The Nature of Geographical Knowledge in Hittite Anatolia in the 18th to 12th Centuries BCE in the Light of Cuneiform Sources

Abstract

The talk will discuss a new, three-year project that is about to start at the University of Warsaw. It's aim is to investigate selected aspects of the –broadly speaking – Hittite perception of the world on the basis of the original Hittite cuneiform texts. It is organized into five subsequent partial (sub)investigations:

1. Understanding Hittite space and place. Distribution and function of Hittite geographical determinatives.
2. The structure and function of borders and border descriptions.
3. Itineraries and the problem of distance.
4. Geographical horizon and the role of space and territorial expansion in the royal ideology.
5. Geography in Hittite epic and myth.