Position:

Associate Member of Faculty in Assyriology; British Academy Post-doctoral Research Fellow at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London

Faculty / College Address:

Oriental Institute / Wolfson College

Email:

mw41@soas.ac.uk

Research Interests:

My research focuses on intercultural contact and the transmission of written culture in the cuneiform world. In particular I am interested in the transmission of Akkadian and Sumerian written culture to the so-called periphery of the cuneiform community, especially Northern Syria and Anatolia (Hittites). As a corollary to this I also do some work on Hurrian (and Urartian).

I am also interested in the development and interpretation of the Hieroglyphic writing system as used by Hittites and Luwians in Anatolia.

Current Projects:

• "The Akkadian of Alalakh", palaeographic and grammatical studies in the dialects of Akkadian written on clay tablets at ancient Alalakh, now Tell Atchana in the Hatay province of Southern Turkey/Northern Syria, during the second millennium BC.
• “Hittite Logograms – Studies in their origin and Distribution”, combining research on the school tradition at Hattusa with an analysis of logographic (Sumerian and Akkadian) writings in cuneiform Hittite texts.
• Edition of Hieroglyphic Stamp-Seal impressions from Kaman-Kalehöyük in Central Anatolia in collaboration with Dr. D. Yoshida for the Middle East Cultural Centre of Japan.
• Edition of the Malkaya hieroglyphic rock inscription in collaboration with Prof. J.D. Hawkins.
• Collaboration in the re-edition of the so-called Tawagalawa-Letter, sent by a Hittite king to a king of Aḫḫiyawa, under the direction of Dr. S. Heinhold-Krahmer.
• Review of the current state of Hittite palaeography on the basis of the “historical texts” found at Boōazköy (CTH 1-216).

Courses Taught:

• Introductory Hittite (SOAS, London)
• Hittite Texts (SOAS, London)
• Hieroglyphic Luwian (London)

Recent Publications:

Book:

• forthcoming: Hittite Logograms and Hittite Scholarship. Studien zu den Boğazköy-Texten. Harrassowitz. Wiesbaden

Article:

• 2010: Tuwati and Wasusarma. Imitating the behaviour of Assyria. Collon, D. and George, A.R. (eds)  Iraq 72 (In Honour of the Seventieth Birthday of Professor David Hawkins), 39-62.
• 2010: A Hittite Seal from Kaman-Kalehöyük, in Singer, I. (ed.) ipamati kistamati pari tumatimis. Luwian and Hittite Studies presented to J. David Hawkins on the occasion of his 70th birthday. Tel Aviv. 249-255.
• 2009: The Akkadian words for barley and the god Ḫaya. Welt des Orients32. 77-107.

   

• forthcoming: Adapting to New Conditions. Cuneiform in Anatolia. Radner, K. and Robson, E. (eds) Oxford handbook of Cuneiform Culture. Oxford.
• forthcoming: Assyro-Mittanian or Middle Assyrian? Devecchi, E. (ed.) Palaeography and Scribal Practices. Proceedings of the international symposium held in Leiden, Dec. 17th-18th 2009. PIHANS. Leiden.
• forthcoming: An Inscribed Urartian Object. George, A.R. Tablets from the Schøyen Collection.
• forthcoming: Spelling, phonology and etymology in Hittite historical linguistics, a review article on Kloekhorst, A. Etymological Dictionary of the Hittite Inherited Lexicon (Leiden: 2008). To appear in the Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies.
• forthcoming: A Hittite Letter from Büklükale. To appear in Anatolian Archaeological Studies.

Book review:

• 2008: Review of Postgate, J.N. (ed.) The Languages of Iraq, Ancient and Modern (2007). Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 71/02, 397-399.
• 2009: Review of Woodard, R.D. (ed.) The Ancient Languages of Mesopotamia, Egypt and Aksum (Cambridge University Press, 2008), in Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2009.02.35.

Co-authored book:

• forthcoming: Heinhold-Krahmer, S., Hawkins, J.D., Hazenbos, J., Miller, J.L., Rieken E. and Weeden, M. Der Tawagalawa-Brief oder die Beschwerde gegen Piyamaradu. Texte der Hethiter. Werner Winter Verlag. Heidelberg.

Co-authored article:

• forthcoming: Hawkins, J.D. and Weeden, M. The Hieroglyphic Rock Inscription of Malkaya. A New Look. To appear in Anatolian Archaeological Studies.
• forthcoming: Taş, I. and Weeden, M.: A Stele of Prince Anaziti in Yozgat Museum. To appear in the Journal of the American Oriental Society.

Papers given:

• The Palaeography of the Tawagalawa Letter. Freie Universität. Berlin. May 5th 2007.
• The Tawagalawa Letter: Hittites and Achaeans. Senate House. London. May 22nd 2007.
• The Difficulties of the Hittite Seal-impressions from Kaman-Kalehöyük. Middle East Culture Centre of Japan. Tokyo. Nov. 3rd 2007.
• Mesopotamian Scholarship in Hittite Scribal Practice. London Centre for the Ancient Near East Research Seminars. School of Oriental and African Studies. Jan. 14th 2008.
• Middle Hittite Stamp-seal Impressions from Kaman-Kalehöyük. Oriental Institute. Oxford University. March 5th 2008.
• Mesopotamische Gelehrsamkeit in der hethitischen Schreiberpraxis. Munich. Dec. 15th 2009.
• The Assyro-Mittanian Ductus. International Symposium on Palaeography and Scribal Practices. Leiden. Dec. 17th 2009.
• Writing, Class and Urbanism in the Second Millennium BC. 7th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East. London. Apr. 16th 2010.
• Hittite Scribal Schools outside of Hattusa? Workshop on "Archival, Scribal and Administrative Spaces among the Hittites". TOPOI. Berlin. Jun. 5th 2010.
• Anatolian Hieroglyphs: Logogram vs. Ideogram. At the Workshop "Visualizing Knowledge in Signs. Encoding Meanings in Logophonetic Writing Systems". International Workshop of the Research Group "Notational Iconicity". Freie Universität. Berlin. Sept. 24th 2010.

Further Info:

• Research Associate at School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.
• Research Fellow of Wolfson College Oxford.
• Participant in excavations at Kaman-Kalehöyük and Boōazköy in Turkey.