Hattusa @ Travel Turkey

Germany to return ancient sphinx to Turkey
The Sphinx of Hattusa, an ancient winged lion sculpture carved in stone, will likely be given back to Turkey, the country where it was uncovered around a century ago. March 10, 2011
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,6465155,00.html...

Turkey to ask Germany to return an ancient sphinx kept in Berlin
Gunay will ask Neumann to return the Hattusa sphinx, found by German archaeologists in the ancient city of Hattusa in central Anatolia. German archaeologists have been excavating the ancient site since 1906 and the Bronze Age sphinx is considered to be ... March 7, 2011 http://www.turkishpre...

Merkel aide hints at return of Sphinx of Hattusa to Turkey
Berlin - An aide to Chancellor Angela Merkel hinted Sunday that Germany might agree to return to Turkey a valuable sphinx statue which is currently in Berlin's Pergamon antiquities museum. March 6, 2011 http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/europe/news/article_1623973.php/Merkel-aide-hints-at-return-of-Sp...

The landscape surrounding the city included rich agricultural fields, hill lands for pasture, as well as woods. Smaller woods are still found outside the city but in ancient times there were much more. This meant the inhabitants had a great supply for timber when building their houses and other structures. The fields provided the people with a subsistence of wheat, barley and lentils. Linen was also harvested, but their primary source for clothing was wool from sheep. They also hunted deer in the forest, but this was probably only a pleasure by the nobility. The source for meat was domesticated animals. There were several other settlements in the vicinity, such as the rock shrine at Yazılıkaya and the town at Alacahöyük. Since the rivers in the area are too small and unsuitable for major ships, all transport to and from Hattusa had to go by land.

Before 2000 BC, a settlement of the apparently indigenous Hatti people was established on sites that had been occupied even earlier. The earliest traces of settlement on the site is from the sixth millennium BC. In the 19th and 18th centuries BC, merchants from Assur 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 (Nesa) (modern Kültepe). Business dealings required record-keeping: the trade network from Assur introduced writing to Hattusa, in the form of cuneiform.

Only a generation later, a Hittite-speaking king had chosen the site as his residence and capital. The Hittite Language had been gaining speakers at Hattic's expense for some time. The Hattic "Hattus" now became Hittite "Hattusa", and the king took the name of Hattusili I, the "one from Hattusa." Hattusili marked the beginning of a non-Hattic-speaking "Hittite" state, and 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 I (circa 1344 - 1322 BC (short chronology)). The inner city covered an area of some 0.8 km² and was occupied by a citadel with large administrative buildings and temples.

The city was destroyed, together with the Hittite state itself, around 1200 BC, as part of the Bronze Age collapse. The site was subsequently abandoned until 800 BC, when a modest Phrygian settlement appeared in the area.

A sphinx from Hattusa was taken for restoration out of Turkey to Germany in 1917 and has not been returned. It was recently at the center of a Turkish move to apply restrictions on German archaeologists working in the country. It is currently on display in Berlin's Pergamon Museum