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provided by Catalogo dei prodotti della ricerca 1 Hittite Empire identification of a Hittite presence is the refer- ence to the land of Hattu and the occurrence FEDERICO GIUSFREDI of Anatolian anthroponyms in the Old Assyr- University of Verona, Italy ian documents from the 20th–19th centu- ries BCE. The were a Indo-European people While other were settled settled in during the second millen- in northern and southwestern Anatolia (the nium BCE. The designation “Hittite” is a mod- people of and the respectively), ern exonym derived from the German word the core of the area occupied by Hittite- Hethiter, used by Martin Luther in order to speaking people seems to coincide with the translate the name given to the Neo-Hittite central of the valley of the Kızılırmak peoples of Northern and Southern River (often designated with the ancient Anatolia in the Bible. The Hittites themselves Greek name of Halys even in the modern lit- gave their own kingdom the name Hatti, erature). However, during the centuries, the probably mutated from the Hattian peoples Hittites were able to develop a major political that occupied the valley of the Kızılırmak influence over the neighboring lands, and the before the advent of the Indo-Europeans, boundaries of their kingdom reached, in the and to their language the name Nesili (or most successful phases, from the Aegean Nesumnili), literally meaning “(in) the lan- coast to the west, central Syria to the south. guage of Nesa,” the city of Nesa being one of the first important political centers of the of Anatolia. THE OLD ASSYRIAN PHASE AND THE The exact date of the Indo-European HITTITE “PROTO-HISTORY” migration in Anatolia is unknown (Bryce 2005: 11–14), as unknown as their prove- The most ancient written sources found nance: the hypothesis assumes that within the boundaries of modern the origin of the Indo-Europeans is in the were not written by the Hittites, nor by any Pontic Steppe and in the , while other people that inhabited the region. In fact, other scholars have suggested that the Hittites the first tablets of Anatolia were were indigenous and did not migrate at all. written in the Assyrian dialect of the Akka- Apart from the speculations linguists and dian language, and were composed by the archaeologists can make, the modern histo- offices of Old Assyrian merchants that lived rian can only definitely register the presence in the so called kārū (markets, literally of the Hittites (and other Indo-European “docks”) and who traded mostly textiles in peoples speaking related languages such as exchange for copper, with the indigenous Luwian and Palaic) in the region starting from inhabitants of the Anatolian towns (Bryce the first centuries of the second millennium 2005: 21–40). A kārum was a block added BCE. Lacking reliable taxonomies for the “eth- to a pre-existing city: it was a dwelling occu- nic” attribution of ceramic styles in the early pied by Assyrian traders either full-time or for phases of Anatolian pre-history and proto- several months every year. Some of them had history, the terminus post quem for the family in Anatolia, and among them there

The Encyclopedia of Empire, First Edition. Edited by John M. MacKenzie. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Published 2016 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. DOI: 10.1002/9781118455074.wbeoe265 2 were scribes; however, due to significant dif- BCE, characterized by a fragmented political ferences in the paleography of the Assyrian situation, with the rulers of several city-states texts and the later Hittite ones, it is unclear being independent of each other: some of whether the Indo-European peoples who them were, of course, the ones that had co-existed with the Assyrians learned to write hosted, and possibly still hosted, Assyrian from them and then adapted the cuneiform markets. In the early 17th century, the so script to their own language in this early stage. called -text records that the ruler of The phase of the Old Assyrian traders in the city of Kushshara, Anitta, son of , Anatolia has often been referred to as the started a series of successful military cam- age of the “Old Assyrian colonies”; however, paigns and conquered the kingdom of the city no political colonization took place. The tra- of Nesa, defeating the local rulers (Bryce 2005: ders acted both as officials (they worked for 35–40). The text is written in Hittite, and it the palace of the king and traded as “public” survives