Nerik was a
Bronze AgeThe 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...
city to the north of the
HittiteThe Hittites were a Bronze Age people of Anatolia.They established a kingdom centered at Hattusa in north-central Anatolia c. the 18th century BC. The Hittite empire reached its height c...
capitals
HattusaHattusa 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 ....
and
SapinuwaSapinuwa was a Bronze Age Hittite city at the location of modern Ortaköy in Turkey. It was one of the major Hittite religious and administrative centres, a military base and an occasional residence of several Hittite kings...
. The Hittites held it as sacred to a storm god who was the son of Wurusemu, sun goddess of
ArinnaArinna was the major cult center of the Hittite sun goddess, known as dUTU URUArinna "sun goddess of Arinna". Arinna was located near Hattusa, the Hittite capital.The name was also used as a substitute word for Arinniti...
. The weather god is associated or identified with Mount Zaliyanu near Nerik, responsible for assigning rain to the city.
Nerik was founded by
Hattic languageHattic was a language spoken by the Hattians in Asia Minor between the 3rd and the 2nd millennia BC. Scholars call this language 'Hattic' to distinguish it from the Hittite language--the Indo-European language of the Hittite Empire....
speakers as
Narak; in the Hattusa archive, tablet CTH 737 records a Hattic incantion for a festival there. Under
Hattusili IHattusili I was a king of the Hittite Old Kingdom. He reigned ca. 1586–1556 BC .He used the title of Labarna at the beginning of his reign...
, the
NesianHittite is the extinct language once spoken by the Hittites, a people who created an empire centred on Hattusa in north-central Anatolia...
-speaking Hittites took over Nerik. They maintained a spring festival called "
PuruliPuruli was a Hattian spring festival, held at Nerik, dedicated to the earth goddess Hannahanna, who is married to a new king.The central ritual of the Puruli festival is dedicated to the destruction of the dragon Illuyanka by the storm god Teshub. The corresponding Assyrian festival is the Akitu...
" in honor of its storm god. In it, the celebrants recited the myth of the slaying of
IlluyankaIn Hittite mythology, Illuyanka was a serpentine dragon slain by Tarhunt , the Hittite incarnation of the Hurrian god of sky and storm. It is known from Hittite cuneiform tablets found at Çorum-Boğazköy, the former Hittite capital Hattusa...
.
Under Hantili, Nerik was ruined and the Hittites had to relocate the Puruli festival to Hattusa. As of the reign of
Tudhaliya ITudhaliya I was a king of the Hittite empire ca. the early 14th century BC .- Identity :...
, Nerik's site was occupied by the barbarian
KaskasThe Kaska were a loosely-affiliated Bronze Age non-Indo-European tribal people of mountainous Pontic Anatolia, known from Hittite sources...
.
During
Muwatalli IIMuwatalli II was a king of the New kingdom of the Hittite empire .- Biography :He was the eldest son of Mursili II and Queen Gassulawiya, and he had several siblings....
's reign, his brother and appointed governor
Hattusili IIIHattusili III was a king of the Hittite empire ca. 1267–1237 BC . He was the fourth and last son of Mursili II...
recaptured Nerik and rebuilt it as its High Priest. Hattusili named his firstborn son "Nerikkaili" in commemoration (although he later passed him over for the succession). When Muwatalli's son
Mursili IIIMursili III, also known as Urhi-Teshub, was a king of the Hittites who assumed the throne of the Hittite empire at Tarhuntassa upon his father's death around 1272 BCE. He was a cousin of Tudhaliya IV and Queen Maathorneferure.- Biography :...
became king, after seven years Mursili reassigned Nerik to another governor. Hattusili rebelled and became king himself.
Nerik disappeared from record when the Hittite kingdom fell, ca. 1200 BC.
Possible excavations
In 2005 Rainer M. Czichon and Jörg Klinger of the Freie Universitaet Berlin began excavation of Oymaağaç Höyük, "on the eastern side of the Kızılırmak, 7 km northwest of
Vezirköprü-History:Vezirköprü has been dated to the Hittites who had established the first town some 2,5 kilometres away from the present city....
" (41.207°N 35.420°E). Thus far this is the northernmost place of Anatolia with Hittite Imperial remains - including "three fragments of tablets and a bulla with stamps of the scribe Sarini". No secure identification has yet been published, but the name of their website (www.nerik.de) shows their confidence.
External links