“The Türkmen-Karahöyük Intensive Survey Project (TISP), led by James Osborne (University of Chicago), was begun in 2019 and determined that the site might not just be big, but among the very largest sites in Anatolia during the Late Bronze and Iron Ages…”

One of the paradoxes of archaeology is that, although understanding of the past is usually achieved only after years of painstaking work, once in a blue moon something may be found that instantly changes one’s theories or suddenly leads to completely new research avenues.

This issue of Anatolian Studies is a testament to both sides of this contradiction: archaeologists and philologists working in south-central Anatolia are very excited to present for the first time some astonishing results from fieldwork in the Konya Plain, results that derive both from several years of hard work as well as a single lucky discovery.

The Konya Regional Archaeological Survey Project (KRASP), co-directed by Michele Massa (British Institute at Ankara) and Christoph Bachhuber (Oxford University) has spent several summers documenting hundreds of archaeological sites in this incredibly rich region. The largest site in the survey area is the mound of Türkmen-Karahöyük, a site that is still completely unknown in archaeological literature. Working under the KRASP survey permit and research umbrella, the Türkmen-Karahöyük Intensive Survey Project (TISP), led by James Osborne (University of Chicago), was begun in 2019 and determined that the site might not just be big, but among the very largest sites in Anatolia during the Late Bronze and Iron Ages.

The most exciting discovery, however, was the chance find of a Hieroglyphic Luwian inscription authored by “Great King Hartapu” in an irrigation canal at the site. This inscription, which likely dates to the 8^th century BCE, describes Hartapu as a major player in the geopolitical conflicts of his day and almost certainly establishes Türkmen-Karahöyük as his capital city, as described in the article led by Osborne. If that is the case, and since the site is equally large during the preceding centuries of the Late Bronze Age, it is likely that Türkmen-Karahöyük was also the region’s capital city during the time of the Hittite Empire – in which case it might even be the famously lost capital city of Tarḫuntašša, as proposed in the article led by Massa.

If this tentative identification is later proven to be correct it will have a transformative impact on Hittite history and archaeology. The text and translation of the inscription itself – which is uniquely partially inscribed and partially in relief – is offered in the article led by Petra Goedegebuure and Theo van den Hout (University of Chicago). Here we read Hartapu’s boasting of having conquered the mighty kingdom of Phrygia. Together these three articles highlight archaeology at its most exciting: a remarkable find coupled with years of data collection combine to paint a new picture of Anatolian history that will be debated for years to come.

The team’s research on the Türkmen-Karahöyük site is freely available to read in the latest volume of Anatolian Studies, recently published by Cambridge.