Kuşaklı

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Kuşaklı is an archaeological site in Turkey. It is 4 km (2 1/2 miles) east of the village Basören/Altinyayla, 60 km (37 1/3 miles) south of Sivas. Excavation continues under the direction of Andreas Müller-Karpe.

Excavations began in 1992. Dirk Mielke identified from the 16th to 13th centuries BC three "pottery horizons" and two Hittite building layers of different character. Mielke further identified a third, Iron Age building layer.[1]

[edit] Sarissa

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: [2]

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).

Sarissa was founded in the 16th century BC as a midsized provincial town, close to Kussara. The scribes in Hattusa catalogued Sarissa in the "Upper Land" of Hatti.

"There were gates at the four corners of the city... one city gate is of Syrian-Levantine form."[3] In 2004, the team uncovered a pool or dam by the northwest gate - the oldest known dam in Anatolia. The gate contains wood, and dendrochronology has claimed that the wood was cut 1530 BC; but this finding has not been peer reviewed.

Sarissa was sacked during the general turmoil following the reign of Arnuwanda I in the early 14th century. It was then rebuilt under the Hittite revival from Samuha under Tudhaliya III.

The main deity of Sarissa was the Weather-God; he is named in the treaty between Hattusili III and Rameses II.

Sarissa was sacked again with the other Hittite cities in 1200 BC. Its site was reoccupied and repaired, but then abandoned.