Ausgrabungen und Forschungen in der westlichen Oberstadt von Hattusa II.

• Author: Beckman, Gary
• Position: Book review

Ausgrabungen und Forschungen in der westlichen Oberstadt von Hattusa II. Edited by ANDREAS SCHACHNER. Bogazkoy-Hattusa, Ergebnisse der Ausgrabungen, vol. 25. Berlin: W. DE GRUYTER, 2017. Pp. xi + 401, illus., 2 plans. [euro]129.95.

Continuing their exploration of the Upper City area of the broad expanse of the Hittite capital Bogazkoy-Hattusa, from 2006-2009 German archaeologists uncovered an impressive house on a plateau to the southwest of the Sankale rock outcropping. The volume under review, edited by the expedition's director but the work of many hands, contains the thorough final report on the excavation and an extensive evaluation of the significance of the structure and its meager contents for our understanding of Hittite culture and history.

The building, which contains twenty rooms, was built on a virgin rock surface (p. 22) in the late sixteenth or early fifteenth century BCE, slightly remodeled in the first half of the fourteenth, and abandoned by the close of that century (p. 289). It was emptied of most of its contents (pp. 15, 29, 65, 300) and its entrances blocked up (p. 67) a short time before it was totally destroyed by fire. That is, it was not looted but intentionally taken out of use. Nonetheless, two of its rooms did yield substantial finds: Raum 1/2 (pp. 72-73, 118-22) contained a collection of pottery including two special ceremonial vessels, while at least twenty sets of banqueting dishes were stored in Raum 6 (pp. 74, 122-24, 311). Both of these storage areas had also been sealed before the abandonment of the house.

Andreas Schachner shows that the edifice was not only large, but constructed of the best available materials, as seen in comparison with nearby contemporary buildings (p. 55). He also observes that its symmetrical layout (p. 302) situates it midway in the development of Hittite building practice from the "add-on" jumble of traditional Anatolian architecture to the more regular monumental structure of the Hittite empire period (pp. 303-5).

Although many small temples have been found in the Upper City, the internal organization of this building precludes its use as a Hittite shrine. It seems, rather, to have been an impressive residence and the center of an economically self-sufficient household, as Schachner notes (pp. 52, 308). But whose--since the members of the ruling family no doubt dwelt on the citadel Biiylikkale? The answer is suggested by one of the few textual finds (pp. 268-80, edited here by...