They represent correspondence with the kingdom of Arzawa, a land so remote that its scribes were unable to read and write Akkadian. In the letter in question the scribe from Arzawa addresses his Egyptian colleague:. Do, please, write me, 0 scribe. Also, put your name at the end of the letter. Do write all tablets which they will bring me in Neshian! Fortunately, we can now answer that question. Prior to the arrival of the Hittites the area of central Anatolia was controlled by a non-Indo-European group who called their language Hattic, their land the Hatti-Land, and their capital city Hattush.
Presumably these people are to be identified with the royal graves at the site of Alaca Huyuk, north of Boghazkoy, but this is not certain. Sometime around c. They took the name Hattush and added a Hittite nominative ending, making it Hattushas. Hattic, Akkadian and Hittite are but the beginning. In Forrer tried to add a ninth, Achaean Greek.
Scholars have seldom been content to see things in purely Anatolian terms. This, of course, also holds true for Troy or, to be more precise, for what was found at Hissarlik. By the time the Greeks became interested in the interior of Anatolia the Hittites had long since gone. He came from a Carian city, Halicarnassus, and tells us about the early Carian population of Miletus, a group already mentioned by Homer.
But of the Hittites not a word. Pausanias also came from Asia Minor, probably from Smyrna, and he too is a mine of information about Ionia and its environs, but of the Hittites he is sweet ignorance itself. How can this be, you might ask; what about that Mycenaean pottery at Miletus and Ephesus, sites probably actually mentioned in Hittite texts as Millawanda and Apasas?
The first is the great rock-cut relief at Karabel near modern Kemal Pasa, east of Smyrna. It shows a Hittite king striding right, with a bow in his right hand and with his outstretched left hand holding a spear. From the rock-cut hieroglyphic inscription we can identify this as a representation of the Hittite king Tudhaliya, probably Tudhaliya IV.
The pillars which Sesostris erected in the conquered countries have for the most part disappeared; but in that part of Syria called Palestine, I myself saw them still standing. In each case the figure is that of a man, four cubits and a span high, with a spear in his right hand and a bow in his left, the rest of his costume being likewise half Egyptian, half Ethiopian.
Hence it has been imagined by some of those who have seen these forms, that they are figures of Memnon; but such as think so err very widely from the truth. And so does Herodotus. This was already recognized by Texier in his publication of the monument in Kiepert, who visited the Hittite monument in , also accepted this identification, but no one, from Herodotus on, suspected it could have anything to do with the Hittites, for they knew nothing about the Hittites.
Ah well, this is only Herodotus, writing in the mid fifth century B. My second example comes from Homer. Now Homer, if anyone, should know something about the Hittites and, indeed, many efforts have been made to find them in the Iliad or the Odyssey, either under their own name or disguised as Amazons. Homer does speak of the Phrygians, a problem which bothered Strabo and is still an embarrassment to most Homeric scholars today. So much did she weep for their loss that she was turned to stone:.
A copy of the treaty was inscribed in hieroglyphs on the walls of an Egyptian temple at Karnak where it stands to this day ; and on a Hittite clay tablet originating from Hattusa currently at the Istanbul Archaeological Museum. Bas-relief from Hattusa depicting herd animals The Hittite imperial boundaries encompassed a diverse geography, including expansive grassy plains, mountains, seacoast, river valleys, and desert.
Their economy was based mainly on grain and shepherding, but they also possessed large deposits of silver, copper, and lead ore. They were adept metalworkers and among the earliest makers of iron. Hittite Priest-King c.
The nearly 3-foot-tall sculpture has inlaid bone eyes, a conical hat and wears a ceremonial beard. The figure probably held a staff or sword in one hand. The Hittites were the first ancient people to use iron for tools and weapons, and they spoke an Indo-European language—a branch of language that includes Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, Persian, German, and English.
The Great Temple at Hattusa was the religious center of the empire. The Hittite king was also the high priest of the kingdom and split his time between government, religious duties, and conquest. These personal appearances brought in rich donations and helped stabilize the realm. It was tolerant of other beliefs and flexible about incorporating new gods already worshipped by newly conquered peoples.
The amount of Hittite culture that has been discovered so far pales in comparison to that of their contemporaries in Babylon and Egypt—only a few bronze and stone statuettes, seal impressions, and rock carvings remain as a testament to their artistic ability. Tablet from Hattusa depicting the double eagle One enduring symbol from their artwork is the double-headed eagle—a design that was passed down and adopted by many other cultures throughout the ages, from Byzantium to Imperial Russia.
The Hittites used cuneiform for writing as well as Luwian Hieroglyphs. Bas-relief of King Tudhaliya IV reign c. Because they had no law of succession until circa BCE, the death of a king prior to then often triggered a struggle for power. The authority of the Pankus waned as the empire began to grow and after a law of succession was adopted. During the imperial years, the Hittite ruler was called the Great King. Each year, the rulers of vassal states brought gifts to Hattusas and pledged their loyalty.
In return for military protection and favorable trading status, vassal states contributed precious resources, grain and troops to the empire. In some places the walls were over 25 feet thick. The Hittites also incorporated massive stones and boulders in their architecture, like the cyclopean building techniques found at the contemporary citadel of Mycenae in Greece.
Sphinx Gate, Hattusa There were at least five gates to the fortified city—each guarded by stone sentinels in the likeness of lions or sphinx-like creatures. The Assyrians, who eventually conquered Hittite territories, crafted similar protective guardians, placing them at the entrances to their own cities: lions or bulls with the heads of men called lamassu.
Tunnel Gate, Hattusa In the upper part of the citadel is a human-made rampart with a tunnel passing through it. The exact purpose of this tunnel is not known for certain, although it was thought to have been used as a sally port.
It is more likely that the tunnel and others like it in the citadel served as a ceremonial passageway. This sacred spot, located at the end of a processional path wending its way northeast from the Lower City, contains several reliefs carved into the rocks—images of gods and kings. Luwian hieroglyphs, Hattusa The Hittites used cuneiform script for writing on clay and metal tablets, but for monumental inscriptions they carved pictographs called Luwian hieroglyphs like the ones displayed on this sacred chamber in the citadel.
Illustration of a Hittite warrior Hittite foot troops made extensive use of the powerful recurve bow and bronze tipped arrows. Surviving artwork depicts Hittite soldiers as stocky and bearded, wearing distinctive shoes with curled-up-toes.
For close combat they used bronze daggers, lances, spears, sickle-shaped swords, and battle-axes. Soldiers carried bronze rectangular shields and wore bronze conical helmets with earflaps and a long extension down the back that protected the neck.
The Hittite language was a member of the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family. They referred to their native land as Hatti. The Hittites are thereby counted among the Canaanites. In 2 Kings , they are depicted as a people with their own kingdoms. Despite the use of Hatti as the core of their territory, the Hittites should be distinguished from the Hattians, an earlier people who inhabited the same region until the beginning of the 2nd millennium BCE , and spoke a different language, possibly in the Northwest Caucasian language group known as Hattic.
The Hittite military made successful use of chariots. Although their civilization thrived during the Bronze Age, the Hittites were the forerunners of the Iron Age and were manufacturing iron artifacts from as early as the 14th century BCE. Correspondence with rulers from other empires reveal a foreign demand for iron goods.
The history of the Hittite civilization is known mostly from cuneiform texts found in the area of their kingdom, and from diplomatic and commercial correspondence found in various archives in Egypt and the Middle East.
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