In May 1958, while looking for Classical remains in Eastern Pisidia, I copied the following honorific inscription in the town of Beyşehir, which lies at the south-east corner of the lake of the same name, anciently Karalitis. Its situation and surroundings are shown in Fig. 1.

The text is carved on a rectangular slab of yellowish limestone, exposed to view by the removal of wall plaster. This is probably one face of the shaft of a statue-base, which has been built into the outer corner of a shop facing on to the main square. The shop also forms an outer wall to the Şen hotel, and the inscription is said to have come to light during repairs to the hotel, some six years previously. The final letters of the inscription are slightly damaged on both sides, but otherwise it is complete. Rosette below. H. 0·78 m., W. 0·43 m., Th. unknown. Letters 3 cm. high.

An ancient limestone block was brought to our attention in the garden of Mehmet Atçı, the then bekçi of Oinoanda, at his house in the village of İncealiler, below the ancient site, during the site-survey of Oinoanda and its territory led by Professor Stephen Mitchell in 1994. It had been rescued from the nearby small antique site at Kemerarası, which lies at the foot of the Oinoanda hill (Urluca), immediately on the north bank of the upper Xanthos river, at the point where routes ancient and modern from the lower Xanthos valley debouch from the pass of Karabel into the Seki plain. Kemerarası is known to tourists for its Ottoman bridge which still spans the Xanthos (fig 1), and which is now superseded by a modern highway bridge, and to ancient historians chiefly as the findspot of the Demostheneia festival inscription published by Wörrle (1988). The old theory that the site at Kemerarası was a separate city of ‘Termessus Minor” has been scotched by Coulton (1982), who showed that Termessus Minor was the name of Oinoanda itself, viewed as a colony of Termessus Major.

During the 2008 field season at the Byzantine city of Amorium an unusual and unexpected surface find was recorded. It was a terracotta spacer pin of the type that was frequently used in Roman provincial baths. As such it provides the first evidence for the existence of a Roman-period bathhouse at Amorium, which may be regarded as a predecessor to the Byzantine bathhouse that has been excavated there.

This article presents several new inscriptions discovered during the survey of the Pisidian city at Melli directed by Dr Lutgarde Vandeput, and revisions to already published texts. These include several imperial statue bases from the city agora, four texts honouring city patrons, who include a provincial governor and a senior Roman equestrian official from the nearby Pisidian city of Selge, dedications and epitaphs. The most significant discovery is the first identified Greek copy of a votive text to ‘the gods and goddesses’, set up according to the interpretation of a Clarian oracle, which was already known from nine Latin versions. The inscription is associated with a cult room in a domestic building, and may be connected with the worship of theos hypsistos.

Mitwirkend am Sturz des hethitischen Großreichs am Beginn des 12.Jhs. v.Chr. brach ein kriegerischer, thrakischer Volksstamm fünfzig Jahre vor der Regierung des Tiglatplesers I in die Geschichte Altanatoliens am oberen Tigris ein; dann schweigen die Quellen mehrere Jahrhunderte, bis diese “Muschki-Leute” mit ihrem Heerführer “Mita” in den assyrischen Annalen diesmal gegen Sargon II und im Kerngebiet von Hatti, zwischen dem Halys- und Sangariosbogen, als eine starke politische Einheit wieder auftauchen. Sie nannten sich Phryger; und genauso wie ihre Geschichte liegt fast für fünf Jahrhunderte auch ihre Kunst, die unter den blühenden Hochkulturen Altanatoliens einen besonderen Platz einnimmt, noch im Dunkeln. Dennoch ist eine derartig plötzliche Wiedererscheinung eines Volkes als eine den Urartäern im Osten ebenbürtige Großmacht Anatoliens und im Höhepunkt ihres kulturellen Lebens ohne Vergangenheit nicht faßbar; so dürfte die Groß-Phrygien schaffende Treibkraft nicht nur politisch sondern auch archäologisch in den “dunklen Jahrhunderten” vom 12. bis zum 8.Jh. v.Chr. im schöpferisch fruchtbaren Boden ihrer neuen Heimat verwurzelt gewesen sein, denn sie haben aus ihrem alten balkanischen Herkunftland nichts Eigenständiges mitgebracht, was der Entstehung und späteren Entwicklung der phrygischen Kunst zugrunde liegen konnte.

