Essays on Anatolian Archaeology.

• Author: Gorny, Ronald L.

In recent years, Anatolian archaeologists have increasingly emphasized understanding the role of environment and natural resources in the development of civilization. Essays on Anatolian Archaeology follows this general trend and provides valuable new insights into the development of culture on the Anatolian plateau.

Resource management is one of the recurring themes found in Essays. Kutlu Emre begins this emphasis by examining the construction of Hittite water storage systems, in general, and the Karakuyu Dam, in particular (pp. 1-42). The importance of water to the Hittites has been noted previously in many articles and books and the relationship of Hittite monuments to these sources of water is well documented. This investigation of Hittite period dams and water systems appears to confirm the notions expressed by earlier observers that there was, indeed, an important link between Hittite monuments and springs. Although various theories have been proposed to explain this relationship (see for instance, H. J. Deighton, The "Weather-God" in Hittite Anatolia [Oxford: British Archaeological Reports, 1982]), Emre's contribution presents a new look at the association, linking Hittite edifices of this sort with changes in the climatic conditions that affected Anatolia in the late second millennium. While information about climatic shifts of this sort has been gleaned in the past from the literary materials, archaeological evidence connecting climatic variation with the conduct of life in Anatolia has been scarce. This study represents one of the first attempts to show a direct link between the archaeological record, literary texts, and environmental studies. One hopes that further investigations along these lines will provide more definitive data about this shift in climate and its effects on the inhabitants of ancient Anatolia.

The subject of water is also treated by Ahmet Unal (pp. 119-40), who links this critical resource not only to the agricultural community but to the intricate urban superstructure of second-millennium Anatolia. The basis of this philological study lies in the numerous references to public health and sanitation found in the cuneiform texts discovered throughout the Hittite capital of Bogazkoy-Hattusa. Conservation of this critical commodity became important as cities increasingly polluted it with the refuse of human settlement. Unal also points to an interesting link between a safe water supply and esoteric religious...