Çorum Alacahöyük Museum

Çorum Alacahöyük Museum

ALACAHÖYÜK

Alacahöyük was discovered by W.G.Hamilton in 1835. In 1907, Theodor Makridi conducted the excavation on behalf of the Istanbul Museums. Systematic excavations were started in 1935 on behalf of the Turkish Historical Society by Dr. Hamit Koşay and Professor Remzi Oğuz Arık; After 1936, it was continued by Hamit Zübeyr Koşay, later by  H.Z. Kosay and Mahmud Akok,  and in recent years by M. Akok until 1983. The excavations, which were interrupted in 1983, were resumed in 1996 by Professor Doctor Aykut Çınaroğlu.

In Alacahöyük, which was a very important cult and art center in the Old Bronze Age and Hittite Age, 4 cultural layers were unearthed.

The first cultural floor in Alacahöyük is represented by the Late Iron Age (Phrygian), Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, and Seljuk-Ottoman periods. In the late Iron Age, all parts of the mound were inhabited. This floor of small houses is not older than 650 BC.

The temple, with its large buildings, private-block houses, streets, large and small water channels, city wall, and monumental gates, one of which is decorated with embossed middle-stades, the other with sphinxes, and the other with pottery, constitutes the 2nd culture layer of the Hittite Imperial Age (1450-1200 BC).

The Sphinx Gate, built with andesite blocks on a limestone foundation, has a width of 10 meters. It is the monumental gateway to the great sanctuary, to which it is connected by a road. The outer faces of the large willow blocks on both sides of the outer entrance are decorated with sphinx proteomes. The outer and inner faces of the towers are decorated with embossed orthostats. In the left tower, the bull standing on the pedestal symbolizes the “Storm God of the Heavens”. In the following block, the king and queen advance in a gesture of prayer in front of the altar, and in the back blocks, figures performing with a ladder and dagger, bringing sacrificial animals goats, and rams in front of the bearers of cult objects. In the block behind it, the first carries a small animal, possibly a riton, and the other is a reed player. The last block shows a large bull steered to the right on two wheels. The high protrusion on its back suggests that it was a cult object. In the same tower, in the two blocks in the second row from the top, deer and pig hunting are arranged in two friezes. In the corner blocks of the right tower, reliefs show the goddess sitting on her throne and her servants have been preserved. It is clear that a cult/holiday celebration is enlivened in the Alacahöyük “Door with Sphinx” series.

The Early Bronze Age (2500-2000 B.C) forms the 3rd cultural level of Alacahöyük. Alacahöyük Early Bronze Age dynastic tombs, which contributed greatly to the enlightenment of the indigenous Hatti Civilization, which was the leading culture of the Hittite culture, are the most important finds of this age. Intramural (Buried Inside the City) tombs were collected in a specially reserved area. The rectangular tombs, which were built with stones on all four sides, were covered with wooden beams and sacrificed cattle heads and legs were placed on their roofs. The rich gifts of the dead, consisting of gold, silver, electrum, copper, bronze, iron, and precious stones, indicate that they belong to the dynasty. Most of the gold, silverware forging, casting, inlay techniques, and fine ornaments of gold jewelry are the products of a long development. These mentioned works are currently on display in the Ankara Anatolian Civilizations Museum.

Late Chalcolithic Age (M.He.5500-3000) which consists of the 4th culture layer, was the first civilization founded on the mother earth.