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KLENGEL, Horst — Geschichte Des Hethitischen Reiches

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KLENGEL, Horst — Geschichte Des Hethitischen Reiches 635 BIBLIOTHECA ORIENTALIS LVII N° 5/6, September-December 2000 636 northern Syria and northern Mesopotamia, not only during the Hittite Empire, but also in the preceeding and subsequent periods. The decision concerning the time frame is more dif- ficult and is influenced by various considerations. The restric- tion of the scope of the tome to the “Hittite Kingdom” in a way circumvents the problem by limiting Hittite history to five centuries or so, from the foundations of the Old King- dom to the fall of the Hittite Empire. In fact, a history of the Hittites should definitely deal with the periods preceding and following the “classical” Hittite age, but the fact that their principal sources are written in languages other than Hittite seems to have limited to a certain extent their integration into general accounts of Hittite history. The formative age of Hit- tite history, the Assyrian Colony Period, has become pri- marily an Assyriological discipline, and only rarely are its sources adequately exploited in Hittitological research. The same applies to the five centuries of Neo-Hittite history doc- umented mainly by Hieroglyphic Luwian inscriptions, which have become sufficiently understood and accessible to non- specialised scholars only in recent years. The author of the volume under review has wisely opted to cover, though sparsely, the earliest chapters of “pre-classical” Anatolian history (aptly designated “Die hethitische Frühzeit”), but to refer only in passing to the continuity of Hittite statehood in Karkamis (pp. 318 f.). Readers who may be interested in learning more about the long epilogue of Hittite history and culture in the Iron Age may be referred to J. D. Hawkins' chapter on the Neo-Hittite kingdoms in the Cambridge HITTITOLOGIE Ancient History (vol. III/1, 2nd ed., 1982) and to the relevant sections in his Corpus of Hieroglyphic Luwian Inscriptions (Berlin, 2000). KLENGEL, Horst — Geschichte des Hethitischen Reiches. The Introduction of the volume under review presents the (Handbuch der Orientalistik, 1, 034). E.J. Brill Publish- geographical arena and the history of research into Cuneiform ers N. V., Leiden, 1999. (24 cm, XXVI, 428, 63 ABB.). Hittite, which, in its first stages, largely overlaps with the ISBN 90 04 10201 9; ISSN 0169-9423. Dfl. 258,- / exploration of Bogazköy. Only a few sentences are dedicated $152.00. to the history of research into Hieroglyphic Hittite/Luwian (p. This volume of the Handbuch der Orientalistik meets 12 f.). The fascinating beginnings of the new discipline, which admirably the long-felt need for a reliable annotated history were obviously dominated by German scholarship, are of the Hittite kingdom.1) There are several general accounts described in much detail, incorporating rare archival sources. of Hittite history and culture, such as O. R. Gurney's excel- Thus, for example, we learn from a postcard sent by Hugo lent pocket-book The Hittites (3rd ed., 1990), to mention but Winckler in December 1907 that he was already aware of the one example. However, the last undertaking towards a com- fact that the main language of the Bogazköy tablets must have prehensive history of Anatolia, provided with references to been Indo-European (p. 8, n. 20). Still, the credit for the first sources and bibliography, was published in the seventies in correct linguistic characterisation of the language of the Hit- the tomes of the Cambridge Ancient History (3rd ed.). Not tites should go to the rarely mentioned monograph of the Nor- only has this important manual long been outdated by the wegian scholar J.A. Knudtzon, Die Zwei Arzawa Briefe; Die accumulation of new data and research, it also lacked in unity ältesten Urkunden in Indogermanischer Sprache, published in of method and presentation, because the topic was divided Leipzig in 1902. In the same year, the illustrious editor of the between several scholars. After a standstill of several Tell el-Amarna letters presented to the Norwegian Academy decades, two important manuals of Hittite history have come in Kristiania his astonishing conclusion that the two Arzawa out almost coinstantaneously at the close of the century: letters (EA 31-32) were written in an Indo-European language. Trevor Bryce's The Kingdom of the Hittites (Oxford 1998), With the assistance of two of his compatriots, the Indo-Euro- and the volume under review, written by Horst Klengel in peanists Sophus Bugge and Alf Torp, he was able to identify cooperation with three other leading Hittitologists - Fiorella some characteristic case endings, possessive pronouns, and Imparati, Volkert Haas, and Theo van den Hout. the 3rd pers. imp. estu, which left no doubt that his first intu- The first major decision to be taken in such an important ition was correct. Unfortunately, through a series of mislead- undertaking is to set the limits of time and space. With regard ing coincidences (especially the personal name Labbaya), he to the latter, it has long been realised that it is practically came to think that the land of Arzawa was located somewhere impossible to separate the history of Anatolia from that of in Canaan or Transjordan, and that it was inhabited by a group of (Biblical) Hittite settlers. The five chapters covering the Bronze Age history of Ana- 1) The abbreviations used in this article follow those of the Chicago Hit- tolia are structured in the method developed by H. Klengel tite Dictionary, vol. 3/1 (1980), pp. xxi-xxxi; P/3 (1997), pp. vii-xxix. Unat- tributed page numbers refer to the volume under review. in his Geschichte Syriens I-II (1965, 1969), i.e. a full index- 637 BOEKBESPREKINGEN — HETTITOLOGIE 638 ing of the sources relevant to each sub-chapter, divided into in western Armenia, which exhibits some similarities with contemporary sources (A) and later retrospectives (B), fol- Hittite artistic traditions (p. 19). lowed by a historical synthesis. This judicious method pro- The first real historical period in Anatolia, the richly doc- vides not only easy access to the sources and essential bibli- umented Assyrian Colony Period in the first quarter of the ography, but also enables the reader to fathom at once the second millennium B.C.E., is somewhat cursorily covered in density of sources for each individual period. It is somewhat the volume, and leaves some central issues vaguely defined, regrettable, however, that there are very few direct quotations or ignores them altogether. The arduous debate over the from texts, a device which may give the reader, especially exploitation of Anatolian tin deposits at Kestel in the south- the non-professional one, a better notion of the character and central Taurus Mountains is left out,8) and neither are the style of Hittite texts. The sources, the historical synthesis and putative political and economic reasons for the discontinua- the bibliographical references are presented with accuracy tion of the lucrative Assyrian trade discussed. Concerning the and clarity, which in a volume covering hundreds of texts is political relations between the Assyrian merchants and the not an easy task. At any rate, the main purpose of this review local principalities we now have two treaty tablets, unfortu- is not to detect the few errors2) and inconsistencies3) in the nately both partially preserved: an oath formula on a frag- volume, but rather to discuss some basic methodological and ment from Tell Leilan,9) and larger parts of the treaty stipu- thematic issues, and to evaluate its overall achievements. lations and the oath ceremony on a tablet from Kültepe (Kt The historical overview begins with the late third millen- n/ k 794).10) The geo-political situation in Anatolia, as nium B.C.E. (Kap. I.1.). The only written sources which can reflected in the Anum-Hirbi and the Anitta texts, is quite arguably be associated with this still illiterate period in Ana- vaguely defined, with references given to relevant studies, tolia are the Mesopotamian literary traditions concerning the without however discussing their conclusions. The unre- northern campaigns of the Akkadian kings Sargon4) and solved question whether Pithana and Anitta are Hattian or Naram-Sin. That such stories circulated in Anatolia (at least) Hittite names (p. 27) should not obscure the accumulating as early as the Assyrian Colony Period is shown by the evidence for a basic division of Anatolia into ethno-cultural recently published Kültepe text (Kt j/k 97) which recounts a zones, distinguishable by their onomasticon, pantheon and campaign of Sargon the Great “from sunrise to sunset”.5) To material culture, before Anitta's unification of the land. The these epic texts one may add several Hurrian omina and mag- confrontation between the (mainly) Hattian Halys Basin and ical rituals which include lists of Akkadian kings.6) Contrary the (mainly) Hittite (i.e. Nesite) region extending from Kanis to some early reports, the geographical orbit of the Ebla eastward is now further highlighted by the emphatic distinc- tablets does not extend beyond northern Syria.7) The author tion between “Our God” (siu+summi) of Nesa and “Their maintains that the archaeological record points towards an God” (siu-smi) of Hattusa in the Anitta text.11) One may of immigration wave at the end of the Bronze Age, perhaps course disagree with this reconstruction of the ethno-politi- caused by an arid period that affected large parts of the Near cal map of early second millennium Anatolia and present East (p. 21). As for the long-standing debate concerning the other interpretations,12) but the issue is too important for the direction from which the Indo-European population groups ensuing development of Hittite history to be simply bypassed. entered Anatolia, he refers to the silver goblet from Karasamb The Old Kingdom has received much closer attention, with a meticulous discussion of the variety of data and their syn- thesis (Kap.
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