In an article published in Anatolian Studies XXVI (1976), I have questioned the accepted chronology of level VII in Alalakh, suggesting that four rather than two kings reigned in Alalakh during the period covered by the level VII archive. In the meantime two important works, bearing directly on the subject, have been published by Dr. Dominique Collon. The first is an enlargement of her thesis on the Alalakh seal impressions, including a detailed discussion of the seal impressions as well as of the overall problem of the archive and its inner division into generations (SITA, pp. 143–161). This most welcome contribution to the subject at hand adds much to our understanding of the chronology of level VII, although some of her points might be interpreted in a different way, as I hope to show below.

In her book Dr. Collon accepted the chronological system suggested by the CAH, according to which there were only two kings in Alalakh during the period of level VII. She again summarized her results in Anatolian Studies XXVII (1977), rejecting my suggested reconstruction of the chronology of the kings as well as of the generations in Alalakh.

Our knowledge of Urartian jewellery in precious stones and metals has remained obscure in spite of references in Assyrian texts and examples portrayed in Urartian descriptive art. This can be attributed to two causes: (a) The jewellery from illicit excavations has not reached the museums; (b) Urartian tombs and cemeteries have not as yet been subjected to sufficiently methodical systems of research. In addition, jewellery of unknown provenance which has been bought by museums has not been published. However, that brought to light at the three Urartian centres of Karmir-Blur, Altıntepe, and Patnos/Deǧirmentepe has to some degree increased our knowledge of Urartian personal ornamentation.

Jewellery

The jewellery from Altıntepe is made of gold, silver and precious stones:

1. Gold and silver buttons (Pl. XIa–c):

In the second room of the third tomb, and outside the coffin of the man, were found eight gold and six silver buttons. Thirty-two gold buttons, sewn onto the dress of the woman, were found in her sarcophagus. Thirty-eight of the large buttons are 1·75 cm. in diameter and 0·6 cm. in height. All are circular, with convex surfaces decorated at the centre with a six-petalled rosette encircled by six circles in repoussé and six granular triangles. The rosettes and circles are bordered by granules and a gold wire set between two rows of granules encircles the central design around the rim.

It is many years since scholars began systematically to copy and publish the inscriptions of Colonia Caesarea (Pisidian Antioch), but the site of the colony and the houses and streets of the neighbouring town of Yalvaç still have much to yield. The following inscriptions, hitherto unpublished, were collected in 1955. They are arranged here according to language. The Latin inscriptions come first: a group of architectural fragments and dedications to Roman emperors, ranging widely in date but belonging for the most part to the early fourth century, is followed by some dedications to private individuals, probably persons of good standing in the colony. The Greek inscriptions may be divided into three classes: epitaphs, dedications to the gods, and some late, Christian, fragments; official tituli are wanting.

I. In the garden of the Ortokul at Yalvaç, on a broken entablature now measuring 66 cm. in length by 42 cm. in height by 36 cm. in depth (lower surface). The letters range from 7·5 to 5·5 cm. in height. The inscription is complete above, where there is a moulding, and below (on the right at least).

The Alalakh tablets were published by Wiseman in 1953, and in subsequent years the main chronological problems raised by them have been treated in numerous studies. Already in 1954, Landsberger, in a comprehensive paper on the chronology, determined that the Alalakh archive was later than the days of BḪammurapi and the destruction of Mari, and suggested identifying YḪammurapi (end of the period of the Mari archives) with YḪammurapi the father of YAbbael, the first ruler of Yamḫad mentioned in the Alalakh tablets. Landsberger thus was able to form a chronological continuity between the rulers known from the Mari archives (including BḪammurapi) and the rulers known from the Alalakh archives. This suggestion was generally accepted among scholars subsequently dealing with the Alalakh material.

In the same paper, Landsberger set out a full reconstruction of the dynasties ruling in Yamḫad and in Alalakh in the period of the archive from level VII. This scheme has been modified slightly by Smith, Goetze, and Kupper, in the years following, demonstrating that YIrkabtum, who appears in the year-names in several documents from the archive (AT 33, 38, 54, 58, 64 and 65) was the heir of YNiqmiepuḫ, and contemporary with AAmmitaqum. Thus, it was determined that, in the period of the Alalakh archive, the following six kings ruled in succession at Ḫaleb: YAbbael, YYarimlim II, YNiqmiepuḫ, YIrkabtum, YḪammurapi II, YYarimlim III (the latter two are often listed in reverse order). The first four kings of this list are noted in father-son relationships, while the relationships of the two latter are unknown.

The inscriptions published here were recorded during the excavation at Şar, Comana Cappadociae, conducted jointly for the Ankara Archaeological Museum and the British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara by Mrs. İnci Bayburtluoğlu and the writer in August, 1967. A report of the excavation appeared in AS. XVIII, 1968, p. 149 ff.

The numerical sequence of the inscriptions continues that of “Tituli Comanorum Cappadociae” (AS. XVIII, 1968, p. 93 ff.) Again I give measurements, figures made from contact drawings of squeezes and photographs. Dimensions are in centimetres, width before height before depth.

