What kind of people were they?

What kind of people were they?

The Hittites were not the first people in Anatolia. Exactly whence they came, and when, is still unknown; they appear to have had theirorigins in mountain country. They worshipped the forces of nature, gods of storm and wind and the heavenly bodies, the gods of the localities in which their settled and the spirits dwelling in springs on hilltops. All of these were counted among the thousand gods of Khatti'. By the seventeenth century BC they were well established in the area enclosed by the bend of the Kizil Irmak, the river which bounded the 'Upper Land'.the core of the kingdom. Their capital had been moved from Nesas (in the region of modern Kayseri), to Khattusas, a fortress on a hilltop first captured by Anittas, an early king. It was probably a king named Labarnas who encircled the hill with a fortification wall (c. 1630 BC) and built his citadel on the highest point. His successors repeatedly enlarged it till Khattusas became one of the most remarkable cities of ancient times.

A neo-Hittite relife from Carchemish showing a procession
of officrs. The neo-Hittite kingdoms preserved the artistic
traditions of the empire for centuries after its fall.

On a rocky spur between two mountain torrents, the site was a natural stronghold. The citadel, Kuyuk-kale, commanded a fine view of the valley and was protected on two sides by steep precipices. Crags and rocky gorges themselves provided defences to the inner city, and as the inhabited area increased, a massive double wall was built on the south and west of huge blocks of masonry, piled in haphazard fashion without mortar, punctuated by strongly fortified gates. Through a long tunnel under the ramparts, the defenders could make a secret sortie to surprise their attackers. The great length of the wall (it was over two and a half miles long) and the huge area which it enclosed, must have made heavy demands on the national resorces in manpower for garrison duties. It was probably for this reason that the capital was more than once captured and sacked by fierce barbarians from the northeast, the formidable Gasgas.

A noe-Hittite relif from the lion Gate at Malatya
vivdly captures the excitement of a lion-hunt.Details
such as the elaborate mane are derived from Assyrian art.

The Hittite king was a warrior leader surrounded by a feudal assembly of nobles who advised him and even at times imposed their will. His position was not always secure, and a succession of regicides makes the early history of the kingship one of constant bloodshed and rebellion. The order of succession, however, was fixed by royal decree in the reign of King Telepinus about 1500 BC and later Hittite kings enjoyed power which was little short of absolute: as army leaders, supreme judges and chief pontiffs they controlled every aspect of national life. An elaborate ritual governed their actions, and their presence as officiants at the chief religious festivals in the kingdom was regarded as essential. The queen played a prominent part in these ceremonies, and conducted her own diplomatic correspondence with the courts of allied countries. Several queens appear to have wielded considerable power and this confirms the impression, gained from legal and administrative texts, that Hittite women enjoyed a more important position than in most ancient Oriental societies.

 

A relief from the sanctuary at Yanzilikaya depicting king
Tudhaliya 4. His mother was a Hurrian princess, and during
her lifetime the Hittite state cult was reorganized along
Hurrian lines.

In appearance the Hittites were rather short, with high-bridged noses and strongly marked features; their warriors wore short belted tunics and boots of felt with upturned toes. Representations of the king on monuments, however, show him dressed in the long flowing robe of ritual with a shawl around his shoulders

and a close-fitting cap, and carrying a long inverted crook at his side.

The growth of the empire from a small kingdom was achieved gradually and not without set-backs. The need for defence against the northern mountaineers, against Hurrian chariot-warriors from the east (who taught them the techniques of siege-warfare), and against hostile neighbours to north and west led them on their career of expansion. Crossing the barrier of the Taurus mountains, they found themselves involved in the struggle for the possession of the wealthy commercial kingdoms of North Syria. The capture of Aleppo and Carchemish by Khattusilis I and his son Mursilis at the end of the seventeenth century BC, and a surprise march down the Euphrates to capture the city of Babylon itself in 1595 BC, must have startled the ancient kingdoms of the Near East and warned them that a new power was about to enter the arena. But dynastic weaknesses for a time occupied the attention and sapped the strength of the Hittite kingdom and it was not until the end of the fifteenth century BC that the foundations of the later empire were laid.

One of the pair of the Hittite city, Alaca Hϋyϋk. The
head-dress shows evidence of strong Egyptian influence.

With the accession of Suppiluliumas (c.1380–1350 BC), an able diplomat and great warrior, the domination of the Hittites was extended over most of the Anatolian plateau and over the small kingdoms of Syria and the Lebanon which had been subjected either to Egypt or the chief Hurrian kingdom, Mitanni. He overthrew Mitanni, and a clash with Egypt became inevitable. In about 1315 BC direct encounters took place between Egyptians and Hittites, but a peace treaty was signed between King Sethos I and the Hittite Muwatallis. In the reign of Rameses the Great, however, hostilities broke out afresh, and in 1300 BC a large Egyptian army met the Hittite coalition at the fortified town of Kadesh. Here, deceived by spies who proved to be 'double-agents' in the pay of the Hittites, into believing that the enemy had fled northwards, Rameses' army was ambushed and barely escaped annihilation. But the personal skill and bravery of the Pharaoh (or so he himself assures us in the many inscriptions which commemorate the battle) saved the day, and the Hittite army was thrown back in confusion.

A basalt relif from Sam'al shows a god
in the traditional style - with thundebolt,
long plait, peaked cap and tilted boots.
But the curls, anklet and sword are
all Assyrian. 

Whatever the immediate outcome of the battle may in fact have been, the Hittites seem to have gained rather than lost territory. Peace was cemented by the marriage of Rameses to the daughter of Khattusilis III, the Hittite king. The alliance lasted, so far as we know, until the fall of the Hittite Empire.

Khattusilis, like his predecessors, enjoyed a prosperous reign (c. 1285–1265 BC). His son governed the Syrian dependencies from Carchemish, where he ruled as viceroy; the western provinces were firmly held. But already in the reign of his successor, Tudkhalias IV, the empire had begun to crumble. Rulers of dependencies on the Mediterranean coast first broke away; to the northeast there was unrest and on the eastern frontier the Assyrians pressed hard.

The successor of Tudkhalias called upon his Syrian allies and dependencies for aid. One of these was the ruler of Ugarit, a town whose ruins are still can be seen on the Mediterranean coast at a place called Ras Shamra. In the palace of the kings of Ugarit the excavators found large numbers of tablets; some of the tablets were part of the diplomatic archives, and these demonstrated clearly that since the early years of the fourteenth century BC Ugarit had been tributary to the Hittite Empire. There was ample evidence that the palace had been looted.

Another relif from Sam'al shows a man and
his wife eating fruit.

In one of the courtyards was a kiln which the royal scribes had used for baking their clay tablets. It was packed with documents, some of them copies of letters which had evidently been recently received and translated into the local language. Some speak of an approaching foe whose onslaughts were evidently causing grave concern. Others mention preparations for attack and one is an urgent call for a shipload of corn from a Hittite king facing famine. It appears very possible that we have here the last cry for help from an empire about to vanish.