HISTORICAL SITES
Alacahöyük Site
Alacahöyük site lays at 45 km. to the south
from Çorum and is located 17 km. to Alaca district towards nothwest. It is
within the settlement area of Alacahöyük village which is 34 km.. from Boğazköy
and 210 km from Ankara.
The mould was introduced to the world of
science for the first time in 1835 by W.C.Hamilton and since then became a
frequently visitied spot for man of science who travel to Central Anatolia. G.
Perrot came to the mould in 1861 during his Anatolian travels and revealed the
plan of the four cornered tower on the left and right sides of the gate and one
of the orthostadts. After this discovery, Perrot became the first person to
claim that these reliefs belonged to the Hittite period.
W. Ramsley, who has made considerable
contributions to the historical geography of Anatolia also studied the mound
with Wilson in 1881 and added some new reliefs to those already known. When C.
Chanter came to Anatolia in 1893, he visited the mound first and brought to
light the square pass betwen the Sphinxes and the second entrance behind it and
frames of the door. Chantre who made casts of the reliefs, moving from the
themes they depicted claimed, like Perrot, that this was more likely a temple
gate rather than one for a palace. Chantre who also studied the lions to the
south of the gate with the Sphinx reinforce the fact, after Ramsey, that the
inscriptions on one of them was Phrygian.
Later, H. Winckler who was working at Boğazköy
since 1906, together with Makridi Bey and following the suggestion of Halil
Ethem Bey who was the Director of İstanbul Archaoelogical Museum decided to
carry out investigatons at the mound. In 1907 Makridi Bey worked on the gate
with the Sphinx for nearly 15 days and at the end found a few new orthostadts
in front of the door. Following some boring work at several places on the
mound, he saw the potern at the northern skirts of the hill and compared it
with the one at Boğazköy.
The first systematic excavations in the real
sense at the mound were started in 1935 as Atatürk initiated the period of
national excavations after the establishment of the republic, on behalf of the
Turkish History Association by Hamit Zübeyr Koşar, Remzi Oğuz Arık and Mahmut
Akok, which continued until 1983. The excavations were halted at the time and
started again in 1997 by Prof. Dr. Aykut Çınaroğlu.
As a result of the investigations and
excavations which were carried out, 4 cultural layers were determined in the
mound which was a scene of settlements from the Chalcolitic Age to the present
without any interruptions. These layers which covered the Chalcolitic, Old Bronze,
Hititte and Phrygian periods are divided into 15 architectural levels between
them. According to this :
Calcholitic Age : 4000 - 3000 B. C. on main ground
layers 15-9
Old Bronze Age : 3000 - 2000 B.C. layers 8-5
Hittite period : 1800 - 1200 B.C.layers 4-2
Phrygian period : from 750 B.C. on layer 1
The first settlement of the mound built in the
Chalcolitic Age was on a piece of land which was protected in the north by
small hills and which was located above the water level, but did not progress
beyond the status of being a small village. The architecture of the period
consisted of stone foundations and mud brick walls above graves and the Hittite
period with its ruins of monumental arcitectural buildings.
Boğazköy Site
The historical site of Boğazköy (Hattusas) is
located at 82 km. to the southwest of Çorum and it is 208 km. from Ankara.
Boğazköy (Hattusas) site which was located at the core region of the Hittite
state is at the southern end of the Budaközü River valley, at an elevation of
300 meters from the plain surrounded by numerous rock masses and the
seperations of mountain sides and deep clifts to the north and west. The city
is open towards the north and surrounded by city walls on all sides except the
north.
The Hattusas historical site was first visited
by Charles Dexter in 1834 and introduced to the world. Later Sayce made the
first connection between with these ruins and the Hittite state as until that
time the center of the Hittites was considered to be in Syria. In 1882, Carl
Human came to Boğazköy with Otto Puchstein and they, for the first time made a
comprehensive planning study. They also made castings of Yazılıkaya which is
currently at the Pergamon museum. During the years 1893-1894 E. Chantre carried
out the first explorative excavations and in 1905 Makridi and H.Winckler
visited Boğazköy and carried out the excavations which continued until 1917.
