Šamuḫa
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Šamuḫa is an ancient Bronze Age settlement near the village of
Kayalıpınar, Yıldızeli Kayalıpınar is a village in Yıldızeli District, in Sivas Province, Turkey. Its population is 66 (2022). It is a Hittite archaeological site, under excavation since 2004. It is identified with the ancient Samuha settlement. History The h ...
, c. 40 km west of
Sivas Sivas is a city in central Turkey. It is the seat of Sivas Province and Sivas District.İl Beledi ...
, in the
Sivas Province Sivas Province () is a province of Turkey. It is located in the eastern part of the Central Anatolia region of Turkey. Its area is 28,164 km2 (the second largest province after Konya), and its population is 634,924 (2022). Its adjacent prov ...
of
Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...
. Located on the northern bank of
Kizil Irmak Kizil may refer to: People * Bahar Kizil (born 1988), German singer-songwriter Places * Kizil Caves, Buddhist rock-cut caves located near Kizil Township * Kızıl Kule, main tourist attraction in the Turkish city of Alanya * Kızılırmak River, ...
river, it was a city of the
Hittites The Hittites () were an Anatolian peoples, Anatolian Proto-Indo-Europeans, Indo-European people who formed one of the first major civilizations of the Bronze Age in West Asia. Possibly originating from beyond the Black Sea, they settled in mo ...
, a religious centre and, for a few years, a military capital for the empire. Samuha's faith was
syncretistic Syncretism () is the practice of combining different beliefs and various schools of thought. Syncretism involves the merging or assimilation of several originally discrete traditions, especially in the theology and mythology of religion, thus ...
. Rene Lebrun in 1976 called Samuha the "religious foyer of the Hittite Empire".


History


Middle Bronze


Assyrian Trading Colony

Excavations revealed that the town was already inhabited during the ancient Assyrian trading colonies period ( Karum period). Two residences (House of Tamura and House of Tatali) have been excavated. This period ended with the big fire in the settlement. After the Karum period city was destroyed, the Hittites built a new city with a palace complex.


Late Bronze


Hittite Period

Samuha was a primary base of field operations for the Hittites while the Kaskas were plundering the
Hatti Hatti may refer to *Hatti (; Assyrian ) in Bronze Age Anatolia: **the area of Hattusa, roughly delimited by the Halys bend **the Hattians of the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC **the Hittites of ''ca'' 1400–1200 BC **the areas to the west of the Euphra ...
heartland, including the historic capital
Hattusa Hattusa, also Hattuşa, Ḫattuša, Hattusas, or Hattusha, was the capital of the Hittites, Hittite Empire in the late Bronze Age during two distinct periods. Its ruins lie near modern Boğazkale, Turkey (originally Boğazköy) within the great ...
, during the 14th century BC under kings Tudhaliya I-III and Suppiluliuma I. During this period, the religions of Samuha and Sapinuwa became influenced by the faith of the Hurrians. Excavations at
Sapinuwa Sapinuwa (sometimes Shapinuwa; Hittite language, Hittite: ''Šapinuwa'') was a Bronze Age Hittites, Hittite city at the location of modern Ortaköy, Çorum, Ortaköy in the province Çorum in Turkey about 70 kilometers east of the Hittite capital ...
have revealed that at the beginning of this time, Sapinuwa held the archives for the kingdom. Under either
Tudhaliya I Tudḫaliya is the name of several Hittite kings or royals. It is not clear how many kings bore that name, and numbering schemes vary from source to source. *Tudḫaliya (sometimes called Tudḫaliya I) is deduced from his early placement in a lat ...
or
Tudhaliya II Tudḫaliya II (sometimes identified with and designated Tudḫaliya I) was a Hittite great king in the late 15th/early 14th century BC, ruling in perhaps c. 1425–c. 1390 BC. He was the father-in-law and predecessor of Arnuwanda I. Identity ...
, Sapinuwa was burnt.
Hattusili III Ḫattušili (''Ḫattušiliš'' in the inflected nominative case) was the regnal name of three Hittite kings: * Hattusili I (Labarna II) * Hattusili II * Hattusili III It was also the name of two Neo-Hittite kings: * Hattusili I (Kummuh) * Hattus ...
later recorded of this time that Azzi had "made Samuha its frontier".


=Tudhaliya III

= Samuha then became the base for the reconquests of
Tudhaliya III Tudḫaliya is the name of several Hittite kings or royals. It is not clear how many kings bore that name, and numbering schemes vary from source to source. *Tudḫaliya (sometimes called Tudḫaliya I) is deduced from his early placement in a lat ...
and his then-general Suppiluliuma. The Deeds of Suppiluliuma report that he brought Kaska captives back to Samuha after a campaign toward Hayasa (connected somehow with Azzi) on Tudhaliya's behalf. Tudhaliya III himself centralised the faith of Kizzuwatna to Samuha.


