Eclipsed by the splendour of the Persian, Macedonian and Roman empires, civilisations
of the Bronze Age are often relegated to a status of mystery in the popular consciousness.
Perhaps most forgotten among them are the enigmatic Hittites.
Known primarily as the chariot riding lords of what is today Turkey, they held sway over
a vast territory for over a half a millennium.
At the core of the Hittite realm was a great city of the era which deserves its place among
the renowned cities of the Bronze Age.
Welcome to our video on Hattusa, its buildings, people and the role they played in running
the Hittite Empire.
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Our focus in this video will be on the third and fourth phases of Hattusa, during which
the city was the beating heart of perhaps one of the mightiest kingdoms in the entire
second millennium BC – the capital of the ‘Land of Hatti’.
Phase three began in the 1600s BC when the king of the so-called Old Hittite Kingdom
- Hattusili I - rebuilt and established a royal capital at Hattusa.
Artificial terraces were created by levelling, a viaduct connected a raised acropolis with
the wider town and a royal palace was constructed.
Ever-present military threat led to the raising of an 8-meter-thick defensive wall including
postern gates and corbelled tunnels.
Around 1400BC, however, this military threat led to the overwhelming of Hittite lands and
the sacking of Hattusa.
It appeared as though the blossoming kingdom of Hatti was primed for extinction, but in
a burst of military prowess, a man who would come to be known as Suppiluliuma I drove Kaskan
interlopers from the Hittite heartland and initiated the fourth and most magnificent
phase of Hattusa’s lifespan.
Due to Suppiluliuma’s preoccupation with defence, though, the project of Hattusa’s
royal restoration was left to his successors.
The city of Hattusa was divided into two primary segments, first of which was an older district
to the north known somewhat confusingly as the ‘lower city’, despite its contrary
position on the compass.
It arguably contained both of the settlement’s most important buildings.
To the south was a magnificent thirteenth century BC expansion to Hattusa known as the
‘upper city’, the construction of which was almost certainly overseen by king Tudhaliya
IV.
Quite a few gateways could be used to enter the city in the north or south, however three
of the primary entranceways were located on the boundaries of the upper city at southwest,
south and southeast.
Southeast was the so-called ‘king’s gate’, named in honour of the stone-carved figure
engraved there, although scholars acknowledge that it is almost certainly a deity of some
kind, perhaps Tudhaliya’s patron god Sharruma - lord of mountains.
Some archaeologists and experts in sculpture have speculated, due to the high-relief nature
of the king’s gate sculpture, which differs from most low-relief Hittite work, that it
was actually crafted by a foreign artist, perhaps from Egypt or Mesopotamia.
Hittitologist Trevor Bryce, however, believes that this kind of speculation is unjustifiable,
given how comparatively little of the overall civilisation has been uncovered.
Still, the style is incredibly unique, depicting a muscular male in the dress of a soldier
or warrior.
Belted at the depicted figure’s side is a curved, scimitar-like sword, and he carries
a somewhat ornate looking battle-axe in the right hand.
On his head is a plumed helmet which cheek flaps and over his legs is a kilt.
To look upon the face of this formidable looking warrior, king or god, however, is to discern
an expression that looks almost like a smile.
Perhaps this figure was meant, with his raised hand, to salute to those leaving the Hittite
capital.
Possibly exhibiting some of the influence bleeding from the Nile kingdom of Egypt, at
the southernmost, highest section of the upper city is located the sphinx gate.
This entranceway is decorated by two pairs of strikingly beautiful representations of
the legendary feline entities, one pair facing out and one in.
In contrast to the Egyptian counterparts, however, these sculptured sphinxes are all
female and their headdresses sculpted into the form of spiral branches.
Gazing both down into the city and out of it, the two pairs may be intended to function
as grandiose, mythical benefactors, under whose divine protection Hattusa’s inhabitants
are kept safe.
Those which face outwards may be an attempt to awe an enemy, to firmly state that no hostile
power could ever cross the threshold.
Despite the intricate nature of these two gates, however, any would-be emissary or diplomat
from foreign dominions would almost certainly enter Hattusa through the southwestern lion
gate.
