You Hittites they were an Indo-European people who arrived in Anatolia at the end of the third millennium BC and formed an empire in that region from 1650, when Hattusa was conquered. The Hittites existed for about five centuries, during which time they became one of the largest military forces in the THEoriental antique.
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Origins
You Hittites they were an Indo-European people and their original location is unknown to historians, although some hypotheses exist. What we do know is that they migrated and settled in the region of Anatolia (present-day Turkey), at the end of the third millennium a. Ç. It is likely that the arrival of these people in the region took place around 2300 BC. Ç.
They arrived in the Anatolian region together with other Indo-European peoples and only managed to form a empirecentralized from 1650 BC C., when the king Hathusil I led Hittite troops to conquer lands from the Hatti Kingdom, a people believed to have originated in Anatolia itself.
When this happened, the Hittites rebuilt Hattusa, the former capital of the Hatti, and started a centralized empire that existed until around 1200 BC. Ç.
When were the Hittites discovered?
Until the end of the 19th century, there was little record of the Hittite history, and the information available came from the Bible and Egyptian documentation. THE influence of the Bible in the study of these people is considerable, since the term “Hittite” was taken from this book. We currently know that the Hittites called themselves nesili.
At the end of this century, archaeologists conducted excavations in Bogazkale, then the Ottoman Empire (now Turkey), and found out the ruins of Hattusa, the capital of the Hittites. There were found, during the excavations, about 10,000 tablets from the royal archives of the Hittite kingdom. These boards contained cuneiform writing in the way the Akkadians did it, but the writing was done in the Hittite language itself.
After three years of work, the Czech linguist Bedrich Hrozny announced that had achieved decipher the Hittite language, and this allowed the study of thousands of tablets, which brought important information about the history of this people. The first sentence translated by this linguist was “`Nu Ninda-An Ezzateni, Vatar-Ma Ekuteni”, which means: “you will eat bread, you will drink water”.
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Hittite Empire Events
Records written by the Hittites say thatHathusil I he managed to create this empire through war, with the help of his children and family members. However, when he achieved his achievements, his sons turned against him in the struggle for power. But in addition to conquering the Hatti, Hatusil I also attacked other neighboring peoples in the region, such as the Amorrites.
After Hatusil I died, the Hittite throne was occupied by Mursilis I, king who managed to invade and destroy cities like Aleppo and Babylon. He, however, did not attach these cities to his domains because he only wanted to plunder the locations. Returning from a military campaign, Mursilis I was the victim of a conspiracy and murdered.
After that, the Hittites were ruled by a string of kings, which only contributed to its weakening and the loss of territories. These kings were Hantili I, Zidanta I, Ammuna, Huzziya I and Telipinu. Most of these kings were considered incompetent and left the Hittite Empire in a vulnerable situation.
O reign of telipinu is the big exception, as he sought to regain some of the lands that had been lost in previous reigns. In his reign, the Hittites reconquered some lands from the Hurrians, but the fact that made him well known was the Telepinu's Edict, a document that established rules for the succession. The aim was to end the killing of kings.
After Telipinu's reign, a period of about 100 years began, and historians know little about this moment in Hittite history, as there are very few sources about it. That first phase of Hittite history extended from 1650 a. Ç. until 1461 a. Ç. and is known by historians as Old Hittite Empire.
New Empire
Historians established the reign of Supiluliuma I as the milestone that started the New Empire, the final phase of the Hittite Empire. He is credited with having been the Hittite main king and, during his reign, the Hittites came to rival the Egypt. His reign had 22 years of duration, from 1344 a. Ç. to 1322 a. Ç.
Historians believe that between the reigns of Telipinu and Supiluliuma I, the royal power weakened and the lack of information about this period may be indicative of this, since the records we currently have were made by the kings. Anyway, Supiluliuma I restored royal power and conquered new lands, taking the Hittite domains to new regions of Anatolia, as well as reaching the Mesopotamia and to the borders of the Egyptian lands.
During the reign of Supiluliuma I, the Hittite army was one of the great forces of eastern antiquity. In the war against Egypt, the king ended up dying, in 1322, when he contracted an illness during a military campaign.
His direct heir, Arnuwanda, also caught the disease and died, and the Hittite throne was succeeded by Mursil II, who reigned for 25 years and managed to keep everything his father had achieved. During his reign, one of the most famous battles of antiquity took place, the Battle of Kadesh, in 1274 BC Ç.
The uncertain outcome of the struggle between the Hittites and the Egyptians and the arrival of a new threat – the assyrians – caused a peace agreement between Hittites and Egyptians to be signed.
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Decline
After the reign of Mursil II, the Hittite kingdom entered into decadence. THE rise of the assyrians it is directly related to the Hittite fall because they were conquering Hittite territory and disrupting trade routes that were important to the kingdom's survival. In addition to the Assyrian growth, the Hittites still had to deal with frequent attacks frompeoples of the sea, of unknown origin, and of the kaska, a semi-nomadic people.
The kaskas, for example, managed to invade Hittite lands, attack Hattusa, the capital of the Empire, to sack it and set fire to it in 1190 a. Ç. From then on, the Hittite empire fragmented and several small kingdoms emerged. These small kingdoms (which could be city-states as well) are called Neo-Hittite Kingdoms and many were assimilated by the Assyrians.
Image credits
[1] Chris Hill and Shutterstock
