Boğazköy, if not Hattusha, might be Susa

 

by

 Damien F. Mackey

 

 

“In the third year of King Belshazzar’s reign, I, Daniel, had a vision, after the one that had already appeared to me. In my vision I saw myself in the citadel of Susa

in the province of Elam; in the vision I was beside the Ulai Canal”.

 Daniel 8:1-2

  

With the Hittite lands newly estimated as ‘centred’ on (perhaps in an elliptical sense) “Kadesh in the land of the Hittites” (2 Samuel 24:6), that is, Kadesh on the Orontes, and no longer in Anatolia, and with:

 

Kadesh (Qadesh) as Hittite Hattush(a)?

 

(3) Kadesh (Qadesh) as Hittite Hattush(a)?

 

and, possibly, also as Kanesh:

Kadesh and Kanesh

 

(3) Kadesh and Kanesh

 

then new identifications are going to be needed for the important sites at Boğazköy (formerly Hattusha) and Kültepe (formerly Kanesh).

 

Here I am interested only in what ancient city might have stood at the site of Boğazköy?

 

Taking my cue from the geography of the vision of Daniel 8, “… I saw myself in the citadel of Susa in the province of Elam … beside the Ulai Canal”, it had occurred to me that Boğazköy may have been the famous capital city of Susa, the winter residence of Persian kings: Susa, Shush. Palace of Darius. Winter Capital

 

“Susa (also called Shushan, Greek Susiane), was one of the city-states of ancient Elam which later became the winter capital of the Persian Achaemenian kings (c. 675 - 330 BCE). There is evidence that Susa has been continuously inhabited from 4,200 BCE [sic] placing it among the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. In addition, there are traces at Susa of a village inhabited around 7,000 BCE and painted pottery dating from ca. 5,000 BCE at the site. …”.

 

Here, of course, Susa has been identified (wrongly, so I now think) as according to its conventional setting east of the River Tigris, near the Persian Gulf.

 

Daniel’s Ulai Canal associated with Susa is customarily identified today as the Karkheh River in SW Iran.

 

However, according to the explosive geographical corrections so brilliantly undertaken by Royce (Richard) Erickson) (for reference, see my above articles), the country of Elam was nowhere near the Persian Gulf. It was actually far to the NW, in Anatolia.

 

For Royce, Susa was the ancient Sis in the Cilician plain near the Mediterranean coast.

And he may well be correct in this.

 

My own preference for the right location of ancient Susa, though, is Boğazköy, which appears to share some vital elements with the prophet Daniel’s description: in Elam (newly revised); having a prominent citadel; near a river with a Ulai-like name.

 

Boghazköy | Springer Nature Link (formerly SpringerLink)

“The capital is on a rock citadel near the Halys River in central Turkey and the site had been occupied since the Chalcolithic times”. 

 

The Halys river is known today as Kızılırmak:

Kızılırmak River - Wikipedia

 

“The Kızılırmak (Turkish pronunciation: [kɯzɯlɯrmak], Turkish for "Red River"), once known as the Halys River (Ancient Greek: Ἅλυς) and Alis River, is the longest river flowing entirely within Turkey. It is a source of hydroelectric power and is not used for navigation”.

 

Daniel 8:2 may be a perfect description of this location (my emphasis):

Daniel 8:16 Commentaries: And I heard the voice of a man between the banks of Ulai, and he called out and said, "Gabriel, give this man an understanding of the vision."

“Near to which Daniel was, Daniel 8:2 and it seemed to him as if the appearance of the man was in the midst of the river, between the banks of it, from whence the voice came; or between the arms of it, it bending and winding about …”.

 

Compare this with (my emphasis):

Boğazköy | Turkey, Map, History, & Facts | Britannica

“Ancient Boğazköy occupies a section of a mountain slope at the southern end of a small fertile plain. It lies between two deeply cut streambeds, filling the angle between their converging courses”. 

 

Nor might it be surprising that abundant, multilingual records were found at this location: The Multilingual Bogazköy Archive: Over 25,000 Cuneiform Tablets Containing 8 Different Languages!

“The Boğazköy Archive, discovered amidst the ruins of ancient Hattusa [sic] (now Boğazköy), stands as a remarkable testament to the Hittite civilization, a dominant political force in the Middle East during the 2nd millennium B.C. This vast collection of nearly 25,000 cuneiform tablets is the primary source of our knowledge about the social, political, commercial, military, religious, legislative, and artistic facets of this era in Asia Minor and the broader Middle East”.

