Secrets of Famous Hittite Object Revealed
Despite long years of archaeological research in Anatolia, many aspects of prehistorical and early historical engineering and metalworking technologies are still not fully understood. How exactly did the highly successful ancient Anatolians forge their metal? Collaboration and new technologies can start to answer the mystery. Some of these issues are now being targeted by a joint project coordinated by Dr. Thomas Zimmermann, acting chair of the Department of Archaeology, with scientists from the Sarayköy Nuclear Research and Training Center (SANAEM), the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, and Ankara University. Since the project's inception in 2006, the composition of several hundred Central Anatolian metal artifacts, from ongoing excavations or in existing museum collections, have been established through the use of a portable X-Ray fluourescence scanning device (P-XRF). The use of this device reveals the chemical composition of metal objects without harming the objects themselves, and the results obtained to date have already yielded fascinating insights into a highly innovative metalworking industry that existed in Anatolia in the 3rd and 2nd millennium BC.
In particular, the use of the P-XRF device has revealed that metalsmiths of the period experimented with different alloying techniques to enhance the quality or color of an object, but one of the more important results obtained by the project to date concerns the so-called "Kurunta treaty." This is one of the most famous metal objects from the Hittite period, being a late 2nd millennium BC legal agreement between the Hittite Great King Tuthaliya IV and Kurunta, King of Tarhuntašša. Ever since it was found at Hattusha in 1986, its metal composition has been much debated It appears to be made of bronze, but Hittite records on clay indicate that all Hittite legal texts of this kind were supposed to be written on tablets made of more precious metals. Thanks to the moving of the "Kurunta treaty" to a new display case in the Museum of Anatolian Civilisations, the project members were given the unique opportunity to assess its metal composition using the P-XRF device. This revealed the utterly surprising result that it was not made of bronze, an alloy of copper and tin, but it was almost entirely of copper and coated with a layer of tin, thus originally giving the impression that it was made of silver. In other words, the results suggest that in the case of the "Kurunta treaty," there was deliberate attempt to "fake" a silver tablet with the help of tin coating.
As the Bilkent led P-XRF metal analysis project now enters its fifth year, more exciting discoveries are to be expected regarding metal production and consumption/use in ancient Anatolia. A report on the startling Hittite investigation has now been published in the distinguished Journal of Near Eastern Studies.