Western Anatolia–Hittite Relations in the Light of an Early Hittite Seal from the Excavations at Aşağıseyit Höyük

Excavations at Aşağıseyit Höyük, launched in 2021, have included the investigation of the Late Bronze Age levels. In 2024, a stamp seal discovered in the early phase of the Late Bronze Age layers of the mound has emerged as a new find contributing to our understanding of Hittite–Western Anatolian relations. Stamp seals of similar character—featuring a rounded head with a perforated conical handle, a circular sealing surface, and predominantly geometric decoration—are known from settlements in Western Anatolia containing Middle and Late Bronze Age levels. The most distinctive feature that differentiates the Aşağıseyit seal from its contemporaries in other Western Anatolian sites is the depiction of a double-rowed stepped band forming a frame around a rosette with eight petals divided by transverse lines and a central depression. Numerous close parallels of this decorative motif have been uncovered at Boğazköy. This suggests that, already in the initial centuries of the Late Bronze Age, the scope and character of the relations between the Hittites and the local kingdoms of Western Anatolia should be reconsidered in light of thi evidence. It is well known that the Hittite Kingdom, from its formative years onward, conducted military campaigns into Western Anatolian territories for various reasons. Considered alongside crescent-shaped weights, bull figurine attachments, and specific ceramic types unearthe in Inner Western Anatolia, the Aşağıseyit seal can be viewed as tangible evidence of interaction and communication between the two regions—an exchange whose precise contours remain to be fully defined.