İnandıktepe

Seated Goddess in the vessel as under heaven, small terracotta, 16 cm, Hittite. Inandik, 1700-1500 BC. Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, Ankara.

The site was excavated in 1966 and 1967 by Tahsin Özgüz. Overall five levels could be identified. Levels V, IV and III date to the 2nd millennium BC. Most of them dating to the Hittite Age. A complex of about 2000 sq. m. was unearthed extending over the entire ridge of the mound. It was preserved only in parts since it was destroyed in a great fire. The excavators supposed this building to be a temple.[1] Nevertheless, this is controversial - it has also been suggested to be an estate.[2]

Most of the archaeological finds were ceramics. Among them there were small vessels, jugs, a figurine of a bull, a temple-model as well as a tub. In addition there was found a clay tablet with an Akkadian inscription. It documents a land-gift of the official Tutulla. It is sealed by the Tabarna seal.

The 'Tabarna seal' was a type of an archaic royal seal of the Hittites. Such seals do not mention the name of a specific ruler. They were in use till the reigns of the Great Kings Telipinu and Alluwamna, his successor. Hence it can be assumed that this tablet and the layer it was found in date to the late 16th century BC.[3]

• Cities of the Ancient Near East
• Hittites

• Özgüz (1988). İnandıktepe. Eski Hitit Caginda Önemli Bir Kult Merkezi. Ankara.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Balkan (1973). İnandık'ta 1966 yılında bulunan eski hitit cagina ait bagis belgesi. Ankara.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Özgüz T., "İnandiktepe. An Important Cult Center in the Old Hittite Period.", Ankara, 1988
• Mielke (2006). İnandıktepe un Sarissa. In: Mielke, Schoop, Seher (ed): Strukturierung und Datierung in der hethitischen Archäologie. Istanbul, pp. 251–276.