3,000-Year-Old Wooden Structure Found In Hittite Tunnel Mentioned On Cuneiform Tablets

Jan Bartek – AncientPages.com – Archaeologists have discovered 3,000-year-old wood structures in a deep and long tunnel used by the ancient Hittite civilization.

One of the most fascinating aspects of this discovery is that the tunnel is mentioned on ancient cuneiform tablets.

Oymaağaç mound. Image credit: Mehmet Ali Yılmaz, Rainer Czihon – Public Domain

Scientists have been excavating the 8-meter-deep, 22-meter-long tunnel at Oymaağaç Tumulus in the Hittite city of Nerik in the Vezirköprü district of Samsun. Turkey since 2009. Over the years, many intriguing ancient objects have been recovered from the site. Among them are “a previously unknown group of Late Bronze Age painted pottery, which obviously existed besides the dominating Hittite pottery.” ¹

The “ceramic group belonged to an independent regional pottery tradition of the Central Black Sea region and it is likely that it can be associated with the so-called Kaška people.” ¹

During the latest excavations, archaeologists got inside the mound, descended 52 steps and examined the ancient tunnel.

The tunnel was used by the Hittite civilization. Image credit: İlyas Gün/AA

One of the most important finds is the spring at the end of the tunnel.

“The spring at the end of the tunnel is mentioned in the cuneiform texts during the Hittite period as the spring that the air god loved very much. There is water at the end of the tunnel, as you can see. This water is high now. During the Hittite period, water flowed more regularly from a gutter. We can say that it was an important source of water for the Hittites, especially for their rituals,” Uşak University Archeology Department Lecturer and Deputy Head of Carvings Assoc. Dr. Mehmet Ali Yılmaz told Anadolu Agency (AA).

The wood finds are 3,000-year-old. Image credit: İlyas Gün/AA

The wooden structures found by archaeologists were in water and mud. The purpose of the wooden structures is yet unknown. They may have been deliberately placed there by the Hittites, but for what reason cannot yet be said. Maybe they were part of some installation connected to the spring. It is something scientists will examine by setting up three-dimensional models.

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What is known is that the wooden structures found in the water in the tunnel were recorded in the literature as extremely important.

“The radiocarbon dates of these wooden finds pointed to the Iron Age. In other words, these woods date to the end of the 10th century BC and are 3,000 years old,” Assoc. Dr. Mehmet Ali Yılmaz added.

Written by Jan Bartek – AncientPages.com Staff Writer