Sapinuwa
Encyclopedia
Sapinuwa was a Bronze Age
Hittite
city at the location of modern Ortaköy
in Turkey
. It was one of the major Hittite religious and administrative centres, a military base and an occasional residence of several Hittite kings. The palace at Sapinuwa is discussed in several texts from Hattusa
.
quickly obtained permission from the Ministry of Culture to begin excavation. This commenced in the following year. Building A was excavated first, and then Building B in 1995. The building with the Yazılıkaya-style orthostate and 14th century BC charcoal was excavated after 2000. Aygül Sühel has been the head of excavations at this site, from 1996 to at least 2002.
In the first excavated region was a Cyclopean-walled building dubbed "Building A". Building A has yielded 3000 tablets and fragments. They were stored in three separate archives on an upper floor, which collapsed when the building was burnt.
At Kadilar Hoyuk, 150 metres southeast of Building A, "Building B" has proven to be a depot filled with earthenware jars. Another building features an "orthostat that looks like the relief of Tudhaliyas at Yazilikaya
".
Identification of the site as Sapinuwa immediately corrected a misunderstanding in Hittite geography. Due to the archives so far discovered at Hattusas, Sapinuwa had been thought to be a primarily Hurri
-influenced city. Scholars of the Hattusas archive therefore positioned Sapinuwa to the southeast of Hattusa. Now Sapinuwa (and therefore the cities associated with it) are known to be to Hattusas's northeast.
The Building A tablets are mostly in Hittite
(1500); but also in Hurrian
(600), "Hitto-Hurrian", Akkadian
, and Hattian
. In addition, there are bilingual texts, not heretofore known, in Hittite / Hattian and in Hittite / Hurrian; vocabulary lists in Hittite / Sumerian / Akkadian; and seal impressions in Hieroglyphic Luwian
. The Hittite texts include many letters; Hurrian was mostly used for "itkalzi" rituals. Several of the letters corresponded with those mentioned in the Masat Höyuk archive. The dialect of Hittite in that correspondence was Middle Hittite; but the site was in use for centuries afterward.
The first English-language publication from the excavation was by Aygul Süel, 2002. As of 2005, the archive had not been published. The first English-language publication of any text, a fragmentary vocabulary text listing useful plants, perhaps an advanced school tablet of the 14th century BCE, along with further discussion of the site, appeared in Aygul Süel and Oguz Soysal, "A Practical Vocabulary from Ortakoy"; also published is a letter from a queen.
, likely that which forced the flight of the Hittite court to Tarhuntassa
. However it disagrees with the character of the texts, which assume a time a century prior.
The Aegean Dendrochronology Project in its December 2001 progress report tentatively redated Sapinuwa's charcoal samples to that prior, 14th century BC. A few years later, those on the project wrote, "The Hittite site of Ortakoy/Sapinuwa is still giving us problems, and we are holding back on reporting dates until we determine what is going on there, but the excavator, Prof. Aygul Suhel, has now reported major quantities of charcoal collected in 2002 and we will retrieve them in the summer of 2003." http://www.arts.cornell.edu/dendro/Bochum%202005.pdf In December 2003, project leader Kuniholm reported that the group's research aide and 'lab boss' was "finishing off a new building [i.e. not A] at Hittite Ortaköy, the one with the orthostate that looks like the relief of Tudhaliyas at Yazilikaya. It does not have timbers as long as one might wish, but I think she is going to be able to report a date in the very early 14th century BC." http://www.arts.cornell.edu/dendro/2003News/ADP2003.html This time period is more consistent with the character of Building A's archive; however, it must be stressed that any such findings have not yet been subjected to publication or review.
