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Luwian Studies

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Luwian Studies
Established2014
MissionArchaeological research
PresidentEberhard Zangger
Location
Zurich, Switzerland
Websitehttps://luwianstudies.org/

Luwian Studies is an independent, private, non-profit foundation based in Zürich, Switzerland. Its sole purpose is to promote the study of cultures of the second millennium BC in western Asia Minor. The foundation encourages and supports archaeological, linguistic and natural scientific investigations to complete the understanding of Middle and Late Bronze Age Mediterranean cultures.[1] Western Anatolia was, at that point in time, home to groups of people who spoke Luwian, an Indo-European language.

Board

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The Foundation is governed by its Board, which currently includes Matthias Örtle, Ivo Hajnal, Jorrit Kelder, Jeffrey Spier and Eberhard Zangger. It is registered with the Handelsregisterambt of the Canton Zürich, under entry number CHE-364.060.070.[2]

Research Topic

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The term Luwian denotes a language and a hieroglyphic script which were commonly used in much of Asia Minor throughout the entire 2nd millennium BC. In the context of Luwian Studies, Luwian, however, is a toponym encompassing peoples of different ethnicity and languages.[3] It is thus an abstract umbrella term for the states and petty kingdoms in western Asia Minor who for most of the time can neither be attributed to the adjacent Hittite civilization in the east, nor to the Mycenaean culture in the west.[4][5] The most prominent political states in the region were Arzawa/Mira, Masa, Seha, Hapalla, Wilusa, Lukka etc. The names of these states frequently occur in documents found at Hattusa, when Hittite kings referred to their neighbours in the west.

The idea that a civilization in its own right may have existed during the 2nd millennium BC in western Asia Minor goes back one hundred years. In 1920, the Swiss Assyriologist Emil Forrer recognized the Luwian language in the documents found during the first years of excavation at Hattusa. He concluded that “the Luwians were a far greater people than the Hittites”.[6] Similar ideas sprung up in the writing of Helmuth Theodor Bossert, another pioneer of ancient Anatolian studies, who considered the Luwians to have been a great power.[7] The almost complete decipherment of Luwian hieroglyphic led to a string of scholarly investigations.[8][9][10] Several monographs on Arzawa, the Luwians, and Luwian hieroglyphic inscriptions are available.[11][12][13] Two scholars focus in their work almost entirely on Luwian hieroglyphic: Frederik Christiaan Woudhuizen and John David Hawkins.

Thus far, however, little is known archaeologically about western Asia Minor during the Middle and Late Bronze Age. Only two large-scale excavations have been conducted by European scholars and published in a western language (Troy[14] and Beycesultan[15]). About thirty additional excavations were conducted under Turkish direction and published in Turkish.[16] Luwian Studies is aiming to help fill this significant research gap.

Results

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Under the auspices of Luwian Studies information about altogether 486 substantial settlements sites of the 2nd millennium BC has been gathered (based on information that is already available in the academic and predominantly Turkish literature) and for the most part made public online on the foundation's website.[17] A book[18] summarizes the main arguments put forward and is available for free download in English, German and Turkish. The research that is supported by Luwian Studies is shedding a new light on the collapse at the Late Bronze Age in the Eastern Mediterranean and the still open question of the provenance of the Sea Peoples.[19][20][21][22]

In December 2017, the so-called "Beyköy 2" inscription was published – this is a drawing of a Luwian hieroglyphic inscription that was first shown by the British hittitologist Oliver Robert Gurney at the Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale in Ghent in July 1989.[23] If authentic, the document provides an account of the events shortly after the demise of the Hittite empire.

