Eberhard Zangger (born 1958 in Kamen, West Germany) is a German-Swiss geologist, archaeologist, and anthropologist known for integrating natural and social science methodologies to investigate protohistoric cultures of the Eastern Mediterranean. He is the founder and president of Luwian Studies, an international non-profit foundation established in 2014 to promote research into the Bronze Age cultures of Western Anatolia.
From 1974 to 1976, Eberhard Zangger began his career with two years of training as a technical assistant at the Senckenberg Natural History Museum in Frankfurt am Main, followed by another two years as a geological preparator at the Preparator School in Bochum (1976–1978). He then spent two years at the German Mining Museum in Bochum, contributing to research on the effects of air pollution on art and cultural monuments.
Zangger studied geology and paleontology at Kiel University and was awarded a National, Overseas, and Doctoral Scholarship from the German Academic Scholarship Foundation. In 1988, He completed his doctorate at Stanford University with a dissertation titled “Landscape Evolution of the Argive Plain (Greece): Paleoecology, Holocene Depositional History, and Coastal Change.” [1]
Following his Ph.D., from 1988 to 1991, Zangger worked as a Senior Research Associate on the Joint Global Ocean Flux Study at the Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, focusing on global environmental change. [2] Later, from 2020 to 2024, he pursued further studies at Harvard University, earning a Master of Liberal Arts (ALM) in Extension Studies, field of Anthropology and Archaeology. [3]
Eberhard Zangger’s research focuses on the dynamic interactions between human culture and its natural environment. Since 1982, he was actively involved in the field of geoarchaeology, contributing to numerous discoveries and research projects, including:
Zangger’s research has demonstrated that nearly all Mycenaean citadels feature advanced hydraulic infrastructure, such as dams, reservoirs, river diversions, and artificial harbors. [9] Contrary to prevailing theories, Zangger argues that natural disasters are often overemphasized as catalysts for cultural upheaval. For instance, he has provided evidence that the 17th-century BC eruption of the Santorini volcano did not cause a caldera collapse and, consequently, could not have triggered a tsunami. [10]
Zangger advocates for greater integration of natural sciences into archaeological research and emphasizes the importance of studying urban planning [11] and hydraulic engineering to deepen our understanding of ancient societies.
Eberhard Zangger’s research focuses on explaining the collapse of civilizations in the eastern Mediterranean around 1200 BC, attributing it to the influence of small states in western Anatolia, such as Arzawa, Mira, Wilusa, Lukka, and the Seha River Land, referenced in Hittite sources. He coined the term “Luwian culture” to describe this region, situated between the Mycenaean kingdoms of Greece and the Hittite kingdom in central Anatolia. [12]
Since 1992, Zangger argued that the small states of western Anatolia were at least as economically powerful as the Mycenaean kingdoms during the Late Bronze Age. [13] He further contends that these predominantly Luwian-speaking and writing states could pose a significant challenge to Hittite dominance in Asia Minor, potentially through a temporary military coalition.
In April 2014, Zangger founded the international non-profit foundation Luwian Studies, which, according to the commercial register of the Canton of Zurich, is dedicated to “researching and disseminating knowledge about the second millennium BC in western Asia Minor.” [14] The foundation’s board includes Ivo Hajnal, Jorrit Kelder, Jörg Mull, Matthias Oertle, and Jeffrey Spier.
In May 2016, the foundation launched a trilingual website (German, English, and Turkish), serving as a platform for public and scholarly engagement. [15] Simultaneously, Zangger published The Luwian Civilization: The Missing Link in the Aegean Bronze Age, which introduced the region’s cultural and economic contributions to a broader audience.
