With this number of Anatolian Studies we begin the publication of the Sultantepe tablets, as foreshadowed in Volume II, p. 35. The general nature of the hoard of tablets has already been described in the previous article. We present here three texts which are of some historical importance: the two eponym lists, and the tablet from “ M.2 ” (nos. 150, 18 + 21, and 331, of the 1952 season). All three provide some additional information about the series of limmu officials or eponyms, whose names were used by the Assyrians for dating their years and therefore form the basis of Assyrian chronology; the first two referring to the period covered by the “ Eponym Canon ” (911–648 B.C.) and the third to the short period between 648 and the fall of Nineveh (612 B.C.), for which there are no lists. It is hoped to continue the publication of the tablets in succeeding volumes.

The First Season's excavating at Sultantepe, occupying a period of four weeks in May–June 1951, has already received preliminary notices in Anatolian Studies, II, etc. The mound (see Figure 1), which is situated at a distance of 10 miles from Urfa on the road leading to the ruins of ancient Harran, is too conspicuous a landmark to have escaped the notice of travelling scholars in the past; but no record of their visits has ever been published and its selection for excavations in 1951 was the result of a systematic investigation into the historical topography of the Harran region, initiated by the Institute in the summer of 1950 (cf. Anatolian Studies, I, pp. 77 ff.).

The excavations were resumed on 8th May 1952 and the second season's work lasted until 20th June. The field-directorship was again jointly in the hands of Bay Nuri Gökçe, Director of the Hittite Museum at Ankara, and Mr. Seton Lloyd, Director of the Institute. They were assisted on this occasion by Dr. O. R. Gurney, as epigraphist, Mr. J. D. Evans (Institute Fellow for 1951–52), and Bay Burhan Tozcan, as field-assistants, and Mr. G. R. H. Wright, as architect.

The group of small objects from the priestess' room at Sultantepe is of much interest, firstly because they are well dated, secondly because they show signs of mostly originating from some not too distant market. Whereas the source of the alabastra may well be North Syria, it is perhaps not too bold to see in the fayence objects the products of a local factory, perhaps Harran itself.

I. Scholars who attempted the decipherment of the Hittite hieroglyphics began their task with only slender hopes. They had, it is true, before their eyes the successes of their predecessors in solving the secrets both of the Egyptian hieroglyphics and of the Assyrian cuneiform scripts. But these successes had been made possible because in each case a ready key had, been at hand in the shape of a bilingual. Until six years ago no bilingual equal to the Rosetta stone or the Behistun texts had been found for Hittite hieroglyphics and, except for the doubtful help accorded by the inscriptions on a seal or two, to which we shall return, the decipherers had to rely upon their own unaided intuition. It is one thing to elucidate the meaning of an unknown language when it is written in an already known script, such as the Etruscan: or when it is a more or less known language written in a mysterious character, such as turned out to be the case with the Assyrian (for the decipherers were much aided by the discovery that it was a Semitic language akin to Hebrew). But when neither the script nor the language nor their authors are known, when it is known neither what the signs are likely to mean nor what sounds they represent nor who spoke them, the task is indeed a hard one. The degree of success which was achieved in spite of all is sufficiently remarkable to deserve a brief description, since it is a feat which it was always said would prove impossible.

In May–June 1952 I was able, through the guidance and with the generous assistance of Mr. Seton Lloyd, Director of the British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara, to visit the monuments of Sumatar Harabesi on two occasions, the first for three days, the second for six days. The shortness of my stay there, the restricted circumstances under which I was operating and, above all, the lack of the equipment required to carry out a precise and satisfactory survey—all combined to allow no more than a comparatively superficial examination of the site. I have, nevertheless, ventured to present my preliminary findings here, until the opportunity may occur for at least a partial clearance of the site and a more detailed survey.

In 1938 Near Erzincan an important find of Urartian metal-work was made, which is now in the Ankara Museum. In view of the rarity of Urartian material as yet recovered and of the brief character of the only publication of this find, we thought it desirable to publish a fuller account.