in copies that were found in Hattusha agents) and as private entrepreneurs, invest- and was probably composed during the reign ing their own capital. The cities that hosted of the first rulers of the kingdom of Hatti. an Assyrian kārum remained independent, Although the exact relationship between governed by local authorities that did not rec- Anitta and the first rulers of the kingdom of ognize the political power of . the Hittites remains obscure, the genealogy The Assyrian markets in Anatolia were of the early Hittite kings and the text of the quite numerous, but the most important Proclamation of (see below) inform one was located in Nesa (or Kanesh, the mod- us that kings of Hattusha descended from the ern Kültepe), but there was one also in Hat- rulers of Kushshara and Nesa; however, tusha (the future capital city of the Hittite whether this genealogy was real, or simply kingdom, not far from the modern village assumed in order to legitimate the origins of Boğazköy). With the decline of the Old of the Hittite dynasty of Hattusha, remains Assyrian kingdom in the 18th century BCE, unclear. the letters and commercial records from the markets in Anatolia are no longer written, leaving a gap of about one century before THE OLD HITTITE KINGDOM the emergence of the first documents that can be ascribed to the Hittite culture itself. The first ruler of the Hittite kingdom who certainly resided in the city of Hattusha, and whose court had texts composed that sur- BEFORE HATTI vived and have been found and published, was named Hattusili, first king of his name A significant gap of at least one century exists (Bryce 2005: 61–120). between the last Old Assyrian documents tes- According to the sources, was in tifying to the existence of a net of trading gate- fact the third member of the Old Hittite ways in Anatolia and the reigns of the first dynasty, being probably the nephew-in-law rulers of the Hittite capital city of Hattusha. of his predecessor, Labarna, the son of a It is possible to reconstruct some of the main Papahdilmah who never ascended to the events that took place during this phase based throne, and the grandson of Labarna’s pred- on a few later sources found in Hattusha. ecessor, a ruler named PU-Sharruma whose One must imagine that Central Anatolia reign is still disputed. Modern scholars have was, during the late 18th and 17th centuries very few sources referring to the reigns of 3 the two kings who preceded Hattusili (most of Hattusili did so after returning from his last the data that survive come from the historical campaign in Syria: he was probably wounded, prologue of an edict issued by a later king, the and he designated his adopted son Mursili (I) so-called Proclamation of Teilipinu), but as his successor. Labarna must have been a rather significant Mursili’s military activity was once again figure in the representation of history and directed towards Syria, where he was able to power among the Hittites, and his personal defeat and to proceed towards Meso- name became, in later texts, a royal title that potamia. Here he besieged and sacked the city accompanied the designation of King and of , defeating the last member of the Great King, a phenomenon that also took glorious Old Babylonian dynasty started by place in the with the name Hammurapi in the 18th century BCE. His suc- of Caesar. cession, however, was no simpler than his As far as Hattusili’s reign is concerned, accession: he was murdered by his successor, since his personal name means “of , who was later murdered by the Hattusha,” it is safe to assume that either he usurper, . Zidanta was killed by his personally transferred the court to the new own son , who died by the hand capital city of the kingdom, or he was the first of another usurper, Huzziya I. Huzziya’s suc- one who ascended to the throne in that city cessor was also a usurper, the husband of the after Labarna moved there. Hattusili was king’s sister, and he was named Telipinu. By probably active as a military leader, since this time, it must have become evident that the power of the city of Hattusha was still the dynasty lacked a system for regulating weak and not all the other centers of Anatolia the succession. Telipinu, who had killed his recognized its authority. A victorious cam- brother-in-law, decided to dictate a procla- paign against the rulers of Zalpa on the Black mation containing a series of instructions that Sea certainly took place, but the sources pro- could be defined as a law of succession, with a vide no