In 2022, the foundation released a comprehensive volume of proceedings of sessions conducted during the annual conference of the European Association of Archaeologists in 2019. [16]
In November 2024, Luwian Studies unveiled an innovative database management system on its website, documenting 483 known sites associated with the Luwian culture. [17] This tool enables detailed scientific analysis of the settlements and underscores the region’s central importance in Bronze Age research. [18]
In 1992, Eberhard Zangger proposed that Plato’s account of Atlantis may be based on an Egyptian interpretation of the Trojan War. His argument draws on numerous parallels between the Mycenaean civilization and Plato’s descriptions of the civilization that waged war on Atlantis. Zangger compared the memory of the Trojan War to the conflict between Greece and Atlantis, identifying relics of artificial harbors and water management systems in the modern floodplain. [19]
In a 1993 article published in the Oxford Journal of Archaeology, Zangger presented an extensive list of similarities between Plato’s depiction of Atlantis and ancient accounts of Troy, offering new insights into the historical relevance of the Atlantis narrative. [20] [21]
Zangger’s model initially garnered interest among prehistorians, [22] particularly those focusing on the archaeological landscape, as it provided explanations for enigmatic findings without introducing speculative elements. However, his historicizing interpretation of Plato’s text was largely dismissed by classical philologists. [23] Despite this criticism, Zangger’s work aligns with that of the Greek scholar Marcelle Laplace, who also recognized parallels between the wars involving Atlantis and Troy, describing them as self-evident. [24]
In 1998, Zangger proposed an aerial geophysical survey of the Trojan plain in collaboration with the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources in Hannover, Germany, to identify settlement layers and artificial harbor basins. However, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Türkiye denied permission for the project. In 2017, Zangger published a book on the pioneers of prehistoric archaeology in Anatolia, detailing how the interventions of Manfred Korfmann, the then-excavator of Troy, obstructed the proposed survey. [25] In the fall of 1999, Zangger became a business consultant specializing in corporate communications and public relations. [26] In 2002, he founded a content creation agency in Zurich which is today called science communications GmbH. [27]
In his book The Flood from Heaven (1992), Zangger offered a novel interpretation of Homer's Odyssey by exploring its connections to the Late Bronze Age and the collapse of Mycenaean civilization. Zangger argued that Odysseus' journey reflects not only mythic wanderings but also a metaphorical flashback to the zenith of Troy before its destruction. Since the 17th century, scholars have recognized that Homer's description of Scheria, the land of the Phaeacians, bears striking parallels to Plato's Atlantis. According to Zangger, Odysseus must stop at Scheria to experience the splendor (of Troy) that he destroyed with his cunning ways of entering the city. The analysis emphasized the futility of war as echoed in Odysseus' reflections on the Trojan conflict and the societal collapse that followed. Zangger proposed that the narrative encapsulates a critique of aristocratic anarchy and the broader societal chaos of late Helladic IIIC Greece (c. 1170 BC). [28]
Eberhard Zangger proposed a hypothesis about the role of the Sea Peoples in the collapse of Bronze Age civilizations around 1200 BC, challenging traditional explanations. [29] While some theories attribute the upheaval to natural disasters such as earthquakes or climate change, Zangger argues that a military conflict involving Luwian petty states in Western Asia Minor and the Hittite kingdom was the primary catalyst. According to Zangger, this conflict began with Luwian states, including Arzawa and Troy, uniting to liberate Cyprus from Hittite control using a naval fleet. [30]
In a review of Zangger’s books The Flood from Heaven and Ein neuer Kampf um Troia in the Journal of Field Archaeology, U.S. prehistorian Daniel Pullen of Florida State University praised Zangger’s approach, noting that he “applies the rigors of scientific methodology to explaining the end of the Bronze Age in the eastern Mediterranean.” [31]
In June 2017, Zangger received unpublished documents from the estate of the British prehistorian James Mellaart. [32] The material, which Mellaart had identified as particularly important, consisted of two main sets of documents. [33] The first was a drawing by Mellaart of a Luwian hieroglyphic inscription, believed to date from around 1180 BC. The original inscription was found in 1878 on limestone slabs at the village Beyköy, 34 kilometers north of Afyonkarahisar in western Turkey. Mellaart’s notes also referred to bronze tablets, which were also found at Beyköy at the same time. These were inscribed with Hittite texts in Akkadian cuneiform (the so-called “Beyköy Text”). These texts purportedly detailed political events during much of the Bronze Age from the perspective of rulers in Western Asia Minor. However, Mellaart’s estate contained only typewritten English translations of the claimed cuneiform tablets, with no original evidence of the inscriptions.
