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Before 2000 BC a settlement of the apparently indigenous Hatti people was established on sites that had been occupied even earlier. In the 19th and 18th centuries BC, merchants from Ashur in Assyria established a trading post here, setting up in their own separate quarter of the city. The center of their trade network was located in Kanesh (Nesha), the archaeological site known as Kültepe near Kayseri. Business dealings required record-keeping: the trade network from Ashur introduced writing to Hattusa, in the form of cuneiform.
A carbonized layer in the excavations records the burning and ruin of the city of Hattush around 1700 BC. The responsible party appears to have been King Anitta from Kushar (a city that has not yet been rediscovered), who took credit for the act and erected an inscribed curse for good measure:
Only a generation later, a Hittite king had chosen the site as his residence and capital. The Hittites, speaking an Indo-European language had been drifting into the area, without notable violence or mass migrations, for some time. The Hattian Hattush now became the Hittite Hattusha, and the king took the name of Hattusili ILabarna II was the first king of the Hittite empire, reigning in Hattusa (while the earlier kings had been at Nesa), and taking the throne name of Hattusili I on that occasion. He reigned ca. 1650 1620 BC ( middle chronology)., the "one from Hattusha." Hattusili marked the beginning of a royal line of Hittite Great Kings, 27 of whom are now known by name.
At its peak, the city covered 1.8 km² and comprised an inner and outer portion, both surrounded by a massive and still visible course of walls erected during the reign of Suppiluliuma ISuppiluliuma I (also rendered as Shuppiluliuma was king of the Hittites ( 1390 BC 1354 BC). He achieved fame as a great warrior and statesman, successfully challenging the then-dominant Egyptian empire for control of the lands between the Mediterranean an (circa 1375 BC- 1335 BC). The inner town covered an area of some 0.8 km² and was occupied by a citadel with large administrative buildings and temples.
To the south lay an outer city of about 1 km² with elaborate gateways decorated with reliefs showing warriors, lions, and sphinxes. Four temples were located here, each set around a porticoed courtyard, together with secular buildings and residential structures. Outside the walls are cemeteries, most of which contain cremation burials.
The city was destroyed by the Phrygians around 1200 BC, leading to the collapse of the Hittite empire. The site was subsequently abandoned until the mid 1st millennium BC2nd millennium BC 1st millennium BC 1st millennium AD other millennia) Events The Iron Age began in Western Europe Egypt declined as a major power The Tanakh was written Buddhism was founded Cyrus the Great conquered Babylon and created the Persian Empire.
Since 1906Events January 8 Landslide in Haverstraw, New York kills 20 January 31 Earthquake in Ecuador (8. 6 in Richter scale) February 11 Pope Pius X publishes the encyclical Vehementer nos''. February 15 Representatives of the Labour Representation Committee in t, the Deutsche Orientgesellschaft (the German Institute of Archaeology) has been excavating at Hattusa (with breaks during the two World Wars and the Depression). One of its most important discoveries has been the cuneiform royal archives of clay tablets, consisting of official correspondence and contracts, as well as legal codes, procedures for cult ceremony, oracular prophecies and literature of the ancient Near East. One particularly important tablet details the terms of a peace settlement between the Hittites and the Egyptians under Ramesses II, circa 1283 BC. A copy is on display in the United Nations in New York as an example of one of the earliest known international peace treaties.
Although the 30,000 or so clay tablets recovered from Hattusha form the main corpus of Hittite literature, archives have since appeared at other centers in Anatolia, such as Tabigga/Masat Höyük (in Tokat province) and at Shapinuwa/Ortaköy. They are now divided between the archaeological museums of Ankara and Istanbul.
Hattusha is also one of nine sites in Turkey currently included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.