Historians who decipher cuneiform texts frequently discover names of ancient cities that they are unable to locate on a map. In addition, the original designations of many sites excavated by archaeologists in the Near and Middle East have yet to be determined. Discovering the names they were known by in antiquity sheds light on their history, their development and even their demise. This is why the recent identification of Uşaklı höyük (Turkey) as the location of the holy Hittite city of Zippalanda represents a major scientific advance, explains Cécile Michel, an Assyriologist at the CNRS’s ArScAn archaeology and sciences of antiquity laboratory.