In December 2017, Zangger and the Dutch linguist Fred Woudhuizen published the drawings of the Luwian hieroglyphic inscriptions in the Dutch archaeological journal Talanta, dubbing them HL Beyköy 2. [34] In early 2018, Zangger gained access to Mellaart’s former study in his North London apartment to investigate the authenticity of the materials. [35] Together with Mellaart’s son Alan, Zangger conducted a thorough examination of the estate. The investigation revealed that Mellaart had completely invented the type-written “translations” of allegedly cuneiform texts. [36] As a result, Zangger publicly distanced himself from Mellaart and accused him of forging documents. [37]
Fred Woudhuizen, who co-edited the Luwian hieroglyphic inscription HL Beyköy 2 with Zangger, maintained that this particular portion of the material was nevertheless authentic and not forged by Mellaart. [38] The scholarly community remains divided over the legitimacy of the findings associated with Mellaart’s estate.
In June 2019, Eberhard Zangger, in collaboration with archaeologist and astronomer Rita Gautschy of the University of Basel, published a groundbreaking interpretation of the Hittite rock sanctuary of Yazılıkaya at Ḫattuša. [39] They proposed that the sequence of rock reliefs in Chamber A functioned as a lunisolar calendar, marking celestial events and timekeeping. [40]
In a follow-up article in 2021, Zangger and Gautschy, joined by astronomer E. C. Krupp and ancient historian Serkan Demirel, expanded on this hypothesis. [41] They interpreted Yazılıkaya as a symbolic representation of the cosmos, encompassing four static horizons: the underworld, the earth, the sky, and the circumpolar region of the heavens. According to their analysis, the sanctuary merged display of astronomical understanding with religious practice. [42]
In his 1997 novel Troja, German author Gisbert Haefs included a character named “Tsanghar,” a literary reference to Zangger. The novel was inspired by the Troy-Atlantis theory.
Zangger became the first German member of literary agent John Brockman’s Edge.org circle of leading thinkers. [43]
Since 2005, Zangger gives invited lectures at the Winterseminar on Biophysical Chemistry, Molecular Biology, and Cybernetics of Cell Functions in Klosters, an event founded in 1966 by Nobel laureate Manfred Eigen. [44]
Over a period of thirty years, the German magazine Der Spiegel featured Zangger's work in ten substantial articles, including a cover story (53/1998). [45] [46]
Eberhard Zangger received scholarships from the German Academic Scholarship Foundation [47] and academic distinctions such as the Dean’s Prize for Outstanding ALM Thesis [48] and the ALM Dean’s List for Academic Achievement at Harvard University. [49]
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The Achaeans or Akhaians is one of the names in Homer which is used to refer to the Greeks collectively.
James Mellaart FBA was a British and Dutch archaeologist and author who is noted for his discovery of the Neolithic settlement of Çatalhöyük in Turkey. He was expelled from Turkey when he was suspected of involvement with the antiquities black market. He was also involved in a string of controversies, including the so-called mother goddess controversy in Anatolia, which eventually led to his being banned from excavations in Turkey in the 1960s. After his death, it was discovered that Mellaart had forged many of his "finds", including murals and inscriptions used to discover the Çatalhöyük site.
Luwian, sometimes known as Luvian or Luish, is an ancient language, or group of languages, within the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family. The ethnonym Luwian comes from Luwiya – the name of the region in which the Luwians lived. Luwiya is attested, for example, in the Hittite laws.
Arzawa was a region and political entity in Western Anatolia during the Late Bronze Age. In Hittite texts, the term is used to refer both to a particular kingdom and to a loose confederation of states. The chief Arzawan state, whose capital was at Apasa, is often referred to as Arzawa Minor or Arzawa Proper, while the other Arzawa lands included Mira, Hapalla, Wilusa, and the Seha River Land.
Assuwa was a region of Bronze Age Anatolia located west of the Kızılırmak River. It was mentioned in Aegean, Anatolian and Egyptian inscriptions but is best known from Hittite records describing a league of 22 towns or states that rebelled against Hittite authority. It disappears from history during the thirteenth century BC.
The Denyen is purported to be one of the groups constituting the Sea Peoples.
The Tawagalawa letter is a fragmentary Hittite text from the mid 13th century BC. It is notable for providing a window into relations between Hittites and Greeks during the Late Bronze Age and for its mention of a prior disagreement concerning a city called Wilusa, generally identified with the archaeological site of Troy.
