Willemijn Waal
Senior university lecturer Assyriology/Hittite studies
- Name
- Dr. W.J.I. Waal
- Telephone
- +31 71 527 2019
- w.j.i.waal@hum.leidenuniv.nl
- ORCID iD
- 0000-0002-2800-3647
Willemijn Waal is university lecturer in Hittite at the Leiden Institute for Area Studies.
Fields of interest
- Hittitology
- Late Bronze Age Anatolia
- Ancient writing systems and early alphabetic writing
- Ancient record management, diplomatics and archival studies
- Orality and Literacy in the ancient World
- Links between ancient Near Eastern and classical epic and literature
- International relations in the ancient Near East and Aegean
Teaching activities and supervision
- Advanced Hittite
- Cultural History of Anatolia
- Epic Tales from the Ancient World
- The Epic of Gilgamesh
- Cuneiform Epigraphy
- The Mycenaean World
- The present and future of our past: critical approaches to heritage studies
Senior university lecturer Assyriology/Hittite studies
- Faculty of Humanities
- Leiden Institute for Area Studies
- SMES Assyriologie
- Waal W.J.I. (2024), Het Hittitische rijk. Een vergeten grootmacht uit de Late Bronstijd, Geschiedenis Magazine 2024(2): 20-24.
- Waal W.J.I. (2024), Ties that bind: a new interpretation of the Hittite verb šai-/šiye- , Anatolica : Annuaire International pour les Civilisations de l'Asie Anterieure 49: 187-205.
- Waal W. (2024), From wish to reality: the foundation and early years of the Netherlands Institute for the Near East (NINO). In: Gertzen T.L. & Matthes O. (Eds.), Oriental societies and societal self-assertion: associations, funds and societies for the archaeological exploration of the ‘Ancient Near East’. Investigatio Orientis. Beiträge zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte der Orientalistik no. 10: Zaphon. 249-267.
- Waal W.J.I. & Zoest C.H. van (Eds.) (2024), Highlights from the NINO Collections: The Netherlands Institute for the Near East presents selected objects from its collections and archives. Leiden: Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten.
- Waal W. (2024), Closing the Gap: writing in the Aegean from the Late Bronze Age to the Iron Age. In: Ferrara S., Montecchi B. & Valerio M. (Eds.), Writing from invention to decipherment. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 71-86.
- Waal W. (2024), Een vergeten grootmacht: het Hettitische rijk, Kleio. Tijdschrift van de vereniging van docenten in geschiedenis en staatsinrichting in Nederland (65): 42-46.
- Waal W.J.I. (2023), A new interpretation of two Hittite verbs with the stem ark- and its implications for the miraculous birth legend in the Zalpa-text, Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und Vorderasiatische Archäologie 113(2): 266-278.
- Waal W.J.I. (2023), A brief note on the cretan hieroglyphic signs 044 and 056, Hieroglyphs. Studies in Ancient Hieroglyphic Writing 1: 185-192.
- Waal W.J.I. (2023), Sealed breads and tax-free canopies?: Reflections on non-written administrative practices in Hittite Anatolia. In: Bennison-Chapman L.E. (Ed.), Bookkeeping without writing. Early administrative technologies in context: proceedings of the Netherlands Institute for the Near East postdoctoral research fellow first annual conference, 5th & 6th February 2021. PIHANS. Uitgaven van het Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten te Leiden. Leuven: Peeters. 137-159.
- Waal W. (2023), Ties That Bind. A new interpretation of the Hittite verb šai-/šiye-, Anatolica : Annuaire International pour les Civilisations de l'Asie Anterieure 49: 187-205.
- Waal W.J.I. 20 September 2023, De Hettieten. Tijd voor de oudheid [podcast].
- Waal. W.J.I. & Kloekhorst A. (2022), Crime and punishment in Hittite Anatolia: a new interpretation of the verb šaku(ua)-/šakuuai- (with an etymological contribution by Alwin Kloekhorst), Journal of Cuneiform Studies 74(1): 75-87.
