Tour overview

In the second excavation campaign, the archaeologists discovered written records of its Hittite period; the fourth, smallest, and so far last major archive in the Hittite language. In 1997 Gernot Wilhelm reported: 

The large majority of the 45 tablet fragments published were found in the southern room of building A in the Western part of the Acropolis. Both the small finds in the room and the contents of the tablets suggest that the room had a connection with ritual practices. The finds belong to layer 2 (period of the Empire) which perished in a conflagration (2nd half of 13th century BC). It is due to the effects of this fire that the tablets, originally stored in an unbaked condition, survived. The contents of the tablets, written by several hands, refer to the ritual practice, namely cult and prophecy. Most numerous are "oracle protocols" for lot and bird oracles, rarer are "cult inventories" dealing with ritual festivals, idols and cultic supply. Two tablets represent the category of "festival rituals" and describe the celebration of the spring festival by the king in Šarišša (Šarešša).

Itinerary

Routes