Zippalanda and Ankuwa Once More.

• Author: POPKO, MACIEJ
• Position: Author defends evaluation of historic site locations - Bibliography included

Despite recent critical remarks to the contrary by R. L. Gorny in this journal, the Hittite town of Zippalanda is indeed to be identified with the modem site of Alaca Hoyuk, and ancient Ankuwa is probably to be equated with Eskiyapar. Some general observations are made concerning the methodology employed in reconstructing Hittite geography.

R. L. Gorny has published a review article (JAOS 117 [1997]: 549--57) of my book Zippalanda: Em Kultzentrum im hethitischen Kleinasien (1994), in which he rejects my identification of Zippalanda with Alaca Hoyuk and of nearby Kalehisar/Karahisar with Mt. Tahaya/Daha (not Dahha, as throughout Gorny's article). Gorny also defends his idea that Ankuwa is to be equated to Alisar, and Zippalanda with Kusakli Hoyuk in Yozgat province. [1]

Although in many points I disagree with Gorny in the interpretation of the available data I do not think it is necessary to examine, step by step, each statement made in his article. Of course, I intend here to defend my views and, inter alia, present general observations on the methodology of research into Hittite geography. [2]

First, some remarks on earlier attempts to estimate distances between towns. In the past, descriptions of ceremonial trips of the Hittite king from town to town during the spring and autumn festivals often served as a basis for such estimations. Today it is obvious that their value for this purpose is very limited. The texts inform us only about the towns as places of ceremonies and of overnight rests. Since at each town elaborate rituals were performed, each journey of the king and his retinue must have been much shorter than a full day.

Generally, it is difficult to find reasonable estimates for a daily travel distance in Hittite times. Gorny assumes a pace of thirty to thirty-five kilometers a day, and I consider that to be a good estimate for a day in a carriage or a wagon, even over rough ground. We know, however, that the ceremonial tour of the king was not an ordinary trip but a sort of procession (a term also used by Gorny) in which the king, members of his family, and dignitaries used chariots or wagons, whereas the guards and other accompanying persons walked. For an observer the procession must have been like the well-known departure of the king from his residence at Hattusa, as described in IBoT 1.36 i 64ff. [3] Of course, progress between towns will not have been at this stately, ceremonial, pace, but it seems impossible that the heavily armed guards could have routinely covered on foot a minimum distance of thirty kilometers daily.

Consequently, during a ceremonial trip the king and his retinue moved slowly, which may indicate that the whole area visited was smaller than was admitted in earlier literature. Other reasons for the reexamination of the reconstructed geography of the area include, first of all, the discovery of Sapinuwa at the site of Ortakoy. Formerly scholars supposed that Sapinuwa with its Hurrian cults lay somewhere far to the east. Its position on the Cekerek River forces one to shift the whole reconstructed system to the northwest.

However, such a reexamination is not the goal of this communication. I reject the equation of Ankuwa with Amkuwa (modem Alisar), and my reasons have been presented on another occasion. [4] Now I would like to comment on KUB 25.28 i 1--10, which is occasionally cited as evidence that Ankuwa lay at a distance of about...