- Waal W.J.I. (2022), Crime and punishment in Hittite Anatolia: a new interpretation of the verb šaku(ṷa-) / šakuṷai- (with an etymological contribution by Alwin Kloekhorst), Journal of Cuneiform Studies 74(1): 75-87.
- Waal W.J.I. & Zananiri S. (2022), Frank Scholten: rusteloze fotograaf, Ons Amsterdam 72(juli/augustus): 26-29.
- Waal W.J.I. (2022), The missing link? Writing in West Anatolia during the Late Bronze Age. In: Hajnal I., Zangger E. & Kelder J. (Eds.) The political geography of western Anatolia in the Late Bronze Age. Proceedings of the EEA conference Bern, 7 September 2019. Archaeolingua no. 45 Budapest: Archaeolingua. 229-269.
- Waal W.J.I. (2022), Relations between script, writing material and layout: the case of the Anatolian Hieroglyphs. In: Steele Ph.M. & Boyes Ph.J. (Eds.), Writing around the Ancient Mediterranean: practices and adaptations: Oxbow. 121-144.
- Waal W.J.I. (2022), Klein maar fijn: een bijzonder Hettitisch bronzen stiertje, Allard Pierson Museum Serie 125: 14-15.
- Waal W.J.I. (2022), Deconstructing the Phoenician myth : 'Cadmus and the palm-leaf tablets’ revisited, The Journal of Hellenic Studies 142: 219-254.
- Waal W.J.I. (2021), A new interpretation of the opening lines of the Assur letters: including a discussion of the hieroglyphic Luwian lexemes hatura-, api and (*205)atun(i)-, Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und Vorderasiatische Archäologie 111(2): 263-281.
- Waal W.J.I. (2021), Distorted Reflections? Writing in the Late Bronze Age Aegean in the Mirror of Anatolia. In: Bianconi M. (Ed.), Linguistic and Cultural Interactions between Greece and Anatolia. In Search of the Golden Fleece. Culture and History of the Ancient Near East no. 122. Leiden/Boston: Brill. 197-232.
- Waal W.J.I. (2021), Twee passages uit de eindexamenstof Homerus belicht vanuit een ‘oosters’ perspectief : De dood van Patroclus en de verwonding van Aphrodite in de spiegel van het Gilgamesj-epos, VCN-Bulletin 181: 11-14.
- Hout T. van den & Waal W.J.I. (2021), In Memoriam Johan de Roos (1937-2020), Bibliotheca Orientalis 78(3/4): 267-268.
- Kelder J.M. & Waal W.J.I. (Eds.) (2019), From ‘LUGAL.GAL’ to ‘Wanax’: kingship and political organisation in the Late Bronze Age Aegean. Leiden: Sidestone Press.
- Kelder J.M. & Waal W.J.I. (2019), Epilogue: Kings and Great Kings in the Aegean and Beyond. In: Kelder J.M. & Waal W.J.I. (Eds.), FROM ‘LUGAL.GAL’ TO ‘WANAX’. KINGSHIP AND POLITICAL ORGANISATION IN THE LATE BRONZE AGE AEGEAN. Leiden: Sidestone Press. 151-160.
- Kelder J.M. & Waal W.J.I. (2019), Introduction. In: Kelder J.M. & Waal W.J.I. (Eds.), FROM ‘LUGAL.GAL’ TO ‘WANAX’. KINGSHIP AND POLITICAL ORGANISATION IN THE LATE BRONZE AGE AEGEAN. Leiden: Sidestone. 7-8.
- Waal W.J.I. (2019), Fate strikes back: new evidence for the identification of the Hittite Fate deities and its implications for hieroglyphic writing in Anatolia, Journal of Cuneiform Studies 71: 121-132.
