What is Hittites?

For the people of the Hebrew Bible, see Biblical Hittites.

The Hittites were an ancient people from Kaneš who spoke an Indo-European language, and established a kingdom centered at Hattusa (Hittite ^URUḪattuša) in north-central Anatolia from the 18th century BC. In the 14th century BC, the Hittite empire was at its height, encompassing Anatolia, north-western Syria about as far south as the mouth of the Litani River (a territory known as Amqu), and eastward into upper Mesopotamia. After 1180 BC, the empire disintegrated into several independent "Neo-Hittite" city-states, some surviving until as late as the 8th century BC.

The term "Hittites" is taken from the KJV translation of the Hebrew Bible, translating חתי‎ HTY, or חתי‎ BNY-HT "Children of Heth" (Heth being son of Canaan). The archaeologists who discovered the Anatolian Hittites in the 19th century initially identified them with these Biblical Hittites. Today the identification of the Biblical peoples with either the Hattusa-based empire or the Neo-Hittite kingdoms is a matter of dispute.^[1]

The Hittite kingdom was commonly called the Land of Hatti by the Hittites themselves. The fullest expression is, "The Land of the City of Hattusa". This description could be applied to either the entire empire, or more narrowly just to the core territory, depending upon context. The word "Hatti" is actually an Akkadogram, rather than Hittite; it is never declined according to Hittite grammar rules. Despite the use of "Hatti", 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 called Hattic. The Hittites referred to their language as Nesili (or in one case, Kanesili), an adverbial form meaning "in the manner of (Ka)nesa." This presumably reflects their origins in the ancient city of Kanesh (modern day Kultupe, Turkey). 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, demonstrating great skills in the manufacture of iron artifacts from as early as the 14th century BC, when letters to foreign rulers reveal the demand for their iron goods. The Hittites were not, however, the first to work iron, and iron remained a precious metal throughout the history of their empire. The Hittites passed much knowledge and lore from the Ancient Near East to the newly arrived Greeks in Europe.

Archaeological discovery

Further information: Hittite sites

The Hittites used cuneiform letters. Archaeological expeditions have discovered in Hattushash entire sets of royal archives in cuneiform tablets, written either in Babylonian, the diplomatic language of the time, or in the various dialects of the Hittite confederation.^[2]

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" -- apparently located in the same general region as the Mesopotamian references to "land of Hatti" -- 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 1906, 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 Hrozni (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 nešili "(in the manner) of (the city of) Neša" 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 1907, with interruptions during both wars. Kültepe has been successfully excavated by late Professor Tahsin Özgüç (died in 2005) since 1948. Excavations on a smaller scale have also been carried out in the immediate surroundings of Hattusa, including the rock sanctuary of Yazılıkaya, which contains numerous rock-cut reliefs portraying the Hittite rulers and the gods of the Hittite pantheon.

Language

Main article: Hittite language

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.

Geography

Main article: Geography of the Hittite Empire

The Hittite kingdom was centered around the lands surrounding Hattusa and Neša, known as "the land Hatti" (^URUHa-at-ti). After Hattusa was made capital, the area encompassed by the bend of the Halys River (which they called the Marassantiya) 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.

History

Main article: History of the Hittites

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 member of a Hittite speaking dynasty, Pithana, was based at the city of Kussara. In the 18th century BC Anitta, his son and successor, made the Hittite speaking city of Neša into one of his capitals and adopted the Hittite language for his inscriptions there. However, Kussara remained the dynastic capital for about a century until Labarna II adopted Hattusa as the dynastic seat, possibly taking the throne name of Hattusili, "man of Hattusa", at that time.

The Old Kingdom, centered at Hattusa, peaked during the 16th century BC, and even managed to sack Babylon at one point, but made no attempt to govern there, enabling the Kassite to rise to prominence there and rule it for over 400 years.

During the 15th century BC, 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 BC the Hittites were bordering on the Egyptian sphere of influence, leading to the inconclusive Battle of Kadesh in 1274 BC.

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.

Peace Treaty with Mitannis

Main article: Indo-Aryan superstrate in Mitanni

In a treaty between the Hittites and the Mitanni, the deities Mitra, Varuna, Indra, and Nasatya (Ashvins) are invoked.

Mythology

Main article: Hittite mythology

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.

Hittite government

The Hittites are thought to have had the first constitutional monarchy. This consisted of a king, royal family, the pankus (who monitored the king's activities), and an often rebellious aristocracy. The Hittites also made huge advances in legislation and justice. They produced the Hittite laws. These laws rarely used death as a punishment. For example, the punishment for theft was to pay back the amount stolen.

Biblical Hittites

Main article: Hittites in the Bible

Genesis indicates that the "Hittites" (sons of Heth) were descendants of Ham through his son, Canaan. However, it is uncertain, and there has been some debate, as to whether this designation was intended to signify any or all of: 1) the original Hattites of Hatti, 2) their Indo-European conquerors (Nesili), who retained the name "Hatti" for Central Anatolia, and are today referred to as the "Hittites" (the subject of this article), or 3) a Canaanite group, who may or may not have been related to either or both of the Anatolian groups, and who also may or may not be identical with the later Neo-Hittites.

The Biblical Hittites are said to be a great power who dwell "in the mountains" and "towards the north" of Canaan. Some scholars, on the basis of the Documentary Hypothesis which holds that the Hebrew Bible was redacted well after the fall of the Hittite Empire, assume these Biblical references may be to the "Neo-Hittite" (Luwian) polities.

Artifacts

Most of the Hittite artifacts can be viewed in Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara, Turkey. It is one of the richest museums about Anatolian Civilizations in the world.

References

Literature

In Popular Culture

Of all works of modern literature dealing with the Hittites, the most widespread - and from which non-historians are most likely to draw information on them - is the best-selling historical novel The Egyptian by Mika Waltari, originally published in Finnish in 1945 and soon translated to numerous languages worldwide and remaining long in print.

In this book, the Hitties are depicted as relentless, utterly ruthless aggressors bent on universal conquest. This description of them had less to do with historical fact (though Waltari did make considerable use of historical sources) and more with the fact that the book was written during the Second World War and the Hittite Empire as described in it was clearly intended to represent Nazi Germany - with King Suppiluliuma I shown as an ancient Hitler and the Hittite iron-working and use of war-chariots depicted as the equivalent of the Wehrmacht tanks.

In quite a different vein, a fictionalized version of Suppiluliuma I's son and successor Mursili II appears in the Japanese manga Red River. He is "Kail Mursili", which according to Beal would be an anachronism - since he is not named "Mursili" in any texts prior to those of his own reign, and was likely named something else. Kail is one of the comic's main protagonists and is portrayed as noble and brave, as well as a sexy playboy.

In the movie Ghostbusters, the fictional demigod Gozer is said to have been worshipped by the Hittites, Sumerians and Mesopotamians. Gozer's minion, Zuul, comes heralding Gozer's impending return.

The Hittites are among the civilizations which can be selected in the computer games Age of Empires and Civilization III.

In the movie Deadly Blessing from 1981 by Wes Craven the main anatagoists are a sort of modern Hittite, an ultra-conservative version of the Amish, and described in the movie as "The Hittites make the Amish look like swingers".

External links

• 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
• Hittite Period in Anatolia
• pictures
• Hethitologieportal Mainz, by the Akademie der Wissenschaften, Mainz, corpus of texts and extensive bibliographies on all things Hittite

History of Hittites Series
History of the Hittites	Battle of Kadesh	Hittite military oath