PTERIA (mod. Boghaz Keui), the ancient capital of the "White Syrians" of Cappadocia, which Croesus of Lydia is stated by Herodotus to have taken, enslaved and ruined, after he had declared war on the rising power of Persia and crossed the Halys (after the middle of the 6th century B.c.). Thereafter he fought a battle near the city, and retired again across the river to his ultimate defeat and doom. Pteria is mentioned by no other ancient authority, but it is of great interest if, as seems highly probable, (I) its "White Syrian" inhabitants were what we call "Hittites" (q.v.), or at least, participants in the "Hittite civiliza tion"; (2) its remains are to be seen in the prehistoric city and remarkable rock-sculptures near Boghaz Keui (q.v.) in Cappado cia, about ioo m. east of Angora and beyond the Kizil Irmak (Halys). This is the chief "Hittite" site in Asia Minor.
The remains of Boghaz Keui are indubitably pre-Persian and pre-Greek. They consist of a large fortified city on a steep slope enclosed by two deep ravines, and falling to northward over Boo ft. from summit to base. The acropolis was strengthened with a circle of stone redoubts, between which led very narrow gateways, and with internal redoubts as well. Just inside what seems to have been its principal entrance is a rock face inscribed with nine lines of "Hittite" characters, greatly defaced (Nishan Tash), and a similar inscription, equally illegible, can be detected on a neigh bouring rock. Below the acropolis on the north-east is a resi dential quarter, containing large ruins of what seems to have been a palace or temple built round a central court. The whole site is surrounded by a wall, 14 ft. thick, with towers about I oo ft. apart. The monument, however, which earliest rendered Boghaz Keui famous is the sculptured rock grotto, 1 m. to the east, called Yasili Kaya. Here two hypaethral galleries are adorned with reliefs in panels, the larger gallery showing two processions, which, starting on both walls from the entrance, meet at the head of the grotto. On the left wall are 45 figures, headed by a gigantic male figure, erect on the bent necks of two men. On the right wall he is opposed by a female of almost equal stature standing on a leopard or lioness, and followed by a young male with battle axe, erect on a similar beast. Behind these are some 20 figures
of mitred priests, etc. There can be no doubt that the female is the great Nature goddess of western Asia, attended by her spon taneously-generated son, with whose help she creates the world. (See GREAT MOTHER OF THE GODS.) Priests or minor divinities follow them. The other procession, according to the analogy of other monuments, should be composed of mortals bearing sacra and headed by their king, who makes offering or dedicates his city to, or engages in some mystic union with, the goddess. The figure following him seems to be that of his high priest. "Hittite" sym bols are carved above many of the figures. Besides the processions there are five independent reliefs in the small gallery and its ap proach, one repeating the figure of the high priest.
In 1906, Winckler found a number of tablets in two languages, Babylonian and local, the latter being that of the Arzawa letters found at Tell el-Amarna. Among them was a cuneiform copy of the treaty made by Rameses II. in his loth year with the king of the Kheta, and inscribed on a wall at Karnak. In i9o7 Winckler continued his excavations. From tablets written in Babylonian Winckler has established the fact that Boghaz Keui was the capital of a powerful Hatti dynasty from the middle of the 16th century B.C. to at least 1200 B.C. He claims further that its ancient name was Hatti. At the height of its power it ruled all Asia Minor down to the Aegean and northern Syria to the headwaters of the Orontes, and was also overlord of the Mitanni and the Amurri (Amarru) in Mesopotamia. It had relations with Egypt and Babylonia. The four kings of the Kheta, alluded to by name in Egyptian texts, have been identified with kings of Boghaz Keui. The decline of Hatti power began with the expansion of Assyria after II oo B.C. and Cappadocia seems to have been inferior to Phrygia after the rise of the Midaean dynasty in the 9th and 8th centuries. It should be added that the identification of Boghaz Keui with the Pteria of Herodotus has not yet been confirmed.