An innovative translation and analysis of Hittite local festivals and of their economic and social dimensions for students and scholars This English translation of the Hittite cult inventories provides a vivid portrait of the religion, economy, and administration of Bronze Age provincial towns and villages of the Hittite Empire. These texts report the state of local shrines and festivals and document the interplay between the central power and provincial communities on religious affairs. Brief introductions to each text make the volume accessible to students and scholars alike. Features: Critical editions of Hittite cult inventories, some of which are edited for the first time, with substantial improvements in readings and interpretations The first systematic study of the linguistic aspects of Hittite administrative jargon An up-to-date study of Hittite cult images and iconography of the gods Michele Cammarosano currently leads a Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft-funded project on Hittite cultic administration at Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg. His research interests focus on cuneiform palaeography and Hittite religion.

The so-called cult inventories are of fundamental interest for our understanding of the Hittite local cults. They contain lists of temple inventory, offerings and personnel, but they succinctly describe religious festivals as well and sometimes even offer descriptions of idols. This study contains a text edition of many significant cult inventories, mainly connected with the Hittite 13th-century cult reorganization. It also uses these and other texts to draw a picture of the background and the administrative and geographic aspects of this operation.

"The studies collected in Ancient Taxation explore the extractive systems of eleven ancient states and societies from across the ancient world, ranging from Bronze Age China to Anglo-Saxon Britain. Together, the contributors explore the challenges of taxation in predominantly agro-pastoral societies, including basic tax strategy (taxing goods vs. labor, in kind vs. money taxes, direct vs. indirect, internal vs. external, etc.), assessment and collection (particularly over wide geographic areas or at large scale, e.g., by tax farming), compliance, and negotiating the cooperation of social, economic, and political elites or other critical social groups. By assembling such a broad range of studies, the book sheds new light on the commonalities and differences between ancient taxation systems, highlighting how studying taxes can shed light on the fiscal and institutional practices of antiquity. It also provides new impetus for comparative research, both between ancient societies and between ancient and modern extractive practices. This book will be of interest to those studying ancient history, economic history, the history of taxation, or comparative politics and economics"--

This volume originates from a research project, which was funded within the PRIN program Writing Uses: Transmission of Knowledge, Administrative Practices and Political Control in Anatolian and Syro-Anatolian Polities in the 2nd and 1st Millennium BCE. The project involved ‘research units’ from different Italian universities (Torino, Pavia, Bologna, Firenze, Napoli - Suor Orsola Benincasa). The papers presented here, seek to fill some gaps in our knowledge of the Hittite Empire and its epigones, and offer an updated picture of some aspects of the Hittite and post-Hittite administration in Anatolia and Syria through the analysis and interpretation of epigraphic and archaeological evidence.

The rediscovery of the ancient empire of the Hittites has been a major achievement of the last hundred years. Known from the Old Testament as one of the tribes occupying the Promised Land, the Hittites were in reality a powerful neighbouring kingdom: highly advanced in political organization, administration of justice and military genius; with a literature inscribed in cuneiform writing on clay tablets; and with a rugged and individual figurative art, to be seen on stone monuments and on scattered rock faces in isolated areas. This classic account reconstructs, in fascinating detail, a complete and balanced picture of Hittite civilization, using both established and more recent sources.

The topic of the Anatolian panthea in the Bronze Age deals with Hattian, Hittite, Palaean, Luwian and Hurrian gods who have been worshiped in the Kingdom of Ḫatti. In such a context, along with trying to keep a balanced and methodologically-aware approach in our original research, we realized that a multi-authored work such as the present volume, with papers written by some of the major experts of Anatolian religious history, would represent an invaluable contribution to the advancement of a complex and vast field. This collection of essays is the result of the workshop Theonyms, Panthea and Syncretisms in Hittite Anatolia and Northern Syria, held at the University of Verona on 25th and 26th March 2022. Colleagues with different areas of expertise pertaining to the topic of Anatolian religions contributed to an extremely successful event.