View source for Hittites

{{Short description|Ancient Anatolian people of Kussara}}
{{About|the Anatolian culture|the group described in the Bible|Biblical Hittites|the pre-Hittite inhabitants of Anatolia|Hattians}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2021}}
{{Infobox country
| native_name            = {{lang|hit|{{cuneiform|ana|𒄩𒀜𒌅𒊭}}}} ({{Transliteration|hit|Ḫattuša}})
| conventional_long_name = Hittite Empire
| common_name            = Hittites
| era                    = Bronze Age
| status                 = 
| government_type        = {{ubli|[[Absolute monarchy]] (Old Kingdom)|[[Constitutional monarchy]] (Middle and New Kingdom)<ref>{{cite book |title=Crime and Punishment in the Ancient World |page=29 |first=Israel |last=Drapkin |year=1989 |publisher=Lexington Books |isbn=0-669-01279-3 }}</ref>}}
| year_start             = {{Circa|1650 BC}}
| year_end               = {{Circa|1180 BC}}
| event_start            = 
| event_end              = 
| p1                     = Hattians
| p2                     = Kussara
| p3                     = Kanesh
| p4                     = Purushanda
| p5                     = Pala (Anatolia)
| p6                     = Third Eblaite Kingdom
| p7                     = Kizzuwatna
| p8                     = Assuwa
| p9                     = Arzawa
| p10                    = Wilusa
| p11                    = Alashiya
| s1                     = Kaskians
| flag_s1                = 
| s2                     = Mushki
| flag_s2                = 
| s3                     = Urumeans
| flag_s3                = 
| s4                     = Syro-Hittite states
| s5                     = Tabal (state){{!}}Tabal
| flag_s5                = 
| s6                     = Kummuh
| flag_s6                = 
| s7                     = Carchemish
| flag_s7                = 
| s8                     = Phrygia
| flag_s8                = 
| s9                     = Lydia
| flag_s9                = 
| image_flag             = 
| flag_type              = 
| image_coat             = SealSuppiluliuma.svg
| coa_size               = 100px
| symbol_type            = Royal seal of the king [[Šuppiluliuma I]] and [[Tawananna]]
| image_map              = Empire of the Hitties.png
| image_map_caption      = Map of the Hittite Empire at its greatest extent, with Hittite rule {{Circa|1300 BC}}
| capital                = *[[Hattusa]]
*[[Tarḫuntašša]] (Regnal period of [[Muwatalli II]])
| capital_exile          = [[Šamuḫa]] ([[Hittite Wars of Survival|1400–1350 BC]])
| common_languages       = [[Hittite language|Hittite]], [[Hattic language|Hattic]], [[Luwian language|Luwian]], [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]]
| religion               = [[Hittite mythology and religion|Hittite religion]]
| currency               = [[Hittites#Economy|Barter Economy]], Gold, Copper, Silver and Bronze common barter items of value.
| population_estimate =               [[Hittites#Population|200,000+]]
| title_leader           = [[List of Hittite kings|King]]
| leader1                = [[Labarna I]] (first)
| year_leader1           = {{Circa|1650 BC}}
| leader2                = [[Šuppiluliuma II]] (last)
| year_leader2           = {{Circa|1210}}–1180 BC
| Currency               = 
| stat_year1             = 
| stat_area1             = 
| stat_year2             = 
| stat_pop1              = 
| stat_pop2              = 
| legislature            = [[Hittites#The Pankus|The Pankus]]
| today                  = {{ubli|[[Turkey]]|[[Syria]]|[[Lebanon]]|[[Cyprus]]}}
}}
{{Contains special characters|cuneiform}}
[[Image:Sphinx_Gate,_Hattusa_01.jpg|right|thumb|Sphinx Gate entrance to the city]]

[[File:Hattusa, capital of the Hittite Empire 04.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|The Great Temple in the inner city of [[Hattusa]]]]

