The peoples of ancient Anatolia, what is today Turkey, comprised one of the major empires of the ancient world. The Hittites were a people long known from the Bible but hidden to history until archaeologists began their work in Anatolia. The Schweich Lectures had, a few years previously, covered the Hittites of the northern region. Hogarth, in his contribution to the discussion, focuses on the southern Hittite kingdom, the area that would most likely have impinged on the minds of the biblical writers. Despite the author’s chosen title for the book, the subject matter is not strictly the kings of the Hittites. As an archaeologist, Hogarth was particularly interested in the recovered domains of Zenjirli, Sakjegeuzi, and both the first and second civilizations attested at Carchemish. Each of these excavation sites is discussed and illustrated with black-and-white images of the Hittite remains. Copiously illustrated, this set of lectures contains over 50 illustrations, and continues to be a valuable source on the early days of exploration of the Hittites.

David George Hogarth (1862-1927) was a British archaeologist and the keeper of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. Educated at Oxford, Hogarth traveled widely in the Middle East, and was an associate of T. E. Lawrence. During the First World War, he worked in British Intelligence.