- Waal W.J.I. (2019), The Greek Alphabet. Older than you may think, The Ancient Near East Today. Newsletter of the American Schools of Oriental Research : .
- Kloekhorst A. & Waal W.J.I. (2019), A Hittite scribal tradition predating the tablet collections of Ḫattuša?: The origin of the ‘cushion-shaped’ tablets KBo 3.22, KBo 17.21+, KBo 22.1, and KBo 22.2, Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und Vorderasiatische Archäologie 109(2): 189-203.
- Waal W.J.I. (2019), Ouder dan je zou denken: de leeftijd van het Griekse alfabet, Lampas: Tijdschrift voor Nederlandse classici 52(4): 395-415.
- Waal W.J.I. (2019), Mother or sister? Rethinking the origins of the Greek alphabet and its relation to the other 'western' alphabets. In: Boyes P.J. & Steele P.M. (Eds.), Understanding relations between scripts II. Oxford: Oxbow books. 109-124.
- Waal W.J.I. (2019), My brother, a Great King, my peer. Evidence for a Mycenaean kingdom from Hittite texts. In: Kelder J.M. & Waal W.J.I. (Eds.), From LUGAL.GAL to Wanax. Kingship and political organisation in the Late Bronze Age Aegean. Leiden: Sidestone Press. 9-29.
- Waal W.J.I. (2018), On the ‘Phoenician Letters’: The Case for an Early Transmission of the Greek Alphabet from an Archaeological, Epigraphic, and Linguistic Perspective, Aegean Studies 1: 83-125.
- Waal W.J.I. (2018), Vermaledijde kelken en sjoemelende sommeliers: Fabels en parabels uit het Hittitische rijk. In: Gerritsen F. & Heijden H. van der (Eds.), Standplaats Istanbul. Lange lijnen in de cultuurgeschiedenis van Turkije. Amsterdam: Uitgeverij Jurgen Maas. 69-76.
- Waal W.J.I. (2017), Anatolian Hieroglyphs on Hittite Clay Tablets. In: Kertai D. & Nieuwenhuyse O. (Eds.), From the Four Corners of the Earth. Studies in Iconography and Cultures of the Ancient Near East in Honour of F.A.M Wiggermann (Alter Orient und Altes Testament 441). Münster 297-308.
- Waal W.J.I. (2017), A new interpretation of the Hittite expression šarā ar. In: Mouton A. (Ed.), Hittitology Today: Studies on Hittite and Neo-Hittite Anatolia in Honor of Emmanuel Laroche’s 100th Birthday 71-80.
- Waal W.J.I. (2017), In Search of the Baleful Signs. Rethinking the transmission of the alphabet to Greece. In: , Aspects of Globalization. Mobility, exchange and the development of multi-cultural states. Leiden 18-21.
- Eidem J., Gzella H., Kon R.E., Kooij A. van der, Limme L., Meijer D.W.J., Stol M. & Waal W.J.I. (Eds.) (2017), Bibliotheca Orientalis. Leuven: Peeters.
- Waal W.J.I. (2016), Hittite Diplomatics. Studies in Ancient Document Format and Record Management no. 57. Wiesbaden: Harrazzowitz Verlag.
- Waal W.J.I. (2016), Silver in Search of his Father: A Comparative Folkloristic Approach to an episode of the Song of Silver. In: Kleber K. & Pirngruber R. (Eds.), Silver, Money, and Credit. A Tribute to Robartus J. van der Spek on the Occasion of his 65th Birthday on 18th September 2014 no. 128. Leiden: Peeters. 295-306.
- Waal W.J.I. (2016), Een brief van Hare Majesteit. In: Kaper O.E. (Ed.), Koninginnen van de Nijl. Macht en Schoonheid in het Nieuwe Rijk (1539-1077 v. Chr.). Leiden: Sidestone Press.
- Kaper O.E. (2016), Koninginnen van de Nijl: Macht en schoonheid in het Nieuwe Rijk (1539-1077 v.Chr.). Leiden: Sidestone Press.
