Module Overview

Topics covered will include: locating archaeological sites; methods of archaeological survey; planning and costing field projects and...

Middle Eastern language|Middle Eastern literature

Teaching Delivery: This module is taught in 20 weekly lectures.

Content: This module offers a general overview of the Hittite text corpus and its...

Teaching Delivery: This module is taught in 20 weekly lectures.

Content: This module offers a general overview of the Hittite text corpus and its different cultural layers. Students read texts selected to illustrate the important genres of the Hittite corpus: historical texts, letters, tales and legends, myths, rituals and hymns and prayers. Key skills to be acquired include the reconstruction of cuneiform texts from multiple manuscripts, a deepened understanding of the diachronic development of the Hittite language and of Hittite palaeography. The actual selection of texts to be read in class takes into account current research in Hittite history and culture and introduces the student to the sources underlying the important current scholarly debates within the field.

Skills: At the end of the module students should:

1. have acquired competence in the reading of intermediate-level cuneiform texts in Hittite;

2. have made progress in the reading, translation and interpretation of cuneiform texts in the genres studied;

3. know how to differentiate manuscripts of Hittite cuneiform texts according to their age;

4. have a more sophisticated understanding of the written legacy of ancient Anatolia;

5. have gained appropriate knowledge of the philological and methodological issues with which Hittitologists engage;

6. be able to demonstrate their understanding of the complexities involved in interpreting Hittite texts both orally and in writing

Texts:

Ancient History|Ancient Languages and Cultures|Hebrew and Jewish Studies|History|Linguistics|Middle Eastern Languages and Cultural Studies|Other Asian Languages and Cultural Studies|Theology and Religion