Level 1 — Absolute Beginner
Hattusa is an old city in Turkiye. Long ago, it is the capital of the Hittite Empire. Now, archaeologists find a big storage room under the ground. The room has 16 large clay jars.
The jars are very old. They are about 3,800 years old. People use them before the Hittites live in the city. The jars sit on a hill called Buyukkale.
- archaeologist
- a person who studies old things from the past
- ancient
- very old, from a long time ago
- capital
- the main city of an empire or country
- empire
- a large area ruled by one powerful group
- storage
- a place where people keep things
- jar
- a container used to hold food or liquid
- hill
- a small, raised piece of land
- trade
- to buy and sell goods with other people
Level 2 — Elementary
Archaeologists working in Hattusa, in central Turkiye, have discovered a large storage complex. The complex is about 3,800 years old, from a time long before Hattusa became the capital of the Hittite Empire. Workers found 16 large clay jars, called pithoi, set into a hillside on Buyukkale.
Before the Hittites arrived, the town was called Hattush. It was part of a trading network connected to merchants from the city of Ashur in Mesopotamia. Excavation director Professor Andreas Schachner says the complex dates to around 1800 to 1750 BC.
- excavate
- to dig carefully to find old objects
- complex
- a group of buildings or structures used together
- terrace
- a flat area built into a hillside, supported by stone
- merchant
- a person who buys and sells goods
- network
- a group of connected people or places
- millennium
- a period of 1,000 years
- settlement
- a place where people live and build homes
- director
- the person in charge of a project
Level 3 — Intermediate
Archaeologists excavating Hattusa, the ancient capital of the Hittite Empire in central Turkiye, have uncovered a large storage complex that dates back roughly 3,800 years, centuries before the city rose to prominence as a Hittite capital. The complex, located on the northwestern slope of Buyukkale, meaning Big Castle, consists of 16 large storage jars, or pithoi, set into a steep hillside that had been carefully terraced with stone to support the structure.
Excavation director Professor Andreas Schachner dates the complex to roughly 1800 to 1750 BC, placing it within the Middle Bronze Age and the period known as the Assyrian Trade Colonies, when merchants from the Mesopotamian city of Ashur connected a network of trading posts across Anatolia. Schachner suggests that this newly uncovered complex, together with a similar structure found about 30 meters away in the 1960s, may together have formed part of a larger commercial and storage center serving the pre-Hittite settlement, then known as Hattush.
- prominence
- the state of being important or well known
- commercial
- relating to buying and selling goods
- terraced
- built in flat, step-like levels on a slope
- predecessor
- something that existed before another thing, in the same role
- artifact
- an object made or used by people in the past
- era
- a period of time in history
- fortify
- to strengthen a structure or place against damage
- infrastructure
- the basic physical structures needed for a place to function
Level 4 — Advanced
Excavations at Hattusa, the storied Hittite capital in central Turkiye, have unearthed a substantial storage complex predating the city's imperial ascendancy by centuries, a find that pushes the archaeological narrative of the site back into the Middle Bronze Age. Positioned on the northwestern slope of Buyukkale, the Big Castle hill later flanked by the Hittite royal palace and the Great Temple, the complex comprises sixteen sizeable pithoi embedded into a precipitous hillside that was meticulously terraced in stone to bear the structure's weight.
Excavation director Professor Andreas Schachner attributes the complex to roughly 1800 to 1750 BC, situating it squarely within the era of the Assyrian Trade Colonies, when Anatolia was threaded with commercial outposts linked to merchants from Ashur in Mesopotamia. In Schachner's assessment, this installation, considered alongside a comparable structure unearthed some thirty meters distant in the 1960s, may together constitute remnants of a more extensive commercial and storage precinct that once served Hattush, the pre-Hittite settlement that would only later be reborn as an imperial capital.
- ascendancy
- a position of dominant power or influence
- precipitous
- extremely steep
- meticulously
- with great care and attention to detail
- installation
- a fixed structure or piece of equipment set up for a purpose
- precinct
- a distinct area or district, often defined by its function
- threaded
- connected in a network, running through
- attest
- to provide evidence for or confirm something is true
- antecedent
- something that came before and influenced a later thing
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