Gritille is the modern name for a mound lying on the right bank of the Euphrates River in southeast Turkey. Four years of excavation by a team led by Professor Richard S. Ellis of Bryn Mawr College concentrated on uncovering two main occupation levels bracketing the site's long sequence, the Neolithic and the Medieval. This article will focus on the last three seasons of excavation on top of the mound.

The mound of Gritille lies 10 km. upstream from Samsat (Greek Samosata, Arabic Sumaisāṭ), a major halting point on the medieval road from North Syria through Urfa (Greek Edessa, Arabic ar-Ruhā) to Malatya (Greek Melitene) and central eastern Anatolia. It was at Samsat that the crossing of the Euphrates was attempted. Samsat was also a stop for East–West traffic from Diyarbakır (Āmid) to Birecik (Bīra) and beyond, but the road through Nisibin (Nusaybin) and Harran (or Urfa) to Birecik seems to have been heavily travelled in the late Middle Islamic period (Fig. 1).

The focus of this article is the recently published, near-duplicate ARSUZ inscriptions carved on two stelae found near İskenderun in southeastern Turkey and dating to the later tenth century BC. Particular attention is given to the historical section of these inscriptions, and its reference to a land called Hiyawa (Assyrian Que) in eastern Cilicia, previously attested in only one other Iron Age inscription, the Luwian-Phoenician bilingual found at Çineköy near Adana. The article discusses what new information can be deduced about Hiyawa, including its relationship with the land of Adana(wa) in eastern Cilicia, the implications to be drawn from the findspot of the stelae and the much-debated question of whether the references to Hiyawa reflect Greek settlement in southeastern Anatolia during the Early Iron Age. Fresh attention is also given to the two Akkadian texts from the archives of Late Bronze Age Ugarit which refer to a group called the Hiyawa-men, who were located at that time (late 13th to early 12th century) in Lukka in southwestern Anatolia. The controversial identification of this group with Ahhiyawans/Mycenaean Greeks is re-examined within the broader context of a comprehensive reconsideration of the Ahhiyawa-Hiyawa equation and the role played by ‘Hiyawans’ and the land of Hiyawa in the affairs of the eastern Mediterranean world from the end of the Bronze Age through the succeeding Iron Age.

This article presents a newly discovered cuneiform text from the site of Üçtepe in Diyarbakır province in southeastern Turkey. The text bears a previously unknown inscription of the Assyrian king Shalmaneser I. While incomplete, it never-theless gives the most extensive lists of the conquests of Shalmaneser I yet known, including a number of previously unattested toponyms. This is in itself an important contribution to the historical documentation of the Middle Assyrian period. Furthermore, the fact that the text was written to record Shalmaneser’s rebuilding of the city wall of Sinamu allows us to propose that Üçtepe is to be identified with the site of ancient Šinamu, known to have been an important centre from the late third millennium BC and subsequently a regional capital in the provincial system of the Middle Assyrian empire. This is a significant advance on our previous understanding of the historical geography of the region. These issues are discussed in the context of the Middle Assyrian occupation of the Upper Tigris and the results of the archaeological exploration of recent decades.

It was a great privilege in the early stages of a connection with archaeological field work to be asked by Seton Lloyd to return to the British Institute in Ankara to take charge of the architectural recording of the excavations planned for Beycesultan in July 1954. Several years previously I had assisted Seton Lloyd as field architect at Sultan Tepe and in the interim had been concerned (inter alia) with Byzantine buildings (in Cyprus). Thus it was at the very beginning of the excavations at Beycesultan when some ornamented Byzantine blocks were seen lying around on the surface of the mound and others were recovered in the initial clearances, Seton Lloyd suggested that I occupy any available time by recording this material with a view to working it up for eventual publication. This I did to the best of my limited knowledge and abilities. However the matter proceeded no more directly to a final outcome than a great deal of other archaeological publication. After 1956 duties took me elsewhere and in subsequent seasons the pressure of work on the extensive Bronze Age site was so great that the Byzantine fragments no longer came into the reckoning. Then at several junctures after the excavations were concluded the material was discussed, but no convenient opportunities were forthcoming for its proper publication. Therefore it is now encouraging to be allowed to give some illustrated account of these interesting pieces in Anatolian Studies.

This article stems from the writer's discovery in 1955 of an inscribed sarcophagus at Prymnessus, the modern Süğlün, 8 km. south-east of Afyon. It had been intended to follow this up by a reexamination of the stone itself and by an intensive survey, on the ground, of the ancient topography of the valley of the Phrygian Caÿster. But the necessary field-work has been prevented by various considerations, both inside and outside Turkey, and it seems only fair to others interested in this part of Phrygia to publish the inscription and draw at least preliminary conclusions from it.

Süğlün; reused as a horse-trough in a fountain, Güvercinlik Çeşmesi, at the south end of the village. Pink trachyte sarcophagus, moulded above, buried below, with tabula ansata. Height 0·57 m. plus, width 2·07 m., thickness 0·83 m., letters 0·03–0·04 m.