3,08. Found outside the north side of the Kırık Kilise. Part of the top of a round limestone altar, centre hollow, 40 × 25 × 20. Top surrounded with a wreath of leaves. Inscription worn, broken left, 23 × 7; letters 2; possible traces of two more lines. Photograph Pl. Ia.

This article presents an inscribed statue base discovered at Oinoanda by Professor Martin Ferguson Smith in 2002. The new inscription is placed in its historical context, and the commentary traces the implications for our understanding of Roman army recruitment, the role of the civic élite in responding to the demands of the imperial government and the practice of heroisation in the competition for honour among the notables who were also the city's victorious athletes.

The myth of Nergal and Ereshkigal has long been known to Assyriologists from a Middle Babylonian tablet found among the diplomatic archives of Tell El Amarna. The tablet had apparently been imported into Egypt, perhaps from Syria, together with a similar one inscribed with the myth of Adapa, as a school-text for the training of scribes. It was only in 1951 that fragments of a late Assyrian version of the tale were unearthed at Sultantepe. In 1953, after the numerous fragments had been baked and joined, the text was identified by the present writer and a preliminary account of it was given by him in a lecture delivered early in 1955. The cuneiform text was published in 1957 and a full edition was promised for this journal. The present article is intended to fulfil that promise. The Sultantepe tablet remains the sole authority for the late Assyrian version of the tale, not a single fragment having come to light from any other source.

During the 1962 excavations at Aphrodisias, a number of marble storage jars and a marble basin were discovered which were tentatively associated with wine production. The area was further excavated in 1970 when more pieces were uncovered in situ and then placed west of their original positions where they now remain (fig 1) (Erim 1970: 60, figs 44, 45).

These remains have since been identified as equipment used in the production of olive oil. This article provides a record of the individual items excavated, a discussion of their original findspots, and a hypothetical reconstruction of the operation of the press, followed by a discussion of the production capacity and date of such a processing plant.

Lidar Höyük was situated on the east bank of the Euphrates river, about 50km northwest of the provincial capital Şanlıurfa and within sight of the mound of Samsat on the opposite bank. Since 1988 these sites have been flooded by the waters of the Atatürk Dam Basin. Excavations at Lidar Höyük took place in the years from 1979 to 1987. They were conducted by the Institute für Ur- und Frühgeschichte und Vorderasiatische Archäologie of the University of Heidelberg under the direction of Hauptmann. The occupation levels reached from the Islamic down to the Chalcolithic Period. Iron Age structures were found mainly in a large trench called Q, R, S 44-45, where an unbroken stratigraphy from the 13th to the sixth century BC could be excavated.

When Professor Garstang excavated part of the Middle-Late Bronze Age Necropolis at Jericho between the years 1930–1936, he made special mention in one of his reports of a scarab in a group of six from Tomb 13 (LAAA., XX 1933, pp. 36–7 and Fig. 11). He described it briefly as follows:—

“Figure of a Canaanite wearing robe and cap with Syro-Hyksos hieroglyphs in the field.”

Twenty years have elapsed since then, and other scarabs have come to light which show figures wearing the same type of dress, so that it does seem worth while to assemble them on one page to see if they form a consistent and instructive group.

The purpose of this article is to publish a third version of the ancient Babylonian myth of the Twenty-one “Poultices”, and to comment on the mythological content of all three, while leaving details of the strictly medical aspects to others. The two hitherto known versions of this myth are both preserved on Late Assyrian tablets from Assur: LKA 146, the whole of which is relevant, and BAM 313, of which only part is of direct concern. The tablet published here for the first time, BM 33999, is of Late Babylonian date, probably from Babylon, and is now in the British Museum, by kind permission of whose Trustees it is available.

“Poultices” (mêlu) were a common form of Babylonian medicine. A number of drugs, usually between two and four, were combined and then applied to a person's body with the aid of a leather strap or pouch. When specified, the neck is always the part of the body involved, and the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary (sub voce) assumes that this was always the case, but perhaps it would be wise to leave the question open for the present.

A new inquiry into the archaeology of north-eastern Anatolia was initiated in the summer of 1990 at Büyüktepe Höyük, alternatively called İkiztepe. Located about 1·8 km. north of the village of Çiftetaş, in the mountain-girdled Bayburt plain, some 1500 m. above the level of the Black Sea, the site comprises layers of human occupation stretched across two distinct natural hills joined by a saddle (Figs 1–3). Orientated along a northwest–southeast axis, Büyüktepe rises impressively some 20 m. above the floor of the Beşpınar valley. In a direct line from Bayburt, Büyüktepe is only 30 km. to the southwest, although, if one follows the Bayburt to Demirözü road, the distance is increased to about 35 km. From the village of Çiftetaş, a track leads to Büyüktepe and bifurcates roughly 350 m. from its southern end. One branch skirts its eastern base on its way to Çayıryolu; the other runs toward the spurs of Baltakaya Tepesi which were also settled in antiquity.

