Bit-hilani
Encyclopedia
A Bit-hilani is an ancient architectural type of palace. It seems to have become popular at the end of the tenth and during the ninth century BCE during the early Iron Age
in northern Syria although it may have originated as early as the Bronze Age
. Contemporary records call it a hittite style palace, probably after the Neo-Hittite
kingdoms of the region.
dated to the 15th century BCE. The palace is thought to have been built by Niqmepuh
, a son of Idrimi
of the royal family of the amorite
state of Yamhad
based in Halab.
A building at the citadel (Büyükkale) of the Hittite capital Hattusa
may also have been of the hilani type. As most of the structures on the citadel underwent considerable rebuilding during the reign of Tudhaliya IV
(ca. 1237 BCE–1209 BCE), it is usually dated to the 13th century BCE.
Kapara
, king of the Aramaean
kingdom of Bit Bahiani
in the 10th or 9th century BCE, built himself a palace of this style in his capital at Guzana (Tell Halaf). The palace, with a rich decoration of statues and relief orthostats, was excavated by Max von Oppenheim
in 1911. Some of the finds were taken to Berlin
, and most of them destroyed when his private museum was hit during a bombing raid in November 1943. The National Museum of Aleppo
has reconstructed the pillared portico in front of its entrance.
Other buildings of this type have been excavated among others at Tell Tayinat
, Qatna
, Sam'al
, Sakçagözü
, Carchemish
, Tell Seh Hamad, maybe Kinet Höyük and at Emar
.
When claiming to have built in the style of a hilani, most builders probably referred to the pillared portico with antechamber
such as:
Sargon II
, King of Assyria
722–705 BCE, at his new city of Dur-Sharrukin
, begun in 713 BCE. An isolated building of which not much is known yet has been located in the western corner of the palace terrace. It may be a candidad for the building he mentions in his founding text.
Sennacherib
, King of Assyria
(704–681 BC), claims to have done some building in Niniveh in the style of a bit-hilani. Nothing similar to a hilani has to date been identified without doubt at his palace, known today as the South-West Palace in Niniveh, finished in 694 BCE. The building in question may not have been found yet.
or portico
with columns flanked by large massive parts of the building and approached by a broad but relative low flight of steps. On one side a stairway to the upper parts would reside in one of these block like structures. Straight ahead one would enter the great hall, where one would have to turn by 90° to see the throne in the far end of the hall. The overall plan of the building would be rectangular with the large hall in the middle surrounded on all sides by the other much narrower rooms.
This type of design with a large central space surrounded by a double wall with smaller rooms taking up the space within the walls may be based on designs first used in the late Ubaid period
in southern Mesopotamia such as the Ubaid house
. Pillared porticos as gates or grand entrances were used by several cultures of the Bronze Age around the eastern Mediterranean sea. The examples of the Hittites and the Myceneans may be the best known. Through the megaron
s and propylaea
of the mycenaean
palaces the style may have lived into classical Greek designs. The late hilani of the levant may well be the combination of the old broad room concept with a Hittite-style portico. In recent traditional architecture it may have a late resemblance in the design of the liwan
house.
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the archaeological period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing...
in northern Syria although it may have originated as early as the Bronze Age
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...
. Contemporary records call it a hittite style palace, probably after the Neo-Hittite
Neo-Hittite
The states that are called Neo-Hittite, or more recently Syro-Hittite, were Luwian, Aramaic and Phoenician-speaking political entities of the Iron Age northern Syria and southern Anatolia that arose following the collapse of the Hittite Empire around 1180 BC and lasted until roughly 700 BC...
kingdoms of the region.
Individual examples
The oldest excavated building described as Hilani by its excavator Sir Leonard Woolley is a palace in level IV at AlalakhAlalakh
Alalakh is the name of an ancient city-state near modern Antakya in the Amuq River valley of Turkey's Hatay Province.Now represented by an extensive mound, the name of the modern archaeological site is Tell Atchana.-History:...
dated to the 15th century BCE. The palace is thought to have been built by Niqmepuh
Niqmepa, King of Alalakh
Niqmepa, son of Idrimi, was King of Alalakh in the first half of 15th century BC.-Contemporary documents:Evidence for the reign of King Niqmepa is based on clay cuneiform tablets excavated at Tell Atchana by Charles Leonard Woolley....