Bereits F. W. Hasluck fand bei seinem survey über Kyzikos in den Jahren 1902–1906 drei archaische Kapitellfragmente, die zeigen, dass der Ort auch in diesem Bereich eigenständige Leistungen hervorgebracht hat, und deren Marmormaterial einen gewissen Reichtum der Stadt schon in früher Zeit im Vergleich etwa zu Larisa und Neandria zum Ausdruck brachte.

Die beiden leider verschollenen Fragmente eines kleinen ionischen Kapitells mit wenigen breiten, konvexen Volutengängen, ein fachem Rundstab und schalenförmigem Auge, gehörten wegen des geringen Echinusdurchmessers (36 cm.) wohl zu einer Votivsäule.

The site of Tell esh Sheikh was excavated in 1947 and 1948 as part of the British project at Alalakh-Tell Atchana in the Amuq plain. It is located two miles west of Tell Tayinat, which adjoins Alalakh, with the mound of Tabara al Akrad one and a half miles east. Other sites on the eastern edge of the plain include Çatal Höyük and Judeidah. Woolley discusses Tell esh Sheikh in the reports of excavations at Alalakh. The seals are described most fully by Buchanan, based on information and sketches supplied to him by the excavators. The present study reflects research done in the Antakya Museum and references to its inventory books. As stated by Buchanan, the seals are distributed over seven levels at the site and include a number of gables made of bone. Further information regarding archaeological context is lacking, according to David French, who is reviewing documentation and finds for the forthcoming publication of the Tell esh Sheikh excavation.

An investigation of seals and sealings at such sites as Norşuntepe and Değirmentepe in eastern Anatolia, and Tepe Gawra in northern Mesopotamia, has provided close parallels for materials, shapes, motifs and styles found in the Tell esh Sheikh seal corpus. Such associations in part confirm results of pottery analysis but also raise questions about the correlation of pottery and seal chronology, and about relations between sites on the Cilician plain and regions closer to the resource-rich areas in the northeast. A review of findings follows below.

The three inscriptions published here were all shown to me on 7th August, 1969, in the course of a brief visit to the village of Ayasören, near Kula, Turkey. To my knowledge, all three are previously unpublished.

1. A grave-stele now built into the pavement of the courtyard behind the house of Mustafa Koyuncu, on the right of the road that leads out of the village in the direction opposite that of the road from Kula (Plate VIa).

Dimensions: height, 1·22 m.; width at bottom, 0·47 m.; letters, 0·025 m.; thickness undeterminable.

Since the stone is now in a position where it is constantly being walked on, the letters are faint, and it was necessary to rub them with charcoal and then splash water on the surface in order to get a photograph.

The pediment of the stele bears a circular decoration in the centre, and a leaf-like decoration in each lower corner.

Die einstmals kreisrunde, flache Bronzescheibe, angeblich aus Ostanatolien, die hier vorgestellt wird (Pl. XXX–XXXI), befand sich 1981 für kurze Zeit im Labor der Prähistorischen Staatssammlung, München. Die Form des Bleches, die bisher bekannten Beschlagblechen nicht genau entspricht, die historische Darstellung auf dem umlaufenden Fries und das Mittelemblem verdienen eine genauere Behandlung.

Die Scheibe: Die durchschnittlich auf eine Dicke von ungefähr 1/2 mm. ausgehämmerte Bronzescheibe wird durch 4 konzentrische getriebene Wülste in einen mittleren Kreis, drei Zonen und einen Rand aufgeteilt (Fig. 1, Pl. XXXa). Im Übrigen ist sie ganz flach, und das dürfte auch ihrem antiken Zustand entsprechen: sie muß allerdings einmal brutal quer gefaltet gewesen sein, wovon eine Reihe von Rissen und Knicken herrühren, die von links unten nach rechts oben verlaufen (Pl. XXXa); an den Enden dieser Faltung ist auch der Rand am weitesten ausgerissen. Die nachträgliche Begradigung dieser Partie ist wohl modern. Links oben und rechts unten jedoch ist der offenbar ursprünglache flache Zustand bewahrt.

Since the first European visited Alaca Hüyük 150 years ago the site has been noted for its gateway dating from the Hittite empire, fourteenth and thirteenth centuries B.C. Within a few decades of the discovery, excavations revealed a large number of sculptured orthostats flanking the entry, but the piers with sphinx protomes have always been above ground and have given the entrance its name, the Sphinx Gate. Nineteenth-century travellers noted on the inner face of the eastern sphinx pier the fragmentary representation of a figure above a two-headed eagle clutching two rabbits (Pl. XXXIX, a). The relief is visible to everyone entering the city through this gateway. The parallel figure on the other pier, the subject of this report, has rarely been mentioned.

