Karatepe

It is sited in the Taurus Mountains, on the right bank of the Ceyhan River. The site is contained within Karatepe-Aslantaş National Park.

Karatepe

Shown within Turkey
Location	Osmaniye Province, Turkey
Coordinates	37°17′45″N 36°15′14″E / 37.29572521°N 36.25394787°E / 37.29572521; 36.25394787
Type	Settlement
History
Cultures	Hittite
Site notes
Condition	In ruins

The place was an ancient city of Cilicia, which controlled a passage from eastern Anatolia to the north Syrian plain. It became an important Neo-Hittite center after the collapse of the Hittite Empire in the late 12th century BC. Relics found here include vast historic tablets, statues and ruins, even two monumental gates with reliefs on the sills depicting hunting and warring and a boat with oars; pillars of lions and sphinxes flank the gates.

 

The site's eighth-century BC bilingual inscription, in Phoenician and Hieroglyphic Luwian, reflects the activities of the kings of Adana from the "house of Mopsos", given in Hieroglyphic Luwian as mu-ka-sa- (often rendered as 'Moxos') and in Phoenician as Mopsos in the form mpš. It was composed in Phoenician and then translated to Hieroglyphic Luwian. This inscription has served archaeologists as a Rosetta stone for deciphering those glyphs.

As we learn from the inscription, its author is Azatiwada (or Azatiwata), the ruler of the town. He was also its founder; the inscription commemorates the town's foundation. He acknowledged himself as a subordinate of Awariku, the king of Adanawa (Adana), which was the ancient kingdom of Quwe. Azatiwataya seems to have been one of the frontier towns of Adanawa.

Another inscription of the same type, the Cinekoy inscription, was discovered more recently. It also mentions king Awariku, who may have been the same ruler, or part of the same dynasty.

The site was examined during the Oriental Institute of Chicago archaeological survey of the Amuq Valley in 1936. Karatepe was excavated from 1947 to 1957 by a team led by Helmuth Theodor Bossert (1889–1961), revealing the ruins of the walled city of king Azatiwataš. Restoration work was then carried on for many years, which included some further soundings. In the late 1990s, archaeological work, now led by Halet Çambel (1916–2014), was conducted on a palace at the site.

Estimates for the dating of Azatiwataš rule have ranged from the early 8th century BC to the early 7th century BC.

The artifacts are exhibited today in the Karatepe-Aslantaş Open-Air Museum, which is part of Karatepe-Aslantaş National Park.

In the 2004 exploration of Mars, "Karatepe" was the name given to a site designated for entering the Endurance Crater to investigate the layering of the bedrock.

• Quwê
• Cities of the ancient Near East
• Short chronology timeline