A. H. Sayce

One of the first books to reveal in detail the history of the Hittites-a people once thought only to have existed in biblical references-this classic masterpiece of archaeological detective work was penned by Britain's leading expert in ancient Middle Eastern languages.The author starts with an overview of the biblical references to Hittites before moving on to actual archaeological evidence of their existence, from the writings and inscriptions of ancient Egypt to the Hittite monuments in the Middle East.Much fascinating detail is revealed in this overview, including the remarkable facts that the double-headed eagle symbol-eventually adopted by the Byzantine Empire and Tsarist Russia-originated with the Hittites, as well as some of the oldest swastika symbols in the Middle East.The narrative then delves into the history of the Hittite empire, which extended around the area then known as Asia Minor (present-day Turkey), their racial origins, and later dissolution into their Semitic neighbors.This standard-setting work also includes an overview of Hittite religion, art, trade, and industry, to round off a window into one of the complex origins of the present-day Middle Eastern mix.This edition has been completely reset and contains the original text and illustrations.Contents: Chapter I: The Hittites of the BibleChapter II: The Hittites on the Monuments of Egypt and AssyriaChapter III: The Hittite MonumentsChapter IV: The Hittite EmpireChapter V: The Hittite Cities and RaceChapter VI: Hittite Religion and ArtChapter VII: The InscriptionsChapter VIII: Hittite Trade and IndustryIndex

Archibald Henry Sayce (1845–1933) became interested in Middle Eastern languages and scripts while still a teenager. Old Persian and Akkadian cuneiform had recently been deciphered, and popular enthusiasm for these discoveries was running high when Sayce began his academic career at Oxford in 1869. In this two-volume work of 1880, Sayce attempts to give 'a systematic account of the Science of Language, its nature, its progress and its aims'. As he explains, the methods and theories which underlie the work were set out in his 1874 Principles of Comparative Philology (also reissued in this series). In Volume 1, Sayce outlines the history of theories of language, and the development of a science of language, and considers the causes of language change, phonology, morphology and comparative syntax. Chapter appendices examine topics such as the vocal organs of animals and the various phonetic alphabets then in use.

Archibald Henry Sayce (1845–1933) became interested in Middle Eastern languages and scripts while still a teenager. Old Persian and Akkadian cuneiform had recently been deciphered, and popular enthusiasm for these discoveries was running high when Sayce began his academic career at Oxford in 1869. In this two-volume work of 1880, Sayce attempts to give 'a systematic account of the Science of Language, its nature, its progress and its aims'. As he explains, the methods and theories which underlie the work were set out in his 1874 Principles of Comparative Philology (also reissued in this series). Volume 2 deals with language groups (both ancient and modern), examining separately the inflexional families with their root/inflection system, and the systems of agglutinative languages, before discussing comparative mythology, the origins of language, and the place of the science of language in the wider social sciences. Sayce also provides a bibliography for students.

This is a history of one of the oldest empires in history. From the first chapter: "Some countries seem destined from their origin to become the battle-fields of the contending nations which environ them. Into such regions, and to their cost, neighbouring peoples come from century to century to settle their quarrels and bring to an issue the questions of supremacy which disturb their little corner of the world. The nations around are eager for the possession of a country thus situated; it is seized upon bit by bit, and in the strife dismembered and trodden underfoot: at best the only course open to its inhabitants is to join forces with one of its invaders, and while helping the intruder to overcome the rest, to secure for themselves a position of permanent servitude. Should some unlooked-for chance relieve them from the presence of their foreign lord, they will probably be quite incapable of profiting by the respite which fortune puts in their way, or of making any effectual attempt to organize themselves in view of future attacks. They tend to become split up into numerous rival communities, of which even the pettiest will aim at autonomy, keeping up a perpetual frontier war for the sake of becoming possessed of or of retaining a glorious sovereignty over a few acres of corn in the plains, or some wooded ravines in the mountains. Year after year there will be scenes of bloody conflict, in which petty armies will fight petty battles on behalf of petty interests, but so fiercely, and with such furious animosity, that the country will suffer from the strife as much as, or even more than, from an invasion. There will be no truce to their struggles until they all fall under the sway of a foreign master, and, except in the interval between two conquests, they will have no national existence, their history being almost entirely merged in that of other nations. From remote antiquity Syria was in the condition just described, and thus destined to become subject to foreign rule. Chald a, Egypt, Assyria, and Persia presided in turn over its destinies, while Macedonia and the empires of the West were only waiting their opportunity to lay hold of it. By its position it formed a kind of meeting-place where most of the military nations of the ancient world were bound sooner or later to come violently into collision. Confined between the sea and the desert, Syria offers the only route of easy access to an army marching northwards from Africa into Asia, and all conquerors, whether attracted to Mesopotamia or to Egypt by the accumulated riches on the banks of the Euphrates or the Nile, were obliged to pass through it in order to reach the object of their cupidity. It might, perhaps, have escaped this fatal consequence of its position, had the formation of the country permitted its tribes to mass themselves together, and oppose a compact body to the invading hosts; but the range of mountains which forms its backbone subdivides it into isolated districts, and by thus restricting each tribe to a narrow existence maintained among them a mutual antagonism. The twin chains, the Lebanon and the Anti-Lebanon, which divide the country down the centre, are composed of the same kind of calcareous rocks and sandstone, while the same sort of reddish clay has been deposited on their slopes by the glaciers of the same geological period."

From the preface: "The following pages will explain themselves. Their object is to set before the reader a brief but intelligible account of the books of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther, and a history of the times to which they belong. An endeavour has been made to omit nothing that calls for comment or explan-ation, and thus to present the Biblical student with a work that, while serving the purposes of a commentary, forms a continuous narrative, and is of manageable size. Its distinguishing peculiarity is the use made in it of recent monumental discoveries, more especially of the inscriptions of Cyrus; and the scholar will notice one or two illustrations of Holy Writ that are here given for the first time. Those who wish for more detailed information regarding the newly-found records of the past, and the testimony they bear to the truth of the Old Testament Scriptures, may refer to the volumes entitled ' Fresh Light from the Ancient Monuments, ' ' Assyria: its Princes, Priests and People, ' and ' The Hittites; or, the Story of a Forgotten Empire, ' published by the Religious Tract Society."