Leonard Cottrell (who I quote in the following paragraphs) describes them as "a rugged, independent people - energetic, determined, probably coarse and rough, a people strengthened by hardship and adversity, adventurous and brave, not afraid to march down from their mountain strongholds to challenge the older, more sophisticated peoples of Mesopotamia and Egypt." One could say as much about the rampaging 13th cent. Mongols, but while they "were certainly clever strategists, and, toughened by their life in the mtn.s, doughty fighters, there is no evidence that their conquests were accompanied by the refined cruelties that the Assyrians inflicted on their defeated foes. A conquered city was given humane treatment; its people were spared, provided due tribute was paid. If a city resisted it was looted, burned, and its inhabitants enslaved; but it's apparent that they weren't mutilated or tortured. They appear to have had a rough but genuine humanity which is reflected in some of their laws which have been found. Many of these are essentially the practical, down-to-earth laws of a peasant people. ... [For example:] "If anyone borrows and yokes an ox, a horse, a mule, or an ass and it dies, or a wolf devours it, or it goes astray, he shall pay in full value; but if he say 'by the hand of a god it died', then he shall take the oath."" (Cottrell)

- Hittite kings present as straight-forward and informal In their edicts and pronouncements and when quoted. My favourite quote from any ancient cuneiform or hieroglyphic text or tablet is Hittite, in a letter from the king (Hattusilis I?) to his officers. The context is that a battering ram broke in a siege (and he complains that "they constantly bring me evil tidings!").: "May the weather god carry you away in a flood! Be not Idle! [etc.]."

 

The following is a copy and paste from Leonard Cottrell's "Lost Worlds" (well-written but quite dated).: "The Hittites spoke an Indo-European language akin to Sanskrit, Greek and most European tongues. [They spoke both Hittite and Luwian, 2 of the oldest Indo-European languages we know of, although they borrowed many words from Hattian. They admired the Hattians, their predecessors.] They entered Anatolia early in the 2nd mill. B.C., possibly in the same migratory movement that brought the Mycenaeans or Achaeans into Greece, Like the Mycenaeans, the ancestors of the Hittites found a Bronze Age people living in the land which they had invaded. The Hittites acquired the name of the conquered territory - Hatti. ... Conquest and unification were a slow process. ["Initially the Hittites set up a number of city-states. These were drawn together during the mid-18th cent. under King Anitta [who] transferred his capital from the city of Kushara (possibly Alişar) to Neşha (Kultepe), and destroyed Hattuşaş, cursing any king who might attempt to rebuild there. A century or so later his successor Labarnas returned to Hattuşaş and did just that. {RG}]. Hittite records state that "at first the land was small, but wherever [Labarnas] marched to battle he subdued the lands of his enemies with might. He destroyed the lands and made them powerless, and he made the seas his frontiers." ["The Hittites came to regard Labarna and his wife Tawannanna as founders of the Hittite kingdom." {RG}]

- "The successor to Labarnas was Hattusilis I, in whose reign the Hittites began to move southward, beyond the Taurus, into Syria and to the SE, no doubt attracted by the riches of the older civilizations long established in Mesopotamia. Hatusilis I had an obstreporous grandson, Mursilis I, who conquered Babylon in @ 1,600 B.C., just @ the time the 17th dynasty pharaohs were liberating Egypt from the rule of the Hyksos. In the 15th cent. B.C., the Hittites came into conflict with the Hurrians, who had occupied an area bordering the northern Euphrates. It was at this time that the warrior pharaoh Tuthmosis III was leading his conquering armies into northern Syria; it was he, and not the Hittite king, who would crush the Hurrians and take the pressure off the Hittite frontier. Indeed, the Hittites may have been valued allies of the Egyptians at that point, and if so, this would have been the first contact /b/ the established imperial power of ancient Egypt and the newly emergent nation of the mountain dwelling people.

