History of the Hittites

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This article deals with the history of the Hittites . General information about this ancient people can be found in the article Hittites .

Dating

The reigns of Hittite rulers cannot be precisely dated due to the lack of Hittite sources. Letters with other kings and inscriptions only allow selective dates, which are also based on the “short” or “medium” chronology . A solar eclipse mentioned by Mursili II in his tenth year of reign can be associated with various solar eclipses, the solar eclipse in 1312 BC. Is currently preferred. See also the eclipse of the Muršilis

Indo-European origins

The origin of the Hittites is still very uncertain today. According to Renfrew's Anatolia hypothesis , they belonged to the "indigenous people". However, it is widely believed that Indo-European tribes immigrated to Anatolia from areas north of the Caucasus . Even immigration via the Balkans cannot be ruled out. No immigration of Indo-European peoples can currently be identified archaeologically. Perhaps these groups gradually immigrated to Anatolia and partly mixed with the local Hattic population . In addition to the Hittites, other Indo-European tribes emerged, including the Luwians in the south and west and the Palaers in the north and northwest of Anatolia. The immigration of the Luwians is in part to the second half of the third millennium BC. Dated. Some researchers see a connection with the Demircihüyük culture (approx. 3500-2500 BC).

Location of Pala

According to evidence from Assyrian traders, however, it is certain that the Hittites were born in the 19th and 18th centuries BC. BC in Kaniš (Turkish Kültepe "ash hill ", located near today's Kayseri ) lived. There is occasional talk of a prince Anitta . This is the first evidence of Hittites. Meanwhile, the Assyrians introduced the Mesopotamian cuneiform script in Anatolia. The first known king (rather a prince) of the small kingdoms there was Uḫna from Zalpa, who destroyed the city of Kaniš and kidnapped the main deity of this city. Probably he was responsible for the complete destruction of Kaniš, which uncertainly dates back to around 1835 BC. Is dated.

A very early text from this period, which has only survived in copies, gives Anitta's account of the conquests of his father Pitḫana. This comes from the not yet rediscovered city of Kuššara and, through a nocturnal attack, brought one of the most important Anatolian cities, Kaniš, under his control. He moved his residence there. Around 1730 BC King Anitta of Kaniš / Neša moved against Zalpa and took King Ḫuzziya of Zalpa prisoner and brought the statue stolen by Uḫna back to Kaniš / Neša. Anitta destroyed the city of Ḫattuša , which was ruled by King Piyušti, and put a curse on the ruins. Only 150 years later did Labarna I set up his residence here. Then Anitta conquered Šalatuwara; the king of the principality of Purušḫanda then honored him with an iron scepter and an iron throne, which became the throne of all rulers. Purušḫanda's population is said to have been very different from that in Kaniš and is sometimes considered to be Luwian. Anitta thus defined the heartland of the Hittite Empire, while the principalities of Pala and Luwiya were still independent.

There is no information about the time after Anitta, because Assyrian trade came to a standstill for around 100 years and Kaniš sinks into insignificance. Apparently the Hittites fall back into a state of numerous small states. Only the rise of a new king named Ḫuzziya, who also came from Kuššara, ushered in the time of the Hittite Empire. The name Ḫuzziya is known as an opponent of Anitta from a place called Zalpa . This Zalpa (possibly the ruins of İkiztepe, near today's Bafra) plays an important role in a Hittite legend. According to this, a queen from Kaniš gave birth to 30 sons and abandoned them on a river, who now grew up in the country of Zalpuwa. They later moved to Kaniš and married their sisters. This legend is interpreted as an immigration legend.

Zalpa is located on the Black Sea at the mouth of the Kızılırmak (Greek Halys, Hittite Maraššanta) in the land of Pala . According to research, Palaic is somewhat older than Hittite. Annual sacrifices in Zalpa were part of the royal duty. Later, the Kaškäers apparently used the same immigration route.

Hittite principalities (until 1700 BC)

In the early Hittite period, the Hittite cultural area was dominated by Hittite principalities. Through a lively trade with the Mesopotamian Assyria , Kaniš emerged as the most important trading metropolis. The traders from Aššur (on the middle Tigris in northern Iraq) came to Anatolia to buy raw materials such as copper, silver, gold and valuable stones. The goods were transported to Mesopotamia with donkey caravans. From there came pewter , fabrics and clothes in return . In addition, the Assyrian merchants took part in intra-Anatolian trade. Eastern Anatolia was covered with a network of routes, the junctions of which were the trading posts. They were located in Central Anatolia near the main towns of Hatta principalities, where the Assyrian traders lived with their families in separate quarters. They enjoyed the protection of the Hattic masters and were subject to tax. Cuneiform writing came to Anatolia with the Assyrian traders . Buying and selling, futures, loans and barter deals were recorded on clay tablets in Akkadian cuneiform . The first mention of the later capital Ḫattuša can be found on these tablets .