The object of this paper is to re-examine the Greek literary traditions concerning a Phrygian migration from Europe to Asia Minor and the early movements of that people within Asia Minor, also allusions to these traditions in local legends and coin-types of the Roman period. Such archaeological and philological evidence as there may be for a migration is not considered: a superficial examination would seem to indicate that neither of these disciplines can yet suggest a clearcut picture of population movement which we can relate to that presented by the literary evidence, and I am not qualified to take part in the creation of one. Without supporting evidence from either of these disciplines it must be emphasised that the historicity of the events recorded in the traditions must remain open to doubt. The discussion that follows is concerned with the development of the traditions, especially that which we shall call the “Anatolian tradition”, as purely literary constructions, not as historical accounts.

“Hieroglyphic inscriptions” of various types are common at Urartian sites, but even without a systematic collection and study of them as a whole it is evident that the great majority are at best only pictographic in nature. The relatively small number of such texts, their brevity, the isolated occurrence of many of the signs and the lack of repetition from site to site make it unlikely that they represent any phonetically based writing system. Indeed, the claim of some authors that there existed a local, specifically Urartian hieroglyphic script has yet to be demonstrated.

The hieroglyphic inscriptions from Altıntepe, on the other hand, clearly belong to a different category. The length and consistency of the texts strongly suggest the employment of a regular script, while the close correspondence of the signs to those of the Hittite Hieroglyphic syllabary has led a number of scholars to contend that these are purely Hittite documents. The following study will show, however, not only that the language of the inscriptions is in fact Urartian, but also that they present some rather important new evidence for the reading of Hieroglyphic Hittite itself.

While the problems surrounding the events which preceded and followed the accession of Ḫattušili I have long been debated with few conclusive results, the basic facts underlying these events seem, on the surface at least, reasonably straightforward. For the most part these facts are contained in (a) Ḫattušili's “Annals”, in which the king identifies himself as ŠAfTawannanna DUMU ŠEŠ-ŠU (“son of the brother of Tawannanna”), and (b) Ḫattušili's “Testament”, a speech delivered by the king during a period of illness in Kuššara, announcing to the assembled dignitaries and fighting men of Ḫatti the appointment of his grandson Muršili as heir to the throne.

The Testament in particular provides much information pertinent to the royal succession early in the Old Kingdom. Amongst other things, the document records what is commonly regarded as the first historically authentic event in Hittite history – the attempt by Ḫattušili's grandfather to appoint Labarna as ruler(?) in the town of Šanaḫuitta; this appointment was overturned by high ranking subjects of the king (probably with the support of the king's own children) who set up a “rebel regime” under the leadership of Papaḫdilmaḫ. Ḫattušili subsequently became king in Ḫattuša — perhaps the first of the Hittite kings to resettle the site after its destruction by Anitta.

The lack of stratified examples of Hittite jewellery emphasizes the importance of the evidence afforded by inventories such as the Inventory of Manninni recently published by Dr S. Košak. Although many of the words designating specific pieces of jewellery or goldwork cannot yet be translated, a study of the inventories combined with contemporary archaeological evidence can assist in forming a more detailed assessment of the products of Hittite jewellers and gold workers. It is possible to make some tentative suggestions concerning the identification of different types of jewellery mentioned in the Manninni inventory with reference to excavated pieces, some of which, although originating from sites beyond the area of direct Hittite influence yet can be dated to a period contemporary with or slightly earlier than the Hittite inventories. The Manninni inventory has been assigned to the 13th century B.C. by F. Kammenhuber but in Košak's view it could have been composed at any time during the later Hittite Empire.

As of today there are several variant versions of the myth relating to the death of Dumuzi, the more important of which are: “Inanna's Descent to the Nether World”, “Dumuzi's Dream”, “Dumuzi and the galla.” The text here edited, inscribed on a hitherto unpublished tablet, BM 100046, consists of an account of Dumuzi's death that parallels to some extent the hitherto known versions, but includes a number of rather unusual themes and intriguing motifs not found in any of them. It is a pleasure and a privilege to dedicate this study to Oliver Gurney with whom I collaborated in preparing a volume of Sumerian literary texts in the Ashmolean Museum (OECT V), and who moreover published in the year 1962 an exemplary summary of what was then known about Dumuzi and his tragic death.

