Other beings of lower social status, builders’ and agricultural
labourers, farmers etc., lived outside the city, in no doubt numerous
peripheral villages, hamlets and farmsteads clustered close enough
to the city’s walls for their inhabitants to be able to come within the
walls in times of threatened enemy attacks. So far, however, the
existence of such peripheral communities has yet to be determined
by archaeological investigation, and it may well be that even small
traces of them will be difficult tofind.
Estimates of Hattusa’s population have ranged from about 9,000
to 15,000 inhabitants. Thesefigures seem extremely modest for the
population of the capital of one of the Great Near Eastern Kingdoms.
But if they come close to the truth, they could be explained by the
fact that Hattusa was primarily a city of administrators, diplomats
and priests, with no significant trading centres or merchant class, no
significant industrial or manufacturing activities. That was beginning
to change in the last decades of the empire’s existence when some of
the temples in the southernmost parts of the Upper City fell into
disuse.^2 Their sites were occupied by a number of smaller dwellings
and workshops, as more of the lower class elements originally living
outside the walls managed to relocate inside them. They no longer
had confidence in the protection the king’s forces could provide to
unfortified settlements.
GRAIN STORAGE DEPOTS
One critically important role that Hattusa played in the Hittite
state, beyond its religious and administrative functions, was as a
grain-storage and redistribution centre. Excavations by Jürgen
Seeher’s team brought to light two main storage complexes. One of
these was on the long high ridge lying to the northeast of the Lower
City and separated from it by a deep river valley. It is today known
as Büyükkaya (‘Big Rock’). In Hittite times, it was enclosed by a
fortification wall, dating to the thirteenth century. Here Seeher
uncovered an enormous granary, dating from the sixteenth century
onwards. Seeher’s excavations revealed 11 subterranean rectangu-
lar pits. These pits, or silos, were used primarily for the storage of
grain, mainly einkorn (a hulled or glume wheat) and barley,
CITY OF TEMPLES AND BUREAUCRATS:THE ROYAL CAPITAL 217