- "When an Indo-European ruling caste known as the Mitanni later established sway over the Hurrians, they entered into friendly relations with the pharaohs Amenhotep III and Amenhotep IV (Akhenaten). Egypt was in a non-militant phase and for a time the Mitanni were the most potent power in western Asia. Once again the Mitanni-ruled Hurrians gave great trouble to the Hittites, detaching their vassal states and threatening Hatti itself. The Hittites apparently suffered assault from various directions. One of their later chronicles, which seems to refer to this period, states that "... the Hatti lands were sacked from beyond their borders. The enemy from Kaska came and sacked the Hatti lands and made Nenassa his frontier. From beyond the Lower Land came the enemy from Arzawa, and he too sacked the Hatti lands and made ... [a new] frontier."

- "Two Hittite kings of this period, Hattusilis II and Tudhaliyas III, struggled against the formidable power of the Mitanni, but with little success. It was one of Tudhaliyas' successors, the great Suppiluliumas, who turned the tide. Suppiluliumas [was] ... a fighter, cunning strategist, wise in the ways of war and diplomacy. However, ... the Egypt to which he was opposed was peacefully concerned with its own affairs. The heretic Akhenaten was a pacifist and a dreamer, preoccupied with his religious reforms; he apparently disregarded the threats to his border lands.

- "After first suffering defeat at the hands of the Mittanian king, Tushratta, Suppiluliumas devised a new and daring plan. Crossing the Euphrates near Malatya, and traversing wild and dangerous country peopled by hostile tribes, he took the Mitanni in the rear. He recovered his lost provinces and sacked the Mitannian capital. Evidently shaken by this unexpected attack the king of Mitanni avoided battle. Suppiluliumas had disposed of his ancient enemy. Once again the Hittite armies began to roll southward and found themselves near the frontiers of Egyptian influence. It is possible that at this stage Suppiluliumas would have been content to establish his boundary on the Orontes, in Syria, and withdraw. But one of Egypt's vassals, the king of Kadesh, came out and offered battle. His armies were destroyed in the terrifying charge of the Hittite chariotry, and Suppiluliumas, carried forward by the impetus of his advance, pressed on into the Levant. The Hittites had come far from their mtn. homeland, and from that rich coastal strip /b/ the Lebanese mtn.s and the Great Green Sea, the Mediterranean, they turned their gaze south toward the gates of Egypt. The date of the Hittite advance was @ 1,370 B.C. The rough highlanders from beyond the Taurus, with their chariots and horses and their powerful leader, encamped in Lebanon, while the petty kings of Syria, former vassals of Egypt, came to the tent of Suppiluliumas bearing tribute. And only a few 100 miles to the south lay the greatest power on earth, with a civilization stretching back more than 1,500 yr.s. ...

- "After another 30 yr.s of arduous campaigning, during which he had battled the Assyrians and consolidated his hold on Syria, the Hittite king, now an old man, was encamped near Carchemish on the upper Euphrates. After an 8-day siege that great fortress surrendered, and the army was resting after its victory. Then a messenger arrived from Egypt bearing a letter. When his secretary read the message to him the old king could not at first believe it, for it purported to be from the queen of Egypt [Ankhesenamun! almost certainly]. "My husband [Tutankhamun!!] has died [at 18]," she wrote, "and I have no son, but of you it is said that you have many sons. If you would send me one of your sons, he could become my husband. I will on no account take one of my subjects and make him my husband. I am very much afraid." This letter was found by Winckler among the archives at Hattuşaş. Unfortunately there were no copies of the king's replies to this and further letters from the queen, which had evidently caused her some annoyance. He seems to have been skeptical as to her overtures. Her next letter reads: "Why do you say 'They are deceiving me?' If I had a son, would I write to a foreigner to publish my distress and that of my country? You have insulted me in speaking thus. ... My husband is dead and I have no son. I will never take one of my subjects and marry him. I have written to no one but you. Everyone says you have many sons; give me one of them that he may become my husband."

