Luwian Studies

483 Bronze Age settlements in western Türkiye – now openly accessible and published in Nature Scientific Data. Our team at Luwian Studies has published a landmark open-access dataset in Nature Scientific Data, cataloguing 483 Middle and Late Bronze Age settlements (c. 2000–1200 BCE) in western Anatolia. For decades, the region was often portrayed as sparsely populated. The new geospatial evidence paints a very different picture: a dense and interconnected settlement landscape that places western Anatolia on equal footing with Mycenaean Greece and Hittite Anatolia. The dataset is fully interoperable, exportable (CSV, JSON), GIS-ready, and linked to global resources such as Pleiades and Wikidata – designed to be reused, tested, and expanded by the research community. – Published in Nature Scientific Data – Open access – 483 sites, one coherent regional framework Citation: Aşınmaz, Alper, Serdal Mutlu, und Eberhard Zangger. 2025. “An interoperable catalogue of Middle and Late Bronze Age settlements in western Anatolia (c. 2000–1200 BCE).” Nature Scientific Data 12 (1804). 👉 https://lnkd.in/ekuv9BRD Photo: Seyitömer Höyük © Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism, General Directorate of Cultural Heritage and Museums, Department of Excavations and Research / Luwian Studies 0255. Alper Aşınmaz Eberhard Zangger

Today marks the winter solstice in the northern hemisphere – the shortest day of the year, when the sun reaches its lowest point at midday. By astronomical definition, this moment signals the beginning of winter. Together with the spring equinox, summer solstice, and autumn equinox, it forms one of the four seasonal turning points that have shaped human experience for millennia.   These solar events reflect the eternal cycle of nature: emergence, growth, decline, dormancy, and renewal. For countless generations, peoples around the world have observed and honored this annual rhythm.   The cardinal directions associated with these celestial moments became deeply embedded in the belief systems and symbolic vocabularies of early cultures, representing fundamental elements of natural order. Ancient peoples sought to bring cosmic harmony down to earth by incorporating these principles into their built environment. Houses, temples, and entire city plans were designed as microcosms of the universe, while ceremonies enacted this celestial order in ritual form.   This is why so many prehistoric and ancient buildings are oriented according to these astronomical alignments – they were not merely structures, but symbolic bridges between heaven and earth.   The photo shows the Egyptian Karnak Temple at winter solstice sunrise in 2015.   Photo © David Degner / Luwian Studies 5007

New Research Decodes 4,200-Year-Old Silver Goblet: Potentially the World’s Earliest Cosmological Artwork After more than fifty years of scholarly debate, a new study offers a compelling interpretation of the decorations on the ˁAin Samiya silver goblet – a Middle Bronze Age artifact discovered in 1970 in the Judean Mountains.   The 8 cm vessel, decorated with snakes, chimeras, deities, and celestial bodies, has been reinterpreted by researchers Eberhard Zangger, Daniel Sarlo, and Fabienne Haas Dantes as one of humanity’s oldest known cosmological representations.   Key findings:   – The central motif depicts a “celestial boat” carried by two deities – an ancient Near Eastern symbol for the sun and moon’s journey across the sky – The scenes represent peaceful creation rather than divine conflict: sunrise dispelling chaos and renewing the world – Created most likely in northern Syria in the 23rd century BCE, the artifact predates the Babylonian creation myth Enuma Elish by over a millennium – The discovery of the Lidar Höyük prism with similar symbolism provides additional support for this interpretation   The study demonstrates how interdisciplinary research can unlock the meaning of enigmatic archaeological finds and deepen our understanding of Bronze Age belief systems.   #Archaeology #Cosmology #BronzeAge

Lecture by Eberhard Zangger on the End of the Bronze Age Date and time: Friday, October 3, 6:30 p.m. Venue: ZAI Bodrum, Çırkan, Halide Edip Adıvar Cd. No. 7, 48400 Bodrum/Muğla Language: English Dinner reservations: 0533 505 75 50