Boğazkale, Museum

Boğazkale is the village just north of the ruins of ancient Hattusa, the capital of the Hittites. There is a small museum, but it is usually not considered to be very important. After all, the really interesting are now in Istanbul or Ankara. However, it has recently been renovated; I could still smell the new paint.

There are three large rooms, and except for some finds, you will see photos, a doll, and models. Among the artifacts are royal seals, fine beak-spouted vessels, some sculpture, scale armor, and a particularly fine helmet. There are also finds form post-Hittite periods, like Phrygian pottery, Roman coins and inscriptions, and some Byzantine finds.

The cuneiform tablets are really nice, and include a fragment of the Old Babylonian version of the Epic of Gilgamesh, the source of the classical version. There’s also a land donation, the description of an accession ritual, and an omen on a liver. The Hittites really come to life.

Postscript 2013

Major addition: the two sphinxes from the Sphinx Gate, which used to be in Berlin and Istanbul.

This museum was visited in 2007, 2011, 2013.

3 pictures related to this museum

Hattusa, Early Iron Age helmet

Hattusa, Epic of Gilgamesh

Hattusa, Sphinx Gate, sphinxes