Volume 58 Number 2
June 1995
Special Issue
Anatolian Archaeology: A Tribute to Peter Neve
62 A Tribute to Peter Neve
Ronald L. Gorny
63 Forty Years in the Capital of the Hittites
Jürgen Seeher
In a century of excavations at the Hittite capital, Boghazköy, no one has played a more active role than Peter Neve. His retirement in 1994 coincides with his fortieth year at
the site, including three decades as director. These years produced a long list of
stupendous discoveries and won Neve an ever widening circle of friends.
68 Plants and People in Ancient Anatolia
Mark Nesbitt
Archaeobotany in the Near East has scored numerous advances, and excavations in
Turkey played an especially significant role in spurring recognition that agriculture and
diet are integral to an understanding of the past. Though still a youngster in the field,
archaeobotany offers insight into every period of the human past.
82 Hittite Pottery and Potters
Robert C. Henrickson
That's the way the cooking pot crumbles! How a vessel breaks provides evidence for
how it was made. A technological analysis of pottery from recently renewed
excavations at Late Bronze Age Gordion demonstrates strong connections to the Hittite
ceramic tradition.
91 A Hittite Seal from Megiddo
Itamar Singer
A tiny seal unearthed by the excavators of Megiddo in the 1930s belonged to Anu-ziti.
Its inscription states his profession: "charioteer." This title, borne by official diplomats
of Hatti and vassal states, offers further witness to the importance of this station on the
diplomatic route between the Hittite and the Egyptian royal courts.
94 An Urartian Ozymandias
Paul Zimansky
Make room on the roster of great builders of the Iron Age Near East--from Solomon to
Sargon--for a forgotten potentate who ruled an Urartian kingdom in the highland region
around Lakes Van and Urmia. Though he inspired no legends and left a meager
impression on the written record, Rusa II, the last great king of Urartu, may have been
the Iron Age's most energetic instigator of building projects.
101 Swords, Armor, and Figurines
K. Aslihan Yener
Metal mining and manufacture were critical high technologies in the ancient world:
metal provided the standard of value, medium of exchange, and the raw material of tool
and weapon industries. Analysis of the "fingerprints" of ores and artifacts has begun to
display the complex tableau of ancient metal industries. Lead-isotope analysis clarifies
the dynamics of provisioning metal in the Late Bronze Age Hittite empire.
108 Oil in Hittite Texts
Harry A. Hoffner, Jr.
Hittite literature urges: Give bread to the hungry, water to the thirsty, clothes to the
naked, and to the desiccated, give oil. Oil was one of the minimal essentials in ancient
Anatolia, as in the rest of the Near East. Sleuthing the various Hittite words for oils,
lard, grease, and fat, philologist Hoffner discovers the basic Hittite word for oil, and
catalogs its multifarious uses.
115 Arti-Facts
Desperately Seeking Faustus (Lamps). DIGMASTER. Flood Damage at Thebes.
News from Tel 'Ein Zippori and Sepphoris. Plus reviews of Anatolia and the Balkans,
and Anatolia: Land, Men, and Gods in Asia Minor.
On the cover: Bogazköy, 150 km east of the Turkish capital of Ankara. Excavations of the ancient Hittite capital have been underway for over a century, conducted by the German Institute of Archaeology.
