ABSTRACT
Two sites of the third and early second millennia B.C. deserve particular mention. The fi rst is Alaça Höyük, a conspicuous city mound in northern Anatolia. (The Turkish word höyük is equivalent to Arabic tell or Persian tepe, all of which mean “a city mound.”) Later in the second millennium B.C. , this became an important Hittite city. Today the site is dominated by the massive fortifi cations and monumental gates of that period. What concerns us here, however, is not the later city but the tombs that were found beneath it: thirteen richly furnished “Royal Graves.” These took the form of large rectangular pits with burial chambers up to 6 meters (20 feet) long and 3 meters (10 feet) wide at their base. The chambers were lined with stone and roofed in timber and contained the remains of people identifi ed as the early rulers of Alaça Höyük-usually both a male and female body, though it could be seen that these had not in all cases been buried at the same moment. The “royal” character of the graves is shown most clearly by their rich furnishings: objects of copper, gold, silver, and even iron, which at that time was a rare and valuable metal.