- Waal W.J.I. (2016), Wachstafel (wax tablet) bei den Hethitern, 14(7/8): 613-614.
- Waal W.J.I. (2016), Review of: Haubold J. (2013), Greece and Mesopotamia. Dialogues in Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge. Mnemosyne 69(1): 135-139.
- Waal W.J.I. (2015), Hittites. Language and Texts. In: Helmer Ch., McKenzie S.L., Römer Th.Chr., Schröter J., Walfish B.D. & Ziolkowski E. (Eds.), De Gruyter’s Encyclopedia of the Bible and its Reception (EBR) no. Volume 11: Halah – Hizquni: De Gruyter. 1180-1185.
- Burgersdijk D. & Waal W.J.I. (Eds.) (2014), Zenobiareeks. Hilversum: Uitgeverij VerLoren.
- Waal W.J.I. (2014), Changing Fate. Hittite GUL-š-, C. Luwian GUL-zāi-, H. Luwian REL-za and the Kuwanšeš-deities. Taracha P. (Ed.), Proceedings of the Eight International Congress of Hittitology. Eight International Congress of Hittitology. Warsaw: Agade. 1016-1034.
- Eidem J., Gzella H., Kon R.E., Kooij A. van der, Limme L., Meijer D.W.J., Stol M. & Waal W.J.I. (Eds.) (2014), . Bibliotheca Orientalis.
- Burgersdijk D., Henkelman W.F.M. & Waal W.J.I. (2013), Van Achilles tot Acheamenide: Alexander in het rijk van Darius. In: Burgersdijk D., Henkelman W.F.M & Waal W.J.I. (Eds.), Alexander en Darius, Een Macedoniër in de spiegel van het oude Nabije Oosten. Hilversum: Uitgeverij VerLoren. 7-16.
- Burgersdijk D. & Waal W.J.I. (Eds.) (2013), Zenobiareeks. Hilversum: Uitgeverij VerLoren.
- Burgersdijk D, Henkelman W.F.M & Waal W.J.I. (Eds.) (2013), Alexander en Darius. Een Macedoniër in de spiegel van het oude Nabije Oosten no. 1. Hilversum: Uitgeverij Verloren.
- Eidem J., Kon R.E., Kooij A. van der, Limme L., Meijer D.J.W., Stol M. & Waal W.J.I. (Eds.) (2013), . Bibliotheca Orientalis.
- Waal W.J.I. (2013) Review of: Pax Hethitica. Review of: Cohen Y., Gilan A. & Miller J. (2010), Pax Hethitica. Studies on the Hittites and their neighbours in honour of Itamar Singer Wiesbaden 2010. Studien zu den Bogazköy-Texten no. 51. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. Bibliotheca Orientalis 70(1/2): 152-154.
- Waal W.J.I. (2013), Writing in Anatolia. The Origins of the Anatolian Hieroglyphs and the Introduction of the Cuneiform Script, Altorientalische Forschungen 39(2): 287-315.
- Waal W.J.I. (2012), An Anatolian Iliad?. In: Kelder J., Üslu G. & Şerifoğlu Ö.F. (Eds.), Troy: City, Homer and Turkey: W-Books.
- Waal W.J.I. (2012), The Hittites. In: Kelder J. & Üslu G. (Eds.), Troy: City, Homer and Turkey: W Books.
- Waal W.J.I. (2012), A Broader Perspective: an Overview of the East. In: Kelder J., Üslu G. & Şerifoğlu Ö.F. (Eds.), Troy: City, Homer and Turkey: W Books.
- Waal W.J.I. (2012), A war over Troy in the Tawagalawa-letter?. In: Kelder J., Üslu G. & Şerifoğlu Ö.F. (Eds.), Troy: City, Homer and Turkey: W Books.
