The upper city reveals a lot more including some impressive gates. Here’s first my wife, and then our whole our intrepid band of 12 explorers in the lion gate. The sphinx gate is certainly interesting, speaking to the interaction between the Hittites and the Egyptians. The original is in the Ankara museum, but here’s the recreated one. And did I mention the King’s gate (immediately below). But when you go through the lion gate and come to the back... Read more
Hattusha, like the Hittite empire is a huge and sprawling site that one cannot cover in a single visit. It’s a good 2 hours plus bus ride out of Ankara to get to it, and it is well and truly in the middle of nowhere today. It will take several posts to give even a basic look at the site, set on multiple tall hills. But not only is the Hittite capital sprawling so was their empire as this map... Read more
Then there is this monumental inscription involving Ashurbanipal, the king of Assyria in the 7th century B.C. And then there is the Sumerian cuneiform exhibit (the folks credited with inventing writing of a sort) And a treatment of seals used on documents And a few statues and steles also found in Adana province. This one from the late Hittite period and the one below ditto. Because of the lack of frequent reference to Hittites in the OT, it is easy... Read more
The Museum Hotel in Antioch is a spectacular place– a hotel which was built over, and after the archaeologists finished their excavations of Roman villas and street which lay directly beneath the planned hotel. Here first is an overview of the ancient city, which in Paul’s day had an island in the middle of the river, but not today. In the first century it was likely the third largest city in the Empire. But this city over the centuries has... Read more
Ask yourself this question— what would Jesus say about the behavior of those offering unChristian and unfair attacks against both Presidential candidates and particularly those who are prepared to do violence to get their candidate into office or the other candidate out of the running, or those who are simply in denial and won’t admit that their candidate lost or could lose an election? Read more
The devastating earthquake of February 2023 which destroyed half the city of Antioch, and led to a large exodus from the city (including the whole of the Jewish population of the city) has left many of the residents who stayed living in container cabins, like the following: So sadly the inaugural Antioch conference had to be held in nearby Iskenderun, because there were no hotels in Antioch available. Here are a couple of shots from the conference…. We did however... Read more
Without question, this dude stopped by here on the way to conquering the Persians and charging all the way to India! But there are not really any material remains to show for his visit. Some of the remains are from eras well before the Hellenistic era, but the coins are from that later period. In a world where the barter system was still in place, coins only really come to the fore in the Hellenistic and Roman period. The... Read more
The city of Gordion, which was the capital of the Phrygian region, was considerable and is the subject of an ongoing excavation. In ancient Anatolia, there were all sorts of regional small kingdoms, and then there were kingdoms which basically swallowed up these smaller kingdoms, or dominated them, like the Hittite kingdom (of which, much more in later posts). Here are some shots and sign posts from the ongoing dig. Notice on the map the numerous red mounds that are... Read more
West of Ankara, and on a major trade and military route was Gordion (and perhaps you already know the famous Gordion knot story about Alexander the Great who in about 333 B.C. was challenged to undo the Gordion knot, and instead of wrestling with it, he took out his sword and hacked the knot in too. Our exploration of Gordion however predates that legendary tale, and involves two major rulers of this realm– Gordias, and his son Meidas, whose name... Read more
There are lots of fascinating items in the Adana museum, like this perfectly preserved canteen which one has a handle for carrying, and guess what, though it looks it was made this year, it is from the 7th century B.C.! They knew how to make things that last back then. Or consider these drinking flagons…. Or how about these vases from the 5th century B.C.? Below is beautiful blown glass vials of various sight. Here are a couple of ornate... Read more
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