Volume 40, Issue 2

The ancient city of Kumidi (present-day Kāmid al-Lōz) was one of the major centres in the Lebanese Biqāẚ Valley during the MB and LB.1 The German excavations have yielded a number of foreign goods, reflecting the town’s position on the crossroads of important routes between the Lebanese coast, inner Syria and northern Palestine.This contribution focuses on Egyptian imports and egyptianising artefacts, particularly on glyptic evidence. It seeks to reconstruct their distribution pattern within the city through a re-assessment of the objects and their archaeological contexts, offering new insights into the interregional and intraregional relations by which these imports arrived at Kāmid al-Lōz.

The motif of the sphinx originated in Egypt and became widely distributed throughout the ancient Near East and the Aegean. In dealing with its history and changing appearances we can reconstruct mutual intercultural contacts.This paper explores two classical variants of the sphinx and the context of their representation: the calm sphinx resting on its legs and the violent one that tramples on human beings or dominates other creatures.The Egyptian prototypes are discussed in due detail to clarify some interesting features that were imitated or modified by Levantine artisans. Moreover, a fragmentary representation on a wall painting from Tell Sakka - hitherto interpreted as an anthropomorphic image - should rather be reconstructed as sphinx.The study assesses possible media of contact and points out further lines of inquiry.

The article deals with Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) of Mycenaean pottery, providing a survey of the data from Egypt, Israel, Lebanon, Syria and Turkey.Within this framework, four new results are presented. A stirrup jar from the Fayum, Egypt, LH III B/2, and a fragment of a stirrup jar from Kāmid el-Lōz (Kumidi), Lebanon, LH III A2/B, belong to the NAA group Mycenae/Berbati, which is well known from vessels from the Levant and Egypt. The results of the analyses of two other fragments did not fit with the expectations of the archaeologists: A deep bowl from Sirkeli,Turkey, LH III C, assumed to be a Cilician product, was assigned to NAA group Tanagra A. Petrographic analysis might help to explain this result. Finally, a piriform jar from Kus¸aklı (Sarissa), LH III A2/B, one of only a few Mycenaean vessels known from Central Anatolia, was found to belong to NAA group Ul36, the provenance of which is unknown. The three other objects belonging to Ul36 are fragments of Red Lustrous Wheelmade-Ware.

This paper discusses the problem of the sparse archaeological material pointing to Hittite presence in the Levant.While this is not surprising in the region outside of the empire, it contradicts our written sources for Hittite Syria.This is usually explained by the lack of interest in the “Hittitization” of the conquered territories.After an updated survey of the material, the problems with this explanation and possible solutions will be presented. It is proposed that while the new findings basically do not change the archaeological picture, the problems inherent to this explanation can be solved only by the assumption of the gradual acculturation of the local population supported also by the Hittite administration.

The agreement patterns for conjoined singular nouns and pronouns in Hittite being already explored (Brosch 2013), the present article based on a collection of more than 200 examples from Old to Late New Hittite original manuscripts adds the findings for coordinations of mixed number and plural nouns and pronouns.These corroborate the interpretations put forward in the first paper, as it is shown again that while in the domain of the attribute one always finds plural resolution of the target, in the other domains there are two different patterns based on a semantic distinction between controllers of animate and inanimate reference.While the former can (but need not) show resolution, the latter’s targets usually agree only with the nearest noun of the coordinated controllers, hence appearing in the singular. Only a small number of types show special rules, which are clarified in this paper.

The rich but often fragmentary corpus of rituals related to the great Hittite an.taḫ.šum festival demonstrates not only its long duration and articulated structure, but also its complex textual tradition.The aim of this contribution is to clarify the process through which the festival formed and evolved throughout Hittite history assuming the well-known composite and heterogeneous form.With this purpose in mind, I have selected some sections of the festival which, in showing a relation to autonomous local or foreign cults, are more useful in defining the main features of their process of inclusion and assimilation in the great festival.Three components of the festival, CTH 615, 616 and 618, are analysed in their synchronic (different versions, comparison with the outline tablets) and diachronic aspects (the possible original independence of cults and the age of their introduction into the festival program). Every component shows specific features regarding its cultic layer, its original autonomy and the modalities of its introduction into the festival. Among the analogies found are the existence of different versions of each festival day and the time when the festival nucleus seems to have been formed, that is, the beginning of the Empire Period, as well as the continuity of the textual tradition.

Dendrochronological data and greater precision in the relative chronology between Babylonia and Assyria have led to the reopening of the discussion about Mesopotamian chronology in the 2 nd millennium BC. The article makes four points. First, the arguments for the standard chronologies based upon the data of the Venus Tablets are robust. Counterarguments are found wanting. Second, once likely errors are taken into account, there is a natural recording procedure for which the Lower Middle Chronology is in accordance with the data. Third, among the four standard chronologies only the Lower Middle Chronology can easily satisfy the constraint provided by the eclipse record of the Mari Eponym Chronicle. Finally, this chronology is also in exact agreement with the widespread record of a volcanic eruption in 1628/27 BC.

The manner in which Hittite kings chose the supreme deities of the state or the dynastic pantheon to be their divine patrons must be considered in terms of ‘political religion’. In the Old Hittite Period, the king was empowered to rule by contract with the Storm-god of Ḫatti and the Sun-goddess of Arinna, the supreme deities of the state pantheon. Furthermore, the War-god and the Throne-goddess were connected in particular with the ideology of kingship in the original Hattian tradition. Changes in Hittite ‘political religion’ during the Empire Period resulted in a change of royal ideology.This new ideology is to be attributed to Mesopotamian ideas relating to concepts of royal legitimacy based on the authority of the Sun-god as a guardian of the cosmic order.Yet, the Hurrianized dynasty of the Empire Period had the Storm-god Teššub as its divine protector. Hence, it was Teššub and not the Sun-god who was a natural choice for the patron god of Hittite kings. Mursili II and Muwattalli II conceived a number of hypostases of Teššub with various Luwian and Hurrian epithets as their divine protectors, perceived to be identical with the supreme god of the state and dynasty. In this connection, worthy of note is the political career of Ḫattusili III, who had chosen his patron deities, the Storm-god of Nerik and šauška of Samuḫ, long before his accession to the Great Kingship of Ḫatti.