In December 2021, the contents of the Cypro-Minoan (Linear D) document Enkomi 1687 was made public. It is a call for help written from the Southwest Anatolian port of Limyra by a Cypriot nauarch who had encountered an attacking fleet led by the Trojan aristocrat Akamas.[24][25]

Supported Projects

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Luwian Studies has supported various recent fieldwork projects in Turkey, including The Konya Regional Archaeological Survey Project[26] and the Hacıkebir Höyük Intensive Survey,[27] as well as various academic studies on topics such as scribal and writing traditions in western Anatolia during the Late Bronze Age.[28]

Excerpt of supported projects:

  • Archaeological Landscapes of the Luwian Kingdoms of Tarhuntašša and Tabal on the Konya Plain directed by Christoph Bachhuber and Michele Massa
  • An Important Bronze Age Settlement in Inland Western Anatolia: Intensive Survey Project of Tavşanlı Höyük and its Surroundings directed by Erkan Fidan and Murat Türktek[29]
  • In Search of the Missing Link: Writing in Western Anatolia during the Bronze Age by Willemijn Waal[30]
  • The Relationship between Hieroglyphic and Cuneiform Luwian: Reflections on the Origins of Anatolian Hieroglyphs by Francis Breyer[31]
  • East Aegean/western Anatolia and the Role of Aššuwa and Arzawa in Late Bronze Age Cultural Interaction by Antonis Kourkoulakos[32]

The foundation's founder and chair of the board, Eberhard Zangger, at the same time, has recently published a number of papers on the role of astronomical knowledge in Late Bronze Age Anatolia, focusing on the Hittite sanctuary at Yazilikaya.[33][34]