conclusive information about its date well-defined order of priority in case of mul- and the name of the Hittite king who fought tiple candidates, and with a historical pro- there. Certainly, it was Hattusili who cam- logue that contains most of the information paigned twice in Syria, reaching the city of we know about the history of the Old Hittite Aleppo, and in Western Anatolia, against dynasties that has been presented so far. the Luwian kingdom of . However, although the military campaigns and the political expansion certainly repre- THE MIDDLE HITTITE KINGDOM sented a major problem, it needs to be stressed that the biggest concern for the first rulers of Telipinu’s intensive military activity was not the Old Hittite kingdom was the preservation sufficient to guarantee the safety of the terri- of internal stability against the constant threat tories of the Hittite kingdom that were threa- of intra-dynastic turmoil. Hattusili was not tened to the west by the kings of the Luwian the son of his own predecessor, and very likely states, and to the southeast by the expansive other branches of the family still existed and momentum of the Hurrian kingdom of Mit- were ready to claim power at any time; more- tani. In the modern periodization of Hittite over, the king’s son, Huzziya, was involved in history, Telipinu’s death marks the end of an attempted revolt and usurpation, which the so called Old Hittite phase, and the begin- forced Hattusili to rid himself of his legitimate ning of the Middle Hittite period (Bryce 2005: heir and to designate a different successor. 121–153). 4

The identity of Telipinu’s immediate suc- reign of his son and successor Suppiluliuma cessor is uncertain. It may have been his I. Suppiluliuma was a strong and resourceful son , but the sources are poor; ruler who started his political and military certainly, his grandson Hantili II ruled in career at his father’s side, and when he even- the central decades of the 15th century BCE. tually became king undertook massive mili- The succession of kings was rather peaceful tary activity against neighboring countries, for a few generations, but the exact order succeeding in obliterating the Hurrian threat, and the relationship between the rulers of conquering large areas of northern Syria and the kingdom is obscure due to the small num- giving political stability to an extensive por- ber of sources and their poor state of conser- tion of western Anatolia. vation. Around 1400 BCE , however, the The early steps of his expansionist policy sources refer to a successful coup d’état by are obscure, because the first portion of the the chief of the royal bodyguards, Muwatalli annalistic text that describes his res gestae (I), who became king and was then murdered (redacted by his son Mursili after his death) by two officers, and succeeded by his own son is damaged, but what is left clearly shows that I (also referred to as /II Suppiluliuma was able to combine the skills of or Tudhaliya II, as the numbering of the first a brilliant military leader with those of a Hittite kings bearing this name is still clever strategist and diplomat. Aware of the disputed). potential instability of the Syrian territories, During Tudhaliya’s reign, the efforts of threatened to the south by the influence of the Hittite army directed towards the west- the of the age and to the east ern of Anatolia became more and by the Mesopotamian superpower of Assyria, more intensive, and after a century of sta- he successfully enthroned two of his sons, bility and retreat, the boundaries of the Hit- Piyassili and Teilipinu, in the cities of tite kingdom began to expand. Tudhaliya Kargamish and Aleppo respectively (Bryce successfully campaigned against the King- 2005: 178–180). dom of , and reached the north- western regions of and Taruisa, which some scholars identify with the city THE LATE EMPIRE and land of Homeric . The exact sequence of his successors is unclear, and After the death of Suppiluliuma and the short those who inherited the throne (the first ill-fated reign of his direct successor Arnu- one being ) had a difficult wanda II, the Hittite Empire found itself in time preserving and controlling the terri- a rather difficult situation (Bryce 2005: tories conquered by their predecessor, and 190–220). Although its territories were now during the last years of the Middle Hittite extremely large (and destined to grow even phase, the kingdom was absorbed by con- larger in the following decades), the new king stant conflicts. Arnuwanda’s younger brother, Mursili II, who was still a boy (although probably not a child), assumed power and was forced to THE EARLY EMPIRE face the threats of the Kaskaens in the north as well as the rebellion of Luwian kings in The end of the so-called Middle Hittite phase western Anatolia, most notably of Uhhazitis, is conventionally marked by the death of the king of Arzawa, who was a capable diplo- Tudhaliya III and by the beginning of the mat and a great strategist. Mursili fought the 5

