Comments by "Hittite Charioteer" (@hittitecharioteer) on "The Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures" channel.

  1. Hattusa is a place I know well having visited there six times. 36:02 I believe that the sphinxes are actually in the excellent if small museum in the village itself (not Istanbul) near to The Hotel Aşıkoğlu in Boğazkale which is run by the highly recommended Aşık family. Their hospitality is not to be bettered anywhere locally. The family have been personal acquaintances of all the major excavators of the site across many decades. The Two brothers Çengis (fluent in German) and Deniz (fluent in English) are tremendously knowledgable about all things historic and archaeological to do with Hattuşaş and can put you in touch with local guides if a more personalised tour is desired. Murat Bektas is one such guide with wide contacts. Murat took my partner Catherine and I over to Sapinuwa near Ortakoy a few years ago for what was a memorable and insightful tour. I understand he is a capable organiser of tours over to the far east of Turkey to places like Mount Nemrut and Gobekli Tepe – places that definitely from a security standpoint are made safer having a Turk with you. (Besides, a translator makes it all so much more meaningful and enjoyable). Contact them all via the hotel. The archeological museum in Çorum is definitely worth a visit too.
    10
  2. Absolutely loved this. Thankyou for yet another fascinating video.
    4
  3. All the farmsteads that first established themselves were in the valley areas to begin with, close to water where there was fertile pasture and the evolving system of roads. As with all rapid growth of population, they began to organise themselves and became increasingly integrated so that a hierarchy/governance established itself. This happened over centuries to the point where you have something that identifies (at least notionally) as a nation state, enabling specialisation and civic planning. Defence systems become necessary as outside forces plunder the wealth of large-scale production. Hattusha was one of many such settlements – and not always the capital. As the settlement grew in importance, the city walls (at first just above and behind the farms where the 'early elite' resided) needed expanding for security. Tudhaliya IV the penultimate "Great King" expanded the walled city to encompass the upper area; and despite most of the buildings being temples, it could contain 50,000 people in the (albeit unlikely) attempt at a siege or other emergencies. The location of natural springs outside the upper city allowed the Hittites to engineer the piping of water to reservoirs within the walls and the distribution of water right through the walled enclosure (and quite possibly beyond). You have to consider that invading armies have major logistics to overcome – not just food and water, but the ability to mobilise. Vast tracts of the Hittite's hinterland had no road systems, were utterly impassible and densely wooded. So part of the strategy of the city defences was to keep it as such: limiting and narrowing the passage of people through areas where resistance (and taxation) could be exacted. For instance, the Cillician Gates HAD to be secured otherwise no one could move in either direction – traders or the military.
    3