The text here chosen for translation can hardly be compared as literature with that presented in the preceding volume of this journal; it is, however, in some ways even more remarkable. It is a fictitious letter, purporting to be addressed by none other than Gilgamesh, the famous hero of the epic and legendary king of Uruk (Erech), to the king of another city, the name of which is only partly legible and appears to be hitherto unknown. Gilgamesh, who introduces himself as king of Ur, requests his correspondent to go to a certain mountain (or country) and send him various animals, precious stones, metals and other commodities, in quantities which are completely fantastic and absurd. They are apparently to be floated down the river to Babylon. The text concludes with threats of dire retribution if he should fail to comply with this request.

No less than three copies of this strange document have been found at Sultantepe: no trace of it has been discovered at any other site. It contains a number of specifically Assyrian grammatical forms; and its inappropriate use of the phrase “from the horizon to the zenith” to indicate the extent of a king's dominions (l. 4) is paralleled only in the annals of the Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser III (745–727 B.C.).

The study of three small buildings at Balboura, set up by the city slave Onesimos and the wealthy Meleager near the southwest corner of the agora, is here concluded. Part I (AS XXXVIII (1988), 121–45) treated the exedra of Onesimos and his temple of Nemesis; here the exedra of Meleager and the associated inscriptions are presented. The numbering of the footnotes and figures, and the lettering of the sections continue on from Part I, and the same bibliographical abbreviations (ibid., 144–5) are used. It will also be necessary to refer to the city plan, state plans, restored plans, and restored elevations published there (Figs. 1–4).

This article is the result, not of weeks of intensive field survey, but of three days borrowed from other work in order to check specific topographical points. My thanks are due to Mr. Gough for company and transport to Sidrova in 1958; to Leverhulme Awards and the Royal Geographical Society, who made possible the reconnaissance of western Cappadocia in 1961 that included the visit to Başmakçı; and to Mr. G. D. B. Jones for his help at Başmakçı and for the photographs reproduced as Pl. XXVIII, a and c.

The discovery in 1956, at Kerti Hüyük between Aşıran, Beydilli and Salur, of a Derbetan dedication to Antoninus Pius, showed that Derbe was to be sought to the north-east rather than to the west of Laranda. The lack, at Kerti Hüyük, of any evidence of Byzantine settlement was, however, against its being the actual site, and our visit to Sidrova in 1958 was made with the intention of finding an alternative.

In this article the historical importance of Lampron, and the architecture of the castle as it stands at present, are described. The work was done during the summer vacation of 1966.

For simplification of description in the text the longer axis of the castle is assumed to run north–south. The scale that appears in some photographs is marked in ½ metre divisions, with an additional short length at the top.

“… tous les seigneurs de ce château se révoltent parce qu'ils le savent imprenable.”

(Leo the Great of Cilician Armenia)

The fief was the source of medieval military authority. The castle at the centre of the fief was its focal point. From it the baron derived all his power. It was, in a disturbed world, his insurance of safety. Much depended on its strength.

It is now forty years since Oliver Gurney published his dissertation entilted “Hittite Prayers of Mursili II”. His careful analysis of the texts as well as his translation have stood the test of time admirably. While writing, Gurney learned about the prayers to the Sungod which had been found in the 1930s, but their publication came too late for inclusion in his work. Since then much has been written about these recent finds and their relation to the texts of Muršili. On this happy occasion I want to offer to my friend a hitherto unpublished fragment which forms part of the prayer to the Sungoddess of Arinna (KUB 24.3), completing the beginning of column ii. It was H. Otten who recognized it as belonging to that tablet; he must have communicated this fact to E. Laroche, who included it as 544/u under nr. 376, A, in the second edition (1971) of his Catalogue des textes hittites (CTH).

Despite its regional hegemony over eastern Kilikia and a prominent role in three Roman civil wars, the house of Tarkondimotos has maintained little more than a shadowy existence on the fringe of historical accounts of the first centuries BC to AD. This paper collates the biographical and relational data of all known or conjectured members of the Tarkondimotid dynasty and its court, and places them within a historical context.

Franz Cumont's influential article on pagan angels in Revue de l’histoire des religions, published just over a century ago in 1915, remains the point de départ for work on that subject. The present essay offers a brief evaluation of some of its features, and then concentrates on Greek epigraphic evidence from Asia Minor in the Roman imperial period. Most of these texts were not published when Cumont wrote, or else he treated them briefly since his focus lay largely on ancient philosophical discussions about angeloi by both insiders and outsiders to the Christian movement; and geographically he ranged more widely than we have chosen to do. The main aim of the present essay, however, is to test the widely-accepted hypothesis of A.R.R. Sheppard (1980/1981) that Jewish influence on pagan notions of angeloi is visible in these inscriptions even though that influence was applied by non-Jews in a confused manner.

