Artisans

From about the seventeenth to the early twelfth centuries BCE, the Hittite kingdom and empire centred on central Anatolia and at times ruled territories in northern Syria. Artisans made objects for practical use as well as for religious ceremonies and monumental buildings. The surviving evidence is especially clear for pottery, construction, and a selection of metal objects. The objects range from everyday equipment to elaborate commissioned work.

Skilled work occurred in houses and institutional settings as well as at construction sites. The laws recognise training in carpentry, smithing, weaving, leatherwork and fulling. A family could pay a specialist to teach a son, connecting practical learning with the continuation of a household’s livelihood.

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Pottery for daily use and ceremony

Pottery served routine needs. Much of the Hittite ceramic production of the New Kingdom, the empire’s later period, consisted of plain vessels with simple, useful forms. Potters also made more elaborate objects, but these were less common. The contrast between ordinary wares and decorated vessels shows that ceramic work ranged from practical equipment to objects associated with ritual performance.

Potters used a wheel to shape vessels, and also formed some animal-like objects by hand. The relief vases found at Hüseyindede, dated to about 1650 BCE, demonstrate a more involved process. The potter first turned the vessel; figures made from finer clay were then attached in bands. The surface beneath them was scored to help them adhere. Different clays produced red, black, and cream-coloured details, while gold-coloured mica was mixed into the clay.

One of the Hüseyindede vases has four bands of relief and is 86 centimetres high. Its rim includes a small basin and four bull-head projections. The arrangement may have allowed liquid poured into the basin to pass through the bull heads into the vessel during an offering ceremony. The scenes on the vase include processions and musicians, connecting the object’s careful manufacture with ceremonial use. Another, smaller vase has a band showing performers and musicians. Fragments of similar relief vases have been found at several Anatolian settlements.

Plain bowls, jars and cooking vessels needed repeated production in useful forms. A wheel made it possible to shape a rotating body and regularise its walls, while handles and other attachments could be added separately. After drying, firing hardened the clay into equipment suitable for repeated use.

Spinning and weaving

Wool and linen supplied fibres for cloth. A spinner drew out fibres and twisted them into yarn with a spindle, a rod weighted by a pierced whorl. Its rotation maintained the twist while the hands controlled the supply of fibre. Whorl size and weight affected the kind of thread that could be produced.

Weaving interlaced crosswise threads with a set of lengthwise threads held under tension. Loom weights found in central Anatolian contexts helped keep those lengthwise threads taut. Spindle whorls and weights survive where the wooden equipment and fabric usually decay, preserving the tools of work done in and around households.

Leatherwork

Textual studies identify leatherworkers buying and selling hides as well as preparing them. Turning a hide into a useful flexible material involved cleaning and processing it before cutting or joining the finished leather. The trade supplied such needs as footwear and straps, and is attested among palace occupations. Apprenticeship passed the skill between generations.

Building with stone, mudbrick, and timber

Builders combined stone foundations and lower walls with timber and mudbrick above. Mudbrick required clay, water and plant material mixed and shaped before drying in the sun. Timber tied parts of a structure together and supported floors and roofs. Work on a large building therefore involved gathering materials and coordinating several skills before the finished rooms could be used.

Stonework ranged from building masonry to large carved pieces. At Alaca Höyük, the sphinxes flanking a stone gate were carved from single blocks. Other blocks at the site bear unfinished reliefs, offering direct evidence of work left incomplete. These examples show the scale of stone carving undertaken for monumental settings, alongside the more practical construction of buildings.

Metal objects and their uses

Metalworkers cast tools, weapons and ornaments by heating metal and pouring it into prepared moulds. Excavated workshop tools include crucibles, small blowpipes and moulds, indicating the handling of heat and liquid metal. A crucible held the charge while a forced air supply raised the fire’s heat. Casting gave an object its basic form; finishing shaped and cleaned the working surfaces.

Different settings for skilled work

Palaces and temples employed skilled workers and required supplies of vessels, clothing and building materials. Household production also met everyday needs. The legal provision for craft tuition recognises expertise as something that could be passed on through sustained work with an instructor.

For the wider setting, see Hittite daily life.