My research focuses on the languages, religions, and histories of the cuneiform cultures of the ancient Middle East, especially the Hittite civilization, which flourished in Anatolia (modern Türkiye) during the mid second millennium BCE. The inscribed tablets unearthed at the Hittite capital of Hattuša (modern Boğazkale) reveal a diverse, multicultural society that produced a rich variety of texts and venerated hundreds of distinct deities. My special interest is in the Hittite reception of Hurrian and Syro-Mesopotamian culture, which is particularly evident in the religious festivals and magical practices of the Hittite Empire period (ca. 1400–1180 BCE). I am also generally interested in other aspects of Hittite philology and culture, and I have participated in research projects on the paleography of Hittite cuneiform, and on the textual evidence for famine and climate change in Late Bronze Age Anatolia.
My dissertation undertakes a comprehensive analysis of the various manifestations of the goddess Ištar-Šavoška that are attested in Hittite sources. This goddess of violence, sexuality, and magic was originally a Mesopotamian deity, but she became a prominent figure in the Hittite state pantheon during the final centuries of the Late Bronze Age. Hittite texts attest the worship of several forms of the Hurrian goddess Šavoška, whose original home was the Assyrian city of Nineveh, and who had been syncretized with the Mesopotamian goddess Ištar prior to her introduction to Hittite Anatolia. This study also treats other Ištar-type deities from across the Mesopotamian periphery who are attested in Hittite texts, such as Pirinkir, a manifestation of the planet Venus, and the Anatolian goddess Anzili, who was identified as Ištar-Šavoška’s local equivalent. The Hittite cults of Ištar thus comprised diverse Hurrian, Syrian, Mesopotamian, and Anatolian elements, and so serve as an exemplar of the complexity and heterogeneity of the extensive Hittite pantheon. This research not only advances our knowledge of the varied cultural milieus apparent in Hittite religion, but also contributes to our collective understanding of the intercultural transmission of divinities and the general history of religion in the ancient Middle East.