The Trojan language was the language spoken in Troy during the Late Bronze Age. The identity of the language is unknown, and it is not certain that there was one single language used in the city at the time. A putative Trojan script was discovered by Heinrich Schliemann on several artifacts, although it is extremely unclear if this script is a single script, or indeed writing at all.
Beycesultan is an archaeological site in western Anatolia, located about 5 km (3.1 mi) southwest of the modern-day city of Çivril in the Denizli Province of Turkey. It lies in a bend of an old tributary of Büyük Menderes River.
The Luwians were an ancient people in Anatolia who spoke the Luwian language. During the Bronze Age, Luwians formed part of the population of the Hittite Empire and adjoining states such as Kizzuwatna. During the Hittite New Kingdom, Luwian replaced Hittite as the empire's dominant language. In the early Iron Age, a number of Luwian-speaking Neo-Hittite states arose in northern Syria. The Luwians are known largely from their language, and it is unclear to what extent they formed a unified cultural or political group.
The Middle Bronze Age Migrations are postulated waves of migration during the Middle Bronze Age. This proposal was advanced in the mid-20th century by scholars such as Mellaart, who argued for a connection between the spread of the Indo-European languages and archaeologically attested destructions and cultural changes around the 20th century BC. However, more recent research has disfavored the notion of Indo-European invasions, interpreting the evidence as favoring a more gradual process of assimilation.
The prehistory of Anatolia stretches from the Paleolithic era through to the appearance of classical civilisation in the middle of the 1st millennium BC. It is generally regarded as being divided into three ages reflecting the dominant materials used for the making of domestic implements and weapons: Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age. The term Copper Age (Chalcolithic) is used to denote the period straddling the stone and Bronze Ages.
Attarsiya was an Ahhiyan (Achaean) warlord who lived around 1400 BC. He is known from a single Hittite text, which recounts his military activities in Western Anatolia and Alasiya. These texts are significant because they provide the earliest textual evidence of Mycenaean Greek involvement in Western Anatolian affairs. Scholars have noted potential connections between his name and that of Atreus from Greek mythology.
Frederik Christiaan Woudhuizen was a Dutch independent scholar who studied ancient Indo-European languages, hieroglyphic Luvian/Luwian, and Mediterranean protohistory. He was the former editor of Talanta, Proceedings of the Dutch Archaeological and Historical Society.
Paesus or Paisos, in the Trojan Battle Order in Homer's Iliad called Apaesus or Apaisos (Ἀπαισός), was a town and polis (city-state) on the coast of the ancient Troad, at the entrance of the Propontis, between Lampsacus and Parium. The city of Apaššawa from the Hittite documents is identified as Paesus. In the Iliad, Amphius, son of Selagus, was said to be from Paesus. At one period, it received colonists from Miletus. It suffered Persian occupation during the Ionian Revolt. In Strabo's time, the town was destroyed, and its inhabitants had transferred themselves to Lampsacus, which was likewise a Milesian colony. The town derived its name from the small river Paesus, on which it was situated. It was a member of the Delian League and appears in tribute lists of Athens between 453/2 and 430/29 BCE.
Willemijn J.I. Waal is a Dutch Hittitologist and Classicist. She is known especially for her work on Hittite administrative practice and the development of early scripts, including Luwian hieroglyphic and the Greek alphabet.
Jorrit Kelder, is a Dutch archaeologist and ancient historian. He is known especially for his work on Mycenaean political structures, and in particular his argument that the Mycenaean world was a single, unified state.
Luwian Studies is an independent, private, non-profit foundation based in Zürich, Switzerland. Its sole purpose is to promote the study of cultures of the second millennium BC in western Asia Minor. The foundation encourages and supports archaeological, linguistic and natural scientific investigations to complete the understanding of Middle and Late Bronze Age Mediterranean cultures. Western Anatolia was, at that point in time, home to groups of people who spoke Luwian, an Indo-European language.
Kalašma or Kalasma was a late Bronze Age polity in Northern Anatolia on the border of the Hittite Empire.
Parista was one of the lands of the Assuwa coalition that opposed the Hittites in Bronze Age Anatolia. It is named only in the Annals of Tudḫaliya.
