Lion Gate of Hattusa, the capital of Hittites, modern Boğazköy, Turkey

The Hittites were an ancient Anatolian people who spoke a language of the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family, and established a kingdom centered at Hattusa (Hittite ^URUḪattuša) in north-central Anatolia ca. Hattusa (URU Ḫa-at-tu-ša 𒌷𒄩𒀜𒌅𒊭 Unicode cuneiform article to display these cuneiform characters--> Boğazkale is a district of Çorum Province in the Black Sea region of Turkey. Anatolia (Anadolu Ανατολία Anatolía) or Asia minor, comprising most of modern Turkey, is the geographic region bounded by the Black Hittite or Nesili is the Extinct language once spoken by the Hittites, a people who created an empire centered on ancient Hattusas (modern The Anatolian languages are a group of extinct Indo-European languages which were spoken in Asia Minor, the best attested of them being the Hittite language Hattusa (URU Ḫa-at-tu-ša 𒌷𒄩𒀜𒌅𒊭 Unicode cuneiform article to display these cuneiform characters--> Anatolia (Anadolu Ανατολία Anatolía) or Asia minor, comprising most of modern Turkey, is the geographic region bounded by the Black the 18th century BC. The Hittite empire reached its height ca. the 14th century BC, encompassing a large part of 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. Anatolia (Anadolu Ανατολία Anatolía) or Asia minor, comprising most of modern Turkey, is the geographic region bounded by the Black Syria ( سوريّة or) officially the Syrian Arab Republic (Arabic ar الجمهورية العربية السورية The Litani River (نهر الليطاني transliterated: Nahr al-Līţānī classical name Leontes is an important waterway in southern Lebanon The Amqu (also Amka, Amki, Amq) is a region equivalent to the " Beqaa Valley region", named in the 1350 - Mesopotamia (from the Greek meaning "land between the rivers" is an area geographically located between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers largely corresponding After ca. 1180 BC, the empire disintegrated into several independent "Neo-Hittite" city-states, some surviving until as late as the 8th century BC. The states that are called Neo-Hittite, or more recently Syro-Hittite, were Luwian, Aramaic and Phoenician -speaking political entities of

The term "Hittites" was taken from the KJV translation of the Hebrew Bible, translating חתי HTY, or בני-חת BNY-HT "Children of Heth" (Heth being son of Canaan). or H̱et (also spelled Khet, Kheth, Chet, Cheth, Het, or Heth) is the reconstructed name of the eighth letter The archaeologists who discovered the Anatolian Hittites in the 19th century initially identified them with these Biblical Hittites. The Hittites (also Hethites) and Children of Heth, translating Hebrew HTY and BNY-HT are the second of the eleven Canaanite Today the identification of the Biblical peoples with either the Hattusa-based empire or the Neo-Hittite kingdoms is a matter of dispute. ^[1]

The Hittite kingdom was commonly called the Land of Hatti by the Hittites themselves. The fullest expression is, "The Land of the City of Hattusa". This description could be applied to either the entire empire, or more narrowly just to the core territory, depending upon context. The word "Hatti" is actually an Akkadogram, rather than Hittite; it is never declined according to Hittite grammar rules. Despite the use of "Hatti", the Hittites should be distinguished from the Hattians, an earlier people who inhabited the same region until the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC, and spoke a non-Indo-European language called Hattic. The Hattians were an ancient people who inhabited the land of Hatti in present-day central and southeastern parts of Anatolia, Turkey. Hattic was a language spoken by the Hattians in Asia Minor between the 3rd and the 2nd millennia BC The Hittites themselves referred to their language as Nesili (or in one case, Kanesili), an adverbial form meaning "in the manner of (Ka)nesa", presumably reflecting a high concentration of Hittite speakers in the ancient city of Kanesh (modern Kültepe, Turkey). For the village in Azerbaijan see Kültəpə. Kültepe is the name of the modern village near the ancient city of Kaneš in central eastern Many modern city names in Turkey are first recorded under their Hittite names, such as Sinop and Adana, reflecting the contiguity of modern Anatolia with its ancient past. Turkey (Türkiye known officially as the Republic of Turkey ( is a Eurasian Country that stretches Sinop ( Greek: Σινώπη /Sinope is a city with a population of 47000 on İnce Burun ( İnceburun, Cape Ince) by its Adana (the ancient Antioch in Cilicia or Antioch on the Sarus) is the capital of Adana Province in Turkey.

