Alishar Hüyük (in modern

Yozgat Province Yozgat Province ( tr, ) is a province in central Turkey. Its adjacent provinces are Çorum to the northwest, Kırıkkale to the west, Kırşehir to the southwest, Nevşehir to the south, Kayseri to the southeast, Sivas to the east, Tokat to the ...

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

) was an ancient Near Eastern city. It is near the modern village of Alişar, Sorgun.

History

Alishar Hüyük was occupied beginning in the

Chalcolithic The Copper Age, also called the Chalcolithic (; from grc-gre, χαλκός ''khalkós'', "copper" and ''líthos'', "stone") or (A)eneolithic (from Latin '' aeneus'' "of copper"), is an archaeological period characterized by regular ...

Period, through the Bronze Age and the

Hittites The Hittites () were an Anatolian people who played an important role in establishing first a kingdom in Kussara (before 1750 BC), then the Kanesh or Nesha kingdom (c. 1750–1650 BC), and next an empire centered on Hattusa in north-centra ...

, and into Phrygian times. A number of Hittite-era cuneiform tablets in Old Assyrian of the

Cappadocia Cappadocia or Capadocia (; tr, Kapadokya), is a historical region in Central Anatolia, Turkey. It largely is in the provinces Nevşehir, Kayseri, Aksaray, Kırşehir, Sivas and Niğde. According to Herodotus, in the time of the Ionian Re ...

type were found there. Mention in those tablets of the town Amkuwa has caused speculation that the site is the

Ankuwa Ankuwa was an ancient Hattian and Hittite settlement in central Anatolia. Along with Hattusa and Katapa, it was one of the capitals from which the Hittite kings reigned during the year. Travelling from Hattusa, the royal entourage would arrive at ...

mentioned in other Hittite texts.

Archaeology

The site was excavated between 1927 and 1932 by a team from the

Oriental Institute of Chicago The Oriental Institute (OI), established in 1919, is the University of Chicago's interdisciplinary research center for ancient Near Eastern ("Orient") studies and archaeology museum. It was founded for the university by professor James Henry Brea ...

. The work was led by Erich Schmidt. Excavation resumed in 1992, led by Ronald Gorny as part of the Alisar Regional Project, though most of the work has been at nearby Çadır Höyük.

Çadır Höyük

About 12 km northwest of Alishar Huyuk, there's another important archaeological site named Cadir Hoyuk ( Çadır Höyük in Turkish alphabet). Recent excavators of Cadir Hoyuk have identified this site tentatively with the Hittite city of Zippalanda.
Ronald L. Gorny, ALISAR REGIONAL PROJECT, Oriental Institute 2005-2006 Annual Report, pp 13-22, 2006

Notes

References

*Branting, Scott A. "the alisar regional survey 1993-1994: a preliminary report" anatolica. annuaire international pour les civilisations de l'asie antérieure. nederlands instituut voor het nabije oosten, no. 22, pp. 145-159, 1996 *Ronald L. Gorny, The Biconvex Seals of Alishar Höyük, Anatolian Studies, vol. 43, pp. 163–191, 1993 *Gorny, R. L. etc.. "the alisar regional project 1994" anatolica. annuaire international pour les civilisations de l'asie antérieure. nederlands instituut voor het nabije oosten, no. 21, pp. 65-100, 1995 *Ronald L. Gorny, Hittite Imperialism and Anti-Imperial Resistance As Viewed from Alișar Höyük, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, no. 299/300, The Archaeology of Empire in Ancient Anatolia, pp. 65–89, 1995 *Gorny, R. L. etc.. "the 1998 alisar regional project season" anatolica. annuaire international pour les civilisations de l'asie antérieure. nederlands instituut voor het nabije oosten, no. 25, pp. 149-185, 1999 *Martino, Shannon. "New Considerations and Revelations regarding the Anthropomorphic Clay Figurines of Alişar Höyük" Anatolica. Annuaire international pour les civilisations de l'Asie antérieure. Publié sous les auspices de l'Institut historique et archéologique néerlandais à Istanbul, no. 40, pp. 111-155, 2014

rich Schmidt, Anatolia Through the Ages: Discoveries at the Alishar Mound, 1927–1929, Oriental Institute Communication 11, University of Chicago Press, 1931 *Snyder, Alison B. "re-constructing the anatolian village: revisiting alisar" anatolica. annuaire international pour les civilisations de l'asie antérieure. nederlands instituut voor het nabije oosten, no. 26, pp. 173-193, 2000

External links