Keeping with the theme, this most regal of accessways is named for the pair of leonine
sentinels keeping watch on either flank.
Unfortunately for us, however, these figures are possibly the most diminished of them all,
and much of their former brilliance has been eroded away.
Diminishment through the centuries aside, it is still clear to see just how finely the
lions of Hattusa were crafted when one observes the depiction of the beasts’ mane.
While some tend to emphasize ferocity and savagery in the figure of a royal lion, this
Hittite beast looks relatively benign and almost benevolent when compared to the brutes
in Assyrian cities such as Kalhu and Nineveh.
“If the Hattusa lions were supposed to reflect the sort of spirit and ferocity which an enemy
mounting an attack on the city might encounter from its defenders-” Trevor Bryce relates
“-the enemy might feel rather more reassured than unnerved.”
Therefore, it is likely that the lions were purposed with inspiring a sense of regal awe
and dignity in any visitor, informing and reminding them that they were on the brink
of the great, royal seat of the Hittite world, home of the man who was closest to the gods
on earth.
In many ways, Hattusa was a ceremonial, holy metropolis dedicated to the worship of those
very gods.
This fact is shown starkly when one takes into account the sheer quantity of temples
that adorned the city.
To enter Hattusa through its sphinx gate would bring a visitor directly into the new city’s
primary temple quarter, where around 25 temples were built in a large cluster.
Smallest among their ranks were between 400 to 600 square metres, ranging to a largest
size of about 1,200 to 1,500.
Built in the ‘last burst of rocket fuel’ which were the Hittite Empire’s final decades,
most of these sites of religious veneration possessed a relatively similar blueprint.
They were almost entirely square or rectangular in shape, with an entranceway, pillared porch
giving access to an inner antechamber and, finally, a sanctum for the adyton.
This is the off-centre ‘holy of holies’, home of the temple’s primary deific image.
Below most of the temples were cellars, some of which served as archives for clay tablets,
seal impressions, stamp seals and other administrative details.
Close to both the king’s gate and lion gate respectively were two larger temple precincts,
giving the upper city a symmetrical appearance.
Although the structure near the lion gate is large, the largest structure in the entire
new city is so-called ‘Temple 5’ toward the southeast.
This building has an area of about 3,000 square metres and a unique layout, comprising a temple,
royal annex and three small chapel-like shrines.
One of the shrines, so-called ‘House A’, is home to a 90 centimetre relief of a mysterious
warrior armed with lance and wearing a horned cap - a famous symbol of divinity.
The mystery of the figure is swiftly uncovered when the hieroglyphs resting above the figure
are deciphered to reveal the name ‘Tudhaliya’.
This was probably not intended to represent the renovator-king and instead probably indicates
reverence for an ancestor such as Tudhaliya III.
Renowned scholar and archaeologist Peter Neve speculated therefore that Temple 5 was a royal
ancestor shrine.
However, foremost among all Hattusa’s temples and all the Hittites’ accomplishments in
construction is the dramatically named, ‘Temple of the Storm God’, located in the lower
city district.
Where most of the inferior shrine complexes near the three new city gates are, at most,
3,000 square metres, this mammoth temple dedicated to the lightning bolt-wielding storm god Teshub
and his solar goddess consort Hepat exceeded a staggering 20,000, being 160 metres long
and 135 metres wide.
Much like many other Hittite-style temples, this great structure of Hattusa provided three
key things - storerooms and workrooms, lodgings for hundreds of temple personnel and the sites
of veneration themselves.
While shrines in the Greek world, for example, primarily served as a shelter for the god,
Hittite temple complexes served a vast variety of purposes and therefore had many different
sections.
Beyond the protective walls and guard towers, beyond the colonnaded courtyard and the great
entrance, there now rest two stone bases where it is probable that the splendorous life-size
gold or silver deific figures made their home.
Unlike the temples of other civilisations such as Greece and the wider near-east, Hittite
sanctuaries and their holy relics were illuminated by the sun’s light and therefore likely
appeared shimmering and divine on many occasions.