Although belonging to the Bronze Age, the Hittites were forerunners of the Iron Age, developing the manufacture of iron artifacts from as early as the 14th century BC, when letters to foreign rulers reveal the demand for their iron goods. The term Bronze Age refers to a period in human cultural development when the most advanced Metalworking (at least in systematic and widespread use included techniques for This article is about the archaeological period known as the Iron Age for the mythological Iron Age see Ages of Man. Iron (ˈаɪɚn is a Chemical element with the symbol Fe (ferrum and Atomic number 26 The Hittites were not, however, the first to work iron, and iron remained a precious metal throughout the history of their empire. The Hittites were also famous for their skill in building and using chariots. The chariot is the earliest and simplest type of Carriage, used in both peace and war as the chief vehicle of many ancient peoples

Archaeological discovery

Hittite goddess and child, Anatolia 15th-13th century BCE.

Further information: Hittite sites

The Hittites used cuneiform letters. The geography of the Hittite Empire is known from Hittite texts on one hand and from archaeological excavation on the other Archaeological expeditions have discovered in Hattushash entire sets of royal archives in cuneiform tablets, written either in Akkadian, the diplomatic language of the time, or in the various dialects of the Hittite confederation. ^[2]

The first archaeological evidence for the Hittites appeared in tablets found at the Assyrian colony of Kültepe (ancient Karum Kanesh), containing records of trade between Assyrian merchants and a certain "land of Hatti". Early history The most Neolithic site in Assyria is at Tell Hassuna, the center of the Hassuna culture For the village in Azerbaijan see Kültəpə. Kültepe is the name of the modern village near the ancient city of Kaneš in central eastern For the village in Azerbaijan see Kültəpə. Kültepe is the name of the modern village near the ancient city of Kaneš in central eastern Some names in the tablets were neither Hattic nor Assyrian, but clearly Indo-European.

The script on a monument at Boğazköy by a "People of Hattusas" discovered by William Wright in 1884 was found to match peculiar hieroglyphic scripts from Aleppo and Hamath in Northern Syria. William Wright or Bill Wright may refer to William Wright (1829-1898 the real name of Dan DeQuille, American author newspaperman and humorist A logogram, or logograph, is a Grapheme which represents a word or a Morpheme (a meaningful unit of language For other meanings see Aleppo (disambiguation. Halab redirects here for other meanings see Halab (disambiguation. Hama (ancient Hamath; Arabic: حماة meaning fortress is a city on the banks of the Orontes river in central Syria north of In 1887, excavations at Tell El-Amarna in Egypt uncovered the diplomatic correspondence of Pharaoh Amenhotep III and his son Akhenaton. Year 1887 ( MDCCCLXXXVII) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common The site of Amarna (commonly known as el-Amarna or incorrectly as Tel el-Amarna; see below ( Arabic: العمارنة al-‘amārnah) is located Amenhotep III (sometimes read as Amenophis III meaning Amun is Satisfied was the ninth Pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty. Akhenaten (often alt: Akhnaten, or rarely Ikhnaton) (In English ˌɑkəˡnɑtən or approximately "AHK-en-AHT-en" his royal name Amenhotep Two of the letters from a "kingdom of Kheta" -- apparently located in the same general region as the Mesopotamian references to "land of Hatti" -- were written in standard Akkadian cuneiform script, but in an unknown language; although scholars could read it, no one could understand it. Shortly after this, Archibald Sayce proposed that Hatti or Khatti in Anatolia was identical with the "kingdom of Kheta" mentioned in these Egyptian texts, as well as with the biblical Hittites. The Rev Archibald Henry Sayce ( 25 September 1846 - 4 February 1933) was a pioneer Assyriologist and linguist, who held This article is about the country of Egypt For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Egypt topics. Others such as Max Muller agreed that Khatti was probably Kheta, but proposed connecting it with Biblical Kittim, rather than with the "Children of Heth". For the Danish Colonel Max Müller see Second War of Schleswig. Kittim (or Chittim) in the genealogy of Genesis 10 in the Hebrew Bible, is the son of Javan, the grandson of Japheth, and Noah The Hittites (also Hethites) and Children of Heth, translating Hebrew HTY and BNY-HT are the second of the eleven Canaanite Sayce's identification came to be widely accepted over the course of the early 20th century; and the name "Hittite" has become attached to the civilization uncovered at Boğazköy.