The Hittites commonly invoked the Storm God of Sapinuwa alongside the Storm God of Nerik
. Since Hattusa was to the south and Nerik likely further north, both initially Hattic-speaking; given the presence of the Hattic language
in the Sapinuwa archive (and apparent paucity of the Palaic language
); and given that its name makes sense in Hattic as a theophoric (sapi, "god"; Sapinuwa, "[land] of the god"): it is likely that Hattians founded Sapinuwa as well. In that case, the Nesian
-speaking people would have taken over Sapinuwa at the same time they took Nerik and Hattusa, in the 17th century BC.
The Hittites' enemy at that frontier during the 15th century BC were the Kaskas
.
Oguz Soysal wrote, "The excavators of Ortaköy believe that this city was a second capital of the Hittites or a royal residence, for a specific period, namely during the Middle Hittite Kingdom, ca. late 15th century B.C." However, "Most of the epigraphic finds are dated to the last phase of the Hittite Middle Kingdom (ca. 1400-1380 B.C.)", contemporary with Tudhaliya I
and the archive at Maşat Höyük
.
It is presumed that the Kaska were responsible for the 14th century BC burnings which turned some of the building materials into coal. The Hittite court moved away, probably to Samuha
, and did not rebuild Sapinuwa.
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...
Hittite
Hittites
The Hittites were a Bronze Age people of Anatolia.They established a kingdom centered at Hattusa in north-central Anatolia c. the 18th century BC. The Hittite empire reached its height c...
city at the location of modern Ortaköy
Ortaköy, Çorum
Ortaköy is a town and district of Çorum Province in the Black Sea region of Turkey, located at 57 km from the city of Çorum. The mayor is Ali Ergin .-Archaeological sites:...
in Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
. It was one of the major Hittite religious and administrative centres, a military base and an occasional residence of several Hittite kings. The palace at Sapinuwa is discussed in several texts from Hattusa
Hattusa
Hattusa was the capital of the Hittite Empire in the late Bronze Age. It was located near modern Boğazkale, Turkey, within the great loop of the Kızıl River ....
.
Digs
Ortaköy was identified as the site of ancient Sapinuwa during a survey in 1989, and Ankara UniversityAnkara University
Ankara University is a public university in Ankara, the capital city of Turkey. It was the first higher education institution founded in the Turkish Republic....
quickly obtained permission from the Ministry of Culture to begin excavation. This commenced in the following year. Building A was excavated first, and then Building B in 1995. The building with the Yazılıkaya-style orthostate and 14th century BC charcoal was excavated after 2000. Aygül Sühel has been the head of excavations at this site, from 1996 to at least 2002.
In the first excavated region was a Cyclopean-walled building dubbed "Building A". Building A has yielded 3000 tablets and fragments. They were stored in three separate archives on an upper floor, which collapsed when the building was burnt.
At Kadilar Hoyuk, 150 metres southeast of Building A, "Building B" has proven to be a depot filled with earthenware jars. Another building features an "orthostat that looks like the relief of Tudhaliyas at Yazilikaya
Yazilikaya
Yazılıkaya was a sanctuary of Hattusa, the capital city of the Hittite Empire, today in the Çorum Province, Turkey....
".
Findings
The fire which destroyed Sapinuwa also damaged its archive. Most of the tablets are fragmentary, and must be pieced together before interpretation and translation.Identification of the site as Sapinuwa immediately corrected a misunderstanding in Hittite geography. Due to the archives so far discovered at Hattusas, Sapinuwa had been thought to be a primarily Hurri
Hurrians
The Hurrians were a people of the Ancient Near East who lived in Northern Mesopotamia and adjacent regions during the Bronze Age.The largest and most influential Hurrian nation was the kingdom of Mitanni. The population of the Hittite Empire in Anatolia to a large part consisted of Hurrians, and...
-influenced city. Scholars of the Hattusas archive therefore positioned Sapinuwa to the southeast of Hattusa. Now Sapinuwa (and therefore the cities associated with it) are known to be to Hattusas's northeast.
The Building A tablets are mostly in Hittite
Hittite language
Hittite is the extinct language once spoken by the Hittites, a people who created an empire centred on Hattusa in north-central Anatolia...
