Ewa Wasilewska<\/b><\/p>\n
Illustrations by Michael Grimsdale<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
Anthropologist and archaeologist Ewa Wasilewska earned an M.A. from Warsaw University and a Ph.D. from the University of Utah, where she is a professor of anthropology<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Turkey\u2019s soil is rich in ruins: Ottoman, Seljuk, Byzantine, Greek. But far older than any of those cultures\u2014and forgotten almost entirely for 3000 years\u2014are the remains of the first Indo-European power in the Mediterranean area: the Hittites.<\/p>\n
Their arrival in Anatolia\u2014the Asian part of Turkey, known also as Asia Minor\u2014some 4000 years ago changed the political map of the Middle East, at that time dominated by the civilizations born in the valleys of the Nile, the Tigris and the Euphrates. Although the Hittites ruled in Anatolia and beyond for almost 1000 years thereafter, they then vanished from human memory, to be rediscovered only at the beginning of the 20th century. Only the Bible carried some short references to the Hittites, presenting them as one of the tribes of Palestine in the second millennium BC. It was a \u201cson of Heth\u201d\u2014a Hittite\u2014who sold the Prophet Abraham the land to bury his beloved wife Sarah.<\/p>\n
Tablets of Hittite-Luvian hieroglyphics, such as this one from Hama, Syria, remained indecipherable for nearly a century after their discovery.<\/b><\/p>\n
BSP<\/i> 8:1 (Winter 1995) p. 2<\/p>\n
The longevity of Hittite cultural traditions is demonstrated by a relief from Malatya, Turkey, carved in the ninth century BC, more than 300 years after the Hittite Empire was destroyed. It depicts the weather god accepting offerings from a local ruler.<\/b><\/p>\n
Discovery of the Hittites<\/b><\/p>\n
Who were the Hittites? Their discovery is still one of the most fascinating stories of the early archaeological and philological explorations of the Middle East. The ruins of their once monumental palaces and temples, their rock-reliefs in the middle of the wilderness of the Anatolian steppes, and their stone inscriptions in the least expected places were known by local people but over-looked, or ignored, by Europeans.<\/p>\n
In 1812, for example, a Hittite hieroglyphic inscription was discovered carved on a stone built into the corner of a house in Hama, in modern Syria, by the Swiss traveler Johann Ludwig Burckhard. But this find\u2014like others in the area\u2014was ignored until it was rediscovered in the 1870\u2019s by William Wright.<\/p>\n
Wright, a very curious Irishman, tried to get official permission to copy some inscriptions that he had seen at Hama and elsewhere and carry them off to Istanbul. He succeeded in one of his goals\u2014he got the permission\u2014but the local population was not very friendly toward him and did not like his plans for the inscribed stones, either. The stones, they believed, could cure diseases such as rheumatism if the sufferer touched them or rubbed against them. Some citizens of Aleppo thought that taking the inscriptions out of their original places might bring bad luck, and preferred to destroy them rather than let them be profaned by foreigners.<\/p>\n
Nonetheless, the copies were finally made. In the 1870\u2019s the inscriptions were independently attributed by Wright and Oxford University linguist A. H. Sayce to the \u201csons of Heth\u201d mentioned in the Bible. In 1874, another researcher, William Hayes Ward, decided that the hieroglyphics on these stones\u2014unrelated to the hieroglyphics <\/p>\n
BSP<\/i> 8:1 (Winter 1995) p. 3<\/p>\n
of ancient Egypt\u2014were not decorations or magic signs, but a writing system which should be read \u201cboustrophedon,\u201d that is, \u201cas the ox plows\u201d: the first line from left to right, the second from right to left, the third from left to right again, and so on. But after years of study only a very few hieroglyphic signs could be identified and assigned their proper meaning. In fact, it took scholars almost a whole century to achieve a degree of certainty in reading this hieroglyphic Hittite-Luvian script, as it was called. And it would not have happened at all but for the 1945 discovery, in Karatepe in southern Turkey, of inscriptions that presented the same text in hieroglyphic Hittite-Luvian and in the Phoenician alphabetic script. Working between the known script and the unknown one, the Hittite-Luvian hieroglyphics were deciphered.<\/p>\n
A two-meter stone carving of a warrior guarded the King\u2019s Gate at <\/b>Boğazko\u00f6y<\/b>.<\/b><\/p>\n
A Mysterious New Language.<\/b><\/p>\n
In the meantime, about 1894, another discovery was made in Anatolia. At Boğazko\u00f6y, in central Anatolia, cuneiform clay tablets were found by the French archeologist Ernest Chantre. He brought them to Europe, where they became the center of attention for many scholars. The cuneiform writing system was familiar, thanks to earlier work on tablets discovered during numerous excavations in Iraq. But the language of the Boğazko\u00f6y texts, as well as the identity of the people who wrote it, were a mystery.<\/p>\n