The systematic excavations which were started in 1932 by Kurt Bittel on behalf
of the German Archaeological Instutute were stopped for a while during the IInd
World War and the work was later resumed and continued under the same
excavation leader until 1978. The excavations which are carried out under the
leadership of Dr. Peter Neve from 1978 to 1993 is still progressing on behalf
of the same institution by Dr. Jurgen Seer.
Settlements existed at the Boğazköy (Hattusas)
site since IIIrd millenium B.C. The small and fortified settlements
of that period were at Büyükkale and its environs. In the 19th and
18th centuries B.C. settlements from the age of Assyrian Trade
Colonies are seen at the Lower City and the name of the city was first
discovered from written documents of that era.
The first period of development at Hattusas
terminated with a major fire and the culprit behind this fire must be the
Kushara King Anitta. According to documents, right after this destruction,
around 1700 B.C. Hattusas was settled once more and became the capital of the
Hittite state in 1600's and its builder was Hattusilis I. who had a Kushara
origin just like Anitta.
After Hattusas became the capital, a
monumantal building development can be seen at the farthest point of the
spreading settlement and the city took its 13 century B.C. form with 2 km. wide
palace and temple districts. In the second development period of Hattusas three
important Hittite kings played a significant role both from within and without
during the last years of the Empire. They were Hattusilis III, his son
Tudhaliyas IV, and his son Suppiuliumas II. When the Hittite state was
destroyed due to economic hardships and internal strife during the last years
of the Suppiuliumas II reign (1190 B.C.) Boğazköy was abandoned for a period of
4 centuries and the first settlements seen after this gap is Phrygian (middle
of 8th century B.C.) During the Hellenistic and Roman times (3rd
century B.C. - 3rd century A.D.) Hattusas is a fiefdom center surrounded by a
small wall and it appears as a village during the Byzantine period.
The part of Hattusas known as the Upper City
is a sloped land of more than 1 kilometer square. This area has witnessed the
development of the city during the late Empire Period in 13th
century B.C. A major part of the Upper City solely consisted of temples and
sacred places. Upper City is surrounded at south by a city it and the roofs
were covered with reeds and compressed with a flat earth roof.
The Old Bronze Age which followed the
Chalcolitic, and represented by 4 building layers gained importance in
Alacahöyük with the discovery of 13 royal graves. The graves which are claimed
to belong to layers 5 and 7 were built by allocating a special place for them
in the city and are unique examples in Anatolia and even Asia Minor. They
belong to adult males and females. No children or babies were burried in these
graves and no multiple burials were encountered. Unlike other grave types in
Central Anatolia, there is a unity of orientation of both the graves and the
dead in Alacahöyük. The grave gifts are the richest and have the greatest
variety when compared to those known for the Agean and Asia Minor areas in the
Old Bronze Age. Sundials, bull and deer statues, all types of ornamental
objects, war weapons such as knives, daggers and axes all of which were made
from baked earth, stone, gold, silver, bronze, copper and electron were
offered. The architectural system of Alacahöyük during the Old Bronze Age was
the construction technique specific to Anatolia, that is, mud brick walls on
top of a stone foundation, plastered walls and floors, flat ceilings and
earthen roofs.
The Hittite layers which make up the currently
visible part of Alacahöyük consist of three building layers. At that a period a
defense system was built around the mound shaped close to a circle with a 250
meter diameter and two main gates were found which provided entrance to the
city over the defense system. One of these is the gate with the sphinx at
southwest and the other is the one with the porten at the western part of the
mound.
There are two Sphinxes at the southeast gate
making up the religious entrance of the probable city in the mound. Heads are
the distinguished features in the Sphinx protoms which are carved on monolythic
stone jambs and are higher than two meters. In both Sphinxes, Hotor style hairs
start from the forehead and come down to the shoulders and the hair ends in
helozonic curls. The Sphinxes have bloated bodies protruting forward and are
stand on short and set apart legs. On the inner side of the Sphinx on the east
a double headed eagle carrying a rabbit in its claws and above it, the feet of
a possible goddess with long garments, facing the city and part of her skirt
have survived..