In these first centuries of the second millennium BC In Central Anatolia there were frequent conflicts between the indigenous Hittite princes and the Hittite groups who tried to expand their power. The excavations in Ḫattuša show that the city was built around 1700 BC. Has perished in a great fire. In a cuneiform text, King Anitta of Kuššara reports that he defeated King Piyušti of Ḫattuš and destroyed his city.

During this period, trade relations with Assyria also came to an abrupt end, probably due to the blockade of travel routes by the Hurrians who immigrated to Syria .

Old Empire (approx. 1600–1500 BC)

The first Hittite great king who took his residence in Ḫattuša came from Kuššara, the home of the former destroyer of the city, Anitta . But he took the name Ḫattušili, "that of Ḫattuša". During his reign, the Mesopotamian cuneiform script was introduced in a northern Syrian version, which disappeared from Anatolia with the collapse of the Assyrian trade network. From this an Anatolian writing tradition developed, which led to the transmission of numerous dates on clay tablets: Hittite state correspondence and contracts have been preserved, as have collections of laws, cult regulations, oracles and ancient oriental literature. The archives of Ḫattuša, excavated since 1906, with around 30,000 clay tablets and fragments, form the main fund.

Great King Ḫattušili I (1565 to 1540 BC) expanded the empire through targeted conquests in Inner Anatolia and an expansion south across the Taurus Mountains to northern Syria. Ḫattušili I conquered Aleppo (Heth. Ḫalpa) and took the statue of the local weather god with him to Ḫattuša as a symbol of superiority . Now he called himself "great king". The battles against the Hurrians in Southeast Anatolia / Northern Syria proved difficult, against which Ḫattušili did not achieve a final victory. He now concentrated on securing the new empire. He appointed his grandson Muršili I (1540-1530 BC) as his successor.

Mursili continued the conquests in the south, the aim of which was the elimination of the Syrian city-states and control of the trade routes to Mesopotamia. Aleppo was conquered again. An intervention in Babylon , 1200 km from HATTUSA removed, the dynasty ended by Hammurabi . Soon afterwards, Muršili, betrayed by a relative, was murdered. A period of unrest and many regicide followed. By the end of this period, the Hittite sphere of power had shrunk to the Central Anatolian territories and the state was in deep crisis. Babylon was lost, and the Kassite king Agum II. Kakrime was even able to bring the captured statues of gods back to Karduniaš.

Middle Kingdom (approx. 1500-1350 BC)

Four kings without any previously known greater significance followed the throne: Ḫantili I , Zidanta I , Ammuna , Ḫuzziya I until around 1500 BC. Chr. Telipinu took over power and secured it through various edicts. He tried to regulate the succession to the throne through a greater influence of the assembly of the highest nobles, as an independent judicial authority. For the first time there was a control instrument outside the royal family.

This period is also known as the Middle Kingdom. It is still strongly shaped by domestic power struggles and the loss of foreign policy supremacy in northern Syria to the Mittani Empire . There was also a permanent enemy in the north of the empire, the Kaškäer , who settled in the mountains to the north and northeast of the Black Sea. At harvest time they regularly plundered the Hittite Empire. They never tried to permanently conquer the empire, but withdrew with the booty to the mountains of the north and were a constant threat to all great kings of the Hittite empire.

King Tudḫaliya I (around 1420 BC) tried to restore the area of ​​influence of the old empire. Inscriptions document campaigns on the west coast in the area of Arzawa and in northern Mesopotamia. He signed a treaty with the kingdom of Kizzuwatna in southeastern Turkey. The core area of ​​the Hittite Empire remained limited to Central Anatolia , even under his successors up to the Great King Šuppiluliuma I. In addition to the constant attacks by the Kaškäer, there are repeated uprisings against the capital Ḫattuša, in which local princes strive for independence.

The time of the Hittite Empire (approx. 1350–1200 BC)

Great King Šuppiluliuma I.

The Hittite Empire in the 13th century BC Chr.

Great King Šuppiluliuma I reformed the empire and was able to push back his powerful opponents, the Hurrian state of Mittani in the area of ​​the Euphrates and Tigris (today southeast Turkey, northern Syria and northern Iraq). The Arzawa empire in the west, which in the meantime had risen to become a great power, was also smashed. The Hittite Empire now ruled almost all of Asia Minor and Syria. The Hittite area in Syria bordered directly on the northernmost province of the Egyptian Empire, and so fighting soon broke out between these two powers.