During sporadic excavations at Boğazköy (Hattusa) that began in 1906, the archaeologist Hugo Winckler found a royal archive with 10,000 tablets, inscribed in cuneiform Akkadian and the same unknown language as the Egyptian letters from Kheta — thus confirming the identity of the two names. Hattusa (URU Ḫa-at-tu-ša 𒌷𒄩𒀜𒌅𒊭 Unicode cuneiform article to display these cuneiform characters--> Year 1906 ( MCMVI) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year starting Hugo Winckler ( July 4, 1863, Gräfenhainchen, Saxony &mdash April 19, 1913, Berlin) was a German He also proved that the ruins at Boğazköy were the remains of the capital of a mighty empire that at one point controlled northern Syria.

Under the direction of the German Archaeological Institute, excavations at Hattusa have been underway since 1907, with interruptions during both wars. The German Archaeological Institute (Deutsches Archäologisches Institut DAI) is one of the world's leading archaeological research institutions and a "scientific Year 1907 ( MCMVII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year Kültepe has been successfully excavated by late Professor Tahsin Özgüç (died in 2005) since 1948. Tahsin Özgüç, (1916- 2005 was an eminent Turkish field Archaeologist. Smaller scale excavations have also been carried out in the immediate surroundings of Hattusa, including the rock sanctuary of Yazılıkaya, which contains numerous rock-cut reliefs portraying the Hittite rulers and the gods of the Hittite pantheon. Yazılıkaya ( Turkish for "inscribed rock" was a sanctuary of Hattusa, the capital city of the Hittite Empire, today in the Çorum

Museums

The Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara, Turkey houses a rich collection of Hittite and Anatolian artifacts. The Museum of Anatolian Civilizations (Anadolu Medeniyetleri Müzesi is located on the south side of Ankara Castle in the Atpazarı area in Ankara, Turkey Ankara is the capital of Turkey and the country's second largest city after İstanbul. Turkey (Türkiye known officially as the Republic of Turkey ( is a Eurasian Country that stretches

Geography

The Hittite Empire (red) at the height of its power in ca. 1290 BC, bordering on the Egyptian Empire (green)

Main article: Geography of the Hittite Empire

The Hittite kingdom was centered around the lands surrounding Hattusa and Neša, known as "the land Hatti" (^URUHa-at-ti). The geography of the Hittite Empire is known from Hittite texts on one hand and from archaeological excavation on the other Hattusa (URU Ḫa-at-tu-ša 𒌷𒄩𒀜𒌅𒊭 Unicode cuneiform article to display these cuneiform characters--> For the village in Azerbaijan see Kültəpə. Kültepe is the name of the modern village near the ancient city of Kaneš in central eastern After Hattusa was made capital, the area encompassed by the bend of the Halys River (which they called the Marassantiya) was considered the core of the Empire, and some Hittite laws make a distinction between "this side of the river" and "that side of the river", for example, the reward for the capture of an eloped slave after he managed to flee beyond the Halys is higher than that for a slave caught before he could reach the river.

