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THE HITTITES

Up until the turn of the century, the Hittites were known only from accounts of the ancient Egyptians and from the Bible.  In 1834 a French architect by the name of Texier happened upon some ancient ruins near Bogazkale, but this was largely ignored because the improbability of there being an old civilization in such a place.

Not until 1905 when a German archaeological team began to unearth clay tablets with cuneiform script did we have more information on the Hittites. The language was eventually deciphered.  The clay tablets contained the oldest Indo-European accounts found to date.

What we know today is that the Hittites came to Asia Minor from the other side of the Black Sea. They were the first Indo-Europeans in this land.  .

When they arrived they found the area already inhabited by a people whose origins are still unclear; the Hatti. The Hittites intermingled with the indigenous people, even taking their name from them.  They took over the main city and called it Hattusas. The first Hittite king was Hattusilis.

The Hittite Empire spread out over Anatolia and in 1594 B.C. was so powerful that it sacked Babylon. The empire was also a threat to the Egyptians. They clashed in 1288  B.C. at the battle of Kadesh and finally made a peace treaty, which was sealed by the marriage of the daughter of Hattusilis III to the pharaoh Ramses II.

The Hittites were people of the highlands and steppes. During their reign, a feudal system existed. They had a written legal code to protect the rights of their citizens, and their religious beliefs were extremely polytheistic and liberal.  They worshiped many gods derived from former kings, local deities and mythological figures brought from their original homeland. After a short Golden Age their civilization was mysteriously destroyed.