Some Remarks About The Summer Period In Hittite Anatolia

Abstract

There is an uncertainty about the naming or presence of summer season in Hittite cuneiform texts. However, some scholars claimed that certain agricultural activities in summer written as BURU 14 in Hittite cuneiform texts indicate the summer period. The purpose of this article is to support this argument by explaining the sequence of the months in the Hittite calendar and to make determinations about the start and end dates of the summer season. It is also to draw attention to the similarities between the terminology used for the summer in traditional calendars in Anatolia and the words used for the summer period in the Hittite cuneiform texts. The period called harvest time in Anatolian traditional calendars may be referred to by a similar name in the Hittite calendar and it may indicate the beginning and end dates of the summer season.