To the west and south of the core territory lay the region known as Luwiya in the earliest Hittite texts. This terminology was replaced by the names Arzawa and Kizzuwatna with the rise of those kingdoms^[3]. Arzawa was the name of a region or kingdom in Western Anatolia, which later to be known as Lydia (Assyrian Luddu, Greek Λυδία in the post- Hittite Kizzuwatna (or Kizzuwadna) is the name of an ancient Anatolian kingdom in the Second millennium BC. Nevertheless, the Hittites continued to refer to the language that originated in these areas as Luwian. Luwian (sometimes spelled Luvian) is an extinct language of the Anatolian branch of the Prior to the rise of Kizzuwatna, the heart of that territory in Cilicia was first referred to by the Hittites as Adaniya^[4]. Kizzuwatna (or Kizzuwadna) is the name of an ancient Anatolian kingdom in the Second millennium BC. Geography Cilicia extended along the Aegean coast east from Pamphylia, to Mount Amanus ( Gavurdağı Mount) which separated it from Syria Adana (the ancient Antioch in Cilicia or Antioch on the Sarus) is the capital of Adana Province in Turkey. Upon its revolt from the Hittites during the reign of Ammuna,^[5] it assumed the name of Kizzuwatna and successfully expanded northward to encompass the lower Anti-Taurus mountains as well. Ammunu was King of the Hittites ca 1486 – 1466 BC ( Short chronology) Kizzuwatna (or Kizzuwadna) is the name of an ancient Anatolian kingdom in the Second millennium BC. Anti-Taurus is a mountain range running northeast from the Taurus Mountains. To the north lived the mountainous people called the Kaskians. See Kaska for the First Nations people in the Yukon and British Columbia Canada For kas-kas, or poppy seeds refer to Poppy To the southeast of the Hittites lay the Hurrian empire of Mitanni. Mitanni ( Hittite cuneiform, also Mittani) or Hanigalbat ( Assyrian Hanigalbat Khanigalbat cuneiform) At its peak during the reign of Mursili II, the Hittite empire stretched from Arzawa in the west to Mitanni in the east, many of the Kaskian territories to the north including Hayasa-Azzi in the far northeast, and on south into Canaan approximately as far as the southern border of Lebanon, incorporating all of these territories within its domain. Mursili II (also spelled Mursilis II) was a king of the Hittite Empire (New kingdom ca Arzawa was the name of a region or kingdom in Western Anatolia, which later to be known as Lydia (Assyrian Luddu, Greek Λυδία in the post- Hittite Mitanni ( Hittite cuneiform, also Mittani) or Hanigalbat ( Assyrian Hanigalbat Khanigalbat cuneiform) The Kaska or Kaska Dena are a First Nations people living mainly in northern British Columbia and the southeastern Yukon in Canada Hayasa-Azzi or Azzi-Hayasa was a confederation formed between the Kingdoms of Hayasa located South of Trabzon and Azzi, located North of Canaanites redirects here For the 1940s social and political movement in Israel, see Canaanites (movement. Lebanon (ˈlɛbənɒn Arabic: ar لبنان Lubnān) officially the Republic of Lebanon or Lebanese Republic (ar الجمهورية اللبنانية

History

Egypto-Hittite Peace Treaty (c. } The Battle of Kadesh (also Qadesh) took place between the forces of the Egyptian Empire under Ramesses II and the Hittite Empire under 1258 BC) between Hattusili III and Ramesses II is the best known early written peace treaty. Hattusili III ( Hittite: "from Hattusa" was a king of the Hittite empire (New Kingdom or Late Empire ca Istanbul Archaeology Museum

Main article: History of the Hittites

The Hittite kingdom is conventionally divided into three periods, the Old Hittite Kingdom (ca. Hittites is the conventional English-language term for an ancient people who spoke an Indo-European language and established a kingdom centered in Hattusa 1750–1500 BC), the Middle Hittite Kingdom (ca. The 18th century BC was the Century which lasted from 1800 BC to 1701 BC 1500–1430 BC) and the New Hittite Kingdom (the Hittite Empire proper, ca. 1430–1180 BC).

The earliest known member of a Hittite speaking dynasty, Pithana, was based at the city of Kussara. Pithana was a Hittite Bronze Age king of the Anatolian city Kussara. Kussara (Kuššara was a city of Bronze Age south-eastern Anatolia. In the 18th century BC Anitta, his son and successor, made the Hittite speaking city of Neša into one of his capitals and adopted the Hittite language for his inscriptions there. Anitta, son of Pithana, was a king of Kussara, a city that has yet to be identified However, Kussara remained the dynastic capital for about a century until Labarna II adopted Hattusa as the dynastic seat, possibly taking the throne name of Hattusili, "man of Hattusa", at that time. Kussara (Kuššara was a city of Bronze Age south-eastern Anatolia. Labarna II was the first king of the Hittite empire to reign from Hattusa (while the earlier kings had been at Neša) taking the throne name of Hattusili Hattusa (URU Ḫa-at-tu-ša 𒌷𒄩𒀜𒌅𒊭 Unicode cuneiform article to display these cuneiform characters-->

The Old Kingdom, centered at Hattusa, peaked during the 16th century BC, and even managed to sack Babylon at one point, but made no attempt to govern there, enabling the Kassite to rise to prominence there and rule it for over 400 years. Babylon was a City-state of ancient Mesopotamia, the remains of which can be found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq The Kassites were an Ancient Near Eastern tribe who gained control of Babylonia after the fall of the Old Babylonian Empire after ca

