B005588 - HITTITOLOGY

Italian

The course introduces to the study of the Hittite civilization (II millennium BC) through the analysis of the sources in cuneiform script.
After a general intoroduction, the course provides the necessary tools for the analysis of Hittite cuneiform texts: grammar and syntax of the Hittite language, learning of the cuneiform script, palaeography

S. de Martino, Gli ittiti, Roma 2003
H. Genz – P. Mielke, INSIGHTS INTO HITTITE HISTORY AND ARCHAEOLOGY, Leuven 2011, Chap. 1-9.
G. Beckman, “Religion. Bei den Hethitern (in lingua inglese)” in Reallexikon der Assyriologie 11 (2007), 333-338.
G. Beckman, „Pantheon. Bei den Hethitern (in lingua inglese)“ in Reallexikon der Assyriologie 10 (2004), 308-316.

M. Liverani, Antico Oriente, Storia, società, economia, Bari 2009 (o altra edizione)
XII: Lo stato e i commerci paleoassiri
XV: L’Anatolia antico-ittita
XVI: Tecnologia e ideologia del Tardo Bronzo
XVII: L’egemonia Mitannica
XVIII: L’impero ittita
XIX: La Siria palestina nel Tardo bronzo
XXII: Crisi e ristrutturazione
XXVI: Gli Stati neo-ittiti

Rita Francia, Lineamenti di grammatica ittita, Roma 2012
Introduzione al cuneiforme e alla paleografia (dispense)

Recommended further readings:
F. Pecchioli - A.M. Polvani, La mitologia ittita, 1990
Del Monte, L’Annalistica ittita, Brescia 1993
M. Liverani, Le lettere di El-Amarna (voll. 1 e 2), Brescia 1998
Marizza, Lettere ittite di re e dignitari, Brescia 2009
Annick Payne, Inscirptions of the Iron Age, Atlanta 2012
De Vecchi, Trattati internazionali ittiti, Brescia 2015

knowledge and understanding: Students will be able to read a text in Hittite cuneiform, and analyse text structure and grammar in order to get a proper translation. applying knowledge and understanding: Acquisition of the necessary tools for the research on written sources and historical reconstruction of the Hittite civilization

Lessons, partecipation of the students with exercises and analysis of scientific articles

Exercises will be on-line on Moodle platform.
Handouts of the lessons will be on moodle.

The learning phases of grammar and cuneiform script will be verified and supported by exercises during the lessons. All the students attending the lessons must take part.
At the end of the course, an oral examination will be conducted with questions related to the general part mentioned in the bibliography and the program explained in the lessons. A part of the exam will be devoted to reading from cuneiform, and translation with grammatical commentary of passages of lessons learned.

Introduction to the history and religion of the Hittites (10 hours)
“The Laws of the Hittites” (26 hours). The course analyses the structure of the Hittite society through the collection of ancient-Hittite laws and related texts.
Starting from the text of the Laws and from the reading of scientific articles on the subject, the course explores some specific aspects: the concept of law in the Hittite world in comparison with the other societies of the ancient Near East; sanctions and punishments in the ancient Hittite world: the comparison between the Laws and the “Palace Chronicles”; the agricultural system, the settlement system and the land distribution: comparison between Hittite laws and “Land Donation Grants”.
Attention will be paid to the reading of some paragraphs of the Hittite Laws. A study of the language, grammar and syntactic system will be undertaken. First elements of Hittite cuneiform script.