İnandıktepe
İnandıktepe · Inandik Tepe · Inandiktepe · Inandik Höyük
Old Hittite to Empire (1650–1200 BCE)·Hittite (Hattic substrate)·🇹🇷 Çankırı Province, near Çankırı–Ankara road, Turkey
About
About İnandıktepe
Old Hittite cult centre (c.1650–1500 BCE) whose burnt temple storeroom yielded the celebrated İnandık vase — 82 cm four-handled cult jar with 4 registers of relief: wedding, acrobats, musicians and Mother Goddess feeding, the most complete Hittite narrative art known. The mound (2 ha temple terrace on rock spur) also produced Hittite bullae, offering tables and sacred pool, identified as a storm-god sanctuary controlling the Çankırı basin on the route Hattusa–Ankara.
Why it mattersInandik vase is icon of Hittite religious art and Old Hittite cult economy; site anchors Hittite presence in the northern Ankara–Çankırı corridor.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Which deity pair married on vase register — Storm God and Sun Goddess?
Theories
- 01Temple was a branch of Hattusa's Arinna cult exporting relief vases
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- c. 1650 BCE (Old Hittite Kingdom)
- Period
- Old Hittite to Empire (1650–1200 BCE)
- Culture
- Hittite (Hattic substrate)
- Builders
- Hittite kings (Hattusili I–Mursili I era)
- Purpose
- Temple–storeroom complex for storm-god / fertility ritual, with cult vase production
- Abandoned
- c. 1200 BCE (Empire collapse, violent fire)
- Rediscovered
- 1965 accidentally by farmer; excavated 1966–1967 T. Özgüç (Ankara University)
- Excavation
- Excavated
c.1600 BCE
Temple built and vase deposited in storeroom
c.1200 BCE
Fire destruction bakes vases
1965
Plough turns up vase fragments
On the ground
Structures & features
40.3811° N · 33.5353° E · 875 m · 2 mapped features
Temple storeroom (vase find)
storeroomBurnt storeroom where Inandik vase fell from shelf
40.3812° N · 33.5354° ESacred pool
hydraulicRock-cut basin interpreted as lustration pool
40.3810° N · 33.5351° E
Gallery