Luwian Studies

22/12/2025

A new synthesis reshaping Aegean Prehistory – published in Nature Scientific Data

A new open-access dataset published in Nature Scientific Data reveals 483 Bronze Age settlements in western Türkiye – transforming how we understand the region’s role in the ancient world.

Long considered a peripheral zone, western Anatolia now emerges as a densely settled landscape and a key cultural sphere of the Bronze Age, closely connected to the Mycenaean and Hittite worlds.

The dataset, developed by researchers at Luwian Studies, brings together decades of scattered archaeological evidence and makes it freely available for everyone – from scholars to the interested public.

– Open access
– Interactive map & downloadable data
– Peer-reviewed publication in Nature Scientific Data

Learn more about the project and explore the data:

👉 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41597-025-06241-9
👉 https://luwianstudies.org/siteatlas/introduction/

Photo: Seyitömer Höyük © Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism, General Directorate of Cultural Heritage and Museums, Department of Excavations and Research / Luwian Studies 0255.

26/09/2025

Lecture by Eberhard Zangger on the End of the Bronze Age

Date and time: Friday, October 3, 6:30 p.m.
Venue: ZAI Bodrum, Çırkan, Halide Edip Adıvar Cd. No. 7, 48400 Bodrum/Muğla
Language: English
Dinner reservations: 0533 505 75 50

20/11/2024

Türkiye, a treasure trove of world archaeology! From Göbeklitepe to Troy, Hattusa to Ephesus, the lands have shaped humanity's cultural and commercial heritage.
As the Luwian Studies Foundation, we proudly share our map and database of 483 Bronze Age settlements in Western Anatolia.
Special thanks to Mr. Fazlı Çorman, Turkey's Consul General in Zurich and former Ambassador to Norway, and Vice Consul Mr. Furkan Yılmaz for their valuable support.

Türkiye, dünya arkeolojisi açısından eşsiz bir öneme sahiptir. Asya, Avrupa ve Afrika arasında bir köprü konumunda olan bu topraklar, tarih öncesinden itibaren pek çok uygarlığa ev sahipliği yapmıştır.

Göbeklitepe, Truva, Hattuşa, Efes, Bergama ve daha benzeri birçok antik merkez ülkemizde yer almaktadır.

Bu bölgeler insanlık tarihindeki kültürel, dini ve ticari gelişmelere ışık tutarak Türkiye’yi arkeolojik zenginlik açısından önde gelen ülkelerden biri haline getirmiştir.

Ülkemiz bu önemiyle dünya arkeolojisinin odağında yer almaktadır.

Zürih merkezli “Luvi Araştırmaları Vakfı” Batı Anadolu’da Tunç Çağı’na ait yerleşim yerlerinin kapsamlı verilerini içeren bir harita ve veri tabanı yayımlamıştır.

Bu çalışmaların, antik Anadolu kültürünün gelişme çizgisini ve günümüz Avrupa medeniyetinin terkibinde Anadolu tarihinin etkisini Tunç çağına kadar indiren yeni perspektifler oluşturduğu görülmektedir.

Vakfın kurucusu Dr. Eberhard Zangger’in Anadolu Ajansında yayımlanan aydınlatıcı röportajına (Türkçe ve İngilizce) aşağıdaki elektronik adreslerden ulaşabilirsiniz:

https://www.aa.com.tr/tr/kultur/luvi-arastirmalari-vakfi-bati-anadoluda-tunc-cagina-ait-483-yerlesim-yerinin-verilerini-yayimladi/3396675?preview=1&r=2b7afc14-d075-4d48-921e-9321be52ada9

https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/luwians-of-turkiye-unlocking-an-untold-chapter-of-ancient-history/3396554

T. C. Bern Büyükelçiliği
T.C. Bern Büyükelçiliği Eğitim Müşavirliği
Luwian Studies
Fazli Corman

31/08/2022

Putting the Luwian Culture on the Map

At the time of the Trojan War, around 1200 BCE, western Turkey was covered by a dense network of flourishing settlements. This is the conclusion of a comprehensive study begun twelve years ago that has just been published. A team of Swiss and Turkish archaeologists have evaluated the results of 33 excavations and 30 archaeological surveys in western Turkey and, on this basis, have identified 477 large settlement sites that were inhabited for at least 1,000 years, and in some cases for 5,000 years. The scientific publication appeared today.