The Hittites and Egypt

One of the most important events in Hittite history is the battle of Kadeš (1274 BC), in which the armies of the great king Muwatalli II and the pharaoh Ramses II met , together with the subsequent treaty between Ramses and Ḫattušili III. (1259 BC) This is the oldest written peace treaty ( Egyptian-Hittite peace treaty ) in the world, of which a copy - as a symbol of peace - can be seen in the UN building in New York .

The last bloom of the great empire

Muwatalli II moved his residence to the south, to Tarḫuntašša , which has not yet been located. But already his successor Muršili III. returned to Ḫattuša. However, he was soon by his uncle Ḫattušili III. discontinued. Under this great king and his son Tudḫaliya IV , the city flourished again. Ḫattuša was not only the political capital, but also the center of cult - the residence of the “Thousand Gods of the Ḫatti Land”.

The Hittites and Mycenae

The question was raised early on whether and how intensively the Hittite Empire had cultural or diplomatic contact with the Mycenaean states of the same time . This was obvious and to be expected, especially for western Asia Minor. The cuneiform sources mention a country Aḫḫiyawa far to the west , with which there were disputes. A long debated and still controversial question is whether this could mean a Mycenaean empire. Some researchers (including Forrer ) are of the opinion that Aḫḫiyawa are the Achaeans Homer - one of three different names of the Greeks who went against Troy . Sources document a diplomatic dispute between the Hittite great king and the important city of Milawanda , which apparently belonged to Ahhijawa's sphere of influence. Many ancient historians and archaeologists Millawanda is the Carian -mykenischen Miletus identified in the southern West Anatolia.

Miletus belonged to the 14th century BC To the Mycenaean culture. Archaeological evidence of the destruction of the city towards the end of the century has been proven. Some researchers assume that it can be attributed to the destruction of Milawanda by Muršili II . In the following two centuries, Mycenaean finds continue to come from Miletus, but Anatolian elements are also found. The city wall is typologically closer to the Hittite city walls than to those of the Mycenaean centers on the Greek mainland ( Tiryns , Mycenae etc.). Fritz Schachermeyer therefore assumed a kind of Mycenaean-Hittite "dual rule" for Miletus, which requires intensive diplomatic contact between Hittites and at least one Mycenaean state ( Aḫḫiyawa ?). This hypothesis has so far not been generally accepted or rejected in research.

There is hardly any archaeological evidence of intensive direct (trade) contacts between Greeks and Hittites outside of Miletus: nothing clearly Hittite has come to light of Mycenaean sites. Much more serious is the fact that very few artifacts regarded as Mycenaean have been found in Ḫattuša and other Central Anatolian Hittite cities. And this despite the fact that Mycenaean pottery was widespread in large parts of the Mediterranean region. Only in Beycesultan in western Anatolia (near Çivril ) Mycenaean and Hittite artifacts were in somewhat larger scale socialized found.

The end of the great empire (around 1200 BC)

Tudḫaliya IV. Had to transfer the Tarḫuntassa region to Kurunta , a descendant of Muwatalli II, against whom Ḫattušili III, Tudḫaliya's father, had usurped. Tarḫuntassa was very probably in southern Asia Minor between Lycia and Cilicia . Kurunta remained subordinate to the great king and Tarḫuntassa part of the Hittite Empire, but this event, which is known from a recently found bronze plaque, shows that there were power struggles as early as the time of Tudḫaliyas IV. Kurunta was evidently not satisfied with this arrangement: at a point in time that has not yet been specified, he briefly seized power in Ḫattuša, but soon lost it again. Possibly the early death of Arnuwanda III. , son and successor of Tudḫaliya IV., related to these events.

On Arnuwanda III. followed his brother Šuppiluliuma II. , the last ruler of the great empire. Legitimacy difficulties are evident because there are documents in which he emphasizes that he has not passed anyone over in the succession. He also swears officials and vassals to support him. Only events from the first years of his reign have survived from Hittite sources. In these the great empire is still fully capable of acting and nothing points to the rapid collapse. Šuppiluliuma may even succeed in conquering the Issuwa region in eastern Asia Minor. However, he also has to fight against "enemies of Alašija " (Cyprus), both at sea and on the coast. Apparently the Hittites remained successful.

Difficulties in legitimizing the last ruler (possibly renewed succession disputes), crop failures and hostile attacks weakened the state towards the end of the 13th century BC. It was a time of unrest in the entire eastern Mediterranean region, during which the coastal countries in particular suffered from the onslaught of the so-called sea ​​peoples . The last known great king, Šuppiluliuma II., Reports on battles in front of and on Alašija (Cyprus) and in Arzawa (Western Anatolia).

