Homes

Between roughly the seventeenth and early twelfth centuries BCE, the Hittite kingdom ruled from central Anatolia and at times held territories in northern Syria. Houses in its towns served daily domestic needs, but their plans and settings varied. Excavated homes at Hattusa, the capital, and Sarissa (Šarišša), a provincial town identified with Kuşaklı, offer evidence for how domestic buildings fitted into these different urban environments.

Stone foundations and lower walls preserve the outlines of houses whose mudbrick and timber upper parts have largely disappeared. Floor installations and objects help identify activities within them: a hearth marks a place where heat was used, while storage vessels and cooking pots connect a room with keeping and preparing supplies.

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Building materials and neighbourhoods

At Hattusa, ordinary houses were built with timber and mudbrick. This construction left a different archaeological trace from the stone-built lower walls of major public buildings. Residential streets and house foundations nevertheless show that homes were integrated into distinct neighbourhoods. In the lower city, houses followed an irregular layout, shaped in part by existing construction and terrain.

Some parts of Hattusa’s upper city were laid out more regularly. Houses built in a planned quarter from the middle of the sixteenth century BCE had modular, roughly square plans and stood along straight streets meeting at right angles. This arrangement contrasts with the irregular blocks elsewhere in the city. The different plans show that the capital’s residential districts developed in more than one way.

Sarissa, founded in the last third of the sixteenth century BCE, also had varied residential areas. In its excavated central neighbourhood, houses stood along small streets, and two larger houses lay near the main temple. In another excavated area, homes crowded together on a slope, where their floors sat at different levels. Local terrain and the development of each district shaped how houses were arranged.

Rooms, storage, and household activities

A central hall with smaller rooms around it recurs in the excavated houses at Sarissa. The hall formed the core of the building, while surrounding rooms provided separate spaces for storage or other work. The size and arrangement of these houses varied with their occupants and the slope on which they stood.

Some larger buildings offer evidence for more specialized domestic spaces. At Hattusa, the House on the Slope measured about 32 by 36 metres and stood on rising ground. Its upper storey included a hall about 13 by 17 metres; the lower rooms are interpreted as economic and storage areas. Its size and arrangement suggest a building with an official function, rather than a typical small dwelling.

At Sarissa, Building A contained a bathing room and an archive of religious texts. Forty-five ritual tablets were found in one of the larger houses, which may have belonged to a priest. Such a residence could support official or cult duties as well as the work of its own household.

Cooking and household heat

Studies of Late Bronze Age fire installations distinguish open hearths from enclosed ovens. Hearths could have a hardened clay cooking surface or an edge of stone or clay, and were placed in rooms or courtyards. Pots used over a fire allowed foods to simmer or boil, while baking plates and ovens provided different surfaces and heat for bread.

An oven enclosed the heated space, whereas an open hearth gave direct access to the fire and vessels. Their position affected where household work gathered and where fuel and food had to be carried. Excavated cooking pots, ash and charred plant remains help connect these installations with particular stages of preparation.

Water and domestic equipment

Water supply and drainage depended partly on infrastructure beyond individual houses. Hattusa had natural springs as well as constructed reservoirs and water-storage installations. Excavated drains beneath some streets carried rainwater away, and the system included connections for household wastewater. The evidence points to domestic disposal being linked to the city’s drainage network, rather than every home operating in isolation.

One ceramic find from a house in Hattusa’s lower city may relate directly to bathing. Part of a red-clay vessel, found in 2003, has an interior seat. Its shape has been interpreted as part of a bathing tub, though the identification is tentative. At Sarissa, a large collection of ceramic vessels in the house associated with the commander of the Meshedi, the palace guard, suggests that the household could serve many guests. Together, these finds give glimpses of equipment and hospitality without revealing a uniform set of furnishings for Hittite homes.

For the wider setting, see Hittite daily life.