Alishar Hüyük (in modern Yozgat Province, Turkey) was an ancient city in Central Anatolia. It is near the modern village of Alişar, Sorgun. It has been suggested that in the Iron Age the site was part of the polity of Tabal.[1]
Alishar Hüyük was occupied beginning in the Neolithic Period, through the Chalcolithic, Bronze Age and the Hittites, and into Phrygian times. The remnants of a Late Roman or Byzantine church were also found. During the Neolithic times (found at 26 meters below the mound surface and about 11 meters above virgin soil) the site was in the middle of a lake and occupation was restricted to the mound. As the area dried in the Chalcolithic Age occupation slowly spread off the mound and outer defenses were built. Eventually in the Early Bronze Age a large defensive fortification wall, with gates, was built.[2]
Vessel with a quatrefoil mouth, Alishar, Middle Bronze Age III, 1750-1650 BC, ceramic - Oriental Institute Museum, University of Chicago
Fifty three (allowing for copies) cuneiform tablets in Old Assyrian of the Cappadocia type were found there. The tablets appear to be typical of an Assyrian trading outpost typical of that time in Anatolia. In two cases the writer mentions having returned from Zalpuwa (Zalpa) and in another Kanesh and Hattusa are referred to. One tablet mentions a trader Amur-Assur, also mentioned in tablets at the karum in Kultepe. Two of the tablets carry the seal of an "Anitta the Prince" which has led to speculation that this was Anitta who was king of Kuššara in the late 1700s BC. Finally, one tablet carried the eponym Adad-bāni which has been dated to the final years of Shamshi-Adad I. Mention in those tablets of the town Ankuwa has caused speculation that the site is the Ankuwa mentioned in other Hittite texts.[3][4][5][6]
Head of an animal, pottery rhyton, 1700-1500 BC, MACA, 3082
The top of the mound is surmounted by a truncated cone (designated A) with three lobes extending from it (B, C, and D). A lower town area extents from the mound to the east and south. An excavation system of 10 by 10 meter oriented squares was used. The end of Hittite Empire occupation (Stratum IV) at about 1200 BC was marked by widespread destruction including and the site was largely unoccupied until Phryangian times.[7]
The site was excavated between 1927 and 1932 by a team from the Oriental Institute of Chicago. The work was led by Erich Schmidt.[8][9][10][11][12][13][14]
Excavation resumed in 1992, led by Ronald Gorny as part of
the Alisar Regional Project. Work at the site appears to have been limited to a topographic survey and aerial photography using camera ballons with little or no actual excavation. Most of the project's work has been at nearby Çadır Höyük.[15][16][17]
About 12km northwest of Alishar Huyuk, there's another important archaeological site named Cadir Hoyuk (Çadır Höyük in Turkish alphabet). Recent excavators of Cadir Hoyuk have identified this site tentatively with the Hittite city of Zippalanda.[18]
Kealhofer, L., Grave, P., & Marsh, B., "In search of Tabal, central Anatolia: Iron Age interaction at Alişar Höyük", Anatolian Studies, 73, pp. 69-98, 2023
Karaduman, Ayşe, "Three Kültepe Texts Regarding the Payment of a Debt in Installments", Journal of Near Eastern Studies, vol. 67, no. 2, pp. 81–106, 2008
Erich Schmidt, Anatolia Through the Ages: Discoveries at the Alishar Mound, 1927–1929, Oriental Institute Communication 11, University of Chicago Press, 1931
Archived 2012-10-09 at the Wayback Machine Hans Henning von der Osten and Erich F. Schmidt, "Researches in Anatolia 2. The Alishar Hüyük Season of 1927, Part 1", Oriental Institute Publications 6, The University of Chicago Press, 1930
Archived 2012-10-09 at the Wayback Machine Hans Henning von der Osten and Erich F. Schmidt, "Researches in Anatolia 3. The Alishar Hüyük Season of 1927, Part 2", Oriental Institute Publications 7, The University of Chicago Press, 1932
Archived 2012-10-09 at the Wayback Machine Erich F. Schmidt, "Researches in Anatolia 4. The Alishar Hüyük Season of 1928, Part 1", Oriental Institute Publications 19, The University of Chicago Press, 1932
Archived 2012-10-09 at the Wayback Machine Erich F. Schmidt, "Researches in Anatolia 5. The Alishar Hüyük Season of 1928 and 1929, Part 2", Oriental Institute Publications 20, The University of Chicago Press, 1933
Archived 2012-10-09 at the Wayback Machine Hans Henning von der Osten, "Researches in Anatolia 7. The Alishar Hüyük Seasons of 1930-1932, Part 1", Oriental Institute Publications 28, The University of Chicago Press, 1937
Archived 2012-10-09 at the Wayback Machine Hans Henning von der Osten, "Researches in Anatolia 8. The Alishar Hüyük Seasons of 1930-1932, Part 2", Oriental Institute Publications 29, The University of Chicago Press, 1937
Archived 2012-10-09 at the Wayback Machine Hans Henning von der Osten, "Researches in Anatolia 9. The Alishar Hüyük Seasons of 1930-1932, Part 3", Oriental Institute Publications 30, The University of Chicago Press, 1937
Ronald L. Gorny, "Alisar Regional Project", Oriental Institute 2005-2006 Annual Report, pp 13-22, 2006
Branting, Scott A. "The Alisar Regional Survey 1993-1994: A Preliminary Report", Anatolica, Annuaire international pour les civilisations de l'asie Antérieure, Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten, no. 22, pp.145–159, 1996
Ronald L. Gorny, "The Biconvex Seals of Alishar Höyük", Anatolian Studies, vol. 43, pp.163–191, 1993
Gorny, R. L., "Alişar Höyük in the Late Second Millennium B.C." in Proceedings of the Second Congresso Internazionale Di Hittitologia (Pavia, Italy (June 28-July 2, 1993): Gianni Iuculano), pp.159–171, 1995
Gorny, R. L. etc. "The Alisar Regional Project 1994", Anatolica. Annuaire international pour les civilisations de l'asie Antérieure, Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten, no. 21, pp.65–100, 1995
Ronald L. Gorny, "Hittite Imperialism and Anti-Imperial Resistance As Viewed from Alișar Höyük", Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, no. 299/300, The Archaeology of Empire in Ancient Anatolia, pp.65–89, 1995
Gorny, R. L. et al, "The 1998 Alisar Regional Project Season", Anatolica, Annuaire international pour les Civilisations de l'asie Antérieure, Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten, no. 25, pp.149–185, 1999
Martino, Shannon, "New Considerations and Revelations regarding the Anthropomorphic Clay Figurines of Alişar Höyük", Anatolica, Annuaire International pour les Civilisations de l'Asie antérieure. Publié sous les auspices de l'Institut Historique et Archéologique Néerlandais à Istanbul, no. 40, pp.111–155, 2014
Martino, Shannon, "The Context and Chronological Relationship of Middle Bronze Age Figurines at Alişar Höyük", in Anatolica. Annuaire international pour les civilisations de l'Asie antérieure. Publié sous les auspices de l'Institut historique et archéologique néerlandais à Istanbul, 44, pp.213–228, 2018
Snyder, Alison B. "Re-constructing the Anatolian Village: Revisiting Alisar", Anatolica, Annuaire international pour les civilisations de l'asie Antérieure. Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten, no. 26, pp.173–193, 2000
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