The '''Hittites''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|h|ɪ|t|aɪ|t|s}}) were an [[Anatolian peoples|Anatolian]] [[Proto-Indo-Europeans|Indo-European people]] who formed one of the first major civilizations of the [[Bronze Age]] in [[West Asia]]. Possibly originating from beyond the [[Black Sea]],<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |date=2023-10-01 |title=Hittite {{!}} Definition, History, Achievements, & Facts |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Hittite |access-date=2023-10-20 |language=en |archive-date=24 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201024135852/https://www.britannica.com/topic/Hittite |url-status=live }}</ref> they settled in modern-day [[Turkey]] in the early [[2nd millennium BC]]. The Hittites formed a series of [[Polity|polities]] in north-central [[Anatolia]], including the kingdom of [[Kussara]] (before 1750 BC), the [[Kültepe|Kanesh]] or Nesha Kingdom ({{Circa|1750}}–1650 BC), and an empire centered on their capital, [[Hattusa]] (around 1650 BC).{{sfn|Kloekhorst|Waal|2019}}{{sfn|Kloekhorst|2020}} Known in modern times as the '''Hittite Empire''', it reached its peak during the mid-14th century BC under [[Šuppiluliuma I]], when it encompassed most of Anatolia and parts of the northern [[Levant]] and [[Upper Mesopotamia]], bordering the rival empires of the Hurri-Mitanni and Assyrians.

Between the 15th and 13th centuries BC, the Hittites were one of the dominant powers of the [[Near East]], coming into conflict with the [[New Kingdom of Egypt]], the [[Middle Assyrian Empire]], and the Empire of [[Mitanni]]. By the 12th century BC, much of the Hittite Empire had been annexed by the [[Middle Assyrian Empire]], with the remainder being sacked by [[Phrygia]]n newcomers to the region. From the late 12th century BC, during the [[Late Bronze Age collapse]], the Hittites splintered into [[Neo-Hittite states|several small independent states]], some of which survived until the eighth century BC before succumbing to the [[Neo-Assyrian Empire]]; lacking a unifying [[indigenism|continuity]], their descendants scattered and ultimately merged into the [[Ethnic groups in the Middle East|modern populations]] of the Levant and [[Mesopotamia]].<ref>[https://www.worldhistory.org/Sea_Peoples/ "Sea Peoples"]. ''Ancient History Encyclopedia''. September 2009. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180618203237/https://www.ancient.eu/Sea_Peoples/|date=18 June 2018}}</ref>

The [[Hittite language]]—referred to by its speakers as {{Transliteration|hit|nešili}}, "the language of [[Kültepe|Nesa]]"—was a distinct member of the [[Anatolian languages|Anatolian branch]] of the [[Indo-European languages|Indo-European language family]]; along with the closely related [[Luwian language]], it is the oldest historically attested Indo-European language.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.leidenuniv.nl/en/researcharchive/index.php3-c=178.htm|title=The peaks and troughs of Hittite|date=7 July 2004 |access-date=19 December 2016|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170203061604/http://www.leidenuniv.nl/en/researcharchive/index.php3-c=178.htm |archive-date=3 February 2017|url-status=live}}</ref> The history of the Hittite civilization is known mostly from [[cuneiform]] texts found in their former territories, and from diplomatic and commercial correspondence found in the various archives of [[Assyria]], [[Babylonia]], [[Egypt]] and the broader [[Middle East]]; the decipherment of these texts was a key event in the history of [[Indo-European studies]].