- Waal W.J.I. (2012), Alakšandu of Wiluša. In: Kelder J., Üslu G. & Şerifoğlu Ö.F. (Eds.), Troy: City, Homer and Turkey: W Books.
- Waal W.J.I. (2012), Chronological Developments in Hittite Scribal Habits and Tablet Shapes. Devecchi E. (Ed.), Palaeography and Scribal Practices in Syro-Palestine and Anatolia in the Late Bronze Age. Proceedings of the International Symposium held in Leiden December 17-18 2009 (PIHANS 119). . Picturing China 1870-1950, Supplement in IIAS Newsletter. Leuven: Peeters. 217-227.
- Waal W.J.I. (2012), Reading Between the Lines: Hittite Scribal Conventions. Egmond W.S. van & Soldt W.H. van (Eds.), Theory and Practice of Knowledge Transfer. Studies in School Education in tne Ancient Near Est and Beyond. . Leuven: Peeters. 147-152.
- Waal W.J.I. (2012), De relatie tussen Egypte en Hatti: een kwestie van geven en nemen, Phoenix: bulletin uitgegeven door het Vooraziatisch-Egyptisch Genootschap Ex Oriente Lux 58(1): 37-50.
- Burgersdijk D.W.P. & Waal W.J.I. (2011), Beelden van Constantinopel: een inleiding. In: Burgersdijk D. & Waal W. (Eds.), Constantinopel. Een mozaïek van de Byzantijnse metropool. Leuven: Ex Oriente Lux, Peeters. 1-12.
- Burgersdijk D.W.P. & Waal W.J.I. (Eds.) (2011), Constantinopel. Een mozaïek van de Byzantijnse metropool. Leuven: Ex Oriente Lux, Peeters.
- Waal W.J.I. (2011), Review of: Groddek D. & Zorman M. (2007), Tabularia Hethaeorum. Hethitologische Beiträge Silvin Kosak zum 65. Geburtstag (DBH 25) no. 3-4. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz. Bibliotheca Orientalis 68: 343-346.
- Waal W.J.I. (2011), They Wrote on Wood. The case for a hieroglyphic scribal tradition in Hittite Anatolia, Anatolian Studies 61: 21-34.
- Waal W.J.I. (2010) Review of Fuscagni, F. Hethitische unveröffentliche Texte aus den Jahren 1906-1912 in der Sekundärliteratur. Review of: (2007), Hethitische unveröffentliche Texte aus den Jahren 1906-1912 in der Sekundärliteratur. Bibliotheca Orientalis 65.5-6.
- Waal W.J.I. (14 September 2010), The source object : studies in Hittite diplomatics (Dissertatie. Leiden Institute for Areastudies (LIAS), Faculty of Humanities, Leiden University). Supervisor(s): Soldt W.H. van & Hout T.P.J. van den.
- Waal W.J.I. (2010) Review of: P. Dardano, die hethitischen Tontafelkataloge aus Hattusa (CTH 276-282). Review of: (2006), Die hethitischen Tontafelkataloge aus Hattusa (CTH 276-282). Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz. Bibliotheca Orientalis 67 5/6: 554-560.
- Waal W.J.I. (2010), Hulanabi vs. Talmi-Tessub: who wrote KBo 33.175+ and KBo 23.28+ (CTH 628), Nouvelles Assyriologiques Brèves et Utilitaires : .
- Waal W.J.I. (2009) Review of B.J. Collins, The Hittites and Their World. Review of: , The Hittites and Their World. 05/2009. Review of Biblical Literature .
- Waal W.J.I. (2007) Boekbespreking. Review of: Bryce T. (2005), The Kingdom of the Hittites. New Edition no. 3-4. Oxford. Bibliotheca Orientalis 64: 417-420.
- Waal W.J.I. (2006), Duurzamer dan Brons. De tabletcollecties van Hattusha, Phoenix: bulletin uitgegeven door het Vooraziatisch-Egyptisch Genootschap Ex Oriente Lux 52(1): 31-43.