, a son of Idrimi
Idrimi
Idrimi was the king of Alalakh in the 15th century BC.Idrimi was a Hurrianised Semitic son of the king of Aleppo who had been deposed by the new regional master, Barattarna, king of the Mitanni. Nevertheless he succeeded in regaining his seat and was recognized as a vassal by Barattarna. Idrimi...
of the royal family of the amorite
Amorite
Amorite refers to an ancient Semitic people who occupied large parts of Mesopotamia from the 21st Century BC...
state of Yamhad
Yamhad
Yamhad was an ancient Amorite kingdom centered at Halab . A substantial Hurrian population also settled in the kingdom, and the Hurrian culture influenced the area. The kingdom was powerful during the Middle Bronze Age, ca. 1800-1600 BC. Its biggest rival was Qatna further south...
based in Halab.
A building at the citadel (Büyükkale) of the Hittite capital Hattusa
Hattusa
Hattusa was the capital of the Hittite Empire in the late Bronze Age. It was located near modern Boğazkale, Turkey, within the great loop of the Kızıl River ....
may also have been of the hilani type. As most of the structures on the citadel underwent considerable rebuilding during the reign of Tudhaliya IV
Tudhaliya IV
Tudhaliya IV was a king of the Hittite Empire , and the younger son of Hattusili III. He reigned ca. 1237 BCE–1209 BCE. His mother was called Puduhepa...
(ca. 1237 BCE–1209 BCE), it is usually dated to the 13th century BCE.
Kapara
Kapara
King Kapara of Guzana was the ruler of a small Aramaean kingdom of Bit Bahiani in the 10th or 9th century BC...
, king of the Aramaean
Aramaeans
The Aramaeans, also Arameans , were a Northwest Semitic semi-nomadic and pastoralist people who originated in what is now modern Syria during the Late Bronze Age and the Iron Age...
kingdom of Bit Bahiani
Bit Bahiani
Bit Bahiani was an independent Aramaean city-state kingdom and an Assyrian province with its capital at Guzana . Bit Bahiani was ruled by King Kapara. After becoming a tributary to Assyria an alliance with Izalla to revolt was formed...
in the 10th or 9th century BCE, built himself a palace of this style in his capital at Guzana (Tell Halaf). The palace, with a rich decoration of statues and relief orthostats, was excavated by Max von Oppenheim
Max von Oppenheim
Max Freiherr von Oppenheim was a German ancient historian, and archaeologist, "the last of the great amateur archaeological explorers of the Near East."....
in 1911. Some of the finds were taken to Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, and most of them destroyed when his private museum was hit during a bombing raid in November 1943. The National Museum of Aleppo
Aleppo
Aleppo is the largest city in Syria and the capital of Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Syrian governorate. With an official population of 2,301,570 , expanding to over 2.5 million in the metropolitan area, it is also one of the largest cities in the Levant...
has reconstructed the pillared portico in front of its entrance.
Other buildings of this type have been excavated among others at Tell Tayinat
Tell Tayinat
Tell Ta'yinat is a low-lying ancient occupation mound on the east bank at the bend of the ancient Orontes river, in the Hatay province of present southeastern Turkey about 25 kilometers south east of Antakya . The site lies some 800 meters from Tell Atchana, the site of the ancient city of Alalakh...
, Qatna
Qatna
Qatna is an archaeological site in the Wadi il-Aswad, a tributary of the Orontes, 18 km northeast of Homs, Syria. It consists in a tell occupying 1 km², which makes it one of the largest Bronze Age towns in western Syria...
, Sam'al
Sam'al
Sam'al was a Hittite and Aramaean city located at Zincirli Höyük in the Anti-Taurus Mountains of modern Turkey's Gaziantep Province.-History:thumb|200px|right|Historical map of the Neo-Hittite states, ca...
, Sakçagözü
Sakçagözü
Sakçagözü is a village in the Nurdağı of Gaziantep, Turkey. There are Hitite ruins in the village. Population was 3900 in 1999.The "Coba Tumulus" was first discovered in 1883 by Karl Humann and Felix von Luschan...
, Carchemish
Carchemish
Carchemish or Kargamış was an important ancient city of the Mitanni, Hittite and Neo Assyrian Empires, now on the frontier between Turkey and Syria. It was the location of an important battle between the Babylonians and Egyptians, mentioned in the Bible...
, Tell Seh Hamad, maybe Kinet Höyük and at Emar
Emar
Emar was an ancient Amorite city on the great bend in the mid-Euphrates in northeastern Syria, now on the shoreline of the man-made Lake Assad. It has been the source of many cuneiform tablets, making it rank with Ugarit, Mari and Ebla among the most important archeological sites of Syria...
.