In assigning these texts to their \u201cowners,\u201d the so-called Amarna tablets, found in Egypt two decades earlier, were of great help. The royal archives of Tell el- Amarna, a city occupied between 1375 and 1360 BC, comprised the official letters of two Egyptian pharaohs, Amenhotep III and Akhenaton, and included some 400 cuneiform tablets, mostly in the Akkadian language\u2014the lingua franca<\/i> of the Middle East in the second millennium BC. Among them, however, there were also some tablets written in the same language as those from Boğazko\u00f6y. Since both Bible and Egyptian written sources refer occasionally to the Hittites as a power comparable to Egypt itself, scholars concluded that something like a Hittite empire must have existed in Anatolia some time in the second millennium BC.<\/p>\n
Early in this century, University of Vienna professor Bedr̆ich Hrozn\u00fd realized that Hittite was the oldest <\/p>\n
BSP<\/i> 8:1 (Winter 1995) p. 4<\/p>\n
The forgotten power of the Middle East, the Hittites ruled in Anatolia for more than a thousand years. The shaded area above shows the maximum extent of Hittite power; within the dark line is the area of Hittite rule about 1300 BC. Hittite sites are indicated with dots: the Hittite names of many of them are unknown.<\/b><\/p>\n
known Indo-European language. His discovery was based on this short sentence written in cuneiform: NU NINDA-AN EZZATENI, WATAR-MA EKUTENI.<\/p>\n
Since many Babylonian words were included in Hittite texts, the clue was provided by the Babylonian word ninda<\/i>. which means \u201cfood\u201d or \u201cbread.\u201d Hrozn\u00fd asked himself a very simple question: What does one do with food or bread? The answer, of course, was, one eats it. So the word ezzateni<\/i> must be related to eating. Then the -an<\/i> suffix on ninda<\/i> must be a marker for a direct object in the Hittite language, added to the Babylonian word for \u201cfood\u201d or \u201cbread.\u201d<\/p>\n
With these two propositions in hand. Hrozn\u00fd looked at both the vocabulary and the grammar of Indo-European languages. He noted that the verb to eat<\/i> is similar to Hittite ezza<\/i>\u2014not only in English, but also in Greek (edein<\/i>), Latin (edere<\/i>) and German, (essen<\/i>), and especially medieval German (ezzan<\/i>). Suspecting strongly that the Hittite language was of Indo-European origin, Hrozn\u00fd identified the suffix -an<\/i> as the accusative-case marker still preserved in Greek as-n<\/i>. If that was true, the second line of the inscription was not much of a problem, since it began with the word watar<\/i>, which could easily be translated as English water<\/i> or German Wasser<\/i>. Hrozny proposed the reading of the whole sentence as NOW BREAD YOU EAT, THEN WATER YOU DRINK\u2014and he turned out to be right. Hittite was an Indo-European language!<\/p>\n
BSP<\/i> 8:1 (Winter 1995) p. 5<\/p>\n
A New Chapter in the History of Ancient Civilizations.<\/b><\/p>\n
The texts uncovered at Boğazko\u00f6y and elsewhere in Anatolia opened up a new chapter in the history of ancient civilizations, written by the Hittites and other Indo-European peoples\u2014Luvians and Palaians\u2014who arrived in Asia Minor at the end of the third millennium BC or a little later. The land they came from and the route they took in their search for a new homeland are still among the unsolved mysteries of the past. Might they have come from the vast steppes of Russia, as Turkic tribes did some 30 centuries later? Or were they from the once dense forests of Europe? The search for those answers is still on.<\/p>\n
Wherever they came from, it seems that the Indo-Europeans\u2019 infiltration into Asia Minor was rather peaceful. in spite of some violent local conflicts described in the archives of Boğazko\u00f6y. The Hittites settled down mostly in central Anatolia, while the Luvians established themselves in the southwest, and the Palaians spread out to the north. Not much is known about either the Luvians or the Palaians, because not many texts by them or about them have been found, but the Hittites left behind rich archives that are fascinating in their content.<\/p>\n
Anatolia was not empty when the Hittites arrived. The Anatolian cultures of the time were relatively rich but small communities whose royal tombs have been discovered in such places as Alaca H\u00fcy\u00fck and Horoztepe. Gold, silver and bronze objects from these tombs are considered to be of equal or higher quality than the treasures found in ancient Egypt or Mesopotamia. These people spoke Hattic\u2014a language of different structure than Indo- European or other languages known from the area. Because we have few texts or other clues, this language, and the identity of its speakers, are still a matter of speculation, but we do know that the Hattic people, and the land of Hatti, became part of a new political entity known as the Hittite Old Kingdom in about 1650 BC.<\/p>\n