(1500); but also in Hurrian
Hurrian language
Hurrian is a conventional name for the language of the Hurrians , a people who entered northern Mesopotamia around 2300 BC and had mostly vanished by 1000 BC. Hurrian was the language of the Mitanni kingdom in northern Mesopotamia, and was likely spoken at least initially in Hurrian settlements in...
(600), "Hitto-Hurrian", Akkadian
Akkadian language
Akkadian is an extinct Semitic language that was spoken in ancient Mesopotamia. The earliest attested Semitic language, it used the cuneiform writing system derived ultimately from ancient Sumerian, an unrelated language isolate...
, and Hattian
Hattic language
Hattic was a language spoken by the Hattians in Asia Minor between the 3rd and the 2nd millennia BC. Scholars call this language 'Hattic' to distinguish it from the Hittite language--the Indo-European language of the Hittite Empire....
. In addition, there are bilingual texts, not heretofore known, in Hittite / Hattian and in Hittite / Hurrian; vocabulary lists in Hittite / Sumerian / Akkadian; and seal impressions in Hieroglyphic Luwian
Hieroglyphic Luwian
Hieroglyphic Luwian is a variant of the Luwian language, recorded in official and royal seals and a small number of monumental inscriptions. It is written in a hieroglyphic script known as Anatolian hieroglyphs...
. The Hittite texts include many letters; Hurrian was mostly used for "itkalzi" rituals. Several of the letters corresponded with those mentioned in the Masat Höyuk archive. The dialect of Hittite in that correspondence was Middle Hittite; but the site was in use for centuries afterward.
The first English-language publication from the excavation was by Aygul Süel, 2002. As of 2005, the archive had not been published. The first English-language publication of any text, a fragmentary vocabulary text listing useful plants, perhaps an advanced school tablet of the 14th century BCE, along with further discussion of the site, appeared in Aygul Süel and Oguz Soysal, "A Practical Vocabulary from Ortakoy"; also published is a letter from a queen.
Dating the site
An unsourced 1998 report on the Hurrians has dated Building A to "1304+-37 BC". http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Labyrinth/2398/bginfo/ac/hurrians.html&date=2009-10-25+11:27:22 The unrounded "+-37" is consistent with Kuniholm's 1993-1995 method of dendrochronological wiggle-matching upon finds of wood. Assuming that this date had held while Kuniholm's group continued their research, as of 2003 this author would likely argue for 1287-90 BC. http://www.arts.cornell.edu/dendro/TUBA-ARCaptured.pdf This is consistent with an attack under Muwatalli IIMuwatalli II
Muwatalli II was a king of the New kingdom of the Hittite empire .- Biography :He was the eldest son of Mursili II and Queen Gassulawiya, and he had several siblings....
, likely that which forced the flight of the Hittite court to Tarhuntassa
Tarhuntassa
Tarhuntassa is an as-yet undiscovered Bronze Age city south of Hattusa. Speculations of its site include Konya, Rough Cilicia, the Gok Su valley, and the vicinity of Kayseri. The site of Kilise Tepe has also been proposed for it. Still others speculate that Tarhuntassa may be a Kaskan name for the...
. However it disagrees with the character of the texts, which assume a time a century prior.
The Aegean Dendrochronology Project in its December 2001 progress report tentatively redated Sapinuwa's charcoal samples to that prior, 14th century BC. A few years later, those on the project wrote, "The Hittite site of Ortakoy/Sapinuwa is still giving us problems, and we are holding back on reporting dates until we determine what is going on there, but the excavator, Prof. Aygul Suhel, has now reported major quantities of charcoal collected in 2002 and we will retrieve them in the summer of 2003." http://www.arts.cornell.edu/dendro/Bochum%202005.pdf In December 2003, project leader Kuniholm reported that the group's research aide and 'lab boss' was "finishing off a new building [i.e. not A] at Hittite Ortaköy, the one with the orthostate that looks like the relief of Tudhaliyas at Yazilikaya. It does not have timbers as long as one might wish, but I think she is going to be able to report a date in the very early 14th century BC." http://www.arts.cornell.edu/dendro/2003News/ADP2003.html This time period is more consistent with the character of Building A's archive; however, it must be stressed that any such findings have not yet been subjected to publication or review.
