Individual Examples
The oldest excavated building described as Hilani by its excavator Sir Leonard Woolley is a palace in level IV at Alalakh dated to the 15th century BCE. The palace is thought to have been built by Niqmepuh, a son of Idrimi of the royal family of the amorite state of Yamhad based in Halab.
A building at the citadel (Büyükkale) of the Hittite capital Hattusa may also have been of the hilani type. As most of the structures on the citadel underwent considerable rebuilding during the reign of Tudhaliya IV (ca. 1237 BCE–1209 BCE), it is usually dated to the 13th century BCE.
Kapara, king of the Aramaean kingdom of Bit Bahiani in the 10th or 9th century BCE, built himself a palace of this style in his capital at Guzana (Tell Halaf). The palace, with a rich decoration of statues and relief orthostats, was excavated by Max von Oppenheim in 1911. Some of the finds were taken to Berlin, and most of them destroyed when his private museum was hit during a bombing raid in November 1943. The National Museum of Aleppo has reconstructed the pillared portico in front of its entrance.
Other buildings of this type have been excavated among others at Tell Tayinat, Qatna, Sam'al, Sakçagözü, Carchemish, Tell Seh Hamad, maybe Kinet Höyük and at Emar.
When claiming to have built in the style of a hilani, most builders probably referred to the pillared portico with antechamber such as:
Sargon II, King of Assyria 722–705 BCE, at his new city of Dur-Sharrukin, begun in 713 BCE. An isolated building of which not much is known yet has been located in the western corner of the palace terrace. It may be a candidad for the building he mentions in his founding text.
"A portico, patterned after the Hittite palace, which in the language of Amurru they call a bit-hilani, I built in front of the palaces' gates."
Sennacherib, King of Assyria (704–681 BC), claims to have done some building in Niniveh in the style of a bit-hilani. Nothing similar to a hilani has to date been identified without doubt at his palace, known today as the South-West Palace in Niniveh, finished in 694 BCE. The building in question may not have been found yet.
Read more about this topic: Bit-hilani
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