Of the many Byzantine churches in Cilicia which have survived, in a greater or lesser state of ruin, to the present day, there can be no doubt that the best known and most remarkable is the monastery church at Alahan in Isauria. During July, 1890, Professor W. M. Ramsay, D. G. Hogarth and A. C. Headlam visited the site, and in 1892 published their results under the title “Ecclesiastical Sites in Isauria (Cilicia Trachea)” in Supplementary Papers No. II of the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies. This publication completely superseded that of Laborde who had been at Alahan in 1826, and to-day it is still the only authoritative work on the subject of the architecture and relief sculpture of the monastery.

Headlam's description of the site is brief and accurate. “The ruins of Koja Kalessi (i.e. Alahan) are situated about 3,000 feet above the Calycadnus valley and 4,000 feet above the sea, facing south and southwest and looking over the junction of the two great river valleys through which the branches of the ancient Calycadnus run. They consist of a large monastery with buildings of various characters too much destroyed to be easily identified, and a church in very good preservation. They are built on a terrace running due east and west, partly cut out of the side of the hill, with the ground falling away very steeply below and rising almost precipitously above.” (Pl. IX, b).

An inscription from a private collection in Fethiye tells part of a court case concerning the illegal sale of land to ‘foreigners’, who are identified as Lycians. It is argued that the land belonged to Rhodes' mainland possessions bordering on Lycia, and some of the individuals named in the inscription may be identified with members of a prominent second century AD Rhodian family. Possible locations for the land at Daidala or on the island of Meis/Castellorizo are discussed.

In the mid first century BC, a dynast named Tarcondimotus asserted his authority over parts of Smooth Cilicia. Tarcondimotus' successful accommodation of the differing expectations of Roman magistrates, local Greeks and Cilicians was connected to his patronage of the Greek polis of Hierapolis-Castabala. Through such patronage, he collaborated with municipal elites to interweave Greek and local traditions into the city's culture and cult in ways that produced innovative expressions of civic Hellenism. Likewise, while Hierapolis-Castabala was under Tarcondimotus' protection, its cult to the goddess Perasia, a local manifestation of the ancient Hittite deity Kubaba, embodied these unique cultural expressions. During the Hellenistic and Roman periods, Perasia retained her traditional name and her cult enjoyed distinctively local rites in which her priestesses walked upon fiery coals. Such unique qualities prevented Greeks and Romans during the centuries following Tarcondimotus' rule from associating her with any single goddess worshipped in Greece or Italy. In sum, by patronising Hierapolis-Castabala, Tarcondimotus presented himself as the defender of Greek civic life and the Hierapolitai were able to persist in their unique expressions of Greek civic performance and cult in the turbulent transitional period between Seleucid and Roman rule.

The site of Pednelissus in Pisidia, southern Turkey, was first visited by an Italian expedition in 1914. Fieldwork was resumed by a joint project of L. Vandeput (University of Cologne) and H. Bandt (University of Bamberg) in 2001. This article presents the results of the first epigraphical campaign in 2002, which led to the revision of 21 texts as well as the discovery of five new inscriptions. The majority of these texts are building and honorary inscriptions, and, with one possibly Hellenistic exception, they date from Roman imperial times (first to early third centuries).

The analysis of eight samples of carbonised plant material from the Patnos area (Aǧri), an important site of the Urartian period in eastern Turkey is presented. Bread/macaroni wheat (Triticum aestivum L./T. durum Desf.) and domesticated emmer wheat (Triticum dicoccum Schübl.) are the main crop plants. Hulled barley (Hordeum L.) is less abundantly represented. Pulse seeds, bitter vetch (Vicia ervilia (L.) Willd.), lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.) and Latyhrus L.-type were found in smaller numbers. A few wild seeds were also recorded.

Winifred Lamb was one of the founding members of the British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara, and a pioneering excavator in Anatolia (Caton-Thompson 1964: 51). Lamb had acquired her excavating skills as a member of the British School at Athens, where she was admitted in 1920 after reading Classics at Newnham College, Cambridge and subsequent war service in Room 40 of the Admiralty (The Times [London] 18 September 1963; Woodward 1963; Barnett 1962–3; Annual Report of the British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara 15 [1963] 2–3; Caton-Thompson 1964; Hood 1998: 70–5; Gill in preparation a, c; see also Ridgway 1996). During the early 1920s she excavated with members of the British School at Mycenae (Lamb 1919–21; Lamb, Wace 1921–3a-e), Sparta (Lamb 1926–7a-b; see also Hood 1998: 59–131) and in Macedonia (Heurtley 1939; Lamb 1940; see also Hood 1998: 144–49). Her interest in prehistory was also reflected in her creation of a prehistoric gallery at the Fitzwilliam Museum in the University of Cambridge, where she had been appointed Honorary Keeper of Greek and Roman antiquities in 1920 (Gill 1999a).