Arzawean coalition, created by Uhhazitis imperial title of Great King, which implied that himself and the king of the Land of the Seha a superior authority no longer existed. River, during the 10th year of his own reign: a solar omen, probably an eclipse, has been used by Hittitologists to date the event, but THE NEO-HITTITE STATES there are many plausible eclipses and there- fore no definitive consensus can be reached. After the fall of the Hittite Empire, a few king- Mursili’s successor, Muwatalli II, remained doms ruled by Luwian-speaking dynasties of in conflict with the empire’s western Anato- rulers that may have been related, at least in lian foes, and he was forced to move the earlier times, to the family of the former Hittite capital from Hattusha to the southern city Great Kings, existed in cities like Kargamish of Tarhuntassa, in order to escape the and Aleppo in Syria, as well as in the Anatolian new invasion of the Kaskaeans. He was also region the Assyrians called . In the active in a long war against Egypt (Bryce literature they have been referred to as “Neo- 2005: 221–245), culminating with the Battle Hittite” or “Syro-Hittite” kingdoms. Their of Qadesh, in Syria, in 1274 BCE. At Muwatal- history was strictly connected to that of the li’s death, a coup d’état occurred and his son Aramaean states and of the Neo-Assyrian and successor Urhi-Teshshup (Musrili III) Empire, and they were eventually defeated was dethroned by Muwatalli’s brother Hattu- by the Assyrian Empire: the last independent sili III, while another son of Muwatalli was ones were conquered at the end of the 8th cen- made king in Tarhuntassa after the court tury BCE by the Assyrian emperor Sargon II, moved back to Hattusha. During Hattusili’s and became part of Assyrian provinces. reign, a peace treaty was agreed between the Hittites and Egyptians which caused the hos- tilities between the two kingdoms to cease THE LITERATURE OF THE HITTITE around 1259 BCE. EMPIRE Hattusili’s dynasty comprised himself, his son Tudhaliya IV, Arnuwandas III, and even- During the excavations of the city of Hattusha tually Suppiluliuma II. Of their reigns, Tudha- and of a few peripheral sites, the archeologists liya’s was the most significant due to intense unearthed several clay tablets with cuneiform friction with the Mesopotamian Kingdom of inscriptions, dated between the 16th and the Assyria and because of the intense religious end of the 13th century BCE. and cultural activity that his court undertook. Although quite a few sources exist con- As far as the reign of Suppiluliuma II is cerning the historical events of the earlier concerned, historical information becomes phases of Hittite history, little is known about vague: references are made to a campaign during the Hittite Old Kingdom. against Cyprus, but sometime during the life It is currently unclear at what stage of their of the king Hattusha was probably abandoned history the Hittites started their again, and shortly thereafter the Kingdom own documents in the , as of the Hittites collapsed, either before the they are likely to have learned the cuneiform death of Suppiluliuma or during the reign from the Akkadian cultures of of a successor. The rapid decline of the empire and Syria. Accordingly, most is indicated by the fact that one of the first post- of the earlier texts have been composed in Hittite kings of the vice-royalty of Kargamish, Akkadian, and some scholars have recently Kuzi-Teshshup, started using the former argued that during the Old Hittite phase no 6 text was written in Hittite (the fact that most (named Tarhuntas), but there were also pro- of the sources actually survive in later copies tective figures or divinities who had a specific makes the problem particularly difficult to sphere of action, such as Ishara, the goddess investigate). of the oaths. Throughout Hittite history, however, During the so-called Middle Hittite king- several texts were composed that belong dom, the increasing contacts of the Hittites to different categories, based on