Professor of Hittite and Anatolian Languages

Office: (773) 834-4688
vdhout@babylon-orinst.uchicago.edu

Theo van den Hout is probably best described as a philologist with strong linguistic interests. Linguistics was the initial focus of his research but it gradually shifted to more general questions of a cultural-historical nature. His dissertation (1989, published as a monograph in 1995) consisted of both a philological edition of a Late-Hittite treaty and a prosopography of the leading officials of the Hittite empire of the second half of the 13th century B.C. That period has since then been the center of his further historical-philological research. This resulted in his second book (1998) which identified and edited a large group of oracle texts and used it a source for Hittite history. His recent philological project concerns a new edition of the extensive Royal Hittite Death Ritual.

In his linguistic research he tries to combine the Hittite data with those of the other Anatolian languages like Luwian, Lycian, Lydian and Carian. The growing importance of the not related Hurrian has led him in recent years to get more involved with that language as well.

Together with the emeritus Harry A. Hoffner he is co-editor of the Chicago Hittite Dictionary and currently working on the S-volume.

Education:

Recent Publications:

Monographs:

– as sole author

  • 1995 Der Ulmiteåub-Vertrag. Eine prosopographische Untersuchung. Studien zu den Bo©azköy-Texten (StBoT), Heft 38, xx + 326 pp. Wiesbaden.
  • 1998 The Purity of Kingship. An Edition of CTH 569 and Related Hittite Oracle Inquiries of Tutæaliya IV. Documenta et Monumenta Orientis Antiqui 25, xxi + 371pp + eight plates. Leiden, Boston, Köln.

– with others

  • 1991 The Hittite Instruction for the Royal Bodyguard with H.G. Güterbock, The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, Assyriological Studies 24, xvi + 99 pp. Chicago, Illinois.
  • 1999 Geschichte des Hethitischen Reiches von Horst Klengel unter Mitwirkung von Fiorella Imparati, Volkert Haas und Theo P.J. van den Hout, Handbuch der Orientalistik 1. Abt. 34. Band, xxvi + 428pp. + 63 Abb., Leiden, Boston, Köln.