The reliefs which are under the towers at the
east and west of the gate with the Sphinx are shaped in bas relief and have
been only lightly shaped and the details are given with plasticity. Almost all
of the western tower ortostadts can be followed as a continious frieze. At this
section we see that at the bottom cult-libation themes and at the top hunting
scenes are described. In the holy day rituals which were celebrated in the
honour of the storm god and which are also known from the Hittite texts the
King and the Queen who were the chief priest and priestess are shown here in a
praying position in front of the bull and the following reliefs describe the
other parts of the ceremony. The people praying in front of the sitting goddess
at the eastern tower also show the continuation of the cult ceremony.
Entering the gate with the sphinxes and
passing through the entrance complex, the foundations of a large Hittite
building defined as a temple-palace are seen at the right. This building is
composed of various storage rooms and other complexes.
Alacahöyük excavations have an important place
in world archaeology literature since it is the single center which provides a
continuous stratigraphy of the Northern Region of Central Anatolia and it
enlightens the old Bronze Age with the 13 royal wall which draws a large arch
and this wall has 5 gates. At the futhest southern point of the wall and at the
highest point of the city, the gate with the Sphinxes is located with its
bastion rising above anything else. Of the other four gates the two facing one
another at the southern and western tips of the city walls are the royal gate
and the gate with the lion.
The building development seen in the Upper
City has been in three stages. The first stage coincides with the construction
of the city walls. The second is the stage of rebuilding and giving the temple
city its final form following the first destruction of the walls. During the
last stage a new construction acitivity had started besides the repairs and
renovations carried out at the existing buildings for purposes other than the
religious ones. In the Upper City, the area known as the districy of the
temples reaches from the gate with the Sphinxes to Nişantepe and Sarıkale. In
this part many temples were revealed orignating from different stages. The
general characteristics of the temple plans were defined by the cult room
groups which are entered from a central court yard and consist of a narrow
fore-space and a deep main space. The material obtained from the temples are
divided into five groups.
1- Utilized ceramics,
2- Utilized tools,
3- Weapons,
4- Cult objects,
5- Written documents.
In the Upper City Post - Hittite buildings at
Nişantepe and Güneykale which are right at the front of Büyükkale are
significant and this is the Phrygian settlement which is dated to 6-7th
centuries B.C. For the Hittite period this area is studied in three sections
defined according to the tophograpy. The pass to the south of Büyükkale
(Viaduct), the plateau which was previously settled which is to the north of
Nişantepe on both sides of the roads leading to Upper City, and the area at the
site of Güneykale.
The road network which connected to Nişantepe
and the Upper City through the viaduct reaches a complex with a stone laid
inner court with buildings on the north, south and east sides and a gate on the
fourth.
An important building besides the northern and
southern structures is the western building and the palace Archives. It is
assumed that the building which was destroyed in a big fire had two basement
floors on the slope. In these two basements nearly 3300 annals and 30 tablets
with hieroglyph insriptions were found. 2/3 of the annals carry the Great King
seals and in chronological order represent Kings from Suppiuliuma I to the last
king of Hattusas , his great son Suppiuliuma II. Queen seals besides the king
seals were also discovered.
The construction at Güneykale was realized by
Suppiuliuma II. There is a large artificial lake and three buildings on three
seperate points around it. Of the two buildings which are still standing and
named Room 1 and 2; Room 2 is to the west of the northern corner of the lake.
This room which has a single space has a parabolic dome which diminishes as it
becomes narrower towards the inside. There were few remains found in situ in
Room1. All three walls of room 2 are decorated with reliefs. The main picture on
the opposite wall has a figure with a long garment which faces towards the
left. There is a sundial with wings on the round head dress and the figure
holds a litus in the left hand and an anch motif in the right. On the west wall
facing it there is a hierographic inscription. The excavations carried out at
Büyükkale which is built on a hill of natural rock area to the south of the
city proper has revealed the palace buildings of the Hittite Kings in 13 - 14th
century B.C. and the characteristics of the wall systems which were for their
defense. The walls of the castle whose entrance gate is at southwest are built
on beds carved into rock at north and south and on a piled earth level in the
south with the chest wall technique. The palace building cannot be seen as a
whole from Büyükkale. Buildings of varying types and sizes which were revealed
with excavations, large interior spaces connected together with courts and
columned galleries form the whole within the castle . The castle has rooms for
archives and storage, a large reception hall, buildings related to the water
cult and sacred spaces. Remains of Phrygian buildings were found at the castle
following the Hittites.