content with the and the Luwians had a (Laroche 1971). Conventionally, they are strong influence on the Hittite official reli- divided into: historical texts (including gion. The so-called Hittite Theogony,narrat- annals and diplomatic letters and treaties); ing the deeds of the God Kumarbi, as well as administrative texts (land donations, lists many other mythological texts, derive from and protocols); legal texts (laws, acts of pro- the Hurrian pantheon of Syria and have cesses); scholarly texts (, transla- been integrated into the Hittite one. Promi- tions of texts from other languages); myths, nent figures of the Hurrian pantheon wor- hymns, prayers, rituals, and descriptions of shipped in Hattusha include Teshshup, the festivals; oracles; vows; and a few texts in goddess Hebat, and their son, the prince foreign languages. Sharruma. Gods were worshipped in rituals and prayers, both by the court and by individuals, THE RELIGION OF THE HITTITE EMPIRE and magic was performed as a way to interact with the divine sphere: professionals of witch- The Hittite pantheon and religious praxis craft, both male and female, existed in order mutated several times during the long his- to allow such interaction. tory of the Kingdom and Empire of Hatti. The religious texts can be divided into: myths, prayers, rituals and festivals; indi- THE ART OF THE HITTITE EMPIRE rectly related to the Hittite religion is also the oracular praxis, including the description While the features and chronological of dreams. seriation of the Hittite potteries and ceramic Myths are texts that contain some of the culture still require further scholarly investi- most ancient data: they reflect, however, gation, and little is known about painting, the syncretism between an indigenous pre- the plinths of monuments, architecture, and Hittite Hattian mythology and proper Hittite reliefs (such as the ones from Alacahöyük religion, which in some cases makes the shown in Figure 1, dating to the 14th century ethnic components very hard to apart. BCE) provide us with precious insights in the However, the Hittites tended to include iconography of the Hittite Empire. Parts of new gods into their cult rather than identify- buildings as well as small objects and pieces ing them with their own deities. The of material culture survive from the oldest pantheon itself therefore features a large pol- phases, but it is with the expansion of the ytheistic set of divinities that the Hittites southern “upper-city” of Hattusha (although called “the thousand gods.” Some of the most some of the southern buildings existed prominent figures, among many others, were already, most of the monuments date to the the sun-god (with several names and male imperial age) that the production of the most and female hypostases connected with spe- significant buildings, stelae, and decorated cific cults and cities) and the weather-god objects took place. 7

Figure 1 Relief from Alaca, 14th–13th centuries BCE. Source: De Agostini/Getty Images.

Like many other aspects of the Hittite REFERENCES culture, the art of the empire was strongly influ- Bryce, T. 2005. The Kingdom of the Hittites, 2nd ed. encedby severalneighboring peoples.Inpartic- Oxford: Oxford University Press. ular, Syrian, Hurrian, and Assyrian motifs Laroche, E. 1971. Catalogue des texts hittites. : emerge in the representation of human, divine, Klineksieck. and animal figures both in glyptic and in stone reliefs. The reasons for the development of local and international styles lie in the syncretistic FURTHER READING circulation of cultural traits and religions. In Beckman, G. 1999, Hittite Diplomatic Texts, 2nd the last centuries of the imperial age, the so- ed. Society of Biblical Literature. Atlanta, GA: called Syro-Hittite style had a significant flour- Scholars Press. ishing due to the increasing political relevance Bittel, K. Die Hethiter. 1976. Munich: Beck. of peripheral kingdoms such as Aleppo and Hoffner, H. A. 1991. Hittite Myths, 2nd ed. Kargamish. The art and iconographies of the Society of Biblical Literature. Atlanta, GA: Scho- later Neo-Hittite states derived most of its fea- lars Press. tures from the Syro-Hittite ones. Klinger, J. 2012. Die Hethiter. Munich: Beck. Mieroop, M. Van de. 2006. A History of the Ancient , ca. 3000–323 BC, rev. ed. Oxford: SEE ALSO: Assyrian Empire; Egypt: 1. Ancient Blackwell. (New Kingdom); Hurrian Kingdom of Urkesh; Singer, I. 2002. Hittite Prayers, Society of Biblical Old Babylonian period Literature. Atlanta, GA: Scholars Press.