Did a Trojan prince take part in a Sea People attack?

[Andreas Johansson]

That's apparently what a newly-translated - but no longer extant in original - inscription says:

https://www.livescience.com/60629-ancient-inscription-trojan-prince-sea-people.html

There's appears to be room for some doubt whether the inscription is genuine.

[Duncan Head]

I must admit that "fake" was the first thing that went through my mind when I saw the headline; and then again when I saw it was from Mellaart's archives(*). If the current version is really based on Perrot's 1878 copy, when nobody could read Luwian, then I suppose it must be genuine, assuming the current scholars are right and it's correct Luwian; but I am not sure from the story if it can really be traced back past Alkım's copy. It will be interesting to learn more.

(*) For Mellaart's record of dubious finds, see here or here on the Dorak treasure and here for another case where his reconstructions don't seem to fit the evidence.

[Dangun]

Ran in the independent today.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/archaeologists-decipher-ancient-stone-turkey-invasion-mysterious-sea-people-luwain-hieroglyphic-a7992141.html
Translation to be published in December.

[Duncan Head]

To be published here by the look of it; I think that would be the Proceedings of the Dutch Archaeological and Historical Society referenced in the Indy story. I wonder if it will turn out to be open access or paid "premium content" like the last issue?

There are some interesting articles on this same Late Bronze period in the 2012 issue, by the way.

[Dave Beatty]

Makes sense to me.

[Duncan Head]

This article has now been published -
http://www.talanta.nl/publications/previous-issues/2008-tm-201-%E2%97%8F-volume-xl-xlix/2018-%E2%97%8F-volume-50/

[Patrick Waterson]

Thanks, Duncan.

[Adrian Nayler]

David Blanchard's post elsewhere on this forum has significant bearing on this topic. The documents were seemingly almost certainly fabricated.

See  http://soa.org.uk/sm/index.php?topic=3248.0

[Duncan Head]

Mellaart's shady background is acknowledged in the Talanta translation article I linked to; the editors are cautious, the translators believe in the documents. One of the problems seemed to be whether Mellaart knew enough Luwian to produce such a forgery; the press release David links to suggests quite strongly that he did.