The LCANE spring lecture series will be on the theme of the Hittites, and is dedicated to the memory of David Hawkins. In-person lectures will take place in the UCL Institute of Archaeology, 31-34 Gordon Square, Lecture Theatre G6. Online participation should be possible and an Eventbrite link will be posted nearer the time to register to participate online.
Schedule:
Jan 20 Christoph Bachhuber (Oxford) “A Prehistory of Hittite”
Feb 3 Michele Cammarosano (Napoli) “From Boğazköy to London: Hittite and Roman writing practices in dialogue”
Hittites and Romans: what did two cultures so distant in time and space have in common? Well, for example, both loved designing complex hydraulic works, spoke an Indo-European language, and, apparently, had quite a fondness for cheese… But above all, they shared a sophisticated writing technology: the use of linear writing on wax tablets. While the existence of this medium in both cultures is indisputable, fundamental aspects—whether of its role within their respective graphic cultures or of how the writing process actually took place—remain hotly debated. The talk argues that a close, comparative examination of the available sources can shed light on both areas, especially the crucial role of wax tablets in managing the economy of the Hittite state and, many centuries later, the writing technique on wax among the ancient Romans. Our journey will take us from the Hittite capital of Boğazköy to London, where David Hawkins did much of his outstanding scholarly work and where, just a few years ago, the sensational discovery of the so-called Bloomberg Tablets opened new questions about ancient Roman manuscript culture, and will finally end with a pizza in Pompeii.
Feb 24 Katie Shields (KCL) ““Quotation” in Hittite Texts”
Mar 10 Yağmur Heffron (UCL) “When Kanešean History Failed to Turn: Socio-political change and the end of Bronze Age occupation at Kültepe”
Drawing on ongoing collaborative research into the ‘slow’ turn of the 17th century BCE, this lecture will (re-)evaluate the occupational history of Kültepe-Kaneš, which comes to a surprise (?) end just on the cusp of the transformation from the end of the kārum period to the emergence of the Hittite state. Focusing on the archaeological correlates of social change in a city destroyed twice by an extensive conflagration, reoccupied twice by an evidently resilient community, and eventually abandoned during the Middle-to-Late Bronze Age transition, the lecture will conclude with a willful undoing some of its own work, namely, by warning against the hypervisibility of individual celebrity sites such as Kültepe.
Mar 24 Mark Weeden (UCL) “The Limits of Hittite Statehood: Beyond the Royal Family.”
The focus of historical research on the Hittite State and its organisation has been largely dictated by cuneiform textual finds from a number of royal residences: Hattuša-Boğazköy, Šapinuwa-Ortaköy, Šamuha-Kayalıpınar. The cuneiform record that emerges from these sites is (with some variants) on the whole strikingly uniform, from the very style of the cuneiform used through to the officials attested on hieroglyphic sealings. The picture of the Hittite state and its organisation won from these sources is thus largely homogeneous, representing as they do the material interests of the extended ruling family. However, Japanese excavations at the sites of Kaman-Kalehöyük and Büklükale are beginning to indicate that there were local traditions of writing and social organisation that may have existed outside and beyond the narrow confines of the Hittite state and the family it was built to serve.
