8 August 2025 The Future is the Product of the Past

The ancient city of Karkamış “House of the Seal” brings a different perspective to the Hittite-Assyrian relations with its important finds

Historical artifacts discovered during excavations by Turkish and Italian teams in the ancient city of Karkamış (Carchemish) in southern Gaziantep province have offered new insights into the region’s history and Assyrian-Hittite interactions.

Carchemish, a strategically important place due to being on the Syrian trade routes, was a valuable kingdom for the Hittites, Mitanni, and Hurrians. The Kingdom of Carchemish, which was joined to the Hittite lands by Suppiluliuma I, has always been a vassal of the Hittite kingdom.

Karkamis was the most important administrative center in the region of the Hittite Empire, which ruled over Anatolia and Mesopotamia for centuries.

Ancient city of Karkamis. Photo: AA

In a report prepared by the Turkish-Italian team following the completion of the 10th season of excavations, the team kept finding artifacts from the Hittite Empire era, when the city was at its peak, in the eastern part of the lower palace area. Dozens of clay seals belonging to the highest officials of the Hittite administration were discovered in the administrative structure called the “House of the Seal” in this area. By determining which goods these seals were applied to, researchers are able to piece together the basic idea of how the administration ran the vassal kingdom of Karkamış.

Another important find in the structure called the “House of the Seal” is a bulla with seal impressions on it, thought to belong to Piradu, one of the leading merchants of the Middle Assyrian Empire. It is hoped that determining Piradu’s identification may aid in the research of Hittite-Assyrian ties, which deteriorated towards the demise of the Hittite kingdom, as well as the timing of various events during the era.

The most important find of the city is undoubtedly the Anatolian hieroglyphic inscription on a piece of pottery that reads “X-patu, the Manager of the City,”, a discovery encountered for the first time in Anatolia.

Anatolian hieroglyphic writing example. Photo: Luwian Studies

The Anatolian Hieroglyphic script is a mixed writing system which contains both phonetic and semantographic signs. It is a native script specific to Central Anatolia, consisting of some 500 signs. They were originally known as Hittite hieroglyphs, but the language they encode proved to be Luwian, not Hittite, and the term Luwian hieroglyphs are used in English publications.

They are typologically similar to Egyptian hieroglyphs but do not derive artistically from that script, and they are not known to have played the sacred role of hieroglyphs in Egypt. There is no evidence of a link to Hittite cuneiform.

The first inscriptions confirmed as Luwian date to the Late Bronze Age, ca. 14th to 13th centuries BC.

Furthermore, the excavations indicated that the administrative building was still in use during the Iron Age. Around 100 seals from that time period were discovered, including rare Anatolian Hieroglyphic seal impressions. The fact that nearly two-thirds of the seal impressions belong to a woman called Matiya is also noteworthy.  It is emphasized that this may be an indication that women may have had an important economic role in the state administration at the time.

Related Articles

China’s ancient water pipes show people mastered complex engineering 4,000 years ago without the need for a centralized state authority

16 August 2023

16 August 2023

A system of ancient ceramic water pipes, the oldest ever unearthed in China, shows that neolithic people were capable of...

Researchers may have found 3,000-year-old evidence of Yue (Amputation), one of the five punishments practiced in ancient China

4 May 2022

4 May 2022

According to the South China Morning Post, researchers in China believe a skeleton discovered in a tomb in the country’s...

Oldest US firearm unearthed in Arizona, a 500-year-old bronze cannon linked to Coronado expedition

27 November 2024

27 November 2024

Independent researchers in Arizona have unearthed a bronze cannon linked to the 16th-century expedition of Francisco Vázquez de Coronado, and...

A Baptismal Surprise: Triton Baths in Southeastern Rome Converted into Early Christian Church

7 May 2025

7 May 2025

Recent archaeological excavations within the monumental complex of the Villa di Sette Bassi, situated in the southeastern outskirts of Rome,...

Medieval Lincoln imp found in hidden trapdoor above toilet

18 April 2024

18 April 2024

Tracy and Rory Vorster living in Lincoln, England, have discovered a trapdoor in their bathroom with a grotesque face bearing...

Marmore, the Highest and Oldest Artificial Waterfall in Europe, Created by the Romans

4 March 2024

4 March 2024

Approximately eight kilometers away from the town of Terni in Umbria, Italy, there is a waterfall that is one of...

Treasure Hunter Claims to Find First Council of Nicaea’s Location, Demands $50 Million for Discovery

26 April 2025

26 April 2025

In a startling revelation, Mustafa Uysal, a treasure hunter from Bursa, has claimed to have unearthed an underground city in...

The World’s Largest Pyramid Is Hidden Within a Hill in Mexico

8 October 2022

8 October 2022

The largest and tallest pyramids in the world are incredible feats of design, engineering, and construction. The Great Pyramid of...

2,000-Year-Old Hellenistic Tomb Discovered Under Collapsed Port Road in Northern Cyprus

24 June 2025

24 June 2025

A routine alert about a collapsed road at Gazimağusa Port in Northern Cyprus has led to a remarkable archaeological breakthrough....

Lovingly gazing mosaics restored in Turkey’s Metropolis

16 October 2021

16 October 2021

In the ancient city of Metropolis in the Torbali district of the western Izmir province, mosaics portraying Eros, the Greek...

Archaeologists found a noble woman buried beside her ‘husband’ 1,000 years ago with the top of her face hollowed out

4 November 2023

4 November 2023

Archaeologists unearthed the 1,000-year-old remains of a woman with her face and head hollowed out buried next to her husband...

A Mysterious Chapel Discovered in Istanbul Bagcılar

3 August 2023

3 August 2023

While Istanbul continues to surprise with the richness of its historical heritage, this time a chapel was discovered in Bağcılar....

Papal bull discovered in a former cemetery dated to the 14th century

10 May 2023

10 May 2023

A medieval bull found in 2021 in Budzistów village (Kołobrzeg district), Poland has been restored and placed on display in...

12,000-Year-Old Grid-Plan Structures and Water Channel Discovered at Çayönü Mound

29 July 2025

29 July 2025

New Neolithic-era discoveries at Çayönü in southeastern Türkiye, dating back to approximately 10,200–6,500 BCE, include four grid-plan buildings and a...

Gravitational Wave Researchers Shed New Light on the Mystery of the 2,000-Year-Old Computer Antikythera Mechanism

28 June 2024

28 June 2024

Astronomers from the University of Glasgow who specialize in studying tiny ripples in space-time have shed new light on the...