Hittites
For the people of the Hebrew Bible, see Biblical Hittites.The
Hittites were an ancient people who spoke
Hittite, an
Indo-European language, and established a kingdom centered in
Hattusa (Hittite
URU) in north-central
Anatolia from the
18th century BC. In the
14th century BC, the Hittite empire was at its height, encompassing central
Anatolia, north-western
Syria as far as
Ugarit, and upper Mesopotamia. After
1180 BC, the empire disintegrated into several independent "
Neo-Hittite" city-states, some of which survived until as late as the 8th century BC.
The term "Hittites" is taken from the
KJV translation of the Hebrew bible, translating
HTY, or
BNY-HT "Children of
Heth". The archaeologists who discovered the Anatolian Hittites in the 19th century initially identified them with these
Biblical Hittites. Today, their identification with either the Hittite Empire proper or the Neo-Hittite kingdoms is a matter of dispute.
The Hittite kingdom, or at least its core region, was apparently called
Hatti by the Hittites themselves. However, the Hittites should be distinguished from the
Hattians, an earlier people who inhabited the same region until the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC, and spoke a non-Indo-European language conventionally called
Hattic. The native term of the Hittite language was
Nesili, the language of
Nesa, the seat of the Hittite kings before the conquest of
Hattusa. Many of the modern city names in
Turkey are derived from their original Hittite names, such as
Sinop and
Adana, showing the impact of
Hittite culture in Anatolia.
The Hittites were also famous for their skill in building and using
chariots. The Hittites were pioneers of the
Iron Age, manufacturing
iron artifacts from as early as the
14th century BC, making them possibly even the first to do so.
 |
Ruins of Hattusa (Lion Gate) at Boğazköy, Turkey |
The first archaeological evidence for the Hittites appeared in tablets found at the
Assyrian colony of
Kültepe (ancient
Karum Kanesh), containing records of trade between Assyrian merchants and a certain "land of
Hatti". Some names in the tablets were neither Hattic nor Assyrian, but clearly Indo-European.
The script on a monument at Boğazköy by a "People of Hattusas" discovered by
William Wright in
1884 was found to match peculiar
hieroglyphic scripts from
Aleppo and
Hamath in Northern Syria. In
1887, excavations at Tell El-
Amarna in Egypt uncovered the diplomatic correspondence of Pharaoh
Amenhotep III and his son
Akhenaton. Two of the letters from a "kingdom of
Kheta" were written in standard
Akkadian cuneiform script, but in an unknown language; although scholars could read it, no one could understand it. Shortly after this,
Archibald Sayce proposed that
Hatti or
Khatti in Anatolia was identical with the "kingdom of
Kheta" mentioned in these
Egyptian texts, as well as with the biblical Hittites. Sayce's identification came to be widely accepted over the course of the early 20th century; and the name "Hittite" has become attached to the civilization uncovered at Boğazköy.
During sporadic excavations at Boğazköy (Hattusa) that began in
1905, the archaeologist
Hugo Winckler found a royal archive with 10,000 tablets, inscribed in cuneiform Akkadian and the same unknown language as the Egyptian letters from
Kheta — thus confirming the identity of the two names. He also proved that the ruins at Boğazköy were the remains of the capital of a mighty empire that at one point controlled northern Syria.
The language of the Hattusa tablets was eventually deciphered by a
Czech linguist,
Bedřich Hrozný (
1879–
1952), who on
24 November 1915 announced his results in a lecture at the Near Eastern Society of Berlin. His book about his discovery was printed in
Leipzig in
1917, with the title
The Language of the Hittites; Its Structure and Its Membership in the Indo-European Linguistic Family. The preface of the book begins with:
The present work undertakes to establish the nature and structure of the hitherto mysterious language of the Hittites, and to decipher this language [...] It will be shown that Hittite is in the main an Indo-European language.For this reason, the language came to be known as the
Hittite language, even though that was not what its speakers had called it. The Hittites themselves apparently called their language and people "Neshili" and hence it has been suggested that the more technically correct term, "Neshite", be used instead. Nonetheless, convention continues and "Hittite" remains the standard term used.
Under the direction of the
German Archaeological Institute, excavations at Hattusa have been underway since
1932, with wartime interruptions. Kültepe has been successfully excavated by late Professor
Tahsin Özgüç (died in 2005) since 1948.
The
Hittite language (or
Nesite) is recorded fragmentarily from about the
19th century BC (in the
Kultepe texts, see
Ishara). It remained in use until about
1100 BC. Hittite is the best attested member of the
Anatolian branch of the
Indo-European language family. Due to marked differences in its structure and phonology some early
philologists, most notably
Warren Cowgill even argued that it should be classified as a sister language to the Indo-European languages, rather than a daughter language (see
Indo-Hittite). By the end of the Hittite Empire, the Hittite language had become a written language of administration and diplomatic correspondence. The population of most of the Hittite Empire by this time spoke
Luwian dialects, another Indo-European language of the Anatolian family that had originated to the West of the Hittite region. The later
Lydian language appears to be directly descended from Hittite rather than from Luwian. The Hittites used a primitive level of hieroglyphics in
Hittite Communication.
|
The Hittite Empire (red) at the height of its power in ca. 1290 BC, bordering on the Egyptian Empire (green) |
The Hittite kingdom was centered around the lands surrounding
Hattusa and
Nesa, known as "the land
Hatti" (
URUHa-at-ti). After Hattusa was made capital, the area encompassed by the bend of the
Halys River was considered the core of the Empire, and some Hittite laws make a distinction between "this side of the river" and "that side of the river", for example, the reward for the capture of an eloped slave after he managed to flee beyond the Halys is higher than that for a slave caught before he could reach the river.
