The Hittites were an ancient people in Anatolia who spoke an Indo-European language, and established a kingdom centered at Hattusha (Hittite URU?attu?a) 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. 13
Hittite is the earliest attested Indo-European language, rediscovered only a little more than a century after the Proto-Indo-European hypothesis had been formulated. Because of marked differences in its structure and phonology, some modern linguists, most notably Edgar H. Sturtevant and Warren Cowgill, argued that it should be classified as a sister language to the Indo-European languages, rather than a daughter language, formulating the Indo-Hittite hypothesis. Many scholars, however, continue to accept the traditional 19th century view of the primacy of Proto-Indo-European and interpret the unusual features of Hittite as mainly due to later innovations. 2
The Hittites, an ancient Indo-European people who appeared in Anatolia at the beginning of the second millennium BC, had become one of the dominant powers of the Middle East by 1340 BC. Early kings of the Hittite Old Kingdom had extended Hittite control over much of northern Syria eventually raiding down the Eurphrates to Babylon. The struggle with Egypt under Ramses II for control of Syria led to one of the greatest battles of the ancient world at Kadesh in 1299 BC. The fall of the Hittite Empire in 1193 BC was sudden – perhaps because of large scale migration – and historical records were scarce. But then the discovery of Hittite cuneiform tablets at their ancient capital of Hattusa (now Bogazk�,Turkey) in the 1940’s yielded fascinating information about the people, their political organization, social structure, economy and religion. 39
Evidence for the Hittites was bolstered in Egypt with the discovery of a treaty between Pharaoh Ramses II and the Hittite Empire. Originally written on silver tablets in Heliopolis and Hattusus, a huge copy was found on a wall of the great Karnak Temple. After years of fighting between the Hittites and the Egyptians, Ramses II and the Hittite king settled on a treaty whereby the territory of Syria and Canaan would be divided between them. 6
The discovery of Hattusha was an important one to the understanding of the Hittite Civilization. The earliest evidence for Hittites was found in Syria and Hittites were described in the Hebrew bible as a purely Syrian Nation. So, until the discovery of Hattusha, it was believed that Hittites were Syrian. The Hattusha excavations in Turkey revealed both the enormous strength and sophistication of the ancient Hittite Empire, and the time depth of the Hittite civilization centuries before the cultures now called Neo-Hittites were mentioned in the bible. 12
Although the Hittite empire was composed of people from many diverse ethnic and linguistic backgrounds, the Hittite language was used in most of their secular written texts. In spite of various arguments over the appropriateness of the term, Hittite remains the most current term by convention, although some authors make a point of using Nesite. 2
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. 1
The first substantive claim as to the affiliation of the Hittite language was made by J�rgen Alexander Knudtzon (1902) in a book devoted to two letters between the king of Egypt and a Hittite ruler, found at El-Amarna in Egypt. Knudtzon argued that Hittite was Indo-European, largely on the basis of the morphology. Although he had no bilingual texts, he was able to give a partial interpretation to the two letters because of the formulaic nature of the diplomatic correspondence of the period. His argument was not generally accepted, partly because the morphological similarities he observed between Hittite and Indo-European can be found outside of Indo-European, and partly because the interpretation of the letters was justifiably regarded as uncertain. 2
Hrozny recognized the cuneiform ideogram ninda as representing bread. This led him to speculate that some of the other words in the lines might be for something like eating. He at that point was still considering Hittite as a Semitic language so he was looking for words that might be cognate with words for eating and so forth in other Semitic languages. Hrozn?s a Semitic scholar but as a Czech he was also familiar with German. In scanning the lines looking for something that would be associated with bread what does he find at the beginning of the second line but wa-a-tar. It fairly leaps out as virtually the English word water although Hrozn?obably saw it as a cognate of the German word for water, wasser. This was the clue to Hrozn?at Hittite belonged to the Indo-European language family. 33
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 and people “Neshili” 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. 7
What Texier had in fact stumbled upon was nothing less than the ruins of Hatrusas, the great walled capital of the Hittite empire. By the late 1800’s scholars came to appreciate the significance of Texier’s discovery, and the newest branch of archaeology, Hittitoldgy, had been born. It is still fresh and exciting, and each year new discoveries in Turkey are bringing the ancient and forgotten world of the Hittites farther out of the darkness that cloaked it for more than three millenia. 22
The last of their great cities, Carchemesh was captured by the Assyrians in 717 BC. Their people contined living in small discrete holdings in Central and southeastern Anatolia and their language and culture remained as late as the 5th century AD (Lehmann, 1975). 20
The Hittite language has traditionally been stratified into Old Hittite (OH), Middle Hittite (MH) and New or Neo-Hittite (NH; not to be confused with the “Neo-Hittite” period which is actually post-Hittite), corresponding to the Old, Middle and New Kingdoms of the Hittite Empire (ca. BC, 1500?1430 BC and 1430?1180 BC, respectively). These stages are differentiated partly on linguistic and partly on paleographic grounds. Just as the notion of a Middle Kingdom has been largely discredited, Melchert (Middle Hittite revisited) argues that MH as a linguistic term is not clearly delineated and should be understood as referring to a period of transition between OH and NH. 2
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. 1
By 1450-1200 BC, the Hittite Empire was restored and extended its sway to Euphrates and to Canaan. King Suppiluliumas, c. 1380-1340, took Syria, defeated the Mitanni, and sent his son to marry daughter of Pharaoh Akhnaton. A combined host of Hittite warriors, 30000 foot and 4000 chariots, fought at this battle in the hills of Syria. The Hittite and Egyptian leaders agreed to the Peace of Kadesh that recognized a line of demarcation between their respective empires. 36
- en.wikipedia.org
- wapedia.mobi
- en.wikipedia.org
- www.allaboutarchaeology.org
- indo-european.eu
- www.orionbooks.co.uk
- archaeology.about.com
- dsc.discovery.com
- www.sjsu.edu
- www.unibooking.com
- www.saudiaramcoworld.com
- www.termpapergenie.com
- web.ics.purdue.edu
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