Hittites

Hittites
   An important ancient Near Eastern people who spoke an Indo-European language and established a powerful kingdom - called Hatti - centered in Anatolia in the early second millennium b.c. By the late eighteenth century B.C., the Hittites had built a capital city at Hattusas, in the highlands near the upper reaches of the Halys River. under the leadership of King Mursilis I (reigned ca. 1620-1590 b.c.), they began campaigns of expansion toward the southeast. Mursilis conquered much of Syria, then suddenly followed the Euphrates southeastward and delivered a surprise attack on Babylon. It appears that the Hittites were aided in this venture by the Kassites, a tribal people who had entered Mesopotamia from the northeast about a century or so before. Instead of consolidating their gains and trying to rule Babylonia, the Hittites departed, leaving the Kassites in control. It may be that Mur-silis and other Hittite leaders felt they were too far from home and had too few soldiers to impose direct rule on Mesopotamia. In any case, the power vacuum thus created allowed the Hurrians, who originally hailed from the region near the Caspian sea, to sweep through the area. The Hurrians established the kingdom of Mi-tanni, centered on the upper reaches of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers; the Mitan-nian state then acted as a sort of buffer between Hatti and Mesopotamia.
   The largest imperial gains by the Hit-tites came about two centuries later. under King Suppiluliumas I (reigned ca. 13701330 b.c.), they subdued most of northern Mitanni, created an alliance with the Kassite rulers of Babylonia, and imposed their will on a number of cities in Syria-Palestine. The latter intrusion raised the ire of the Egyptians, who had recently established their own influence in Syria-Palestine. Tensions between the two peoples came to a head in the Battle of Kadesh in Syria in 1274 b.c., in which the Hittite king Muwatallis II (reigned ca. 1295-1272 b.c.) fought the Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses II (ca. 1279-1213 b.c.) to an apparent draw. Shortly thereafter another Hittite ruler, Tuthaliyas (or Tudhaliya) IV (ca. 1237-1209 b.c.), further expanded the Hittite empire by conquering the Mediterranean island of cyprus. Soon afterward, however, that empire collapsed suddenly and permanently, and Hattusas was destroyed. The reasons are still uncertain and disputed by scholars, but a large-scale invasion of Greece, Anatolia, and Syria-Palestine by tribal peoples migrating from the region west of the Black Sea seems probable.

Ancient Mesopotamia dictioary. . 2015.

Игры ⚽ Нужен реферат?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • HITTITES — La découverte des Hittites est le résultat d’une longue enquête philologique et archéologique qui débute au temps du déchiffrement des hiéroglyphes égyptiens. Le nom d’un grand pays, en relation avec la cour égyptienne de la XVIIIe dynastie,… …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • HITTITES — HITTITES, an ancient people of Anatolia. The name Hittites is taken from the biblical Hebrew Ḥitti (gentilic), plural Ḥittim, which stems from the form Ḥatti found as a geographic term in cuneiform texts, the vowel change resulting from a Hebrew… …   Encyclopedia of Judaism

  • Hittites — • One of the many peoples of North Western Asia, styled Hittim in the Hebrew Bible, Khuti or Kheta on the Egyptian monuments, and Hatti in the cuneiform documents Catholic Encyclopedia. Kevin Knight. 2006 …   Catholic encyclopedia

  • Hittites — Pour les articles homonymes, voir Hittite. Les Hittites sont un peuple ayant vécu dans l Anatolie au IIe millénaire av. J.‑C. Ils doivent leur nom à la région à partir de laquelle ils ont établi leur royaume principal, le Hatti,… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Hittites — For the people of the Hebrew Bible, see Biblical Hittites. The Hittites were a Bronze Age people of Anatolia. They established a kingdom centered at Hattusa in north central Anatolia c. the 18th century BC. The Hittite empire reached its… …   Wikipedia

  • Hittites —    Palestine and Syria appear to have been originally inhabited by three different tribes.    1) The Semites, living on the east of the isthmus of Suez. They were nomadic and pastoral tribes.    2) The Phoenicians, who were merchants and traders; …   Easton's Bible Dictionary

  • Hittites — c.1740 1190 BC.     In the second millennium BC, the Land of Hatti emerged first as a state and then as an empire, created by kings who ruled from a mountainous homeland in the north of Asia Minor (Anatolia). The name Hittite has been applied to… …   Ancient Egypt

  • HITTITES —    A people speaking an Indo European language who formed a powerful state in central Anatoliain the second millennium B.C.    Having penetrated into Asia Minor by several routes since the late third millennium, they took the name of an… …   Historical Dictionary of Mesopotamia

  • Hittites — A major power in the 14th cent. BCE from a base in Asia Minor (modern Turkey), conquering north and central Syria and most of Lebanon, but they were eventually absorbed into the Assyrian and Babylonian empires. There are references to Hittites in …   Dictionary of the Bible

  • Hittites — Hit·tite || hɪtaɪt n. member of an ancient people in northern Syria and Asia Minor during the second millenium BC; extinct language of this people adj. of or pertaining to the Hittites or their language (ancient people in northern Syria and… …   English contemporary dictionary

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”