Based on a conference, named In Search of the Golden Fleece: Linguistic and Cultural Interactions between Greece and the Ancient Near East and hosted at the University of Oxford on January 27-28, 2017.

The papers in this collection are the product of the conference "Hittites, Greeks and Their Neighbors in Ancient Anatolia: An International Conference on Cross-Cultural Interaction," hosted by Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. They cover an impressive range of issues relating to the complex cultural interactions that took place on Anatolian soil over the course of two millennia, in the process highlighting the difficulties inherent in studying societies that are multi-cultural in their make-up and outlook, as well as the role that cultural identity played in shaping those interactions. Topics include possible sources of tension along the Mycenaean-Anatolian interface; the transmission of mythological and religious elements between cultures; the change across time and space in literary motifs as they are adapted to new milieus and new audiences; the ways in which linguistic data can refine our understanding of the interrelations between the various peoples who lived in Anatolia; and the role that the Anatolian kingdoms of the first millennium played as cultural filters and conduits through which North Syrian or Near Eastern ideas or materials were transmitted to the Greeks.

"The papers in this collection are the product of the conference "Hittites, Greeks and Their Neighbors in Ancient Anatolia: An International Conference on Cross-Cultural Interaction," hosted by Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. They cover an impressive range of issues relating to the complex cultural interactions that took place on Anatolian soil over the course of two millennia, in the process highlighting the difficulties inherent in studying societies that are multi-cultural in their make-up and outlook, as well as the role that cultural identity played in shaping those interactions. Topics include possible sources of tension along the Mycenaean-Anatolian interface; the transmission of mythological and religious elements between cultures; the change across time and space in literary motifs as they are adapted to new milieus and new audiences; the ways in which linguistic data can refine our understanding of the interrelations between the various peoples who lived in Anatolia; and the role that the Anatolian kingdoms of the first millennium played as cultural filters and conduits through which North Syrian or Near Eastern ideas or materials were transmitted to the Greeks."--BOOK JACKET.

This volume focuses on contacts between Anatolian languages within and outside Anatolia. The selected essays, written by members of ongoing research projects on Anatolian languages, present case studies from both the first and second millennia. These include etymological and morphophonological investigations within the framework of Graeco-Anatolian contacts, as well as a critical essay on the possible Anatolian-Etruscan contacts. Alongside strictly linguistic analysis, the essays cover different aspects of cultural contacts (the origin of the word for ‘salt’ in Luwian), toponyms (in Lycia), and religion (the god called King of Kaunos), and are introduced with a detailed overview of the origins of the Anatolian linguistic landscape.

The Luwians inhabited Anatolia and Syria in late second through early first millennium BC. They are mainly known through their Indo-European language, preserved on cuneiform tablets and hieroglyphic stelae. However, where the Luwians lived or came from, how they coexisted with their Hittite and Greek neighbors, and the peculiarities of their religion and material culture, are all debatable matters. A conference convened in Reading in June 2011 in order to discuss the current state of the debate, summarize points of disagreement, and outline ways of addressing them in future research. The papers presented at this conference were collected in the present volume, whose goal is to bring into being a new interdisciplinary field, Luwian Studies. "To conclude, the editors of this volume on Luwian identities and the authors of the individual papers are to be congratulatedwith a successful sequel to TheLuwians of 2003 edited by Melchert and with yet another substantial brick in the foundation of the incipient discipline of Luwian studies." Fred C. Woudhuizen

This volume brings together the culmination of philological and linguistic work undertaken by a wide range of experts in the Anatolian languages. The research papers published here cover practically the entire linguistic and chronological spectrum of the Anatolian group of Indo-European languages, without neglecting important interactions with languages from other cultural environments, among which the Semitic group stands out. The publication can therefore be regarded as a valuable contribution to Anatolian and Indo-European studies, reflecting the persistant and sustained efforts of a group of researchers with a broad array of interests, some of whom have many years of research behind them and are well known in the field. They have now been joined by new scholars, who enable us to foresee a promising future for our disciplines.

This volume contains a new and up-to date selection of case studies which offer new insights on various topics in Indo-European linguistics, with a focus on contact, variation, and reconstruction, and with methods that straddle the divide between Linguistics and Philology.