Wilusiya. Ahhiyawa, and the Hittites

[Jim Webster]

Just wondering if people could suggest decent modern literature as a starting point for reading up about these?
Jim

[Orc65]

I like Trevor Bryce's works on the Hittites. https://www.amazon.com.au/s?k=trevor+bryce+hittites&crid=3K6OFGBB3Y3ZM&sprefix=trevor+bryce%2Caps%2C365&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-doa-p_2_12

[Jim Webster]

I like Trevor Bryce's works on the Hittites. https://www.amazon.com.au/s?k=trevor+bryce+hittites&crid=3K6OFGBB3Y3ZM&sprefix=trevor+bryce%2Caps%2C365&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-doa-p_2_12

Thanks for that Robert. I've had a poke about and have invested 

[DBS]

Would be interested in what you make of them: I am also a fan of Bryce - though was underwhelmed by his Osprey, not sure warriors/warfare is really his thing.  The Kingdom of the Hittites is undoubtedly the best accessible general history, and I like The Trojans & Their Neighbours for its efforts to sort out the spaghetti of geopolitical names that pop up in the various tablets as areas around the west and southern coasts of Turkey; Bryce may not be right on some of the identifications he favours, but the whole point is that we will probably never know most for sure, unless there are significant new finds of inscriptions, and he does provide a reasonably coherent framework if one was wanting to wargame campaigns in the area.

The one thing where I am convinced that Bryce gets it wrong is the famous Hattusa relief of a bare chested god or king with an axe.  He rightly shoots down the suggestion by some that it is a bare chested Amazon, since some artistic commentators think he is a bit soft featured and has breasts (at worst perhaps a slight touch of moobs...) but Bryce scoffs because he thinks the bloke is depicted with a hairy chest.  Actually, it is very clear that the "chest hair" is in fact a decorative rear to the axe head, Bronze Age examples of which have actually been found.

[simonw]

Ygael Yadin; "Art of Warfare in Biblical Lands". Still a great reference work with fabulous illustrations by the former Israeli General.

[Jim Webster]

I'm old enough to have picked up Ygael Yadin when it was second hand and unfashionable 

Certainly well worth having

[Chuck the Grey]

I'm old enough to have picked up Ygael Yadin when it was second hand and unfashionable 

Certainly well worth having

Me too! 

[Duncan Head]

Latacz's 2001 article on Wilusa is a worthwhile relatively recent paper.

[Jim Webster]

Thanks, downloaded and added to the growing pile 

[Jim Webster]

Bryce The Kingdom Of The Hittites

It's a free pdf download
https://www.academia.edu/5018455/Bryce_The_Kingdom_Of_The_Hittites?

[DBS]

Assuming that is a legitimate copy of it (seems a little odd given that second edition was only published a few years ago) then a must-have.  Off the back of this thread I bought his new (2019) Warriors of Anatolia.  Started reading it last night.  Compared to Kingdom of the Hittites, it is more populist, shorter, written in a more vernacular style (the latter mildly irritates me!) but has the advantage of growing confidence in the guessing game of some of the geopolitical locations mentioned in tablets.  If you like, O level versus K of the H which is undergrad 

[Jim Webster]

Assuming that is a legitimate copy of it (seems a little odd given that second edition was only published a few years ago) then a must-have.  Off the back of this thread I bought his new (2019) Warriors of Anatolia.  Started reading it last night.  Compared to Kingdom of the Hittites, it is more populist, shorter, written in a more vernacular style (the latter mildly irritates me!) but has the advantage of growing confidence in the guessing game of some of the geopolitical locations mentioned in tablets.  If you like, O level versus K of the H which is undergrad 

Given the website it's on, I'm assuming it's legitimate. I'm a couple of hundred pages into my copy.
My Warriors of Anatolia is sitting waiting for me to finish the other :-)

[stevenneate]

Anything that Ian Russell Lowell has written in the past for Slingshot. Look back to the mid to late 90s.