History
Focus on Ortakoy writes, "The strategic location of Shapinuwa is very important. The mountains surrounding the city, the plateau ascending in terraces on the Amasya Plain, and the fortification facilities starting as far as 5 km enable the city to be easily defendable. Since the city has a key location in between Alaca and Amasya plains, as long as the city, which is two-days distance from Hattusas, stands still, the roads to Bogazkoy - Hattusas are under control. As well as there are traces of military and religious architecture of the upper city on the hills to the west, the need for water and timber were being supplied from these hills."The Hittites commonly invoked the Storm God of Sapinuwa alongside the Storm God of Nerik
Nerik
Nerik was a Bronze Age city to the north of the Hittite capitals Hattusa and Sapinuwa. The Hittites held it as sacred to a storm god who was the son of Wurusemu, sun goddess of Arinna...
. Since Hattusa was to the south and Nerik likely further north, both initially Hattic-speaking; given the presence of the Hattic language
Hattic language
Hattic was a language spoken by the Hattians in Asia Minor between the 3rd and the 2nd millennia BC. Scholars call this language 'Hattic' to distinguish it from the Hittite language--the Indo-European language of the Hittite Empire....
in the Sapinuwa archive (and apparent paucity of the Palaic language
Palaic language
Palaic is an extinct Indo-European language, attested in cuneiform tablets in Bronze Age Hattusa, the capital of the Hittites. Its name in Hittite is palaumnili, or "of the people of Pala"; Pala was probably to the northwest of the Hittite core area, so in the northwest of present mainland Turkey...
); and given that its name makes sense in Hattic as a theophoric (sapi, "god"; Sapinuwa, "[land] of the god"): it is likely that Hattians founded Sapinuwa as well. In that case, the Nesian
Hittite language
Hittite is the extinct language once spoken by the Hittites, a people who created an empire centred on Hattusa in north-central Anatolia...
-speaking people would have taken over Sapinuwa at the same time they took Nerik and Hattusa, in the 17th century BC.
The Hittites' enemy at that frontier during the 15th century BC were the Kaskas
Kaskas
The Kaska were a loosely-affiliated Bronze Age non-Indo-European tribal people of mountainous Pontic Anatolia, known from Hittite sources...
.
Oguz Soysal wrote, "The excavators of Ortaköy believe that this city was a second capital of the Hittites or a royal residence, for a specific period, namely during the Middle Hittite Kingdom, ca. late 15th century B.C." However, "Most of the epigraphic finds are dated to the last phase of the Hittite Middle Kingdom (ca. 1400-1380 B.C.)", contemporary with Tudhaliya I
Tudhaliya I
Tudhaliya I was a king of the Hittite empire ca. the early 14th century BC .- Identity :...
and the archive at Maşat Höyük
Masat Höyük
Maşat Höyük is a Bronze Age Hittite archaeological site 100 km nearly east of Boğazkale/Hattusa, about 20 km south of Zile, Tokat Province, north-central Turkey. The site is under agricultural use and is plowed. It was first excavated in the 1970s.-History:...
.
It is presumed that the Kaska were responsible for the 14th century BC burnings which turned some of the building materials into coal. The Hittite court moved away, probably to Samuha
Samuha
Samuha was reputedly a city of the Hittites, a religious centre and for a few years military capital for the empire. Samuha's faith was syncretistic. Rene Lebrun in 1976 called Samuha the "religious foyer of the Hittite Empire"....
, and did not rebuild Sapinuwa.