Extra-Hittite sources reach closer to the end of the great empire. So we learn of grain aid deliveries by the Egyptian pharaoh Merenptah . Šuppiluliuma ordered the subordinate ruler in Ugarit to immediately send grain to Hatti on ships, stating that it was “a matter of life and death”. Apparently shortly before 1200 BC in the Hittite Empire A famine broke out. It could have weakened the resilience of the Hittite Empire. A letter in Ugarit, which was written immediately before the destruction of the city (very likely between 1194 and 1188 BC), indicates that Cyprus had been attacked by a foreign fleet and that the Syrian coast was also seriously threatened. At the same time, the Ugarit fleet was used by the Hittite king - who can only be Šuppiluliuma - on the southwest coast of Asia Minor. In addition, the king was involved in costly battles in the Lukka countries (probably Lycia). That the military situation had come to a head is made clear by the fact that the foot troops from Ugarit were recalled to Central Anatolia, to the Hittite heartland. In earlier times, Ugarit had been exempted from the provision of troops - even when a major war against the Assyrians was imminent . Some researchers therefore conclude that there is a multi-front war: in the Lukka area, at sea and the threat to the heartland from another, unknown enemy.

The important Syrian trade center Ugarit was therefore defenseless (maybe even "sacrificed") and fell shortly afterwards. Cyprus was also attacked by strangers, who may be the so-called "sea peoples" known from Egyptian sources. What happened after that and how many years it took until the empire finally collapsed is not yet clear. However, the end must have come soon, because after Šuppiluliuma there is no evidence of any ruler of Ḫattuša. The loss of important areas, the famine and the ongoing fighting against various enemies are likely to have weakened the Hittite Empire badly, so that a moderate blow - from whomever - would have been enough to bring it down. Recently, some researchers have also assumed internal turmoil, uprisings among the population or power struggles that contributed to the downfall. It is speculation that it was the Kaškäer who gave the Hittite Empire the fatal blow, as some researchers believe. Many other options are also possible. According to prevailing opinion, the fall of the Hittite Empire is based on many factors and was not only brought about - as was sometimes assumed earlier - by a massive migration of peoples from the Balkans or Thrace ( urn field storm ).

Since it is becoming increasingly clear from recent excavation findings that a Hittite state Tarḫuntassa survived the collapse of the great empire in southern Anatolia, some researchers assume that the Hittite empire collapsed as a result of internal wars. It is considered that there might be further fighting between Tarḫuntassa and the Hittite central power, which won the former. Tarḫuntassa - like the eastern successor states - would have preserved the Hittite tradition in the south for some time.

In Ḫattuša the palace and some administrative buildings and sanctuaries were sacked, as evidenced by fire horizons. However, no skeletons were found in the buildings, so that a previous evacuation can be assumed. The rest of the city was apparently largely spared from destruction. Finally Ḫattuša - according to recent findings from the excavators - was abandoned by the population. Other Hittite cities in central Anatolia were either destroyed by fire or abandoned.

At the beginning of the 12th century, population shifts took place everywhere and no new central authority emerged in Central Anatolia. The residents returned to the rural, sometimes nomadic way of life. The end of the Bronze Age coincides with the collapse of the Hittite Empire and also with the destruction of Troy (Hittite probably Wilusa ).

Late Hittite principalities (1200–700 BC)

Around 1200 BC The south of the former great empire in south-east and south Anatolia as well as Syria disintegrates into small states in which the Luwian population and / or upper classes in the so-called late Hittite principalities continued to maintain the culture of the great empire for a few centuries. Among the most important of these small kingdoms are Tabal and Karkemiš , whose rulers sometimes referred to themselves as great kings, Zincirli ( Sam'al ), 'Ain Dara in Syria, Sakçagözü (Sakcegözü), Tell Tayinat and Karatepe (Azatiwataya) near Adana . The rulers of Malatija also called themselves great kings and traced this title back to Kuzi-Teššub von Karkemiš, the (alleged?) Grandfather of the first bearer.

Most of these kingdoms were Aramaic very quickly and eventually fell under Assyrian rule. The Hittites mentioned in the Bible are likely to be predominantly the inhabitants of these late Hittite principalities.

See also

Remarks

  1. ↑ Hittitology Portal Mainz, University of Würzburg
  2. ↑ Jörg Klinger: The Hittites. CH Beck Munich 2007. p. 121.

literature

Web links