Hittitic Empire
Hittite is the English-language term now used to describe a kingdom which at its height controlled Asia Minor and Mesopotamia (today's central, eastern and southern Turkey and northern Syria) from a center at Hattusa (the modern village of Boguskoy in north-central Turkey). Founded on older settlements in the 2nd millennium B.C., Hittite power was at its height ca 1400 1200 BCE.
Biblical references to "Hittites"
The Hittites have always been known from the Biblical point-of-view: they were seen as a small Canaanite group living in the hills of Canaan during the era of the Patriarchs. The family burial cave at Machpelah was bought by Abraham from Ephron of the Hittites (Genesis 23:10), who were considered by the Hebrews to be natives of Hebron. Two of Esau's wives were Hittites. Later, Solomon had Hittite wives and bought Egyptian horses for the Hittite king (2 Chronicles 1.17; 1 Kings 11.7); Bathsheba's husband murdered by David was a Hittite.
Archaeological "Hittite" sites
The earliest finds considered to be related to the biblical Hittites were hieroglyphic scripts found at Aleppo and Hamath in Northern Syria. The script matched the script on a monument at Bogazkoy by an Indo-European "People of the Land of Hatti" whose rule was then identified in 1880 by Archibald Sayce ( 1845 - 1933) as the "lost Hittite empire" that Egyptian texts were bringing to light, equated with the biblical Hittites. In 1887, the expedition at Tell El-Amarna in Egypt uncovered the diplomatic correspondence of Pharaoh Amenhotep III and his son, Akhenaton. Two of the letters were written in standard Akkadian cuneiform, but in an unknown language. Although scholars could read it, no one could understand it.
Sayce made the first connection between the ruins at Bogazkoy and the Hittite state, as until that time following the Biblical perspective, the center of Hittite power was considered to be in Syria. Although it has since been averred that the language and people commonly referred to as Hittite cannot actually be the same as the Biblical Hittites, as T. Bryce states (book title, Oxford, 1998), the name has stuck for convenience sake. (this controversy needs to be presented in some detail so that readers can follow it)
During sporadic excavations at Boguskoy/Hattusa that began in 1905, the archaeologist Hugo Winckler found the principal Hittite inscriptions in a royal archive on 10,000 tablets, inscribed in cuneiform Akkadian and an unknown language. The excavators equated the newfound capital Hattusa with the "Kheta" kingdom of the Egyptian records. The newly uncovered language, meanwhile, was named according to the Bible "Hittite" and was deciphered during World War I by a Czech linguist, Bedrich Hrozny (1879 - 1952), who identified "Hittite" as an Indo-European language.
This discovery greatly added to the knowledge of Hittite civilization. Under the direction of the German Archaeological Institute, excavations have been under way since 1932 (with wartime interruptions).
Since the name "Hittite" has become popularized, scholars have discovered that the kings of Hatti actually called their language Nesili (or Nasili) and in one case Kanisumnili: - "(K)neshian", that which is spoken in (Ka)nesh[as], motherland of the dynasty. But just as we call "Egypt" a land that the pharaohs called Kenet, we call "Hittite" a language its speakers called Nesili.
If there is any connection between these and the Biblical Hittites, they might have been the Akkadian traders centered there later adopting Hattic before the north-western Indoeuropean rulers came to dominate the area. However, there is as of yet little basis for any connection between the Biblical Hittites and the Popular Hittites.
Hittite language
Although their empire was composed from many diverse ethnic and linguistic backgrounds, an Indo-European language now commonly known as the Hittite language was used in most of their secular written texts. In multi-lingual texts, passages written in that language are preceded by the adverb nesili (or nasili), "in Nesite". Upon its discovery the language had been quickly dubbed "Hittite" on biblical assumptions, and though scholars are now unanimous that the term "Hittite" is incorrect, they reckon that too much water has passed under the bridge to allow for a correction to "Nesite" at this late date.
In the Hittite (Nesite) language there are many loan words, particularly religious vocabulary, from the languages of Hattic and Hurrian. The Hattic speakers, the Hattians, were the native local inhabitants before the ancestors of the Indo-European Hittites became the dominant group. Sacred and magical texts continuted to be written primarily in Hattic or Akkadian, even after Hittite became the norm for other writings. For more information, see Hittite language.
History
The beginnings of the Hittite civilisation has been traced to the merchant colonies established by the Assyrians in Asia Minor. From this contact the existing inhabitants of the area obtained technologies such as cuneiform writing and the use of the cylinder seal. The largest Assyrian colony was established at Kültepe (Karum Kanesh).
The survival of the Hittites' royal archives has enabled us to reconstruct much of their past. They apparently emerged as a small city-state named Kussara, which has yet to be identified by archeologists. Under king Anittas, the Hittite state grew to encompass the cities of Kanesh and Hattush (aka Hattusa), which was the capital at the zenith of Hittite power. Located near the Turkish village of Bogazköy in central Anatolia, Hattush can still be visited today.
The founding of the Hittite Empire is usually attributed to Hattusilis I, who conquered the plain south of Hattush, all the way to the outskirts of modern-day Aleppo in Syria. Though it remained for his heir, Mursilis I, to conquer that city, Hattusilis was clearly influenced by the rich culture he discovered in northern Mesopotamia and founded a school in his capital to spread the cuneiform style of writing he encountered there.
Mursilis continued the conquests of Hattusilis, reaching down Mesopotamia and threatening Babylonia itself. This lengthy campaign, however, strained the country's resources and left the capital in a state of near-anarchy. Mursilis was assassinated shortly after his return home, and the Hittite Empire was plunged into chaos. The Hurrians, a people living in the mountainous region along the upper Tigris and Euphrates rivers, took advantage of the situation to seize Aleppo and the surrounding areas for themselves.
Hittite prosperity was largely depending on the control of trade routes and metal sources. For this reason, all the kings' reigns passed mainly by struggles and wars with neighbouring Assyrians, Hurrians and Egyptians, especially when Hittites began to extend their control to Mesopotomia. Not surprisingly, they signed the earliest surviving treaty in history with Egyptians known as Kadesh (or Qadesh) treaty (about 1286 - 1300 BC) after endless and unsuccessful fights against Egyptian forces commanded by Rameses II (see Battle of Kadesh). After this date their power began to diminish temporarily and they were pushed back by the Assyrians and Egyptians. However, the end of the kingdom came from the assaults of nomadic and warrior tribes migrating from Northern territories. The Hittite people, language and culture remained as late as the 5th century AD, as they went on living as discrete and diverse small independent states in central and southeastern Anatolia.
Conventional Chronology
Old Hittite Kingdom (1750 - 1500 BC) Hattusas becomes the capital
Middle Hittite Kingdom (1500 - 1450 BC)
New Hittite Kingdom (Empire) (1450 - 1180 BC) Suppiluliumas I conquers Syria;
Mutawallis attacks Egyptians (Kadesh)
External Links
Referenced By
Anatolian languages
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