One of the most important architectural sites
at Boğazköy is the Great Temple (Temple no.1). The Great Temple which formed
the center of the northern city in Hattusas was built as the home of Storm God
of Hatti and the Sun Goddess of the Arinna City. The temple has two aditons and
there are stone paved roads and squares around it and storage rooms behind in
all four directions open up to them are located behind. The Great Temple is
seperated from the districts of the Lower City with a wall. The Great Temple
which is built on a stone terrace obviously served as an economic center as
well as a religious center as the large jugs which are revealed in situ at the
shops indicate. Again the tablets found at the eastern shops of the temple
shows the existence of the archives.
The Great Temple is surrounded by buildings of
secondary importance. Most important one among them is the Slope House. It
deserves attention with its large size, its plan and the fact that it is a
multi-storey building.
Excavations at the Hattusas historical site
are carried out at Büyükkaya since 1993. The discovered ceramics show that a
small settlement which was first built during the Chalcolithic Age was still a
settlement during the period known as the Dark Age. However the investigations
have shown that there were large silos with stone paved floors during the
Empire period. At Büyükkaya, which also witnessed the Phrygian period,
settlements from the early Phrygian period are defined.
Yazılıkaya Open Air Shrine
Yazılıkaya which is located 2 km to the
northwest of Hattusas historical site was the Open Air Shrine of the Hittite
Empire. It consists of a natural rock of two rooms and a Hittite temple in
front of it which reflects the characteristics of the Hittite architecture.
In Yazılıkaya open air shrine there is a Big
Gallery named Room A, and the Small Gallery, named Room B both of which are
built into natural rock.
The west wall of the Big Gallery (room A) is
decorated with god reliefs while the east wall is decorated with reliefs of the
goddesses and the figures on both walls face the section where the main scene
is and the east and west walls join the north wall. The gods generally have
pointed hats, short garments belted at the waist, shoes with upturned points
and earrings. Most of them carry a curved sword or a mace. All of the goddesses
wear long skirted garments and on their heads sit cylindrical head dresses. On
the north wall where the east and west walls meet there are the chief gods,
composing the main scene. Here we see the Mountain God Teshup standing above
the air gods, his wife goddess Hepatu and their son Sharruma and a double
headed eagle. The relief of King Tuthalia IV is on the east wall and it is the
largest relief of the gallery.
The Small Gallery (room B) which has a
seperate entrance is protected by winged, lion headed and human bodied genie
placed on both sides of the entrance. There are twelve gods proceeding towards
the right on the west wall of room B and the God of Sword and King Tuthalia IV
who is under the protection of God Sharruma on the east wall. Besides the well
preserved reliefs, this section has three niches carved into the rock which are
assumed to be used for some gifts or the ashes of the Hittite royal familiy.
With all these features and the addition of the spaces built at
the front, Yazılıkaya has survived to our times as a Hittite shrine.
Ortaköy Site
Ortaköy is 53 km. southeast of Çorum province
at north east of Alaca Plain on the strait where Göynücek, Zile and Amasya
plains meet. Ortaköy historical site is at Tepelerarası and Ağılönü location
which is 2.5 km. away from the district center in the southwest direction Excavations
at Ortaköy site started in 1990 under the leadership of Çorum Museum
Directorate and were continued during 1991. The excavations which are being
carried out under Prof. Dr. Aygül Süel since 1992 is progressing with the same
team.
The region has been settled since early ages
up to our times because of the significance of its geographical location and
its high agricultural potential. The excavations so far relieved a
temple-palace complex built with large sized stones which is dated to the
Empire period and, 150 m. southwest from this building a second space defined
as three mud brick storage rooms which are built with the same technique.
Inside the Hittite Empire period buildings stone sarcophagi from the Roman
period were found. These graves do not follow a distinctly defined arrangement
and there are no multiple burrials.
The excavations also relieved a Hittite
archives holding more than 3000 hieroghlyph documents inside the monumental temple-palace
complex which hopefully will add novel information about the Hittite history
and culture. Besides the tablets which are protected at the Çorum Museum which
are known to include religious and political subjects with many of them
letters, ceramics of various forms, metal tools, triangular objects, obsidient
ornaments and seal stamps are among significant findings.
