Actors and Power Structures in Hittite Society

• Applicant: Dr. Matteo Vigo
• Subject Area: Egyptology and Ancient Near Eastern Studies
• Term: from 2018 to 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 394841501

The proposed project is a study of Hittite society, its power structures and characters, along with interrelated aspects of the administrative system.The individual objectives of the proposed research programme are:1) Definition of explicit and implicit agents in Hittite society2) Collection of relevant cuneiform texts and evaluation of their specific significance3) Lexical analysis of titles indicating professions, offices and social status4) Investigation of the Hieroglyphic Luwian titles in seal inscriptions.The work programme of the research project is subdivided into three self-contained but interrelated work packages (WP):WP 1: Collection of textual documentation and analysis of key passagesWP 2: Collection of word entries and lexical analysis of lemmataWP 3: Systematic interpretation of texts, analysis of sphragistic evidence and publication of a monograph.The investigation will be based primarily on the study of relevant textual sources from the Hittite tablet collection. The methods applied consist of the philological analysis and historical interpretation of texts.The research will be conducted at the Hethitologie-Archiv at the Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur, Mainz, which hosts one of the most comprehensive lexical databases for Hittitological studies and a complete photo collection of cuneiform tablets.The results of this investigation will be presented in a monograph, conceived as a handbook of the social history of the Hittites. The monograph will provide the reader with an extensive treatment of Hittite society and the power organization of the Hittite kingdom from its formation until the end of the Hittite empire.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants