Hattusa Capital City of the Hittites

Hattusa, A New Location for My Fiction

My current fiction project, the 4th book in the Tesha series, has taken me to Hattusa, the Hittite Empire’s capital. (Or Hatusha or various other transliterations in scholarly works.) My two main characters, Tesha and Hattu, are inspired by “real” rulers. Puduhepa and Hattusili III ruled at the end of the 13th century BCE. Their story, in my telling anyway, started in southern Anatolia where Puduhepa (my Tesha) grew up, historical Lawazantiya. Then, in books 2 & 3, they moved to their small northern kingdom which Muwatalli II, the Great King of the Hittite Empire, gave to his younger brother. Muwatalli hoped his brother would stop the invasions from that region.

Only now, do I find myself confronting the imposing job of writing scenes in this great capital. The archaeology presents a complicated picture. This city, lost to human memory, began its gradual rediscovery in 1906.

The Recent Excavation at Hattusa

Andreas Schachner has been the director of the German Archaeological Institute’s excavations at Hattusa since 2006. He gave an excellent lecture in 2012 to the British Institute at Ankara. Listening to Shachner’s lecture, Hatusha, the Capital City of the Hittites provides an overview of this unusual “metropolis.” It has a distinctly ancient Anatolian style.

Transformation into a Vast, Impressive Capital of Empire

Schachner describes the transition in the 16th century BCE of Hattusa from a local center to the Hittite capital. It started with winding streets and irregularly shaped buildings. Later, the Great Kings constructed a distinct Hittite form on the rocky, uneven landscape. As part of that, the city displays conscious planning with grid roads and regularly shaped rectangular large public buildings and residences. In addition, the buildings and roads are arranged to facilitate views of the many temples. Moreover, the Hittites built on the rocky outcroppings that jut up all over Hattusa. We suspect that some of these structures are the “rock houses,” hekur-houses, mentioned in written records. In such places, the worship of ancestors occurred and possibly also the burials and memorials of kings and family members.

Engineering Food and Water

In his lecture, Schachner touches on the extensive research into the amazing engineering involved in water and grain storage within Hattusa. He clarifies the complexity of the huge water reservoirs that they have excavated. The “ponds” filled from the water table in one season, and then the style of construction trapped the water throughout the hot summers. Similarly, the thousands of tons of grain that the Hittites could effectively store for decades shows the importance and power of this place at least as much as the monumental temples.

Here for another post about researching Hattusa for my fiction, focusing on the abandonment of the temples under Great King Muwattalli II.