Volume
72 no. 4
December 2009
Cilicia, the Amuq, and Aleppo: New Light in a Dark Age
by J. David Hawkins
Recent discoveries of texts, monuments, and smaller artifacts have begun to fill in our knowledge of the collapse of the Hittite Empire in central Anatolia around 1200 B.C.E. and the rise of the smaller "Neo-Hittite" successor states that developed in the centuries that followed. Hawkins reviews what we currently know about the fall of the Hittite Empire and the transition to the Iron Age, and then examines recently discovered Hieroglyphic Luwian inscriptions from Cilicia, the Amuq, and Aleppo and their implications for reconstructing the history of this so-called Dark Age.
Neo-Hittites in the "Land of Palistin": Renewed Investigations at Tell Ta'yinat on the Plain of Antioch
by Timoty P. Harrison
Since excavations began in 2004, the Ta'yinat Archaeological Project at Tell Ta'yinat in the Amuq Plain has amassed accumulating archaeological and textual evidence pointing to the existence of a powerful regional kingdom, associated with the "Land of Palistin," which emerged in the aftermath of the Hittite Empire's collapse, ruled by a line of kings with Hittite names and very possibly with direct ancestral links to the Hittite royal dynasty. Centered at Tell Ta'yinat, the cultural signature and wealth of this Early Iron Age kingdom are reflected in the impressive buildings and standing monuments that once crowned the upper mound and formed its ancient citadel.
The Temple of the Storm God in Aleppo during the Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages
by Kay Kohlmeyer
The temple of the Storm God has sat at the top of the citadel mound of the ancient city of Aleppo in Syria for four and a half millennia, buried for nearly three of those beneath later architectural remains. A German expedition working on the citadel since 1996 has recovered the plan of the temple in all its phases, from the Early Bronze through the Iron Ages. Most spectacular are the high-quality reliefs, dating to various periods of the temple's life and carved in different styles, that decorated the temple and the Hieroglyphic Luwian inscriptions that accompanied them. These finds provide important artistic, religious, and historical data for the period of the Hittite domination and subsequent Neo-Hittite period in this region.
Searching for Ancient Sam'al: New Excavations at Zincirli in Turkey
by J. David Schloen and Amir S. Fink
Three thousand years ago, at the time of the biblical kings of Israel, the walled city of Sam'al (modern Zincirli) was the capital of a small kingdom on he east side of Amanus mountain range. The city had a monumental palace, massive walls, and ornate city gates adorned with sculpted stone reliefs. In the course of the ninth and eighth centuries B.C.E., the Assyrian army invaded and conquered this independent kingdom, incorporating it into the vast Neo-Assyrian Empire. At the end of the eighth century, it became an Assyrian province, and was largely abandoned in the latter part of the seventh century. Among the most important finds of the Neubauer Expedition to Zincirli is the late-eighth-century inscribed basalt mortuary stele of the Sam'alian royal official with the Luwian name of Kuttamuwa, which refers to the offerings to be made to the soul of the deceased, which inhabits the stele.
REVIEWS
The Hittites and Their World
(Trevor Bryce)
Human Ecology in the Wadi al-Hasa
(Benjamin Saidel)
Egyptology: The Missing Millennium: Ancient Egypt in Medieval Arabic Writings
(Robert Schick)
Civilizing Climate: Social Responses to Climate Change in the Ancient Near East
(Joy McCorriston)