During the 15th century BC, Hittite power fell into obscurity, re-emerging with the reign of Tudhaliya I from ca. Tudhaliya I (sometimes referred to as Tudhaliya II, or even Tudhaliya I/II was a king of the Hittite empire (New kingdom ca 1400 BC. Under Suppiluliuma I and Mursili II, the Empire was extended to most of Anatolia and parts of Syria and Canaan, so that by 1300 BC the Hittites were bordering on the Egyptian sphere of influence, leading to the inconclusive Battle of Kadesh in 1274 BC. Suppiluliuma I was king of the Hittites (ca 1344 – 1322 BC ( Short chronology) Mursili II (also spelled Mursilis II) was a king of the Hittite Empire (New kingdom ca Anatolia (Anadolu Ανατολία Anatolía) or Asia minor, comprising most of modern Turkey, is the geographic region bounded by the Black Syria ( سوريّة or) officially the Syrian Arab Republic (Arabic ar الجمهورية العربية السورية Canaanites redirects here For the 1940s social and political movement in Israel, see Canaanites (movement. Ancient Egypt was an Ancient Civilization in eastern North Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now } The Battle of Kadesh (also Qadesh) took place between the forces of the Egyptian Empire under Ramesses II and the Hittite Empire under

Civil war and rivalling claims to the throne, combined with the external threat of the Sea Peoples weakened the Hittites and by 1160 BC, the Empire had collapsed. The Sea Peoples is the term used for a confederacy of seafaring raiders of the second millennium BC who sailed into the eastern shores of the Mediterranean, caused political "Neo-Hittite" post-Empire states, petty kingdoms under Assyrian rule, may have lingered on until ca. The states that are called Neo-Hittite, or more recently Syro-Hittite, were Luwian, Aramaic and Phoenician -speaking political entities of Early history The most Neolithic site in Assyria is at Tell Hassuna, the center of the Hassuna culture 700 BC, and the Bronze Age Hittite and Luwian dialects evolved into the sparsely attested Lydian, Lycian and Carian languages. Lydian was an Indo-European language spoken in the region of Lydia in western Anatolia (present-day Turkey) Lycian (Lycian Trm̃mili) is a modern adjective meaning in this case the inscriptional language of ancient Lycia as well as its presumed spoken counterpart The Carian language was the language of the Carians. It was an Anatolian language, apparently closer to Lycian than to Lydian.

Remnants of these languages lingered into Persian times and were finally extinct by the spread of Hellenism. The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenid Persian Empire ( haχɒmaneʃijɒn (558–330 BC was the first of the Persian Empires to rule over significant portions of This article focuses on the cultural aspects of the Hellenistic age for the historical aspects see Hellenistic period.

Hittite government

Relief of Suppiluliuma II, last known king of the Hittite Empire

The Hittites are thought to have had the first constitutional monarchy. Suppiluliuma II, the son of Tudhaliya IV, was the last known king of the New Kingdom of the Hittite Empire, ruling ca A constitutional monarchy, or a limited monarchy, is a form of Constitutional Government, wherein either an elected or hereditary Monarch is This consisted of a king, royal family, the pankus (who monitored the king's activities), and an often rebellious aristocracy. The Hittites also made huge advances in legislation and justice. They produced the Hittite laws. The Hittite laws have been preserved on a number of Hittite cuneiform tablets found at Hattusa ( CTH 291-292 listing 200 laws These laws rarely used death as a punishment. For example, the punishment for theft was to pay back the amount stolen.

Language

Main article: Hittite language

The Hittite language (or Nesite) is recorded fragmentarily from about the 19th century BC (in the Kültepe texts, see Ishara). Hittite or Nesili is the Extinct language once spoken by the Hittites, a people who created an empire centered on ancient Hattusas (modern For the village in Azerbaijan see Kültəpə. Kültepe is the name of the modern village near the ancient city of Kaneš in central eastern Ishara () is the Hittite word for " Treaty, binding promise" also personified as a Goddess of the Oath. It remained in use until about 1100 BC. Hittite is the best attested member of the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family. The Anatolian languages are a group of extinct Indo-European languages which were spoken in Asia Minor, the best attested of them being the Hittite language

The language of the Hattusa tablets was eventually deciphered by a Czech linguist, Bedřich Hrozný (1879—1952), who on 24 November, 1915 announced his results in a lecture at the Near Eastern Society of Berlin. Bedřich (Friedrich Hrozný (ˈbɛdr̝ɪx His book about his discovery was printed in Leipzig in 1917, under the title The Language of the Hittites; Its Structure and Its Membership in the Indo-European Linguistic Family. This sort of fix restores section edit linkpoints to where they belong The preface of the book begins with:

The present work undertakes to establish the nature and structure of the hitherto mysterious language of the Hittites, and to decipher this language [. . . ] It will be shown that Hittite is in the main an Indo-European language.

