Maşat Höyük

Maşat HöyükHöyük means tumulus. is an Bronze Age Hittite archaeological site northeast of Boghazkoy/Hattusa, about 20 km south of Zile, Tokat Province, north-central Turkey.

Cuneiform tablets from the site form a new archive of Hittite texts. The site also contains LHIIIA:1 ware from Greece.

The letters found at Masat Höyük have been published in a definitive, two-volume edition by Sedat Alp in 1991. Most tablets here are correspondence between the site and the Hittite king, a "Tudhaliya" who was probably Tudhaliya III; and most concern the Kaska front. The Hittites' capital at this time was either Sapinuwa (which has been found) or else Samuha (which has not).

In 2003, Kuniholm et al. used dendrochronology to claim that "at least three pieces of wood" in Maşat's last known building were cut 1375 +4/-7 BCE ("Dendrochronological Dating in Anatolia" p. 46), but had not offered their methods to peer review as of June 2006. Their group's methods have been critiqued, e.g. Keenan.

One place-name mentioned in the texts is Tabigga (or "Tabikka"), but it is unproven whether Maşat Höyük was the site.

The Kaskas burned this site during Tudhaliya's reign. The Hittites rebuilt it under the next king Suppiluliuma I. Further archives have not yet been found here.

The site is under agricultural use and is plowed. It was first excavated in the 1970s.

Notes

References

*Central Black Sea region Survey
*TAY Project: Destruction report

Further reading

*Alp, Sedat, 1991. Maşat Höyük'te Bulunan Çivi Yazılı Hitit Tabletleri, Hethitische Keilschrifttafeln aus Maşat-Höyük (Cuneiform Tablets Found in Maşat-Höyük, (series Türk Tarih Kurumu Yayinlari, VI. vol. 34)
*---, 1991. Hethitische Briefe Aus Masat-Hoyuk(series Türk Tarih Kurumu Yayinlari, VI. vol. 35)
*Özgüç, T. 1978. Masat Höyük Kazilarive Çevresindeki Arastirmlar: Excavations at Masat Höyük and Investigations in its Vicinity, Ankara (TTK Yayinlari, V Dizi - Sa. 38). Turkish/English text
*Yakar, Jak, "Excavations at Masat Hoyuk and Investigations in Its Vicinity" Journal of the American Oriental Society 100/2, pp 175-177.