La Grande Guerre et la formation de l'hittitologie dans le cadre des études sur le Proche-Orient ancien

The study of the civilization of the Hittites developed in the fruitful European cosmopolitan atmosphere of Ancient Near Eastern Studies in the late 19th - early 20th century. Precisely during the years of World War I, the study of the civilization of the Hittites became an autonomous discipline with a preeminent philological and linguistic character. Since the Hittite language turned out to belong to the Indo-european family, the incipient pre-classical Anatolian Studies focused on topics such as origin and race, crucial matters during the World War I years. The study of the early excavations at Bo?azköy is therefore a privileged vantage point for analyzing the effects of the Great War on Ancient Near Eastern Archaeology.