When claiming to have built in the style of a hilani, most builders probably referred to the pillared portico with antechamber
Antechamber
An antechamber is a smaller room or vestibule serving as an entryway into a larger one. The word is formed of the Latin ante camera, meaning "room before"....
such as:
Sargon II
Sargon II
Sargon II was an Assyrian king. Sargon II became co-regent with Shalmaneser V in 722 BC, and became the sole ruler of the kingdom of Assyria in 722 BC after the death of Shalmaneser V. It is not clear whether he was the son of Tiglath-Pileser III or a usurper unrelated to the royal family...
, King of Assyria
Assyria
Assyria was a Semitic Akkadian kingdom, extant as a nation state from the mid–23rd century BC to 608 BC centred on the Upper Tigris river, in northern Mesopotamia , that came to rule regional empires a number of times through history. It was named for its original capital, the ancient city of Assur...
722–705 BCE, at his new city of Dur-Sharrukin
Dur-Sharrukin
Dur-Sharrukin , present day Khorsabad, was the Assyrian capital in the time of Sargon II of Assyria. Khorsabad is a village in northern Iraq, 15 km northeast of Mosul, which is still today inhabited by Assyrians. The great city was entirely built in the decade preceding 706 BCE...
, begun in 713 BCE. An isolated building of which not much is known yet has been located in the western corner of the palace terrace. It may be a candidad for the building he mentions in his founding text.
"A portico, patterned after the Hittite palace, which in the language of Amurru they call a bit-hilani, I built in front of the palaces' gates."
Sennacherib
Sennacherib
Sennacherib |Sîn]] has replaced brothers for me"; Aramaic: ) was the son of Sargon II, whom he succeeded on the throne of Assyria .-Rise to power:...
, King of Assyria
Assyria
Assyria was a Semitic Akkadian kingdom, extant as a nation state from the mid–23rd century BC to 608 BC centred on the Upper Tigris river, in northern Mesopotamia , that came to rule regional empires a number of times through history. It was named for its original capital, the ancient city of Assur...
(704–681 BC), claims to have done some building in Niniveh in the style of a bit-hilani. Nothing similar to a hilani has to date been identified without doubt at his palace, known today as the South-West Palace in Niniveh, finished in 694 BCE. The building in question may not have been found yet.
Description
The major feature for a visitor would have been the monumental entrance loggiaLoggia
Loggia is the name given to an architectural feature, originally of Minoan design. They are often a gallery or corridor at ground level, sometimes higher, on the facade of a building and open to the air on one side, where it is supported by columns or pierced openings in the wall...
or portico
Portico
A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls...
with columns flanked by large massive parts of the building and approached by a broad but relative low flight of steps. On one side a stairway to the upper parts would reside in one of these block like structures. Straight ahead one would enter the great hall, where one would have to turn by 90° to see the throne in the far end of the hall. The overall plan of the building would be rectangular with the large hall in the middle surrounded on all sides by the other much narrower rooms.
This type of design with a large central space surrounded by a double wall with smaller rooms taking up the space within the walls may be based on designs first used in the late Ubaid period
Ubaid period
The Ubaid period is a prehistoric period of Mesopotamia. The tell of al-`Ubaid west of nearby Ur in southern Iraq's Dhi Qar Governorate has given its name to the prehistoric Pottery Neolithic to Chalcolithic culture, which represents the earliest settlement on the alluvial plain of southern...
in southern Mesopotamia such as the Ubaid house
Ubaid house
The Ubaid house is a dwelling used by the Ubaid culture of the Neolithic era. The Ubaid house is the predecessor of the Ubaid temple as well as Sumerian domestic and temple architecture....
. Pillared porticos as gates or grand entrances were used by several cultures of the Bronze Age around the eastern Mediterranean sea. The examples of the Hittites and the Myceneans may be the best known. Through the megaron
Megaron
The megaron is the great hall of the Grecian palace complexes. It was a rectangular hall, fronted by an open, two-columned porch, and a more or less central, open hearth vented though an oculus in the roof above it and surrounded by four columns. It is the architectural predecessor of the...
s and propylaea
Propylaea
A Propylaea, Propylea or Propylaia is any monumental gateway based on the original Propylaea that serves as the entrance to the Acropolis in Athens...
of the mycenaean
Mycenaean Greece
Mycenaean Greece was a cultural period of Bronze Age Greece taking its name from the archaeological site of Mycenae in northeastern Argolis, in the Peloponnese of southern Greece. Athens, Pylos, Thebes, and Tiryns are also important Mycenaean sites...
palaces the style may have lived into classical Greek designs. The late hilani of the levant may well be the combination of the old broad room concept with a Hittite-style portico. In recent traditional architecture it may have a late resemblance in the design of the liwan
Liwan
Liwan is a word used since ancient times into the present to refer to a long narrow-fronted hall or vaulted portal found in Levantine homes that is often open to the outside...
house.