Although the higher-ups in temple service would’ve had their abodes inside the Storm
God’s complex, multitudes of other menial workers, such as butchers, bakers, brewers,
tailors and others, lived in blocks of standard, densely packed houses to the west and northwest
of the temple itself.
People would’ve come and gone from the district at all hours of the day, cutting meat, repairing
equipment, ferrying supplies and so forth.
It was a mini-community inside a community.
The overall population of Hattusa at its height is, like the vast majority of stat-related
things in ancient times, hotly debated.
As Trevor Bryce tells us, the answer to ‘how many people lived here?’ can vary based
on many factors.
What period are we speaking of?
What exactly can be defined as living in the city?
Did Hattusa have a large seasonal population who inhabited the city for festivals, and
then departed?
Estimates, though, suggest a total of between 10,000 and 40,000.
Like the Storm God temple’s micro-community, the vast majority of Hattusa’s heterogeneous
population of Hittite or ‘Nesite’, Luwian, Akkadian, Egyptian, Babylonian or Hurrian
speaking peoples, among others, lived in basic circumstances.
The typical house possessed two rooms and was made of mudbrick framed by timber, sometimes
possessing an upper storey, small courtyard or extra rooms if space and funding allowed.
Higher ranking personnel such as scribes, royal officials, bureaucrats and military
commanders probably took up residence in larger buildings constructed on artificial terraces,
in order to separate themselves from the hubbub of common life.
Furthermore, it is speculated that much of the city’s population actually lived outside
the walls in houses or on farms which are now lost to us.
Indeed, it may have been that to live inside Hattusa, so close to the king and the gods,
was a privilege in and of itself.
Akin to Rome and so many other pre-modern cities, fire was a key concern to the Hittites
of wooden, densely-packed Hattusa, as we can see in the gravity of the sanctions enacted
to prevent it.
‘Be particularly vigilant in the matter of fire-’ state a set of instructions to
temple priests.
‘-In the event that there is any flame in isolated spots and also dry wood, and the
person responsible for extinguishing it becomes criminally negligent in the temple, he who
is guilty of the crime will perish together with his descendants.’
This incredibly severe punishment can be understood given the possible dangers of fire in Hattusa
to life and property alike.
In the thirteenth century BC, a Hittite queen known as Puduhepa sent word to Ramesses II
of Egypt that, due to the destruction of a royal treasury in Hattusa by fire, the pharaoh’s
dowry would have to be delayed, possibly endangering relations between the two powers.
But for any emissary or foreign diplomat, there would be only one ultimate destination
within the city of Hattusa - the throne of the king.
Entering through the great lion gate, official visitors would make their way through the
upper city, passing through the upper temple district and then ascending onto a rocky outcrop
known as the Nisantepe.
From that high place and passing over one of two 85 metre long viaducts connecting the
upper city and the acropolis, one would finally arrive at the royal palace.
Being permitted entry by royal sentries, guests of honour would be escorted by attendants
through an array of colonnaded pavilions and to the higher floor of a great building.
In a great hall, adorned with many pillars and lit through windows would sit the Hittite
monarch, holding court and announced by a herald.
Vassal rulers would renew vows, pay tribute and report on the status quo.
Following a number of other royal niceties, the visiting emissary would finally make their
presence known.
In this very room, as Bryce once again tells us, an unfortunate Egyptian envoy known as
Hani finally persuaded King Suppiluliuma to dispatch a son to Egypt, in order to marry
Tutankhamun’s widow.
Here too Mursili III spurned an Assyrian envoy and inflamed tensions between the two great
martial realms.
But the Hittites couldn’t be too cocky about this unique structure, because Egyptian influences
are clear in its design, but it was far from the goliath building that was the coronation
hall of Akhenaten in Egypt.
As the last burst of rocket fuel petered out into fumes, the Hittite capital along with
the whole empire began suffering famine, economic downturn and military catastrophe.
When Anitta destroyed the city so long before, he is said to have laid down a curse upon
the site, proclaiming “On its site I sowed weeds.
May the Storm God strike down anyone who becomes king after me and resettles Hattusa!”
The curse came true.
During the Bronze Age collapse, a city that had risen 500 years before became a blackened,
devastated ruin, never to rise again.
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