For this reason, the language came to be known as the Hittite language, even though that was not what its speakers had called it. Hittite or Nesili is the Extinct language once spoken by the Hittites, a people who created an empire centered on ancient Hattusas (modern The Hittites themselves apparently called their language nešili "(in the manner) of (the city of) Neša" and hence it has been suggested that the more technically correct term, "Nesite", be used instead. For the village in Azerbaijan see Kültəpə. Kültepe is the name of the modern village near the ancient city of Kaneš in central eastern Nonetheless, convention continues and "Hittite" remains the standard term used.

Due to its marked differences in its structure and phonology, some early philologists, most notably Warren Cowgill even argued that it should be classified as a sister language to the Indo-European languages, rather than a daughter language (see Indo-Hittite). See Comparative linguistics for the narrower field of "comparative philology" Warren Cowgill (1929 — 1985 / ˡkowgɪl/ was a professor of linguistics at Yale University and the Encyclopædia Britannica ’s authority on Indo-European In Indo-European linguistics, the term Indo-Hittite (also Indo-Anatolian) refers to Sturtevant 's 1926 hypothesis that the Anatolian languages By the end of the Hittite Empire, the Hittite language had become a written language of administration and diplomatic correspondence. The population of most of the Hittite Empire by this time spoke Luwian dialects, another Indo-European language of the Anatolian family that had originated to the west of the Hittite region. Luwian (sometimes spelled Luvian) is an extinct language of the Anatolian branch of the

Mythology

Main article: Hittite mythology

Hittite religion and mythology was heavily influenced by Mesopotamian mythology, increasingly so as history progressed. Heavily influenced by Mesopotamian mythology, the religion of the Hittites and Luwians retains noticeable Indo-European elements Mesopotamian mythology is the collective name given to Sumerian Akkadian Assyrian and Babylonian mythologies from the land between the Tigris In earlier times, Indo-European elements may still be clearly discerned, for example Tarhunt the god of thunder, and his conflict with the serpent Illuyanka. The existence of similarities among the deities and religious practices of the Indo-European (IE peoples allows glimpses of a common Proto-Indo-European Teshub (also written Teshup) was the Hurrian god of sky and storm In Hittite mythology, Illuyanka was a serpentine Dragon slain by Tarhunt ( the Hittite incarnation of the Hurrian

Biblical Hittites

Main article: Hittites in the Bible

The Hebrew Bible refers to "Hittites" in several passages, ranging from Genesis to the post-Exilic Ezra-Nehemiah. The Hittites (also Hethites) and Children of Heth, translating Hebrew HTY and BNY-HT are the second of the eleven Canaanite The term Hebrew Bible is a generic reference to those books of the Bible originally written in Biblical Hebrew (and the related Biblical Aramaic The books of Ezra and Nehemiah in the Hebrew Bible are often thought to constitute a unity Genesis 10 (the Table of Nations) links them to an eponymous ancestor Heth, a descendant of Ham through his son Canaan. The Table of Nations or Sons of Noah is an extensive list of descendants of Noah appearing within the Torah at Genesis 10 representing Ham (; Greek Χαμ, Cham; Arabic: ar حام, xam, "hot" according to the Table of Nations in Genesis, was a Canaan is a Biblical figure who according to the Old Testament, was the son of Ham and the grandson of the patriarch Noah. The Hittites are thereby counted among the Canaanites, the autochthonous inhabitants of the Promised Land. The Hittites are usually depicted as a people living among the Israelites - Abraham purchases the Patriarchal burial-plot of Machpelah from them, and Hittites serve as high military officers in David's army. David, Arabic: داوود or داود dawud, "beloved" was the second king of the united Kingdom of Israel according to the Hebrew Bible In 2 Kings 7:6, however, they are a people with their own kingdoms (the passage refers to "kings" in the plural), apparently located outside geographic Canaan, and sufficiently powerful to put a Syrian army to flight.

