Die Ausgrabungen in Boğazköy-Ḫattuša 2023

The continuation of the research on Büyükkale’s Northwest Slope (BK-NWH), on the Büyükkale and on the western slope of the Upper Town has yielded significant new results relating to the Hittite period. The development of the Upper City now appears to be a fluid process that very probably began in the first half of the 16ᵗʰ century B.C. (contribution by M. Gruber § 129–153). We were able to gain insights into the Hittite period on the Büyükkale Northwest Slope (contribution A. Schachner § 2–96), in the poterne of Yerkapı (contributions by M. Marazzi – N. Bolatti-Guzzo, and L. Repola – V. Morra § 159–194) and on the Büyükkale (contribution by J. Becker § 97–128). The excavations on the western slope of the upper town not only confirm that this part of the city was settled in the 16ᵗʰ century B.C., but also provide strong evidence that this process began earlier than previously assumed and continued dynamically throughout the entire century. On Büyükkale, substantial remains of the Hittite Empire period are becoming increasingly apparent, which profoundly change the appearance of the Hittite royal castle. In the poterne of Yerkapı, open questions regarding the painted Anatolian hieroglyphs could be clarified, which, in turn, provide clues to the Hittite understanding of the city’s topography. For the first time in several decades, the research at the Büyükkale Northwest Slope has provided well-dated contexts for the discovery of a spectacular bone inlay, which, in addition to contributing to our understanding of the development in Ḫattuša, provides rare insights into the supra-regional relationships of this period. Also, at the Büyükkale Northwest Slope, a text was found in connection with a building of the late Hittite Great Kingdom period, through which the previously unknown Indo-European language of Kalašma could be reconstructed. A second focus of the work relates to research into the 1ˢᵗ millennium B.C. layers on the Büyükkale and the Büyükkale Northwest Slope. At Büyükkale, a detailed stratigraphic investigation of the sequence of building layers from the Middle and Late Iron Age allows for a check of the sequence proposed several decades ago. At the Büyükkale Northwest Slope, not only was it possible to document an Early Iron Age settlement for the first time outside Büyükkaya, but a shift in the settlement from the Middle to the Late Iron Age up the slope can also be seen. This is all the more remarkable given that in the subsequent Hellenistic-Galatian period the settlement was again located in the area of the Middle Iron Age. These changes in the choice of settlement site within a defined geographical area are structural corresponding to similar developments in the Bronze Age. For the first time it is possible to identify such processes in antiquity that are otherwise only documented for the Ottoman period in Central Anatolia.