References

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  1. ^ "Goals of the foundation". Luwian Studies.
  2. ^ AG, DV Bern. "Stiftung Luwian Studies". Commercial register of canton Zurich.
  3. ^ Woudhuizen, Fred (2018), The Luwians of Western Anatolia: Their Neighbours and Predecessors, Archaeopress Publishing Ltd.
  4. ^ Polański, Tomasz (2017). "Between Mycenae and Hattushas: The Emergence of the Luvian Civilisation". Folia Orientalia. 54: 346–351.
  5. ^ Pullen, Daniel (1994). "Review of The Flood from Heaven: Deciphering the Atlantis Legend; Ein neuer Kampf um Troia: Archäologie in der Krise, Eberhard Zangger". Journal of Field Archaeology. 21 (4): 522–525. doi:10.2307/530109. JSTOR 530109. Retrieved 28 June 2022.
  6. ^ Oberheid, Robert (2007). Emil O. Forrer und die Anfänge der Hethitologie (in German). De Gruyter. p. 102. doi:10.1515/9783110194340. ISBN 9783110194340. Retrieved 28 June 2022.
  7. ^ Helmuth, Bossert (1946). "Asia". Literarische Fakultät der Universität Istanbul. 323. Istanbul: Forschungsinstitut für altvorderasiatische Kulturen.
  8. ^ Hawkins, John David; Morpurgo-Davies, Anna; Neumann, Günter (1973). "Hittite hieroglyphs and Luwian. New evidence for the connection". Nachrichten der Akademie der Wissenschaften in Göttingen, Philologisch-Historische Klasse. 6. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  9. ^ Marazzi, Massimiliano (1990). Il geroglifico anatolico : problemi di analisi e prospettive di ricerca. Rome: Dipartimento di studi glottoantropologici, Università "La sapienza". ISBN 88-85134-23-8.
  10. ^ Payne, Annick (2010). Hieroglyphic Luwian an introduction with original texts (2., rev. ed.). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. ISBN 978-3-447-06109-4.
  11. ^ Luwian identities : culture, language and religion between Anatolia and the Aegean. Boston: Brill. 2013. ISBN 978-90-04-25341-4.
  12. ^ Melchert, H. Craig, ed. (2003). The Luwians. Boston: Brill. ISBN 90-04-13009-8.
  13. ^ Yakubovich, Ilya S. (2010). Sociolinguistics of the Luvian language. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-17791-8.
  14. ^ Rose, Charles Brian (2013). The archaeology of Greek and Roman Troy. New York. ISBN 9780521762076.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  15. ^ Mellaart, James; Murray, Ann (1995). Beycesultan III pt. 1. Late Bronze Age architecture. The British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara.
  16. ^ Zangger, Eberhard; Mutlu, Serdal; Müller, Fabian (2016). "Die Luwier: Bindeglied zwischen Mykenern und Hethitern". Mitteilungen aus dem Heinrich-Schliemann-Museum Ankershagen (in German) (10/11). Heinrich-Schliemann-Museum: 53–89.
  17. ^ "Sites".
  18. ^ Zangger, Eberhard (2016). The Luwian Civilization – The Missing Link in the Aegean Bronze Age. Istanbul: Yayinlari. ISBN 978-605-9680-21-9. Retrieved 28 June 2022.
  19. ^ Schulz, Matthias (9 July 2016). "Der nullte Weltkrieg". Spiegel (in German) (28): 102. Retrieved 28 June 2022.
  20. ^ Ribi, Thomas (12 May 2016). "Kontroverse in der Archäologie: Entscheidungsschlacht um Troja". Neue Zürcher Zeitung (in German). Retrieved 28 June 2022.
  21. ^ McLerran, Dan (12 May 2016). "Scientists proclaim a new civilization in the Aegean Bronze Age". Popular Archaeology.
  22. ^ Barras, Colin (21 May 2016). "Trojan war final act in world war z". New Scientist. 230 (3074): 10. doi:10.1016/S0262-4079(16)30882-X.
  23. ^ Zangger, Eberhard; Woudhuizen, Fred (2017). Stronk, Jan; de Weerd, Maarten (eds.). "Rediscovered Luwian Hieroglyphic Inscriptions from Western Asia Minor" (PDF). TALANTA. Proceedings of the Dutch Archaeological and Historical Society. 50. Groningen: 9–56. ISSN 0165-2486. Retrieved 28 June 2022.
  24. ^ Woudhuizen, Fred; Zangger, Eberhard (2021). Early Mediterranean Scripts. Ege Yayınları. pp. 127–131. ISBN 978-605-7673-93-0.
  25. ^ Woudhuizen, Frederik C. "The Language of Linear C and Linear D from Cyprus". Publications of the Henri Frankfort Foundation. Amsterdam: Dutch Archaeological and Historic Society.
  26. ^ "Krasp". www.krasp.net.
  27. ^ "Luwian Studies supports research projects in 2019". Luwian Studies. January 6, 2019.
  28. ^ Waal, Willemijn (December 1, 2012). "Writing in Anatolia: The Origins of the Anatolian Hieroglyphs and the Introductions of the Cuneiform Script". Altorientalische Forschungen. 39 (2): 287–315. doi:10.1524/aofo.2012.0020. S2CID 163730722 – via www.degruyter.com.
  29. ^ "Presentation at the 25th Annual Meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists (EAA) in 2019". YouTube. 3 April 2021. Retrieved 5 July 2022.
  30. ^ "Presentation at the 25th Annual Meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists (EAA) in 2019". YouTube. 2 April 2021. Retrieved 5 July 2022.
  31. ^ "Presentation at the 25th Annual Meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists (EAA) in 2019". YouTube. 4 April 2021. Retrieved 5 July 2022.
  32. ^ "Antonis Kourkoulakos at Münster School of Ancient Cultures". WWU Münster. Retrieved 5 July 2022.
  33. ^ Zangger, Eberhard; Gautschy, Rita (May 4, 2019). "Celestial Aspects of Hittite Religion: An Investigation of the Rock Sanctuary Yazılıkaya". Journal of Skyscape Archaeology. 5 (1): 5–38. doi:10.1558/jsa.37641 – via journals.equinoxpub.com.
  34. ^ Barras, Colin. "Yazılıkaya: A 3000-year-old Hittite mystery may finally be solved". New Scientist.
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