A long-unpublished statue base for the emperor Constantius II was rediscovered at Oinoanda in 2010. It contains information that Oinoanda was a neokoros city, that is, having a special status in the imperial cult. The article attempts to trace the significance of neokoria and of images in the imperial cult in the fourth century AD, an era of rapid religious change when the Christianity of the emperors and many ordinary people co-existed with deep and widespread pagan traditions that flowed throughout Roman society.

The following inscriptions provide evidence of the cult of Apollo at Oinoanda, a Graeco-Roman city of northern Lycia, and show that it included an oracle in the Roman Imperial period, and perhaps already in the Hellenistic period. The location of the sanctuary of Apollo cannot presently be identified.

This paper presents archaeological and analytical data on metal artefacts from Hüseyindede (Çorum, Turkey), dated to the Old Hittite period (ca 16th century BC). Hüseyindede, which is set in a rural landscape, demonstrates continuity in alloying traditions from the Early Bronze Age III (ca 26th/25th–22nd/21st century BC) and the Assyrian Trading Colonies period (20th–18th century BC) to the emergence of the Hittites. In addition to known alloying practices of the period, the site presents, for the first time, evidence of the existence of copper-nickel alloys, namely cupronickels, which so far have been documented only at the Late Bronze Age capital of the Hittites, Boğazköy/Hattuša. The Hüseyindede cupronickel objects now pinpoint the presence of this technology to regions spreading out from the Halys basin from the Old Kingdom Hittite period.

The myth of Nergal and Ereshkigal has long been known to Assyriologists from a Middle Babylonian tablet found among the diplomatic archives of Tell El Amarna. The tablet had apparently been imported into Egypt, perhaps from Syria, together with a similar one inscribed with the myth of Adapa, as a school-text for the training of scribes. It was only in 1951 that fragments of a late Assyrian version of the tale were unearthed at Sultantepe. In 1953, after the numerous fragments had been baked and joined, the text was identified by the present writer and a preliminary account of it was given by him in a lecture delivered early in 1955. The cuneiform text was published in 1957 and a full edition was promised for this journal. The present article is intended to fulfil that promise. The Sultantepe tablet remains the sole authority for the late Assyrian version of the tale, not a single fragment having come to light from any other source.

A large scale archaeological excavation was commenced in 1989, as part of the “Mamilla Project”, an urban re-development project carried out in the area to the west of Jaffa Gate, Jerusalem, Israel (Fig. 2). During the course of the first (1989) season, several complexes of buildings dating from the Late Byzantine and Early Ummayad periods were discovered. These buildings were part of the extra-mural quarters of Jerusalem at the time, and for the most part, were industrial and mercantile in nature.

In area A2 of the excavations (Fig. 3), a row of shops was discovered. Of particular interest was the shop comprised of rooms L164 and L153, which contained several different types of installations, including what appeared to be washing basins and a bread-oven (Pl. XXXV (a)). In this shop a large collection of diverse finds was discovered, including a sizeable amount of local and imported pottery, coins, glass and additional small finds. This assemblage was securely dated to the mid-seventh century CE, i.e. the terminal Byzantine period and the incipient stages of the Ummayad dynasty.

Although research is currently impossible on the ground, satellite photographs allow some further information to be gleaned concerning the region of the Tur Abdin, of crucial importance during the wars between the late Roman Empire and Sassanian Persia in the fourth to seventh century AD. This article examines the ancient sources and the reports of visitors to the area in the light of what is now visible to all via Google Earth and other suppliers of free satellite imagery. Apart from describing the remains of the fortresses and their role in defending an important redoubt against Persian attacks, it draws attention to the urgent necessity for proper ground surveys of what remains of the fortifications of various periods before these are completely destroyed by looting and reuse of building materials. Dams also present a substantial risk to some of the monuments discussed here.

The British Institute excavations carried out during the 1950s at Beycesultan by the head-waters of the Meander near modern Çivril (figs 1-3) may not now be of great moment in scholarly enquiry. The overriding reason for this is, of course, that no epigraphic material of any description came to hand. The excavations are, however, of note in connection with the progress and development of field archaeology - its aims and methods. They must be about the last large-scale Middle East excavations planned and executed according to traditional ideas of work whereby what constituted material for the archaeological record was taken for granted, and was reckoned such that it could be controlled by one or two experienced men in charge: both during the field work and in its publication. In this fashion, the Beycesultan excavations were fortunate. They were under the joint control of Seton Lloyd and James Mellart (fig 4). At that stage Seton Lloyd had been active for 25 years in directing a variety of important excavations in the Middle East (both in Iraq and Turkey), and was, by training, a talented architect. James Mellart, on the other hand, had already crammed into three or four years of intensive excavation and surveying work the accumulated expertise and confidence to assess in a most penetrating way broad regional issues as manifested in objects (‘finds’). Indeed a great deal of what became standard practice in the later 1950s and 60s evolved from his example. This combination of talents and energies was thus a highly favourable one and carried the work through to a very successful conclusion.

