A year ago today, the last meeting of the board of Luwian Studies took place in Zurich in the form of a personal get-together. Scholars from the Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria, the USA and even China came together in Zurich to hear Dr. Tijmen Pronk lecture about Indo-European and Anatolian languages, to have stimulating conversations and to enjoy an unforgettable dinner at the Hotel Savoy, which…

It has come to the attention of the Luwian Studies foundation that some social media posts have expressed a belief that the Alevi religious community may be descendants of the ancient Luwians. Although we have great respect for the Alevis, it is not possible that they are related to Luwians. The term Luwian refers to the city states and petty kingdoms that existed during the…

“The Study of Antiquity and the Middle Ages” (SAMA) is a video interview channel on YouTube operated by Nick Barksdale from Oklahoma. Regardless of the name of this program, Nick Barksdale places an additional thematic focus on the end of the Bronze Age in the Eastern Mediterranean. In this context, interviews were recently produced with Dr. Fred Woudhuizen on the ethnicity…

Dr. Tijmen Pronk from the Institute for Comparative Indo-European Linguistics at the University of Leiden gave a highly exciting lecture on “Indo-European, Anatolian and the Secondary Products” at the invitation of the Luwian Studies Foundation and the Institute for Comparative Linguistics at the University of Zurich on January 31, 2020. The topic coincides perfectly with the foundation’s goal of researching the Middle and Late Bronze…

A one-hour video of a lecture of the research done by Eberhard Zangger and Rita Gautschy about the rock sanctuary Yazılıkaya is now also available with Turkish subtitles on YouTube. The lecture entitled “The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars as seen by Hittites and Luwians” on the work of the geoarchaeologist and archaeologist/astronomer provides an overview of the references to…

During Eberhard Zangger’s lecture tour inTurkey in November 2019, a fortuitous meeting with Izzet Erten, the Turkish translator of Zangger’s (and various co-authors’) scientific work of of the past years, came about. Izzet Gokhan Erten works most of the time as a project manager in Myanmar. Thanks to his background and career as a linguist, he has the competence to precisely translate complex scientific publications…

There is a last-minute venue change for Eberhard Zangger’s lecture, entitled “On the Trail of Lost Civilizations: Sun, Moon, and Gods in Hittites”, originally scheduled to take place on Thursday, 21st November at 14:00 at Istanbul University. The lecture will no longer be held in the Istanbul University itself; it will now take place across the street in the conference hall of the Celal Ağa…

At the invitation of Prof. Şengül Aydingün, Eberhard Zangger will speak about astral aspects of the Hittite religion on Wednesday, 20 November 2019 at 15:00 in the Archaeological Institute of Koçaeli University. On 21 November 2019, this lecture will also take place at the Archaeological Institute of the University of Istanbul (at 14:00, Rektörlük Doktora Salonu) at the invitation of Prof. Mustafa H. Sayar and…

Luwian Studies goes on tour. On October 5, 2019, at ZAI Bodrum, Dr. Eberhard Zangger will lecture for one-hour on the Bronze Age cultures in western Asia Minor, which are still largely unexplored. His hosts are the industrialists Yunus and Derya Büyükkuşoğlu. In an ancient olive grove, they have built a cultural center with café, restaurant, library, gallery and auditorium, which…

The all-day EAA session on Western Asia Minor in the Bronze Age on September 7, 2019 in Bern confirmed Aristotle’s statement that “the whole is more than the sum of its parts”. When 15 speakers from different countries and disciplines present their research and reflections to an audience of luminaries such as Lord Colin Renfrew and David Anthony, a special impact unfolds: the potential of…