- " ... According to Egyptian custom the next pharaoh could only legitimize his succession by marrying the royal heiress. Surrounded by intriguing, power-hungry courtiers and politicians, such as Ay, who had been Akhenaten's chief minister, the queen looked @ desperately for an escape. Hence her statement, "I will never take one of my subjects and marry him." (Ay was already an elderly man, which may speak to the girl's desperation.) While her husband's body soaked for the customary 100 days in its natron bath, before embalming and burial, she tried to bring off a coup to defeat the intriguers who hoped to ride to power through marriage to the pharaoh's heiress. She was probably not more than 16 when she wrote those letters. ... But Suppiluliumas, when he moved, moved too late. The end of the story is tragic. When one of his sons was at last sent to Egypt, he never reached Thebes. It's possible that he was murdered by one of Ay's agents. And Ay, a man depicted on the wall of Tutankhamun's burial chamber making due offerings to the ka of the dead pharaoh, would himself become a god-king.

- "When Suppiluliumas died the Hittite empire, which stretched from Anatolia to southern Syria, was the dominant power in western Asia and the chief rival of Egypt. Eventually, of course, the 2 would clash. It was in 1,300 B.C. at Kadesh, on the Orontes, that the great battle took place. Here the chariotry of Ramesses II met that of the Hittites [ruled at that time by Muwatalli III]; Egypt claimed success, but it was only Ramesses' bravery and energy that enabled the Egyptians to escape a crushing defeat. Yet, in customary pharaonic custom, omnipotent as they traditionally made themselves appear, he caused to be carved those colossal temple reliefs of the battle that no visitor to Thebes [Karnak] can escape and that proclaimed his total victory. More wall space was devoted to this battle than to any other in the history of Egypt. Later, however, Ramesses would sign a mutual defense treaty with a succeeding Hittite king, Hattusilis III, copies of which were preserved both at Karnak and at Boghazkoy. Ramesses would even marry a Hittite princess and was delighted with his bride." (He describes meeting her as a "marvelous and fortunate affair.")

- "The adversaries of the Hittites were not confined to their southern neighbours in Syria and those at the borders of the land of Hatti. There were fresh disturbances in Asia Minor as well. Amongst the tablets found at Hattuşaş were some letters referring to a certain man named Attarissiyas who had evidently been troubling the Hittites; he had driven one of the king's vassals from his kingdom in western Anatolia. From this correspondence it appears that the Hittite king treated the king of Akaiwasha, over whom he had no jurisdiction, as an equal. There is a reference to a city in Asia Minor referred to in Hittite as Millawanda, a city outside the control of the Hittite monarch but under the indirect control of the king of Akaiwasha. The correspondence also refers to a principality named Zippasla, which had been given to the displaced vassal. ... The name by which Homer referred to the Mycenaean Greeks was the Achaeans, [which might be similar to] Akaiwasha, and we know that the name of the father of Agamemnon and Menelaus, the Atridae, was Atreus, which, it has been suggested, is comparable to Attarissiyas. Millawanda might have been the ancient Greek colony of Miletus, on the Aegean coast of Asia Minor. ... " Michael Wood of the BBC, rather than this writer, takes pains in his brilliant documentary re Troy to set out the links /b/ the Hittites and that city, which appears to have been a Hittite vassal, and the discovery of a reference to a man with the alias Paris.:

(To be continued.)

 

- "The arrival of the [mysterious] 'Sea Peoples' in Anatolia ushered in a period of instability which would lead to the destruction of Hattuşaş in @ 1,200 B.C., @ the time of the fall of Troy. ... Hittite culture survived in some small successor kingdoms in SE Anatolia and northern Syria, most notably @ Carchemish (Kargamiş), Malatya and Karatepe. These neo-Hittites are mentioned in the Old Testament in association with Abraham and David and their culture would endure until @ 700 B.C. when it was destroyed by the Assyians." (RG)

 

- Hattuşaş is a Unesco site, and since 2000 several crenellated defensive walls have been erected at the site in a partial 'reconstruction' on the basis of models found at the site.

