Archaeological excavations at the ancient city of Hattusa, the 8,000-year-old ancient city that was once the capital of the Hittite civilization, have begun for the 120th year with 55 scientists from Türkiye and four other countries.

The Hattusa archaeological site, which contains the cultural heritage of the Hatti and Hittites, is among Anatolia's earliest civilizations and bears traces dating back to the 6th millennium B.C., is included on UNESCO's World Heritage and Memory of the World lists. Hattusa served as the capital of the Hittite civilization for about 450 years.

Excavations at Hattusa, located in Türkiye’s Çorum province, a 2-square-kilometer settlement surrounded by about 7 kilometers (4.3 miles) of fortification walls, have been ongoing since 1906.

Excavations conducted by the German Archaeological Institute as part of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism's Heritage for the Future Project are uncovering remains from the Chalcolithic, pre-Hittite, Hittite, Iron Age, Galatian, Byzantine and Roman periods.

The excavations, led by professor Andreas Schachner since 2006, are being carried out this year with the participation of experts in archaeology, geology, geomorphology, architecture, philology and archaeozoology from Türkiye as well as Germany, Italy, Hungary and the United States.

Schachner told Anadolu Agency (AA) that 55 scientists and students from different fields, as well as 105 workers from the local community, are working at the excavations this year.

Scientific excavations at Hattusa began under the Ottoman Imperial Museum in 1906. Excavation work was carried out for four years between 1906 and 1931, after which the German Archaeological Institute continued the work with permission from the Culture and Tourism Ministry.

"Every season, experts and students from many countries and different scientific disciplines come to work here. We have both experts working here and we are also trying to train students,” Schachner said.

The team includes experts in anthropology, geology, geomorphology, architecture, philology and specialists who study animal bones, he said. "A multidisciplinary study is being conducted here... This is a big puzzle. We are putting the pieces together here, collecting the raw data and many people are working together to interpret it.”

Schachner said that there are many reasons why people come to Hattusa from different countries to participate in the excavations.

"Hattusa was the capital of the Hittites for more than 400 years,” he said, "In this region, where settled life and agriculture first emerged, we can comparatively shed light on the period from 5500 B.C. to the present day.”

Pointing out that Hattusa is a multilayered site with remains from several periods, the Hittite period remains the main focus of the excavations. The excavation site contains remains from the pre-Hittite period, Hittite period, Iron Age, Galatian period, Byzantine period, as well as remains from the Roman period in the surrounding area and from the Chalcolithic Age.

"We are trying to reveal the cultural history of this part of Anatolia as a whole by comparing the cultures of people from different periods, from the ecosystem in which they lived to the materials, tools and equipment they produced and their ways of life,” Schachner said.

Scientific excavations are being carried out at five separate locations in Hattusa this year.

"Our aim is to add new pieces to the mosaic we have and to better understand and reinforce the historical process,”

Schachner said that their aim is to "add new pieces to the mosaic” to have a better understanding of the historical processes. However, because of the site’s complex geology and limited good results of geophysical studies, it is difficult to determine what lies underground, he said.

"Based on our estimates, we roughly know what is in more than 50% of the area. About 20-30% of the area is rocky or has been eroded. There is no need to search for anything there. That leaves about 20% of the area that has not yet been examined."