Ziyaret Tepe – Where the Anatolians fought the Assyrians
Posted On: Jun 26th, 2018 at 13:32
Turkey
Another tepe (hill) – this one less famous than Gobekli – was once the frontier of the Assyrian empire, rather like Hadrian’s Wall was to the Romans. Ziyaret Tepe (known as Tushhan in antiquity), however, was on the doorstep of its own empire, unlike the barren, far-away-from-home wall dividing the Roman-ruled south from the Barbarians on the northern side.
Just a couple of decades before the rise of the Persian empire that would sweep across the whole of Anatolia and almost alter the world as we know it today, this relatively small hill would be at the centre of the battles with the Anatolians. But this hill was not a wall built by the Assyrians – it was a busy, ancient town with a heavy military presence. The fact the Assyrians didn’t cross the land beyond and conquer the whole of Anatolia suggests they simply didn’t want to, rather than attributing this inability to any great effort on the part of those attacking the hill and other sites.
Ancient Tushhan is due to be swallowed up by the waters of a newly built dam, which is a dreadful shame for such an ancient and important site.
This article sheds a lot of light on the frantic excavations carried out prior to its coming destruction. The pebble mosaics are especially notable.