 

King Ahasuerus (Xerxes) of the Book of Esther, who was Darius the Mede/Cyrus, ruling from Susa (see my article):

 

Gouging the history out of Esther 3.1

 

(3) Gouging the history out of Esther 3.1

 

unsurprisingly kept his historical records there (Esther 6:1): “On that night the king could not sleep; and he commanded to bring the book of records of the chronicles, and they were read before the king”.

Kadesh and Kanesh

 

by

 Damien F. Mackey

 

  

The names Kadesh and Kanesh are virtually identical,

especially given that n and d are subject to a wide range of variations.

 

The typical view of ancient Kanesh reads like this:

Kultepe | Turkey, Kanesh, Map, & History | Britannica

 

Kültepe, ancient mound covering the Bronze Age city of Kanesh, in central Turkey. Kültepe was known to archaeologists during the 19th century, but it began to attract particular attention as the reputed source of so-called Cappadocian tablets in Old Assyrian cuneiform writing and language.

 

Finally, in 1925, Bedřich Hrozný found the source of the tablets in a fortified crescent-shaped area to the south and southeast of the mound proper. That area, called Karum Kanesh by archaeologists, had been inhabited by a mixture of Assyrian merchants and native population.

 

The excavations, resumed in 1948, were continued annually by the Turkish Historical Society under the direction of Tahsin and Nimet Özgüç. Their excavations added thousands of new tablet finds, dating from early in the 2nd millennium bce, and included the first such discoveries in the city mound itself.

 

The texts—the earliest historical documents found in Anatolia—are of Old Assyrian type; similar texts have been discovered at Alişar Hüyük and at Boğazköy, the site of the Hittite capital. All the texts belong to what is called the “colony period” in central Anatolia. At that time, Indo-European Hittites had already settled in Anatolia and assimilated into the indigenous population. From about the 20th to the 18th century bce there existed a number of Assyrian karums (trade outposts, of which Kanesh was probably the most important), which served as end stations for the caravan shipments from and to Assyria and as distribution centres. Assyrian textiles and items transshipped from Babylonia were traded for Anatolian copper and silver.

 

The original Hittite language is now considered to have been Nesian, as reflected in the name Kanesh (Wikipedia):

 

Nesian language from kanesh

 

The Nesian language, also known as Neshaca, is the language of the ancient city of Kanesh/Nesha. This language is believed to be a non-Indo-European language that was used in the region during the time of the Hatti people. The Hatti, who inhabited the area around Kanesh, used cuneiform script for trade dealings and other official documents. 

The discovery of the Kültepe tablets, which are among the earliest written documents from Anatolia, provides valuable insights into the language and culture of the Hatti people. These tablets contain a mix of Hatti and Old Assyrian, and they are significant for understanding the linguistic connections between the ancient Near East and the modern Turkish language.

[End of quote]

 

However, with the land of the Hittites now geographically removed right out of Anatolia, and re-focussed around e.g. Kadesh on the Orontes:

 

Kadesh (Qadesh) as Hittite Hattush(a)?

 

(2) Kadesh (Qadesh) as Hittite Hattush(a)?

 

then the famous Hittite town of Kanesh, thought by archaeologists to be at Kültepe, must now likewise be shifted – as Hattusha was in the above article, from Boğazköy – to Kadesh in central Syria.

 

Crucial to that article was this biblical information: “Kadesh in the land of the Hittites” (2 Samuel 24:6).

The names Kadesh and Kanesh are virtually identical, especially given that n and d are subject to a wide range of variations.

 

Barry Curnock, discussing the Amurru, refers to a “Kinsa (on the southern Orontes)”, which name is a perfect likeness to Kanesh, and its location on the River Orontes (though he appears to have estimated it well too far to the south) is appropriate for Kadesh. In the process, he explains the term, Mukish: (2) Curnock Papers 2007-2024

 

On the other hand, the Hittite records locate Amurru further north; according to the treaty between Suppiluliumas I and Aziru (CTH 49), Amurru bordered on Mukish (the Amuq Plain), Kinsa (on the southern Orontes) and Nuhasse (south of Carchemish). This locates it north of Coele-Syria on the middle Orontes, somewhere close to Hamath. The latest treaty between Hatti and Amurru (CTH 105) forbade Greek trade from the north Syrian coast through Amurru to Assyria; appearing to confirm that Amurru must have been in northern Syria. When Suppiluliumas I captured Syria, he was opposed by Ariwana, the king of Apu, which was the area around Damascus (CTH 51). The Hittites won the ensuing battle. The Hittite texts stress that Amurru was not taken by force. These two pieces of information help to confirm that Amurru did not include Apu. ….

