The Hittite Historical Annals: Origins, Purpose, and Afterlife

• Applicant: Dr. James Burgin
• Subject Area: Egyptology and Ancient Near Eastern Studies
• Term: since 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 447038183

The Emmy Noether Junior Research Group "The Hittite Historical Annals: Origins, Purpose, and Afterlife" will newly edit and study as an inter-disciplinary team of Hittitologists and Assyriologists the annals of the Hittite Kingdom (1650–1190 B.C., Central Anatolia and northern Syria), one of the great super-regional powers of the Ancient Near East of the Late Bronze Age. The Hittite annals were historiographical texts recording the political and military accomplishments of the Hittite kings. The straightforward, realistic style and richness of detail of the Hittite annals has made them among the most used historical sources of Ancient Near Eastern history. Yet the annals have never been edited in one place, in one language, and to the same format and standard. Moreover, despite their intensive use in historical research, the Sitz im Leben of the Hittite Annals is still disputed, and the narrative mechanics of the annals, the diachronic development of the genre, and, above all, the communicative function of the texts remain as outstanding research questions. The research group will be led by a Hittitologist and comprise two doctoral students in a joint Assyriology-Hittitology program and a four-year Assyriology post-doctoral research position. The group will produce the following concrete results:- A monograph containing a comprehensive edition of the Hittite annals, with all transliterations collated against original tablets, extensive commentary, analysis of previous secondary literature, and prefatory studies on the development, function, and reception of the genre;- parallel digital editions of the Hittite annals hosted online by the Hethitologie-Portal Mainz;- a dissertation on the literary connections between the legends of the kings of Akkad, the Old Hittite mythological-historical texts, and the Hittite annals;- a dissertation on historiographical writing in the Middle and New Hittite periods including passages from treaties, decrees, letters, and prayers;- a monograph on the Middle Assyrian epics and annals and their connections (if any) to the Hittite historiographical tradition;- an article on the influence (if any) of the peripheral Akkadian historical texts of the Old Babylonian period on the Hittite annals.The project will include two conferences. The first will be dedicated to the historicizing literature that flourished in the early 2nd millennium B.C. Ancient Near East and invite researchers from Hittitology, Assyriology, and Egyptology to present on their regions. The second conference will examine the propagandizing historical narratives of the same regions some half a millennium later at the end of the Late Bronze Age and start of the Early Iron Age.

• DFG Programme: Independent Junior Research Groups