Hattusa-Bogazkoy: Das Hethiterreich im Spannungsfeld des Alten Orients.

• Position: Book review

Hattusa-Bogazkoy: Das Hethiterreich im Spannungsfeld des Alten Orients. EDITED by GERNOT WILHELM. Colloquien der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft, vol. 6. Wiesbaden: HARRASSOWITZ VERLAG, 2008. Pp. xxii + 438, illus.[euro]49.

In March 2006 the Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft held a colloquium in Wurzburg to celebrate the one hundredth anniversary of the opening of formal German excavations at the Hittite capital of Bogazkoy/Hattusa. The twenty-one essays in this handsome volume--most of them in German--represent the augmented texts of the lectures delivered over the course of the three days of the conference.

Many of the contributions can stand as authoritative reports on the current state of research on Anatolia in the second millennium B.C.E. The emphasis is naturally on the Hittite period, but the Old Assyrian "'colonies" are treated as well. Thus E. Cancik-Kirschbaum summarizes Hittite relations with the Middle Assyrian kingdom, S. de Martino dealings with Alasiya (Cyprus), and W.-D. Niemeier those with Ahhiyawa (Mycenaean Greece). R. M. Czichon and J. Klinger discuss the Hittite presence in north -central Anatolia and Hatti's interaction with the troublesome Kaskaean people from an archaeological and a philological perspective, respectively. W. Orthmann reconsiders several aspects of Hittite an in light of recent archaeological work.

An overview of relations between Syro-Mesopotamia and Anatolia in the Middle Bronze Age is contributed by D. Charpin, while J. G. Dercksen outlines the basic facts concerning the karum Kanes and the network of Assyrian trading stations that it administered. More specifically. C. Gunbatti reviews once more the treaties concluded between the Mesopotamian merchants and local princes and cites practical documents from the archives--primarily contracts, accounts, and letters--to illustrate how their provisions were honored, sometimes in the breach!

Also of a summary nature are H. Klengel's recounting of the early days of Hittite studies in Germany. S. Herbordt's consideration of Hittite seals and sealings in comparison to Syro-Mesopotamian glyptic, and G. Wilhelm's report on the work of the Arbeitstelle "Hethitische Forschungen" in Mainz.

Several contributors grapple with more particular topics: Th. Richter reconstructs the course of Suppilu-liuma's initial campaign in Syria based on information gleaned from his own study of recently discovered documents from Qatna. D. Schwemer investigates the treatment of deities...