It is a matter of considerable scholarly debate whether the biblical "Hittites" signified any or all of: 1) the original Hattites of Hatti; 2) their Indo-European conquerors (Nesili), who retained the name "Hatti" for Central Anatolia, and are today referred to as the "Hittites" (the subject of this article); or 3) a Canaanite group who may or may not have been related to either or both of the Anatolian groups, and who also may or may not be identical with the later Neo-Hittite (Luwian) polities. The states that are called Neo-Hittite, or more recently Syro-Hittite, were Luwian, Aramaic and Phoenician -speaking political entities of Luwian (sometimes spelled Luvian) is an extinct language of the Anatolian branch of the ^[6]

Other biblical scholars have argued that rather than being connected with Heth, son of Canaan, instead the Anatolian land of Hatti was mentioned in Old Testament literature and apocrypha as "Kittim" (Chittim), a people said to be named for a son of Javan. Kittim (or Chittim) in the genealogy of Genesis 10 in the Hebrew Bible, is the son of Javan, the grandson of Japheth, and Noah This article is about the Biblical name Javan. For Katherine Kurtz 's fictional character see Javan of Gwynedd.

Physical appearance, origins, and genetics

Pharaoh Ramses II often referred to the Hittite's as humty which translated from ancient Egyptian meant "women-soldiers", as it was the practice of male Hittite warriors to wear their hair long. ^[7] Scholars have also regarded the Hittites to be of a "Mediterranean ethnic group". ^[8] Archeologist Henry Heras's analysis of Egyptian portrayals of the Hittites, coincided with this view as they appeared to possess physical characteristics typical of Mediterranean people. ^[9] Some scholars believed that this may point to a north-east African origin as such physical traits have been thought to originate in this area. ^[10][11] Similar physical characteristics were possessed by the ancient Greeks leading some to suspect that both ancient Greeks and Hittites descended from similar prehistoric populations in the Near East and Aegean. ^[12] Physical anthropological analysis of populations, however, is typically deemed unreliable for the basis of grouping people into a race, justifying folk migrations and accounting for the origins of ancient people due to many complicated factors. The term race or racial group usually refers to the concept of categorizing Humans into Populations or groups on the basis of various sets ^[13][14]

The exact origins of the Hittites have been shrouded in mystery for quite some time. While it has been argued that Hittite culture and language developed locally in Anatolia ^[15][16], it has been far more common to view the Hittites and their ways as intrusive. Anatolia (Anadolu Ανατολία Anatolía) or Asia minor, comprising most of modern Turkey, is the geographic region bounded by the Black Possible geographic origins from the west (Balkans), east (via or along the Caspian Sea or from the Armenian highlands), and north (across the Black sea) are just some of the proposed migration routes. The Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed body of water on Earth by area variously classed as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged Sea. The Black Sea is an inland Sea bounded by southeastern Europe, the Caucasus and the Anatolian peninsula ( Turkey ^[17] The process has been viewed as one of conquering elites ^[18] but alternatively as peaceful coupled with gradual assimilation. ^[17] In archaeological terms, relationships of the Hittites to the Ezero culture of the Balkans and Maikop culture of the Caucasus have been considered within the migration framework. The Ezero culture, 3300&mdash2700 BC was a Bronze Age Archaeological culture occupying most of present-day Bulgaria. The Maykop culture, ca 3500 BC &mdash 2500 BC, is a major Bronze Age archaeological culture situated in Southern Russia running from ^[19]

A genetic study based on modern male Anatolian y-chromosome DNA has revealed gene flow from multiple geographic origins which may correspond to various migrations over time. The predominant male lineages of Anatolian males are shared with European and neighboring Near Eastern populations (94. 1%). Lineages related to Central Asia, India, and Africa were far less prevalent among the males sampled. No specific lineage was determined or identified as "Hittite", however the y-chromosome haplogroup G-M201 was implied to have a possible association with the Hattians. The Hattians were an ancient people who inhabited the land of Hatti in present-day central and southeastern parts of Anatolia, Turkey. ^[20]

See also

• History of the Hittites
• List of Hittite kings

References

Literature

External links

• Hattusas/Bogazköy
• The Hittite Home Page
• Arzawa, to the west, throws light on Hittites
• Pictures of Boğazköy, one of a group of important sites
• Pictures of Yazılıkaya, one of a group of important sites
• Pictures of Alacahöyük, one of a group of important sites
• Der Anitta Text (at TITUS)
• Encyclopaedia of Turkey : Hittite relief at Karabel
• Tahsin Ozguc
• Hittites.info
• Hittite Period in Anatolia
• pictures
• Hethitologieportal Mainz, by the Akademie der Wissenschaften, Mainz, corpus of texts and extensive bibliographies on all things Hittite