Beyond Babylon

ground in about 1360 B.C. Over the next twenty years, however, the Hittite king Suppiluliuma I regained the lost territories and inaugurated a new and splendid period in Hittite history: the New Kingdom or Hittite Empire. Suppiluliuma expanded primarily to the southeast, destroying Mitanni; he also conquered Aleppo and Carchemish, where he established vassal states under the rule of two of his sons. Qatna was also captured, and life imme diately before the siege of the city is well documented in recent archaeological excavations (see pp. 214-16,219-21, 233). Suppiluliuma used not only military force but also diplomacy, especially through marriage, to achieve his aims. He wed a Babylonian princess, and then married off one of his daughters to the Hurrian heir to the throne. He even had the chance to marry one of his sons to an Egyptian queen and thus to become the father of an Egyptian pharaoh: after the early death of Tutankhamun, his widow wrote to Suppiluliuma, saying, "My husband is dead .... If you would give me one of your sons, he would become my husband. I will never take a servant of mine and make him my husband." 3 Yet Suppiluliuma hesitated, and his decision to send one of his sons to Egypt came too late. The political situation in Egypt had changed, and the Hittite prince was murdered before reaching the Nile. Furious, Suppiluliuma attacked Egyptian territories in revenge. Egyptian prisoners of war were transported to the Hittite homeland, bringing with them a plague that decimated the population. Suppiluliuma him self was probably a victim of this plague. His son Mursili II later interpreted the catastrophe as a divine punishment for offenses committed by his father, most notably his attack on Egypt in violation of a treaty between the two countries. Mursili considered the attack not only a mistake, but also as a sin, which he called wastul. The Hittites were no more peaceful than other contempo rary states, yet they developed their own legal practices in han dling conflicts with their neighbors. Hittite kings tried to avoid initiating wars, preferring to present themselves as defenders against external aggression or the breaking of a treaty. In Hittite Figure 53. Hattusa (Bogazkoy), King's Gate relief Hittite Empire ideology, aiding an ally or vassal state also justified attacking period. Ankara Museum of Anatolian Civilizations another country. The annals of Mursili II provide detailed information about military and civil activities during his reign and are masterpieces of Hittite historiography. Hittites referred to the Mycenaean region (or at least part of it) After Muwattalli II succeeded Mursili II to the throne, ten as Ahhiyawa, which first appears in Hittite Middle Kingdom sions with Egypt increased, eventually culminating in the Battle records as a hostile power that attacked Hittite vassals in west of Qadesh (ca. 1275 B.C.; see cat. no. 166 and fig. 84). In this ern Anatolia. Nevertheless, the Aegean world seems not to have clash of the two "superpowers" of their time, the Hittites suc been of great interest to the Hittites, and cultural exchange was cessfully defended their southern border. Ramesses II, called limited. A stag-shaped silver rhyton from the Shaft Graves at the Great, fought at the head of the Egyptian army but failed to Mycenae might be of Hittite origin (fig. 54), and a few seals expand his empire any farther to the north. with Anatolian hieroglyphs found their way to Greece. Yet After long negotiations Muwattalli's successor, Hattusili III, imports of Mycenaean pottery, ubiquitous at most of the coastal completed the now-famous Qadesh peace treaty with Ramesses II sites of this period (see cat. nos. 243, 244) and throughout the nearly twenty years later. The Treaty of Qadesh is the earliest eastern Mediterranean, are noticeably few in the Hittite fully preserved international treaty between two of the most heartland. important empires of the Late Bronze Age. A cuneiform tablet Toward the end of the Hittite Middle Kingdom, enemies with the text of this treaty, recorded in the Akkadian language, invaded the land of Hatti from all sides, burning Hattusa to the was found in 1906 during excavations at Hattusa. A version 171 .

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