To the south of the core territory was the land of
Kizzuwatna in the area of the
Taurus Mountains. To the west, the confederacy of
Arzawa. To the north, the mountain people of the
Kaskians. To the east, the
Mitanni. After the incorporation or association of Arzawa and Mitanni (under
Suppiluliuma I), the Hittite sphere of influence under
Mursili II bordered on the
Hayasa-Azzi to the east, on the
Ahhiyawa and the newly-forming
Assuwa confederacy to the west, on
Egypt-controlled
Canaan to the south, and on
Assyria to the south-east.
The Hittite kingdom is conventionally divided into three periods, the Old Hittite Kingdom (ca.
1750–
1500 BC), the
Middle Hittite Kingdom (ca. 1500–
1430 BC) and the New Hittite Kingdom (the Hittite Empire proper, ca. 1430–
1180 BC).
The earliest known
Hittite king,
Pithana, was based at
Kussara.
Anitta in the 18th century BC conquered
Nesa, where the Hittite kings had their capital for about a century until
Labarna II conquered
Hattusa and took the throne name of Hattusili "man of Hattusa". The Old Kingdom, centered at Hattusa, peaked during the 16th century, and even managed to sack
Babylon at one point, but made no attempt to govern there, choosing instead to turn it over to the domination of their
Kassite allies who were to rule it for over 400 years. During the 15th century, Hittite power fell into obscurity, re-emerging with the reign of
Tudhaliya I from ca.
1400 BC. Under
Suppiluliuma I and
Mursili II, the Empire was extended to most of
Anatolia and parts of
Syria and
Canaan, so that by 1300 the Hittites were bordering on the
Egyptian sphere of influence, leading to the inconclusive
Battle of Kadesh in the early 13th century. Civil war and rivalling claims to the throne, combined with the external threat of the
Sea Peoples weakened the Hittites and by
1160 BC, the Empire had collapsed. "
Neo-Hittite" post-Empire states, petty kingdoms under
Assyrian rule, may have lingered on until ca.
700 BC, and the Bronze Age Hittite and Luwian dialects evolved into the sparsely attested
Lydian,
Lycian and
Carian languages. Remnants of these languages lingered into
Persian times and were finally extinct by the spread of
Hellenism.
Hittite religion and mythology was heavily influenced by
Mesopotamian mythology, increasingly so as history progressed. In earlier times,
Indo-European elements may still be clearly discerned, for example
Tarhunt the god of thunder, and his conflict with the serpent
Illuyanka.
As mentioned above, the term "Hittites" is an
exonym, taken from the
Hebrew Bible Heth, chosen because of the similarity in name to "
Hatti", and also because the Biblical Hittites are said to be a great power who dwell "in the mountains" and "towards the north" of Canaan. Since the Hebrew Bible was redacted well after the fall of the Hittite Empire, some scholars assume that the Biblical references may be to "
Neo-Hittite"
Luwian polities.
*Trevor Bryce, "Life and Society in the Hittite World," Oxford (2002).
*Trevor Bryce,
The Kingdom of the Hittites, Oxford (1999).
*C. W. Ceram,
The Secret of the Hittites: The Discovery of an Ancient Empire. Phoenix Press (2001), ISBN 1842122959.
*Hans Gustav Güterbock,
Hittite Historiography: A Survey, in H. Tadmor and M. Weinfeld eds.
History, Historiography and Interpretation: Studies in Biblical and Cuneiform Literatures, Magnes Press, Hebrew University (1983) pp. 21-35.
*J. G. Macqueen,
The Hittites, and Their Contemporaries in Asia Minor, revised and enlarged, Ancient Peoples and Places series (ed. G. Daniel), Thames and Hudson (1986), ISBN 0-500-02108-2.
*George E. Mendenhall,
The Tenth Generation: The Origins of the Biblical Tradition, The Johns Hopkins University Press (1973), ISBN 0-8018-1654-8.
*Erich Neu,
Der Anitta Text,
(StBoT 18), Otto Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden (1974).
*Louis L. Orlin,
Assyrian Colonies in Cappadocia, Mouton, The Hague (1970).
The Hittites and Hurrians in D. J. Wiseman
Peoples of the Old Testament Times, Clarendon Press, Oxford (1973).
*
Hattusas/Bogazköy *
The Hittite Home Page *
Arzawa, to the west, throws light on Hittites*
Pictures of Boğazköy, one of a group of important sites*
Pictures of Yazılıkaya, one of a group of important sites*
Pictures of Alacahöyük, one of a group of important sites*
Der Anitta Text (at TITUS) *
Encyclopaedia of Turkey : Hittite relief at Karabel*
Tahsin Ozguc*
Hittites.info