The kingdom\u2019s founder, Hattusilis I, rebuilt the city of Hattusas\u2014destroyed and cursed by the pre-Hittite ruler of the area\u2014and proclaimed it his capital. Here, in Hattusas, now known as Boğazko\u00f6y, the cuneiform texts of the ancient Hittite kings spoke again some 35 centuries later.<\/p>\n
Hattusilis I set up the rules and directions for the future development of his kingdom. The Hittites would rule in a flexible way, accepting the customs, traditions and deities of any land which became part of their growing empire. Hence, the Hittite kingdom is often called the \u201ckingdom of thousands of gods.\u201d All the deities, those of the conquerors and those of the conquered, were to be worshiped in their own languages and according to their own customs. They were left as rulers of their lands\u2014 although their earthly representatives had to recognize Hittite suzerainty.<\/p>\n
The originally small Hittite kingdom of Central Anatolia soon grew beyond Asia Minor. The Hittites looked with interest to Syro-Palestine <\/p>\n
BSP<\/i> 8:1 (Winter 1995) p. 6<\/p>\n
and even to the famous civilizations of Mesopotamia. In 1595 BC the grandson and successor of Hattusilis I, Mursilis I, took northern Syria and the city of Aleppo. In the same campaign he conquered Babylon, putting an end to the first Babylonian dynasty of Hammurabi. But though his military success was very impressive, its effects did not last. Mursilis was murdered on his return to Hattusas, and shortly thereafter the kingdom of the Hittites was once again limited to central Anatolia.<\/p>\n
World Conquerors<\/b><\/p>\n
The Hittites organized themselves again to conquer the world. The New Hittite Empire is usually dated to the period between 1450 and 1180 BC. Suppiluliumas I of the 14th century BC made Anatolia and Northern Syria <\/p>\n
Remains of the King\u2019s Gate at Bogazkoy. The founder of the Hittite Old Kingdom rebuilt the city of Hattusas about 1650 BC and named himself after it. The site is called <\/b>Boğazk<\/b>\u00f6<\/b>y<\/b> today.<\/b><\/p>\n
BSP<\/i> 8:1 (Winter 1995) p. 7<\/p>\n
The Hittites used double walls in their fortifications, protected vulnerable corners with towers, and designed impregnable gateways. At <\/b>Boğazk<\/b>\u00f6<\/b>y<\/b>, they spanned a gorge 15 meters deep with a defensive wall, building the earliest example of this type of bridge ever found.<\/b><\/p>\n
his dominion. He did not repeat Mursilis\u2019 mistake of moving into an area which he could not directly control. Instead, through the most immediate conquests and a whole system of alliances, he founded a kingdom whose strength and wealth surpassed that of any other nation of the period. Even an Egyptian queen, alone after the death of her husband, asked Suppiluliumas to send one of his sons for her to marry, since she did not want to marry any of her courtiers. Suppiluliumas, apparently incredulous that his son could become a pharaoh, took his time in checking the legitimacy of the queen\u2019s letter. Offended, the queen sent another letter, whose genuineness was confirmed by Suppiluliumas\u2019 secret service, and he sent his son to Egypt for a wedding that could have had considerable consequences, had it happened. Instead, the prince was murdered by enemies of the queen before he reached Egypt, and she herself disappears from Egyptian records shortly after this event.<\/p>\n
Another ruler of the Hittite Empire, Muwatallis, had a less than friendly brush with Pharaoh Ramses II. Both the Hittites and the Egyptians were so interested in the political and economic importance of the Syro-Palestine area between them that conflict was inevitable. Their two armies met in one of the most famous battles of history, at Kadesh on the Orontes River in about 1286 BC. Historian O. R. Gurney describes the battle this way:<\/p>\n
The Hittite army based in Kadesh succeeded in completely concealing its position from the Egyptian scouts; and as the unsuspecting Egyptians advanced in marching order towards the city and <\/p>\n
BSP<\/i> 8:1 (Winter 1995) p. 8<\/p>\n
started to pitch their camp, a strong detachment of Hittite chariotry passed round unnoticed behind the city, crossed the river Orontes and fell upon the Egyptians column with shattering force. The Egyptian army would have been annihilated, had not a detached Egyptian regiment arrived most opportunely from another direction and caught the Hittites unaware as they were pillaging the camp. This lucky chance enabled the Egyptian king to save the remainder of his forces and to represent the battle as a great victory.<\/p>\n
