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Hawkins, David, 1940-2023

By Professor Andrew George FBA and Dr Mark Weeden

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Date
20 Jul 2026

David Hawkins was for five decades an outstanding figure in international Hittitology. He was known especially for his pioneering scholarship in the decipherment and elucidation of Hieroglyphic Luwian and his advancement of knowledge of the political history and historical geography of the Neo-Hittite states in early Iron Age Turkey and Syria. His main output was the Corpus of Hieroglyphic Luwian Inscriptions, a monumental three-volume work which established the definitive text of the inscriptions and placed the study of the Luwian language in hieroglyphic transmission on a firm footing for the first time.

Posted to Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the British Academy, 23

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