Hittitology is the study of the

Hittites The Hittites () were an Anatolian peoples, Anatolian Proto-Indo-Europeans, Indo-European people who formed one of the first major civilizations of the Bronze Age in West Asia. Possibly originating from beyond the Black Sea, they settled in mo ...

, an ancient Anatolian people that established an empire around

Hattusa Hattusa, also Hattuşa, Ḫattuša, Hattusas, or Hattusha, was the capital of the Hittites, Hittite Empire in the late Bronze Age during two distinct periods. Its ruins lie near modern Boğazkale, Turkey (originally Boğazköy) within the great ...

in the 2nd millennium BCE. It combines aspects of the

archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

history History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

philology Philology () is the study of language in Oral tradition, oral and writing, written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also de ...

, and

art history Art history is the study of Work of art, artistic works made throughout human history. Among other topics, it studies art’s formal qualities, its impact on societies and cultures, and how artistic styles have changed throughout history. Tradit ...

of the Hittite civilisation. There are two universities in Turkey with a Hittitology major studies besides some minors and chairs, one of

Istanbul University Istanbul University, also known as University of Istanbul (), is a Public university, public research university located in Istanbul, Turkey. Founded by Mehmed II on May 30, 1453, a day after Fall of Constantinople, the conquest of Constantinop ...

and

Ankara University Ankara University () is a public university, public research university in Ankara, the capital of Turkey. It was the first higher education institution founded in Turkey after the History of the Republic of Turkey, formation of the Turkish republ ...

. A minor programme in Hittitology (B.A.) has recently been created at Philipps-Marburg University, Germany.

List of Hittitologists

A partial list of notable Hittite scholars includes: * Selim Adalı * Metin Alparslan * Vladislav Ardzinba (1945–2010) * Trevor R. Bryce (born 1940) * Gary Beckman * Jeanny Vorys Canby * Yaşar Coşkun * Philo H. J. Houwink ten Cate () * Birgit Christiansen * Billie Jean Collins * Halet Çambel * Petra Goedegebuure * Albrecht Goetze (1897–1971) *

Oliver Gurney Oliver Robert Gurney (28 January 1911 – 11 January 2001) was an English Assyriologist from the Gurney family and a leading scholar of the Hittites. Early life Gurney was born in London in 1911, the son of Robert Gurney, a zoologist, and a ...

(1911–2001) * Hans G. Güterbock (1908–2000) * Harry A. Hoffner (1934–2015) * Theo van den Hout *

Bedřich Hrozný Bedřich Hrozný (; 6 May 1879 – 12 December 1952), also known as , was a Czechs, Czech Oriental studies, orientalist and linguist. He contributed to the decipherment of the ancient Hittite language, identified it as an Indo-European language, ...

(1879–1952) * Sara Kimball * Alwin Kloekhorst * J. G. Macqueen * Gregory McMahon *

Craig Melchert Harold Craig Melchert (born April 5, 1945) is an American linguist known particularly for his work on the Anatolian branch of Indo-European. Biography He received his B.A. in German from Michigan State University in 1967 and his Ph.D. in Lingui ...

* Jared L. Miller * Alice Mouton *

Jaan Puhvel Jaan Puhvel (born 24 January 1932) is an Estonians, Estonian comparative linguistics, comparative linguist and comparative mythologist who specializes in Indo-European studies. Born in Estonia, Puhvel fled his country with his family in 1944 f ...

* Andreas Schachner * Daniel Schwemer *

Itamar Singer Itamar Singer (; November 26, 1946 – September 19, 2012) was an Israeli author and historian of Jewish-Romanian origin. He is known for his research of the Ancient Near East and as a leading Hittitologist, pioneering the study of this an ...

(1946–2012) * Edgar H. Sturtevant (1875–1952) * Piotr Taracha *

Willemijn Waal Willemijn J.I. Waal (b. 1975 to :nl:Cees_Waal, Cornelis Jan Dirk Waal and Iris Schuddebeurs) is a Dutch Hittitologist and Classicist. She is known especially for her work on Hittite administrative practice and the development of early scripts, incl ...

* Kazuhiko Yoshida * Leonie Zuntz (1908–1942) * Lord Edwin E. Hitti

References

* Archaeological sub-disciplines {{AncientNearEast-stub

List of Hittitologists

See also

References