Memorial Lecture: How to say “no” in Hieroglyphic Luwian and other Decipherments of David Hawkins

David Hawkins, who died in December 2023, made a unique contribution to the study of the ancient world. This individuality is exemplified by the difficulty his colleagues had in labelling him: archaeologist, historian, epigrapher, philologist, cuneiformist, decipherer, Hittitologist, Assyriologist. He took a whole-view approach to whatever he researched. This lecture will look at the way David’s work changed the fields which he studied and laid a solid basis for what has become a field of study of its own: Hieroglyphic Luwian. It will give some overview of the current state of Hittitology in the light of his contributions.
Speaker: Mark Weeden (University College London)
Mark Weeden was David Hawkins' last PhD student, last successor in post, and collaborated with him on numerous projects after his retirement. Thanks to an anonymous private donation, he now works at UCL as Associate Professor of Ancient Middle Eastern Languages in the Department of Greek and Latin.