Bryce, Trevor R. 1940-

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BRYCE, Trevor R. 1940-

PERSONAL:

Male. Born 1940.

ADDRESSES:

Home—4/114 Bonney Avenue, Clayfield, Queensland 4011, Australia. Office—School of History, Philosophy, Classics and Religion, University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Queensland 4072, Australia. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Reader in Classics and Ancient History, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia; Professor of Classics and Ancient History, University of New England, Australia; Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Lincoln University, New Zealand, currently honorary research consultant.

MEMBER:

Australian Academy of the Humanities (fellow).

WRITINGS:

The Lycians: A Study of Lycian History and Civilisation to the Conquest of Alexander the Great, Volume 1: The Lycians in Literary and Epigraphic Sources, Museum Tusculanum Press (Copenhagen, Denmark), 1986.

(With Don Barrett and Max Kanowski) A Map History of the Ancient World, Longman Cheshire (Melbourne, Australia), 1987.

The Kingdom of the Hittites, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1998.

Life and Society in the Hittite World, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2002.

Letters of the Great Kings of the Ancient Near East: The Royal Correspondence of the Late Bronze Age, Routledge (New York, NY), 2003.

SIDELIGHTS:

Trevor R. Bryce is a scholar of the Hittite civilization in Anatolia, or what is now central Turkey, from the seventeenth to the twelfth centuries B.C.E., which he writes about in his The Kingdom of the Hittites. The volume is divided into two parts, addressing the "Old Kingdom" that began with the reign of King Labarna in the seventeenth century B.C.E. and the "New Kingdom" that began with the reign of King Tudhaliya in the late fifteenth century B.C.E. More is being discovered about the Hittites each year as the clay tablets on which they wrote in cuneiform script are unearthed. Bryce documents the wars the Hittites waged with the Kaska to the north and details how other facets of Hittite history have been reconstructed. Choice reviewer S. M. Burstein wrote that this book is one "that successfully fills the gap in scholarship."

Daniel T. Potts noted in the American Historical Review that Bryce limits his study to primarily military and political history of the Bronze Age Hittites and does not address religion, agricultural practices, art, and other intellectual pursuits. Potts said that "Bryce's strength, however, is precisely his background as a historian," calling the work "eminently readable, well-researched, and impeccably assembled." However, the reviewer felt that it is necessary to turn to philological studies in the Hittite literature in order to find the details of other aspects of Hittite life. David F. Graf noted in the Religious Studies Review that because of continuing archeological discoveries, Bryce's book is "provisional," but he added that "it is currently peerless and now imperative reading for any serious inquiry on the Hittites by scholars of the ancient near East." Historian contributor Richard H. Beal felt that The Kingdom of the Hittites "is timely and should stand the test of time for several generations of students, scholars, and interested laypersons."

Bryce addresses the aspects of Hittite society not covered in his previous book with Life and Society in the Hittite World. He covers a broad spectrum of Hittite society, including the nobility, soldiers, farmers, and merchants. The book also covers such topics as marriage, law, medicine, rituals and festivals, and myth. It concludes with a discussion of Hattusa, the capital city, and the relationship between Hittite society and Europe. History reviewer John F. DeFelice wrote that Bryce "does an excellent job of putting the Hittites in their cultural context by showing the influence of Egyptian and Mesopotamian civilizations on various aspects of their culture."

John Ray wrote in the Times Literary Supplement that "as far as he can, given the nature of the sources, Bryce gets behind the mask of the official records, and gives us the Hittites' inner thoughts. It is a world both humane and grim." Bryce notes the difficulties in growing crops, the hazards of trade, and prevalence of disease and illness. "There are many other aspects of Hittite life in this book," wrote Ray, "and not all of them are joyless. There are enlightened laws on intermarriage, and illegitimacy, though not on slavery. There are sensible rules on trading disputes and business compensations, and what to do when finding lost animals. There is the world of the Hittite-speaking scribes who were sent to outlying parts of the empire to conduct correspondence with the court and to gather local intelligence."

Ray felt that "the most original part of Bryce's survey comes at the end. Here he returns to the age-old topic of Homer and the Trojan War. At first this may seem a retrograde step, as if the Hittites can only be interesting inasmuch as they tell us something about the Classical world. But Bryce shows us that we are not at the end of the question, but still at the beginning." Ray noted that the collapse of the Hittite empire probably impacted the Aegean, with which it was closely connected, and the Trojan War itself. "We may be closer heirs to the kingdom of the Hittites than we imagine," wrote Ray. "Here is one more reason to study this thoughtful and informative book."