sack

3,500 Years Ago, Hittites Sacked and Razed an Unwary City

Left: The excavation site at Zincirli, southern Turkey. (Lucas Stephens)Top Right: Baking and cooking pots and trays found at Zincirli, including a ceramic pot with soot still left on the bottom from when it was last used (left). Bottom Right: Items found at Zincirli include bronze needles stored in a bone case (top left), a bronze figurine of a goddess (left), and animal knucklebones often used as dice (bottom). (Roberto Ceccacci)

September

/ 2019

Archaeologists in Turkey have unearthed a city that was sacked by the Hittites over 3,500 years ago. One afternoon more than 3,500 years ago, hundreds of families were getting about their everyday activities in the ancient city of Sam’al, located at Zincirli (pronounced "Zin-jeer-li") in southern Turkey. Suddenly, a horn sounded striking a cold fear of death into the hearts of the residents as news quickly spread through the city that an army of Hittite warriors had encrusted the horizon. Since 2006, archaeologists from the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute (OI), and since 2014 teams from the University of Tübingen in Germany, have been excavating the ancient city of Sam’al. The fall of this Iron Age kingdom came after a