The results of the battle, which confirmed the status quo in the Middle East\u2014the division of influence in Syro-Palestine between Egypt and Anatolia\u2014were sealed some 16 years later by an international treaty signed by Hattusilis III and Ramses II. The treaty also represents one of the last attempts to keep the growing power of the Assyrians of what is now northern Iraq out of the area controlled by the Hittites and the Egyptians.<\/p>\n
The Fall of the Hittites<\/b><\/p>\n
However, it was not Assyria which caused the fall of the Hittite Empire. The blow was delivered by the so-called \u201cSea People,\u201d a group of possibly Indo-European tribes of disputed origin who attacked much of the Middle East by land and sea around 1200 BC. Eventually these people were stopped by Pharaoh Ramses III just at the borders of his own kingdom, but the damage was done. The Hittite kingdom was destroyed, along with many famous cities of the Anatolian and Syro-Palestinian coast. However, Hittite cultural traditions were kept alive for the next few hundred years in the so-called Neo-Hittite states of southern Turkey and northern Syria. And the ruins of many of their constructions can be admired all over Anatolia.<\/p>\n
Among them is the capital of the Hittite kingdom, Hattusas, located 200 km (125 mi) east of Ankara and a few kilometers north of the Turkish town of Yozgat. Here, thanks to German excavations conducted for most of this century, the city\u2019s ancient temples, palaces, and gates can be recognized, among many other structures. Although mostly only foundations are preserved, one cannot help but stand there breathless, thinking about the amount of work\u2014and organization\u2014required to construct such monumental buildings.<\/p>\n
Here and there, large intact storage jars that may once have held oil or grain or wine protrude from the ground. One can peer through what used to be huge windows at the cella, the temple\u2019s innermost shrine where the Hittites\u2019 gods dwelt. Gates, secret tunnels and other parts of the city\u2019s defense system can be seen, for the Hittites were masters of defensive construction. One of the first bridges ever built is part of Boğazko\u00f6y\u2019s city walls, carrying them across a narrow gorge. It\u2019s hard to imagine that such a fabulous city with so much protection was destroyed and rebuilt more than once. It\u2019s even harder to imagine that its constructors were forgotten for 30 centuries.<\/p>\n
BSP<\/i> 8:1 (Winter 1995) p. 9<\/p>\n
On a rock wall at Yaz1l1kaya, Teshub, the weather god, and Hepat, the mother-goddess, lead processions of other Hittite deities.<\/b><\/p>\n
Only two km (1.2 mi) northeast of Hattusas there is another interesting monument of the Hittite past: a natural rock sanctuary. The place is known as Yaz1l1kaya\u2014\u201d the written rock\u201d in Turkish\u2014for processions of deities from the Hittite pantheon are carved into the galleries of stone. On the west side of the Great Gallery are mostly male gods, led by the Weather God of Heaven, while the east side belongs to their female counterparts, headed by the Sun Goddess of Arinna; the two processions meet in the middle of the north wall. The Small Gallery has a procession of 12 well-preserved, almost identical, gods on its west wall while the east one is dedicated to the Sword God, a deity whose significance is still unknown.<\/p>\n
The cemetery of Hattusas lies outside the city, close to the road leading to Yaz1l1kaya. It consists of various graves, pottery vessels, or simple niches and crevices prepared for both cremation and inhumation burials. In many cases, animal remains have been recorded in these graves together with human bodies. Why? We simply don\u2019t know yet. The other mystery in this cemetery is the large number of graves in which an adult and a child were found buried together. Is this a coincidence, or some sort of religious custom\u2014not suggested by anything in the texts\u2014that required child sacrifice?<\/p>\n
There are many other places in modern Turkey where one can still see and touch the fabulous past of the first recorded Indo-Europeans\u2014the Hittites. Although forgotten for many centuries, they are finally getting the recognition due them for their contribution to the history of humankind. Their power was once at least equal to that of pharaonic Egypt; now their fame may also grow as great, as we search for our past in the beauty of the Turkish land.<\/p>\n
(Reprinted from Aramco World,<\/i> Vol. 45, No. 5, September-October 1994, pp. 17\u201323.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ewa Wasilewska Illustrations by Michael Grimsdale Anthropologist and archaeologist Ewa Wasilewska earned an M.A. from Warsaw University and a Ph.D. from the University of Utah, where she is a professor of anthropology. Turkey\u2019s soil is rich in ruins: Ottoman, Seljuk, Byzantine, Greek. But far older than any of those cultures\u2014and forgotten almost entirely for 3000 … Continue reading “THE
\nHITTITES OF ANATOLIA”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15180\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}