In the early 12th century, the Late Bronze Age Hittite empire collapsed during a series of upheavals which swept the Greek and Near Eastern worlds. In the subsequent Iron Age, numerous cities and states emerged in south-eastern Anatolia and northern Syria, which are generally known today as the 'Neo-Hittite kingdoms.' Bryce's volume gives an account of the military and political history of these kingdoms, moving beyond the Neo-Hittites themselves to the broader Near Eastern world and the states which dominated it during the Iron Age.

Divided into three sections, The World of Neo-Hittite Kingdoms looks at the last decades of the empire and the features of these kingdoms and their subsequent treatment under their Anatolian successors. Through a closer look at the individual Neo-Hittite kingdoms and their rulers and a comparison with the contemporary Aramaean states and the other kingdoms of the age--notably the Neo-Assyrian empire --it concludes with a historical synthesis of the Neo-Hittites when the last kingdom was absorbed into the Assyrian provincial administration.

Twenty-six texts found in the Hittite capital of Hattusa dating from the fifteenth–thirteenth centuries B.C.E. contain references to a land known as “Ahhiyawa,” which most scholars now identify with the Late Bronze Age Mycenaean world. The subject of continuing study and controversy since they were first published in 1924, the letters are still at the center of Mycenaean-Hittite studies and are now considered in studies and courses concerned with Troy, the Trojan War, and the role of both Mycenaeans and Hittites in that possible conflict. This volume offers, for the first time in a single source, English translations of all twenty-six Ahhiyawa texts and a commentary and brief exposition on each text's historical implications. The volume also includes an introductory essay to the whole Ahhiyawa “problem” as well as a longer essay on Mycenaean-Hittite interconnections and the current state of the discipline.

This 500,000 word reference work provides the most comprehensive general treatment available of the peoples and places of the regions commonly referred to as the ancient Near and Middle East – extending from the Aegean coast of Turkey in the west to the Indus river in the east. It contains some 1,500 entries on the kingdoms, countries, cities, and population groups of Anatolia, Cyprus, Syria-Palestine, Mesopotamia, and Iran and parts of Central Asia, from the Early Bronze Age to the end of the Persian empire.

Five distinguished international scholars have collaborated with the author on the project. Detailed accounts are provided of the Near/Middle Eastern peoples and places known to us from historical records. Each of these entries includes specific references to translated passages from the relevant ancient texts. Numerous entries on archaeological sites contain accounts of their history of excavation, as well as more detailed descriptions of their chief features and their significance within the commercial, cultural, and political contexts of the regions to which they belonged.

The book contains a range of illustrations, including twenty maps. It serves as a major, indeed a unique, reference source for students as well as established scholars, both of the ancient Near Eastern as well as the Classical civilizations. It also appeals to more general readers wishing to pursue in depth their interests in these civilizations. There is nothing comparable to it on the market today.

A central figure in both classical and ancient near Eastern fields, Trevor Bryce presents the first publication to focus on Troy’s neighbours and contemporaries as much as Troy itself. With the help of maps, charts and photographs, he unearths the secrets of this iconic ancient city.

Beginning with an account of Troy’s involvement in The Iliad and the question of the historicity of the Trojan War, Trevor Bryce reveals how the recently discovered Hittite texts illuminate this question which has fascinated scholars and travellers since the Renaissance.

Encompassing the very latest research, the city and its inhabitants are placed in historical context - and with its neighbours and contemporaries – to form a complete and vivid view of life within the Trojan walls and beyond from its beginning in c.3000 BC to its decline and obscurity in the Byzantine period.

Documented here are the archaeological watershed discoveries from the Victorian era to the present that reveal, through Troy’s nine levels, the story of a metropolis punctuated by signs of economic prosperity, natural disaster, public revolt and war.

In dealing with a wide range of aspects of the life, activities, and customs of the Late Bronze Age Hittite world, this book complements the treatment of Hittite military and political history presented by the author in The Kingdom of the Hittites (OUP, 1998). Through quotations from the original sources and through the word pictures to which these give rise, the book aims at recreating, as far as is possible, the daily lives and experiences of a people who for a time became the supreme political and military power in the ancient Near East.