 

 

- I trekked or hitched 2 or 3 clicks NE of the site of Hattuşaş (the next morning?) to the cult site of Yazilikaya ('Inscribed Rock' in Turkish), a Hittite rock sanctuary and the largest known Hittite monument incl. a temple-like bldg., and 2 natural enclosures with cliffs covered in friezes (such as those in this photo). The sanctuary [may have been] the site of open-air rituals held before the Hittite pantheon celebrating the arrival of the New Year each spring. The cliffs surrounding each of 2 natural enclosures ('Chambers A and B') were covered with the richest and most impressive samples of Hittite relief art, featuring 83 images in total of gods, goddesses and of the great king Tudhaliya IV (c. 1237 – 1209 BCE), 66 in Chamber A and 17 in B. The site was used as a ritual centre no later than the 16th cent. B.C., although the said friezes likely date from the late 13th cent. B.C., the reign of Tudhaliya IV and of Suppiluliuma II, "not long before the Hittite Empire began its steep and mysterious decline." Access to the enclosures was controlled with gateway structures, of which only foundations survive.

 

- The smaller "'Chamber B' is accessible via a narrow passage with winged demons in the reliefs on the cliffs on either side. It may have been used as a memorial chapel or mausoleum for Tudhaliya, IV dedicated by his son Suppiluliuma II in the late 13th cent. B.C. Its reliefs are fewer but much better preserved than those in Chamber A. (I'll scan a good photo of a relief of King Thuthaliya IV [c. 1237–1209 B.C.] in profile.) A procession of gods of the underworld is depicted on the wall immediately to the right of the entrance. On the opposite wall is a representation of Nergal, God of the Sword and the Underworld, [represented as a man wearing a conical hat and looking to his right, with lion heads in profile at his shoulders, holding 2 outstretched, upside-down, unhappy-looking lions by their tails, each shown in profile on either side of his body, and with what looks to be the blade of an upright dagger where his legs should be,] and a cartouche with the name of Tudhaliya IV." This same king is shown in the embrace of the god Sharruma. www.worldhistory.org/article/1359/five-key-historical-sit...

 

- "Mountain gods are [depicted] with scaled skirts which symbolize mountains. On the right wall [of Chamber A] a procession of female deities is seen wearing crowns and long skirts. The goddess of love and war, Shaushka (the Mesopotamian goddess Ishtar/Inanna) is shown in the male procession [opposite] with 2 female attendants. The processions lead to a central scene of the supreme couple of the pantheon: the storm-god Teshub and the sun-goddess Hebat. Teshub stands on the shoulders of two mountain gods whilst Hebat stands on a panther [or a big cat at any rate]. Their son Sharruma, daughter Alanzu and a granddaughter stand behind Hebat" above a double-headed eagle. (Wikipedia)

 

- "The Hittite practise of incorporating other cultures' gods into their pantheon is in evidence at Yazilikaya. The Mesopotamian god of wisdom, Ea (Enki) is shown in the male procession and the god Teshub was a Hurrian god who was syncretized with the Hittite storm-god. Hebat's original consort became her son Sharruma, and she was later syncretized with the Hattic Sun goddess of Arinna. It is believed that Puduhepa, the daughter of a Hurrian priestess and the wife of the Hittite king Hattusili III, also played a role in the increasing Hurrian influence on the Hittite religion." (Wikipedia)

 

- "A 2021 study concluded that the sanctuary depicted the cosmos including its three levels: earth, sky, and underworld; in addition to the cyclical processes: day/night, lunar phases, and summer/winter, which served as a luni-solar calendar. However, the supreme deities in Chamber A, referred to the northern stars, while Chamber B represented the netherworld." (Wikipedia)

 

- From Yazilikaya I walked @ 2 clicks back to Boğazkale, hitched north @ 15 km.s to the D190, possibly up to 4 km.s west on the D190 (depending on which rd. I'd taken north) to the Alacahöyük Yolu, and @ 10 clicks north up that road to the town of Höyük and the ancient Hittite site of Alacahöyük. (See the description for the next photo).

 

 

Done