Zalpuwa

Zalpa or Zalpuwa was a Hattic town at the mouth of the river Maraššanta ( Kızılırmak ). It was in vorhethitischer time capital of a powerful city-state. Zalpa was a major administrative center in althethitischer time and entertained close links with the neighboring cities cult Liḫzina and Nerikka. It should not be confused this North Anatolian city with towns of similar name in northern Syria and Mesopotamia.

History

It is first mentioned in ancient Assyrian sources Zalpa the 19th century BC and was therefore an important principality next Hattus, Kaniš, Purušḫanda and others. The first known king was Uḫna, which destroyed the city Kaniš and abducted the chief deity of the city. Presumably, he was responsible for the complete destruction of Kaniš around 1835 BC (middle chronology ).

Around 1730 BC, King Anitta pulled from Kaniš / Nesa against Zalpa and took King Ḫuzziya of Zalpa caught and led the stolen statue of Uḫna back to Kaniš / Nesa.

Later besieged Hattusili I. Zalpa - apparently in connection with rebels from the Hittite royal family - and left the city after ingestion destroy. Whether the city was rebuilt, can not be detected from source, since the name Zalpuwa was also used for the Hittite province. By 1450 the province was conquered by the Zalpuwa Kaskäern.

Legends

A Hittite legend, the so-called Zalpa text ( CTH 3) brings the ancient royal cities Kaniš and Zalpa in a closer connection. Then the Queen of Kaniš gave the same thirty sons life, but they - because you seemed so outrageous - on the river Maraššanta exposed. They were flushed to the sea and raised in Zalpa. Later gave birth to the same queen at the same time in thirty daughters, but they reared themselves. The adult sons came looking for her mother to Kaniš and married her unrecognized thirty sisters, despite the warning of the youngest sister. The rest of the legend is lost

Religious cults

The Pantheon of Zalpa belonged to the Hatti religion. The main deity of Zalpa was the divine grandmother Ammamma. In addition to several local deities and the Hatti gods and Šulinkatte Ḫalipinu be called. According to a Hittite autumn ritual pilgrimage of the Hittite prince after Zalpa to sacrifice to the gods of Zalpa, namely a piglet, six fish, six frogs and a snake that were highly unusual sacrificial animals with the exception of the piglet.

Location

The Bronze Age Zalpa has not yet been archaeologically proven until now. The Turkish archaeologist U. Bahadir Alkım suspected the ruins of İkiztepe the mouth of the Kızılırmak as a possible place and began the first excavations. His successor Ö. Bilgi but came to the conclusion that the finds rather argue against the identification with Zalpa, but this possibility is further discussed. Other candidates are Paşaşeyh Tepesi and Oyamaağaç. But the latter seems more likely to be identical with the Hittite city Nerik according to new findings.