Scientific publication: https://luwianstudies.academia.edu/EZangger

21/06/2021

Researchers find an explanation for the rock sanctuary Yazılıkaya

An interdisciplinary team consisting of scientists from Turkey, the USA and Switzerland has for the first time found a comprehensive explanation for the UNESCO World Heritage Site Yazılıkaya near Hattusa. Accordingly, the more than 90 reliefs carved in the stone symbolize the deities in three different levels of the cosmos: earth, heaven and underworld.

YouTube video (04:31) with Turkish and German subtitles

For almost two hundred years, archaeologists have been looking for a plausible explanation for the ancient rock sanctuary of Yazılıkaya in Central Turkey. Ov...

28/05/2020

Statement by the Foundation Board of Luwian Studies

It has come to the attention of the Luwian Studies foundation that some social media posts have expressed a belief that the Alevi religious community may be descendants of the ancient Luwians. Although we have great respect for the Alevis, it is not possible that they are related to Luwians. The term Luwian refers to the city-states and petty kingdoms that existed during the Middle and Late Bronze Age in western Asia Minor. These were multi-ethnic and multi-lingual with speakers of Luwian, which is of Indo-European origin, making up the largest language group. The Luwian hieroglyphic script was no longer in use after about 600 BC, although use of the Luwian language persisted until Roman times.

Alevism has its origin in Turkic culture. The religion spread after the arrival of Oghusian-Turkmen tribes from Central Asia (Khorasan) into Anatolia in the 13th and 14th centuries, more than a millennium after the disappearance of the Luwian language. Archaeological research provides no evidence of a connection between Luwians and the peoples who immigrated into today’s Turkey – and certainly no direct connections exist between Luwians and today’s religious communities.

Luwian Studies aims to help illuminating the period between 2000 and 1000 BC in western Turkey, which has so far received too little archaeological attention. – This statement of the foundation board aims to clarify the argument to prevent any misunderstandings.

23/05/2020

Eberhard Zangger and Rita Gautschy’s research on Yazilikaya features in ANE TODAY - 202005 - A Calendar in Stone: Hittite Yazılıkaya

ANE Today May 2020; A Calendar in Stone: Hittite Yazılıkaya; Eberhard Zangger; Rita Gautschy; Hittite calendar; Yazılıkaya; Ancient Near East Today

29/03/2020

Watch on: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71w6kWWlr-0

“The Study of Antiquity and the Middle Ages” (SAMA) is a video interview channel on YouTube operated by Nick Barksdale from Oklahoma. Regardless of the name of this program, Nick Barksdale places an additional thematic focus on the end of the Bronze Age in the Eastern Mediterranean. In this context, interviews were recently produced with Dr. Fred Woudhuizen on the ethnicity of the Sea Peoples and with Dr. Eberhard Zangger on the Luwians and Luwian Studies.

Zangger responded to questions such as: How did the cultural demise at the end of the Bronze Age come about? What do we know about the Sea Peoples and their raids? Who were the Luwians? Where did they live? What was the relationship between Hittites and Luwians? What role did the Luwians play in the Trojan War? Were the Trojans Luwians? What is the foundation Luwian Studies doing and what are the latest discoveries in this field?

02/03/2020

Lecture video on Yazılıkaya in English – now also available with Turkish subtitles

A one-hour video of a lecture of the research done by Eberhard Zangger and Rita Gautschy about the rock sanctuary Yazılıkaya is now also available with Turkish subtitles on YouTube. The lecture entitled “The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars as seen by Hittites and Luwians” on the work of the geoarchaeologist and archaeologist/astronomer provides an overview of the references to the sky in Hittite religion, which have been made in the past few years. Based on these, an astronomical explanation is developed for the Hittite rock sanctuary of Yazılıkaya near the former capital Hattusa. The stone reliefs of Chamber A of the famous sanctuary show 63 (still preserved) reliefs of deities. These can be grouped according to lunar months (12), maximum number of days per lunar month (30), and number of years until the cycle repeats itself (19). Yazılıkaya was therefore a lunisolar calendar – and could still function as such today.
The lecture took place on March 14, 2019 in Zurich as part of a regular meeting of the Luwian Studies board. In comments on YouTube people had asked for a version with Turkish subtitles.

20/11/2019

You are kindly invited to attend the conference of Dr. Eberhard Zangger tomorrow at 2.30 pm at Celal Aga Konagi Hotel in Istanbul