– as (co-)editor

  • 1994 Hidden Futures. Death and Immortality in Ancient Egypt, Anatolia, the Classical, Biblical and Arabic-Islamic World (Amsterdam University Press), edd. Jan Maarten Bremer, Theo P.J. van den Hout, Rudolph Peters, 253 pp.
  • 1995 Studio historiae ardens. Ancient Near Eastern Studies Presented to Philo H.J. Houwink ten Cate on the Occasion of his 65th Birthday (PIHANS 74), edd. Theo P.J. van den Hout, Johan de Roos, xxviii + 344 pp.
Selected Articles
  • 1984a "Einige luwische Neutra auf -åa-/-za- in überwiegend junghethitischen Texten" Zeitschrift für Vergleichende Sprachforschung 97 (1984) 60-80.
  • 1984b "Kurunta und die Datierung einiger hethitischen Texte" Revue d'Assyriologie 78 (1984) 89-92.
  • 1987 "Tasmiåarri: ein weiterer Beleg zum Corpus der hurritischen Sprachdenkmäler?" Revue d'Assyriologie 81 (1987) 161-164.
  • 1988 "Hethitisch damaåå-/dameåå-mi ‘(be)drücken’ und der indogermanische sigmatische Aorist" in: A Linguistic Happening in Memory of Ben Schwartz, Studies in Anatolian, Italic, and other Indo-European Languages. (Ed. Y.L. Arbeitman, Louvain-la-Neuve) 305-319.
  • 1989 "A Chronology of the Taræuntaååa Treaties" Journal of Cuneiform Studies 41 (1989) 100-114.
  • 1990a "Masse und Gewichte. Bei den Hethitern". Reallexikon der Assyriologie und der Vorderasiatischen Archäologie, hrsgb. von D.O. Edzard. Band 7 Lfg.7/8, 517-527, index 527-530.
  • 1990b "Texts and Fragments. Hittite Fragments in Dutch Collections" in Journal of Cuneiform Studies 42 (1990 [1992]) 252-254
  • 1991a "A Tale of Tiååaruli(ya): A dramatic interlude in the Hittite KI.LAM Festival?" Journal for Near Eastern Studies 50 (1991) 193-202.
  • 1991b "Hethitische Thronbesteigungsorakel und die Inauguration Tudæalijas.IV." in Zeitschrift für Assyriologie 81 (1991) 274-300
  • 1992c "Remarks on some Hittite double accusative constructions" in Per una Grammatica Ittita. Towards a Hittite Grammar (Studia Mediterranea vol. 7) ed. O. Carruba, Pavia 1992 [1993], 275-304.
  • 1991-1992 "Some remarks on the Third Tablet of the Hittite KI.LAM Festival" in Jaarbericht Ex Oriente Lux 32 (1991-1992 [1993]) 101-118
  • 1991-1992 "Bellum iustum, ius divinum: some thoughts about war and peace in Hittite Anatolia" in Grotiana, New Series 12-13 (1991-1992 [1994]) 13-35.
  • 1994a "Träume einer hethitischen Königin: KUB LX 97+?XXXI 71" in Altorientalische Forschungen 21 (1994) 305-327.
  • 1994b "Hethitisch æadduli- 'gesund'" in Iranian and Indo-European Studies. Memorial Volume of Otakar Klíma, ed. P. Vavrouåek, (Praha 1994) 109-114.
  • 1994c "Der Falke und das Kücken: der neue Pharao und der hethitische Prinz?" in Zeitschrift für Assyriologie 84 (1994) 60-88.
  • 1994d "Death as a Privilege. The Hittite Royal Funerary Ritual" in J.M. Bremer, Th.P.J. van den Hout and R. Peters (edd.), Hidden Futures. Death and Immortality in Ancient Egypt, Anatolia, the Classical, Biblical and Arabic-Islamic World (Amsterdam), 37-75.
  • 1995a "Lycian Consonantal Orthography and Some of its Consequences for Lycian Phonetics" in Th.P.J. van den Hout - J. de Roos (edd.), Studio Historiae Ardens. Ancient Near Eastern Studies presented to Philo H.J. Houwink ten Cate on the Occasion of his 65th Birthday (Leiden), 105-141.
  • 1995c "Khattushili III of Khattusha" in Civilizations of the Ancient Near East, ed. Jack M. Sasson et al. (New York 1995), 1107-1120.
  • 1995d "An Image of the Dead? Some remarks on the second day of the Hittite royal funerary ritual" in O. Carruba, C. Mora, M. Giorgieri (edd.), Atti del II Congresso Internazionale di Ittitologia (Pavia), 195-211.
  • 1995e "Tutæalija IV. und die Ikonographie hethitischer Großkönige des 13. Jhs.", Bibliotheca Orientalis 52 (1995) 545-573.
  • 1995f "Lycian telêzi(je)-" in Kadmos 34 (1995) 155-162.
  • 1997a "The Proclamation of Telipinu" in W.W. Hallo - K. Lawson Younger (eds.), The Context of Scripture. Canonical Compositions from the Biblical World (Leiden), vol. one, 194-198.
  • 1997b The Apology of Æattuåili (I.B.3.b) in W.W. Hallo - K. Lawson Younger (eds.), The Context of Scripture. Canonical Compositions from the Biblical World (Leiden), vol. one, 199-204.
  • 1998a "Æalpaziti, König von Aleppo" in Altorientalische Forschungen 25 (1998 = Festschrift für Horst Klengel) 68-74.
  • 1999b "-ms(-): A Carian enclitic pronoun?", Kadmos 38 (1999) 31-42.
  • 1999c "Nerikkaili" in Reallexikon der Assyriologie 9, 231-232.
  • and numerous reviews