Dr. Barnett has long taken an interest in the recovery of Mesopotamian mythology, and many is the time that he has suggested to us that the enigmatic scene on a cylinder-seal represents “a myth now lost”. It is a pleasure therefore to dedicate to him the first edition of a newly recovered fragment of an Old Babylonian myth concerning the fixing of the destiny of Girra, the god of fire and giver of light to man, after his defeat of Elamatum.

BM 78962 (Bu 89-4-26, 257) is one of a collection of tablets purchased by E. A. W. Budge in Baghdad, and said by him to include tablets from Sippar and Tell ed-Der. The collection includes the Old Babylonian Atrahasis tablets BM 78941 and 78942, the provenance of which has been discussed by Lambert and Millard. It seems reasonable to assume that BM 78962 like them comes from Sippar or Tell ed-Der and to date it on palaeographical grounds to the reign of Ammisaduqa or thereabouts. The content of the tablet was quite obscured by dirt and salt until 1973 when it was baked and cleaned by Mr. C. A. Bateman.

This paper considers the architectural design of a group of three buildings erected on what is commonly called the ‘acropolis’ of Xanthus in Lycia in the second quarter of the fifth century BC – a time of increasing social, political and economic complexity in this corner of the Aegean/eastern Mediterranean. Although, as the first examples of stone imitations of timber architecture, these buildings are often mentioned in discussions about the origins of Lycian ‘house tombs’ and sometimes summarily discussed in terms of their function, the architectural phenomenon that these buildings represent has not received extensive consideration. Here it is argued that their genesis can be located in the building of a monumentalised skyline, potentially drawing on other cities’ acropoleis as models. In addition to this, the buildings also represent quite new commemorative practices. It is proposed that these three innovative structures could be related to a broader practice of erecting monuments to honour city founders in prominent public spaces. In this way, both the terms ‘acropolis’ and ‘heroa’ – loaded terms usually only loosely applied in the literature on these monuments – may be useful for capturing the peculiar qualities of the architectural projects that transformed Kuprlli’s Xanthus.

The treaty of a Hittite king, whose name is lost, with Ulmi-Tešub, king of Tarhuntassa (KBo. IV 10 + KUB XL 69 + 1548/u, CTH 106) is a complex and problematic document. Published as a hand-copy by Forrer in 1920, no modern edition of the text has yet appeared in print. It contains an unusually full description of the boundaries of Ulmi-Tešub's vassal kingdom, and in order to provide a sound basis for the reconstruction of Hittite political geography I contributed a translation of the boundary description and of most of the other clauses to John Garstang's book The Geography of the Hittite Empire in 1959. J. Lorenz, a student of Marburg University, prepared an edition in 1986 as a dissertation, but this has remained unpublished. The same is true of a similar edition prepared in 1989 for the University of Amsterdam by T. van den Hout, though this is understood to have gone to press. Dr. van den Hout, however, has published his views on this treaty in some detail in an article “A Chronology of the Tarhuntassa Treaties” in JCS 41 (1989), 100–14, where he introduces the text in his first sentence as “KBo 4 10 (CTH 106), the treaty between Tudhaliya IV and Ulmi-Tešub, king of Tarhuntassa”.

For over a century, the names “Schliemann” and “Troy” have been virtually synonymous, and the story of Schliemann's boyhood dream to discover Troy has gripped the imagination of millions. This romantic tale, though created for a different purpose, effectively obscures the fact that Schliemann would never have excavated Hissarlik—then the suspected site of Troy—had it not been for Frank Calvert, a man of whom, thanks in large part to Schliemann's misrepresentations, few people had ever heard. Only in recent years, when Schliemann's claims were finally examined impartially, has there been any appreciation of the debt Schliemann owed to Calvert, and of Calvert's own archaeological achievements. Today, Calvert's contributions to other fields of scientific study are beginning to be mentioned, but Calvert himself still remains virtually unknown.

