Stone beads from the site of Troy, Turkey, have been studied in order to understand better the nature of lapidary technology and trade during the third to second millennium BC in this part of Anatolia. Eighteen carnelian and two rock crystal beads were documented through visual examinations, measurement and photography to identify the raw material, as well as general aspects of manufacture and style. Silicone impressions of the drill holes as well as some of the engraved surfaces were made in order to study the nature of drilling and abrasion under a Scanning Electron Microscope. Through these studies, it is possible to identify the presence of different types of bead production and drilling technology during each major chronological period at the site. Some of the beads may have been produced at Troy or at nearby sites in Anatolia while others have links to the southern Aegean and eastern Mediterranean regions as well as the more distant regions of Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley.

In the summer of 2012 Oylum Höyük yielded its first Hittite cuneiform tablet and thus joined five other Hittite tabletyielding sites in southeastern Anatolia and northern Syria. The tablet was probably removed from a nearby Hittite imperial-period monumental building, which seems to have been the Hittites’ administrative centre at Oylum, and incorporated into Iron Age debris. The wording of the text, in its preserved parts, shares traits with Hittite state treaties. It also has striking similarities with Hittite instruction texts, due to the generic affinities between these two genres. However, on the basis of the overall structure of the Oylum tablet and, most significantly, the inclusion of a list of oath gods at the end of the text, it is proposed that we are dealing here with a treaty. This article clarifies the genre and comprehensible context of the tablet, provides a transliteration and, as far as it is possible, a translation of the text, provides some philological comments and ends with the suggestion that the ancient name of Oylum Höyük was Ḫaššu(wa).

The relationship between the Luwian and Phoenician versions of the bilingual texts emanating from Cilicia has never been systematically studied from the philological viewpoint. In this paper I endeavour to demonstrate that a converging set of formal arguments supports the primary character of the Phoenician versions of the ÇINEKÖY and KARATEPE 1 bilinguals and the secondary character of their Luwian versions. I interpret this as a metaphor for the relationship between two ethnic constituents of the Neo-Hittite principality of Que, whose coexistence was earlier argued for on independent grounds. According to the proposed interpretation, the Phoenician language was emblematic of the rulers of Que, who claimed Greek descent and therefore attempted to distance themselves from the traditional elites of the neighbouring Neo-Hittite states. The use of the Luwian language was a concession to the indigenous population of Que. The adoption of Phoenician as a language of written expression by the Greek colonists in Cilicia happened at the point when the Linear B script had been forgotten and represented the first step toward the creation of the Greek alphabet.

In 2007 two stelae, each bearing figures of the Storm-god leading a ruler and a duplicate Hieroglyphic Luwian text, were discovered at Uluçınar (formerly Arsuz), on the Turkish coast south of Iskenderun. The inscription is the work of a Suppiluliuma, son of Manana, king of the land of Walastin, now understood as the Luwian designation of the Amuq plain with its capital at the Iron Age site of Tell Tayinat. The stelae, probably dating to the later tenth century BC, record the successful reign of the ruler and his happy relations with the Storm-god. Historically important is a passage which describes this Amuq king's victory over the Cilician plain, the city of Adana and the land of Hiyawa.

Little is known about the geo-political landscape of central Anatolia after the collapse of the Hittite Empire. In particular, almost no archaeological evidence for stone monumental art dating to the post-Hittite period north of the Taurus mountains has survived. Now, the stele of Tavşantepe sheds new light on the history of southern Cappadocia during the so-called ‘dark age’ and offers us a unique insight into the artistic production of this region at the beginning of the first millennium BC. Moreover, its location along one of the most important routes connecting southern Cappadocia with central Anatolia, the Altunhisar valley, helps us reconstruct the socio-religious developments in this area in the period predating the emergence of the Neo-Hittite Kingdom of Tuwana in the eighth century BC.

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.

This article presents a body of architectural reliefs and two stelae from the ancient town of Cibyra in the Roman province of Asia and, in most cases, now kept in the provincial Burdur Museum. The pieces show different aspects of gladiatorial games, such as duels between gladiators and the hunting of animals. It is argued that the architectural reliefs once belonged to three different monumental tombs of munerarii, commemorating specific games sponsored by them, while the stelae were set up for single gladiators after their deaths. An analysis of the style of their execution indicates that the reliefs were produced in the second half of the second century AD. The iconography and composition of the gladiatorial combats depicted on these reliefs seem to have been influenced by a specific Hellenic view of the games, while the venatio scenes emphasise the richness of the show. In total, the material may contribute to a better understanding of the reception and transformation of the munera in the Greek East.

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.