During the survey campaigns of 1986, 1987 and 1988 at Sagalassos, one of the main cities of ancient Pisidia, the visible remains on both the Upper (S. Mitchell and M. Waelkens, 1987, p. 38; S. Mitchell and M. Waelkens, 1988, pp. 62-3; M. Waelkens, 1992, pp. 50-1) and the Lower Agora (S. Mitchell and M. Waelkens, 1989, p. 68; M. Waelkens, 1989, p. 121, Fig. 6; M. Waelkens, 1992, p. 51) were examined and a series of honorific monuments of varying shape on both the agoras were recorded. The excavation of these squares during this year's campaign (1992) uncovered even more of them. Larger, free-standing honorific monuments adorn the centre of the Upper Agora; smaller monuments were placed around the edges, in front of the porticoes. From the remains, it appears that especially the eastern side of the Upper Agora, together with its corners were regarded as very suitable for this kind of honorific monuments. Similar small memorials also enliven at least the eastern and the southern borders of the Lower Agora.

The diversity in form and the richness of decoration and mouldings of some of these small monuments are eye-catching and deserve a more detailed analysis. Unfortunately, although similar memorials most likely decorated most of the other Classical cities in Asia Minor, they have hardly received any attention hitherto. This paper is a first attempt to classify the small honorific monuments in Sagalassos.

This was the fourth season of excavation at Amorium in east Phrygia, and the team worked for four weeks, from 28th July 1991. Archaeological aims this year comprised the continued excavation of the Byzantine Church in the Lower Town, and more detailed study of the small finds, notably the pottery, glass, and inscriptions. Additional aims included the establishment of an official excavation-house (which is necessary by Turkish Law) in the village of Hisarköy, and the construction of a permanent storage depot there. The village of Hisarköy now consists of only about twenty mud-brick houses and two stone buildings, i.e., the cami and the school (which closed in summer 1991). This village was said to have been created in 1892, with about 32 houses, and its recent decline is linked particularly with the attraction felt by the inhabitants to the nearby town of Emirdaǧ. The local harvest takes place in July, releasing a large body of manpower for our excavation's needs in late July and August, as the villagers' families (who work in Eskişehir, Afyon and further afield) come home for their “vacation”. The declining local population does, however, mean that it is easier to find accommodation for the excavation team.

The ceramic material discussed in the following paper was collected during a survey conducted by the Dept. of Archaeology and History of Art at Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey. The survey, under the direction of Doctors Ilknur Özgen and Marie-Henriette Gates, was undertaken in the summer of 1991 and covered the coastal area from the site of Yumurtalık, southeast of Misis and Misis Dağ, and continued along the coastal plain to include the site of Kinet Höyök, near Dörtyol north of the Iskenderun Plain (The Hatay). This entire region can be considered the eastern half of the Cilician coastal plain (Fig. 1).

The objectives of the survey were two-fold: to surface collect ceramic remains from mounds in the investigation area, and to conduct a geomorphological study of the plain and its relation to the surrounding topographical regions (alluvial plains to the east and west-foothills of the Amanus and Anti-Taurus to the north and northeast). A detailed report on the geomorphology of this region has been published by the geomorphologist who accompanied the survey team, Dr. Sancar Özaner, of the Maden Tetkik ve Araştırma Enstitüsü (Mineral and Research Exploration Institute).

The islands of the Dodecanese enjoy a favourable geographical position. They lie at one of the busiest and most important cross-roads of the eastern Mediterranean, and are readily accessible from all directions, including Asia Minor. In considering contacts with the latter, one has to take into account geographical factors such as distance, the nature of the terrain, and prevailing winds and surface currents. Geologically the Dodecanese form an extension of S.W. Asia Minor, known as Caria in historical times. This region is more or less cut off by mountains from the interior of the mainland, and land routes are either non-existent or very poor. The only direct route is provided by the port of call of Miletus which lies at the mouth of the Maeander (Grant 1969, 93). It is thus only natural for Caria to look towards the Aegean and the Dodecanese rather than elsewhere. Similarly, one should expect the Dodecanese to be in constant intercourse with the opposite coast. Indeed, the archaeological evidence seems to agree. The two areas appear to have shared a more or less common culture in prehistory (Dodecanese III, 178; Mee 1975).

Early in 1970 David French asked me to try to find a solution to the problem of dealing with the large amount of very fine material which passed through his new archaeological sieving and flotation processes. The material was in fact graded from fine sand through silt to clay, and came from the end of the flotation boxes mixed with quantities of water. The resulting mud or slime then blocked up filters and overflows. Apart from the suspicion that one was thus missing very fine particles of archaeological interest, the discarded slime was slowing up and even threatening to stop the flotation processes.

The problem was thus one of separating quantities of very fine material from large quantities of water, and at the same time of separating fine organic material from particles of inorganic material–usually silicates.