Frank Calvert was a pivotal figure in the history of the Troad. He deserves recognition for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that he prepared the ground for Schliemann and, by his generosity and constant assistance to Schliemann, enabled him to transform himself with such spectacular success from a businessman into an archaeologist.

The article discusses the introduction of Ottoman legislation on antiquities and its implication for the Ephesus excavations of 1863–1874, led by John Turtle Wood on behalf of the British Museum. It is argued that instrumental in the termination of the archaeological works at the site was the Ottoman law on antiquities of 1874, which was about to be promulgated and the recurrent difficulties in obtaining renewal of a firman, necessary for any archaeological endeavours undertaken by foreigners. Attention is drawn to the close relationship between the rise of the Imperial Museum in Istanbul, the promulgation and implementation of the Ottoman legislation on antiquities and their effect on circumscribing the archaeological activities of foreign nations. Growing contemporary Ottoman interest in antiquities, reflecting an increased awareness of their role in the re-definition of the identity of the country, laying claim to participation in European culture, is briefly touched upon.

The following article discusses the archaeometrical dimension of a well-known Early Bronze Age metal figurine from Hasanoğlan, Turkey, on permanent display in the Anatolian Civilisations Museum in Ankara. The transfer of the object to a new display case allowed for an examination with a portable x-ray fluorescence (P-XRF) device in order to reveal the chemical composition of the statuette and its attached ornaments. The figurine was confirmed to be made of silver. However, it is alloyed with a small but still substantial amount of copper. The applications are basically made of gold, but with a suspected substantial (up to 23%) amount of silver involved. The final section of the article is dedicated to a critical comparison with recently published figurines from Alaca Höyük, together with an archaeological and chronological reappraisal of this unique piece of art.

In 1957 the team from Pennsylvania University Museum excavating at Gordion in Phrygia entered the wooden burial chamber in the “Midas Mound”, the largest of the tumuli that dot the plain of the Sakarya. Inside they discovered the body of a man of 60–65 years, 1·59 m. (5′ 2½″) tall, lying on a bed, and surrounded by over 350 bronze vessels and ornaments, three iron stands, wooden furniture and a little pottery. Despite its traditional name, the excavator, Professor Rodney Young, doubted whether the tomb was indeed that of the most famous king of Phrygia, the Midas who according to Eusebius ruled from 738 to 696 B.C., which agrees with the Assyrian records: that king's reign ended with the destruction of his city by the invading Cimmerians. In some accounts the king committed suicide by drinking bull's blood, in others he was killed in the sack. Young believed that after this disaster the Phrygians could not have afforded so wealthy a burial nor so large a tumulus (it still measures some 53 m. high, and was originally 70 or 80 m. in height), and he preferred Midas' predecessor Gordios as the likely occupant of the tomb.

In 1968–69, three Phrygian tumuli in the vicinity of Ankara were excavated under the auspices of the Middle East Technical University and under the general supervision of Professor Ekrem Akurgal. The evidence from these tombs was initially examined from a purely archaeological standpoint. Recently, however, some of the metal findings were subjected to study through the application of physical and chemical analyses. The results have led to a re-examination of original conclusions drawn from the archaeological evidence.

In this paper, we present some of the results which have been obtained through these metallurgical analyses. But first, we would like to provide some general background information about the artifacts and about the locations at which they were found.

During the eighth and seventh centuries B.C. Ankara appears to have been the second most important Phrygian city after Gordion. Explorations in Ankara have revealed approximately twenty tumuli, dating from the eighth century to the middle of the sixth century B.C.

Ancient Urartu is rightly celebrated for its fine bronzework, examples of which have been found at such sites as Toprak Kale, Altıntepe, Karmir Blur and Kayalidere. While a good deal has been written about the stylistic and typological implications of these bronzes, however, very little attention has been paid to metallurgical or technological considerations. Thus, it seems important to publish as soon as possible a series of analyses made some time ago but not hitherto made available. The material analysed comes from Toprak Kale, Altıntepe and Patnos, and dates between the 9th and 7th centuries B.C. The objects are either in the British Museum (BM) or in the Ankara Archaeological Museum (AAM). Drillings from the latter were obtained by Dr Arthur Steinberg of M.I.T., to whom thanks are due for generously allowing us to publish the results.