The late morning sun highlights remnants of a female figure on the inner face of the western sphinx pier (Fig. 1, Pl. XXXVIII, a, b). The upper part, from a point below the waist, and the whole front are destroyed, but there is no doubt of the back contour of the long robe, its surface covered by a series of striations sweeping down and back into the train.

Since 1968 Oinoanda in northern Lycia has been the scene of investigations by members of the British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara. A major objective of the work has been the discovery and rediscovery of pieces of the Greek inscription set up, probably in the first half of the second century AD, by the Epicurean philosopher Diogenes. In 1997, with the generous permission and support of the Directorate-General of Monuments and Museums and with the welcome collaboration of Ibrahim Malkoç, Director of the Fethiye Museum, and his colleagues, excavation was possible for the first time. The season, though very short and on a very small scale, brought to light 10 new fragments of the inscription (see Smith 1998) — finds which raised the total of new fragments recovered since 1968 to 135 and the total of known fragments (88 were discovered late in the 19th century) to 223.

The Hittite cylinder seal discussed here (Figs. 1–4) was purchased by Sir Max Mallowan in the 'thirties while he was working in northern Syria. In the division of his collections it was allotted to the Fitzwilliam Museum, in Cambridge, which received it in 1966. Extensive use has severely worn the engraved surface, and even the two large old chips have been smoothed over. Despite the loss of all details, such as facial features, each element of the composition can be recognized or restored. In the chipped area are fragments of the main figure, the Storm-god raising a mace and standing on the shoulders of two Mountain-gods. Before the Storm-god and facing him is the Sun-god, winged disk overhead, two kneeling animal-headed supporting figures below. The Storm-god is followed by a deity in walking position, over a bull. A many-branched tree, repeated in the impression, closes the three-part composition, and a cross with approximately equal arms occupies a place between the tree and the upraised mace. Simple incised lines mark the top and bottom edges of the engraved surface. There seems to be no form that can unquestionably be called a Hittite hieroglyph.

In the winter of 1974 farmers working in their fields near the village of Selimiye about fifteen kilometres south-east of Ceyhan uncovered a small round limestone altar bearing an image in relief of the goddess Athena (Pl. XVII a). The form and attributes of the figure—left hand on shield, left leg slightly bent, Nike on right hand, aegis on breast—clearly indicate that the relief owes much to Pheidias' great chryselephantine statue in Athens. It may thus be added to a considerable number of representations dating back to Hellenistic times that show the interest in Pheidias' masterpiece in southeastern Asia Minor. In itself it is important as an addition to the handful of reliefs depicting one of the most famous monuments of antiquity.

The altar joins a number of other similar monuments, mostly funerary in nature, of varying dimensions in the Adana regional museum. Its height is 0·64 m., its diameter at the base 0·38 m. It consists of a flat round base supporting a series of mouldings (torus, cyma reversa, fillet—Fig. 1a), a central drum divided unequally into a lower and a slightly projecting upper section, a further series of mouldings (fillet, ovolo—Fig. 1b) above which rises a biconical rim with flattened edge, a short continuation of the drum and finally a capping moulding (much mutilated in our specimen). The top is slightly convex with a shallow, rough depression in the middle 0·011 m. deep and 0·11 m. in diameter. Except for the relief and surrounding area the whole stone is dressed down with a claw chisel. There is some entasis apparent in the central portion of the drum.

In the small collection of antiquities in the Municipality building (Belediye) of Taşköprü, in the vilayet of Kastamonu, there is a Latin inscription which is said to have been recently brought from the Karasayit Cami (formerly the Kurşunlu Mektep) in Taşköprü itself. It was declared on the authority of the Belediye Reisi, Bay Mustafa Yılmaz to whom I am greatly indebted for his help and assistance, that the stone had been recovered from the foundations of the old school. The stone was carried, it may be presumed, from the site of Pompeiopolis, situated across the river, immediately above the Ottoman bridge. I saw the inscription on 4th October, 1976, in company with Bay Nurettin Çakir, Assistant at the Antiquities Museum of Kastamonu, while carrying out, on behalf of the RECAM project, that section of the programme which concerns Kastamonu and Taşköprü.

The inscription is well cut and the lettering is good. The stone is chipped at the front on both the left and the right edges but the top and sides have not been broken. The lower part of the inscription, however, is lost. The space and, therefore, the number of letters to be restored on each edge can be estimated by extrapolating a line from the two sides of the block.

The Hittites used the seeds of a particular plant, now known to have been called marashanha, in a ritual for cursing a conquered city to ensure its desolation. Other parts of the same plant provided food and medicine. We have combined textual, botanical, linguistic and herbalist evidence to propose that marashanha denoted at least one species of fennel. This plant readily colonises deserted habitation sites and possesses properties in common with marashanha. We further propose that the Anatolian word ‘marashanha’ has a common origin with the Greek word for fennel, ‘marath(r)o-’, and that the impact of folk etymology on the latter reflects the use of fennel as a female contraceptive. Fennel's ability to inhibit conception accords with the barrenness which the Hittite ritual sought to impose upon a conquered city.