According to the initial work on the
hieroglyph documents obtained from the still progressing Ortaköy site
excavations, the leader of the excavation team has announced that Ortaköy was
named Shapinuva in the Hittite period.
Pazarlı Site
Pazarlı historical site is located at the
Çikhasan Village which is 30 km. north of Alaca. During the years 1937 - 38 it
was investigated by Dr. Hamit Zübeyr Koşar and Mahmut Akok on behalf of the
Turkish History Associaton and the excavations showed that it was settled
during the Chalcolithic, Old Bronze, Hittite, Phrygian and Classical Periods.
The Phrygian period layer represents the most important period of Pazarlı.
Excavations brought to light ruins of a castle and reliefed panels which were apparently
used as façade decorations on the two storey mud brick buildings with stone
foundations. The tablets from this period are decorated with walking warriors,
lion-bull struggles, centaurs and mountain goats climbing life trees with
griphon decorations and these architectural terracottas (baked earth tablets)
form the best examples of the Anatolian arcaeology of the 7th-6thcenturies
B.C.
A scaled model of the Phrygian period
settlement area of Pazarlı and the castle surrounding this settlement and the
ceramics and other findings discovered here are now at the Çorum and Alacahöyük
museums while the coloured tablets of baked earth are exhibited at the Çorum Museum
and the Phrygian section of the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara.
Eskiyapar Site
The mound which is 5 km. to the west of Alaca
District on Alaca - Sungurlu road is located 25 km. northwest from Boğazköy and
20km. southeast from Alacahöyük.
The first excavations at Eskiyapar were
started in 1968 on behalf of the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations of Ankara
under the leadership of Raci Temizer and this work was continued until 1983.
The excavations were terminated on that date and restarted by the Çorum Museum
Directorate through 1989 - 1991. Excavations showed the existence of
uninterrupted settlement at the mound and Old Bronze, Hittite, Phrygian, Roman
and two staged Hellenistic periods were encountered.
The foundations of the city wall of the
Hittite Empire period were discovered at the northwest and western parts of the
mound and the buildings which had recangular plans and stone paved courtyards
were built in the Hittite style show no differences from those found at
Alacahöyük and Boğazköy. A large number of baked earth material was found in
most of the burnt out houses of the Old Hittite period district which spreads
out over a large area in the southeast section of the mound. The reliefed cult
vases also found in these parts have strengthened the opinion that this was a
religious center.
During the work carried out on the Old Bronze
Age layers at the mound which were beneath the Hittite layers, a buried
treasure of gold and silver objects was found under the floor of one of the
houses. The treasure which held silver vases, Syrian bottle, silver ceremonial
axe, various types of gold pins, beads, earrings and bracelets are similar both
to the findings of Alacahöyük, Kültepe as well as to those from Troy,
Poliochini and Northern Syria- Mesapotamia. These findings are exhibited at the
Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara.
Yörüklü (Hüseyindede Hill)
When the area at a location known as
Hüseyindede Hill at the Yörüklü setllement of the Sungurlu District of Çorum
province caught the attention of Assist. Prof. Dr. Tunç Sipahi and Assist.
Prof. Dr. Fayfun Yıldırım from the Prehistory and Asia Minor Archaeology
Section of the Faculty of Languages, History and Geograpy of the Ankara
Univerisity as being destroyed by illegal excavations, a short term salvage
excavation was undertaken in 1997 under the leadership of the Çorum Museum
Directorate.
At the end of this investigation pieces of two seperate reliefed vases from the Old Hittitte period were found in a single space room which belonged to the same period. The restoration work on the obtained pieces showed one of them to be in the İnandık style and the other to be a smaller vase which had a decorative band around its neck showing Hittite religious ceremonies in a single frieze. The most important scene on this descriptive band is the somersaulting acrobat on a bull. At the edge of the mouth of the large vase in İnandık style there is a small vessel and four bull heads looking inside as well as four descriptive bands. The subjects of the descriptive bands are again the religious ceremonies of the Hittite period. Besides these reliefed vases flask shaped cups from the old Hittite period with whose forms we were already familiar and round mouthed and high necked jugs were also found. In the investigations of 1998 architecture belonging to the Old Hittite period was followed which appeared to be executed in terraces, and the excavation work will be continued in the coming years.