 

In the Amarna letters, Amurru appears to have been located south of Kinsa, whereas in the Hittite records of Suppiluliumas I and later Hittite kings, it appears to have been located north of Kinsa.

In passing, we note that the name Mukish is a prime example of how the same name, written in different languages and then transliterated by modern scholars, can appear in quite different forms. Only the consonants of the name are preserved. Mukish, Amka, Amuq all represent the same original name. ….

 

[End of quote]

 

See also my article:

 

Land of Nuhašše by other names

 

(3) Land of Nuhašše by other names

 

 

Kadesh (Qadesh) as Hittite Hattush(a)?

 

by

 Damien F. Mackey

  

My tentative suggestion would be that the Hittites were either

(i) geographically contiguous with the Chaldeans,

whose land Royce Erickson has re-located to NW Syria, or

(ii) were the Chaldeans (and possibly also the Kassites).

  

The ancient Hittite capital of Hattusha is generally considered today to have been the impressive site at Boğazköy in Turkey:

Boğazköy | Turkey, Map, History, & Facts | Britannica

 

“Boğazköy, village, north-central Turkey. Located 17 miles (27 km) northwest of Yozgat, it is the site of the archaeological remains of Hattusas (Hattusa, Hattusha, or Khattusas), the ancient capital of the Hittites, who established a powerful empire in Anatolia and northern Syria in the 2nd millennium bce”.

 

However, according to the major geographical reconstruction of the land of Anatolia as recently (2020) undertaken by Royce (Richard) Erickson, and as written about in e.g. my article:

 

More geographical ‘tsunamis’: lands of Elam and Chaldea

 

(10) More geographical ‘tsunamis’: lands of Elam and Chaldea

 

– this, following on from various other groundbreaking geographical revisionisms – the vast region of Anatolia belonged to nations such as Elam, Media and Persia.

 

The somewhat poorly known - certainly most enigmatic - Hittites, now get squeezed right out of that northern area, and thus need to find themselves a more appropriate home location.

 

My tentative suggestion would be that the Hittites were either (i) geographically contiguous with the Chaldeans, whose land Royce Erickson has re-located to NW Syria (see his Figure 8 map above), or (ii) were the Chaldeans (and possibly also the Kassites).

 

Perhaps coming to my aid here is the following extract from James Fraser’s 2016 article:

 

Kadesh on the Orontes

 

(9) Kadesh on the Orontes

 

which crucially, biblically, locates “Kadesh in the land of the Hittites” (2 Sam 24:6):

 

Kadesh-on-the-Orontes

Kadesh (Qadesh) was a Bronze Age city-state centered on the 10 ha site of Tell Nebi Mend on the Orontes River, 25 km SW of Homs. The site sits at a junction between a key north-south route through inland Syria, and a strategic east-west route to the coast. The city is possibly named in the Bible as “Kadesh in the land of the Hittites” (2 Sam 24:6), which marked the northern limit of the census of David; however, the text is corrupt, and cited elsewhere as “the region of Tahtim-hodshi” (2 Sam 24:6 [NIV]) ….

 

Obviously, this cannot be anywhere near Anatolia!

 

Other significant conclusions may perhaps now be drawn from the above.

 

According to James Fraser, “the text is corrupt”, with Kadesh being replaced in the NIV by “Tahtim-hodshi”.

 

It may not be corrupt, however.

 

The Assyrians referred to a particular region as the “Sealand”, which region I have identified as (our now revised) Chaldea:

 

Region Assyria meant by Mãt-tâmti, the “Sealand”

 

(10) Region Assyria meant by Mãt-tâmti, the “Sealand”

 

The Hebrew description, “the region [land] of Tahtim-hodshi”, might be interchangeable with the Assyrian as follows:

 

The Land (Mãt) - Sea (tâmti/tahtim) of Kadesh.

 

And could this “Sealand”, too, be the same as the ancient land of Iamkhad (Yamhad), Yam/Sea (?), for which name no plausible explanation appears yet to have been given?

 

Another matter of potential import: Royce Erickson’s useful estimation of the location of the Chaldean capital of Dur Yakin lies appreciably close (though not quite exactly) to where Kadesh is situated – both being on the Orontes River (compare maps).

 

The Chaldean capital of Dur Yakin now becomes a solid candidate for the Hittite capital of Hattush(a)/Kadesh.

 

Finally, for the potential inclusion of the Kassites into our mix, see my article:

 

Merging of a Kassite and a Hittite king

 

(10) Merging a Kassite and a Hittite king