=Hattusili III

=
Mursili II There were three Hittite kings called Mursili: * Mursili I, ca. 1556–1526 BCE ( short chronology), and was likely a grandson of his predecessor, Hattusili I. His sister was Ḫarapšili and his wife was queen Kali. * Mursili II, (also spelled Mur ...
appointed his youngest son
Hattusili III Ḫattušili (''Ḫattušiliš'' in the inflected nominative case) was the regnal name of three Hittite kings: * Hattusili I (Labarna II) * Hattusili II * Hattusili III It was also the name of two Neo-Hittite kings: * Hattusili I (Kummuh) * Hattus ...
priest of the local goddess, referred to as 'Ishtar of Samuha', identified in scholarship as either Sausga or the similar deity DINGIR.GE6 The Hittites of Hattusa worshipped the goddess of Samuha as a protective deity. Samuha was an important cult site of this goddess. Samuha disappears from the historical record after Hattusili III.


Location

In years past, scholars have been divided on the location of Samuha. Some maintained it was on the banks of the
Euphrates river The Euphrates ( ; see below) is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of West Asia. Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia (). Originating in Turkey, the Euphrates flows through S ...
. Others believe it was located on the Halys river, presently called the
Kızılırmak River The Kızılırmak (, Turkish language, Turkish for "Red River"), once known as the Halys River () and Alis River, is the longest river flowing entirely within Turkey. It is a source of hydroelectric power and is not used for navigation. Geogra ...
. The Kızılırmak River is closer to
Hattusa Hattusa, also Hattuşa, Ḫattuša, Hattusas, or Hattusha, was the capital of the Hittites, Hittite Empire in the late Bronze Age during two distinct periods. Its ruins lie near modern Boğazkale, Turkey (originally Boğazköy) within the great ...
. Its headwaters are near the city of
Sivas Sivas is a city in central Turkey. It is the seat of Sivas Province and Sivas District.İl Beledi ...
, 130 miles (209 km) away. The river flows to the east, south of Hattusa, then turns north to the west of Hattusa, discharging into the Black Sea. More recently (2021) there's more consensus that Samuha was located in Kayalipinar on the Kizilirmak river. This location is reflected in the coordinates given in this article.


Euphrates location theory

Hittite records indicate that Samuha was located on a navigable river, which tends to support the Euphrates location.
Oliver Gurney Oliver Robert Gurney (28 January 1911 – 11 January 2001) was an English Assyriologist from the Gurney family and a leading scholar of the Hittites. Early life Gurney was born in London in 1911, the son of Robert Gurney, a zoologist, and a ...
notes in the above-cited work that the Halys river is also navigable in sections. He favored the Euphrates location, noting that the Murad Su, the present day
Murat River The Murat River, also called Eastern Euphrates (, , ), is a major source of the Euphrates River. The Ancient Greeks and Romans used to call the river ''Arsanias'' (). It originates near Mount Ararat north of Lake Van, in Eastern Turkey, and flows ...
had river traffic in 1866. The Murat river is a tributary of the Euphrates river. Both proposed locations are south of the Kaskian incursion that overtook Hattusa and required the Hittite leadership to move to Samuha.


Kayalipinar location

Mursili II talks of stopping in Samuha on his way home from the Kaska lands in his Ten Year Annals (KBo 34 iii 45), which would argue strongly against a location on or near the Euphrates. Already in 1959, Gurney and Garstang provided a very extended discussion about how Hittite documents seem to contradict a location for Samuha along the Euphrates, locating it instead along the Kizilirmak near modern Sivas, perhaps at Zara. They further pointed out that the town of Pittiyariga, often mentioned in the same texts as Samuha, which is associated with the upper Euphrates areas, must be further east yet. As of 2020, excavations by Andreas and Vuslat Müller-Karpe in
Kayalıpınar, Yıldızeli Kayalıpınar is a village in Yıldızeli District, in Sivas Province, Turkey. Its population is 66 (2022). It is a Hittite archaeological site, under excavation since 2004. It is identified with the ancient Samuha settlement. History The h ...
have revealed cuneiform archives that strongly connect the site's identity with Samuha.


Cuneiform texts

Numerous important cuneiform texts were found in recent excavations. The first tablet fragment in Kayalıpınar was found in 1999, which prompted more archaeological research on the settlement mound. There are also two karum period commercial documents written in Old Assyrian. Already in the first year of renewed excavations in 2005, further fragments of cuneiform tablets were found, which multiplied from year to year. Over a hundred tablets were found in 2015.The texts found up to 2017 were published in 2019 and given the sigla KpT 1.1-100 Most of the texts are written in Hittite; they often contain Luwian glosses and Hurrian expressions. Seven texts found are in
Hurrian language Hurrian is an extinct Hurro-Urartian language spoken by the Hurrians (Khurrites), 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 Mesopotami ...
.


See also

*
Sapinuwa Sapinuwa (sometimes Shapinuwa; Hittite language, Hittite: ''Šapinuwa'') was a Bronze Age Hittites, Hittite city at the location of modern Ortaköy, Çorum, Ortaköy in the province Çorum in Turkey about 70 kilometers east of the Hittite capital ...


References

{{Authority control Hittite cities Former populated places in Turkey