Further Interesting Facts About the Hittites, Part IV

 Nadene Goldfoot                                            

                     Soldiers with Spears are the Hittites

Before the archeological discoveries that revealed the Hittite civilization, the only source of information about the Hittites had been the Old Testament. Francis William Newman expressed the critical view, common in the early 19th century, that, "no Hittite king could have compared in power to the King of Judah...".

As the discoveries in the second half of the 19th century revealed the scale of the Hittite kingdom, Archibald Sayce asserted that, rather than being compared to Judah, the Anatolian civilization "[was] worthy of comparison to the divided Kingdom of Egypt", and was "infinitely more powerful than that of Judah". Sayce and other scholars also noted that Judah and the Hittites were never enemies in the Hebrew texts; in the Book of Kings, they supplied the Israelites with cedar, chariots, and horses, and in the Book of Genesis were friends and allies to Abraham. Uriah the Hittite was a captain in King David's army and counted as one of his "mighty men" in 1 Chronicles 11.

Warrior King: Like in many contemporary late Bronze Age and subsequent Iron Age factions, the Hittite king was perceived as the supreme commander of his army. And beyond just the power of control over the military, the very scope of kingship was epitomized by the king’s ability to physically lead his armies into battle.

The command of the army could be taken up by a member of the royal family, usually the brother of the king. In fact, many of the prestigious posts of the Hittite army, including command of its bodyguard corps and chariot battalions, were held by the brothers and immediate cousins of the ruler, thus leading to a tightly controlled core military force.  

The blue sea at the bottom is the Mediterranean Sea.  Lebanon is the yellow land showing Tyre and Sidon.  The green is Assyria's land.   Hittites are living in the land of Hatti and Mitanni.  Names are listed that are long gone and forgotten today.  The extent of the Hittite Empire, circa 14th century BCE. Credit: Ancient Encyclopedia:

So reverting to the scope of an organized state like that of the Hittites (and Egyptians), the availability of manpower for military actions must be presumed to be far more streamlined. To that end, according to Ramesses’ account, the Hittites fielded around 47,000 troops against their Egyptian foes at the Battle of Kadesh (fought in 1274 BC) – and this figure can be viewed as being close to accurate.

         Hittite Aristocrats:   the nobility also had their fair share of religious and spiritual duties.  For example, Egyptian New Kingdom pharaohs were sometimes depicted as incarnations of the god of war and valor Montu (falcon-god) or as personifications of Egypt itself. Similarly, in the case of the Hittites, the king also took up the mantle of the highest judicial authority and even in some cases the role of the chief priest.

The Hittites (/ˈhɪtaɪts/) were an Anatolian people who played an important role in establishing first a kingdom in Kussara before 1750 BCE, then the Kanesh or Nesha kingdom (c. 1750–1650 BCE), and next an empire centered on Hattusa in north-central Anatolia around 1650 BCE. This empire reached its height during the mid-14th century BC under Šuppiluliuma I, when it encompassed an area that included most of Anatolia as well as parts of the northern Levant and Upper Mesopotamia.

                      Hittite Defense Force:  Interestingly enough, most of these men were housed in provincial barracks and were provided with rations all throughout the year. And while a significant percentage of these soldiers volunteered to join the military career (with its fair share of dangers), many were conscripted into their ranks based on the quota requirements of the Hittite-governed province.

Between the 15th and 13th centuries BCE, the Empire of Hattusa, conventionally called the Hittite Empire, came into conflict with the New Kingdom of Egypt, the Middle Assyrian Empire and the empire of Mitanni for control of the Near East. 

The Middle Assyrian Empire eventually emerged as the dominant power and annexed much of the Hittite Empire, while the remainder was sacked by Phrygian newcomers to the region. After c. 1180 BC, during the Late Bronze Age collapse, the Hittites splintered into several independent Syro-Hittite states, some of which survived until the eighth century BC before succumbing to the Neo-Assyrian Empire.

The Hittites used a variation of cuneiform called Hittite cuneiform. Archaeological expeditions to Hattusa have discovered entire sets of royal archives on cuneiform tablets, written either in Akkadian, the diplomatic language of the time, or in the various dialects of the Hittite confederation.

The Hittite language was a distinct member of the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family, and along with the closely related Luwian language, is the oldest historically attested Indo-European language, referred to by its speakers as nešili "in the language of Nesa". The Hittites called their country the Kingdom of Hattusa (Hatti in Akkadian), a name received from the Hattians, an earlier people who had inhabited and ruled the region until the beginning of the second millennium BC and spoke an unrelated language known as Hattic. The conventional name "Hittites" is due to their initial identification with the Biblical Hittites in 19th century archaeology.

Pioneering Olympian Halet Cambel, who snubbed Hitler:  Halet Cambel, then a 20-year-old archaeology student, was one of two female competitors sent to Berlin as the first ever Turkish women to compete in the Olympics. The Nazis were in power and Hitler intended to use the Berlin Olympics as a tool to showcase his ideals. Cambel was repulsed by his ideas and even 76 years later she recalls clearly the day that she and her fellow female fencer, Suat Fetgeri Aseni Tarı, defied the Nazi leader.

During the 1920s, interest in the Hittites increased with the founding of Turkey and attracted the attention of Turkish archaeologists such as Halet Çambel and Tahsin Özgüç. During this period, the new field of Hittitology also influenced the naming of Turkish institutions, such as the state-owned Etibank ("Hittite bank"), and the foundation of the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara, which is 200 kilometers (124 miles) west of the Hittite capital of Hattusa and houses the most comprehensive exhibition of Hittite art and artifacts in the world.

Hittites are remembered through stone, which they used to write and to picture upon.  It has lasted throughout all these past almost 4,000 years.  If and when the year 4,022 rolls around, will we be remembered?  Do cell phones, paper and pen, computers, TVs have a long life?  

Resource:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hittites

https://www.realmofhistory.com/2020/01/24/10-facts-hittite-warriors-bronze-age/

https://www.bbc.com/sport/olympics/19224181