Scholars once attributed the development of iron-[[smelting]] to the Hittites, who were believed to have monopolized [[ironworking]] during the Bronze Age. This theory has been increasingly contested in the 21st century,<ref>{{cite book |last=Muhly |first=James D. |chapter=Metalworking/Mining in the Levant |title=Near Eastern Archaeology |editor-first=Suzanne |editor-last=Richard |year=2003 |pages=174–183 |publisher=Eisenbrauns |isbn=1-57506-083-3 }}</ref> with the Late Bronze Age collapse, and subsequent [[Iron Age]], seeing the slow, comparatively continuous spread of ironworking technology across the region. While there are some iron objects from [[Bronze Age Anatolia]], the number is comparable to that of iron objects found in  [[Ancient Egypt|Egypt]], [[Mesopotamia]] and in other places from the same period; and only a small number of these objects are weapons.<ref>Waldbaum, Jane C. (1978). ''From Bronze to Iron''. Gothenburg: Paul Astöms Förlag. pp. 56–58.</ref> X-ray fluorescence spectrometry suggests that most or all irons from the Bronze Age are derived from [[meteorite]]s.<ref>{{Cite journal |date=24 November 2017 |title=Bronze Age iron: Meteoritic or not? A chemical strategy |journal=Journal of Archaeological Science |volume=88 |pages=47–53 |doi=10.1016/j.jas.2017.09.008 |url=https://hal.sorbonne-universite.fr/hal-01614724/file/Jambon_Bronze_Age_iron.pdf |last1=Jambon |first1=Albert |bibcode=2017JArSc..88...47J |s2cid=55644155 |archive-date=14 March 2024 |access-date=10 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240314054515/https://hal.sorbonne-universite.fr/hal-01614724/file/Jambon_Bronze_Age_iron.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> The Hittite military also made successful use of [[Chariot#Hittites|chariots]].<ref name="britishmuseum">{{cite web|title=Hittites|url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/cultures/middle_east/hittites.aspx|website=[[British Museum]]|publisher=Trustees of the British Museum|access-date=7 November 2014|location=[[London]] |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20141107205200/http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/cultures/middle_east/hittites.aspx|archive-date=7 November 2014|url-status=live}}</ref>

Modern interest in the Hittites increased with the founding of the [[Republic of Turkey]] in 1923. The Hittites 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"),<ref name="Erimtan">{{cite journal |last=Erimtan |first=Can |year=2008 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20455417 |jstor=20455417 |title=Hittites, Ottomans and Turks: Ağaoğlu Ahmed Bey and the Kemalist Construction of Turkish Nationhood in Anatolia |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180922104515/https://www.jstor.org/stable/20455417 |archive-date=22 September 2018 |journal=Anatolian Studies |volume=58 |pages=141–171|doi=10.1017/S0066154600008711 |url-access=subscription }}</ref> and the foundation of the [[Museum of Anatolian Civilizations]] in [[Ankara]], built {{convert|200|km|sp=us}} west of the Hittite capital of Hattusa, which houses the world's most comprehensive exhibition of [[Hittite art]] and artifacts.

==Etymology==
The Hittites called their kingdom ''Hattusa'' (''Hatti'' in Akkadian), a name received from the [[Hattians]], an earlier people who had inhabited and ruled the central Anatolian region until the beginning of the second millennium BC, and who spoke an unrelated language known as [[Hattic language|Hattic]].<ref>Ardzinba, Vladislav. (1974): Some Notes on the Typological Affinity Between Hattian and Northwest Caucasian (Abkhazo-Adygian) Languages. In: "Internationale Tagung der Keilschriftforscher der sozialistischen Länder", Budapest, 23–25. April 1974. Zusammenfassung der Vorträge (Assyriologica 1), pp. 10–15.</ref> The modern conventional name "Hittites" is due to the initial identification of the people of Hattusa with the [[Biblical Hittites]] by 19th-century [[archaeology|archaeologists]]. The Hittites would have called themselves something closer to "Neshites" or "Neshians" after the city of [[Nesha]], which flourished for some two hundred years until a king named Labarna renamed himself [[Hattusili I]] (meaning "the man of Hattusa") sometime around 1650 BC and established his capital city at Hattusa.<ref>{{cite book |last=Cline |first=Eric H. |title=[[1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed]] |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=2021 |isbn=9780691208015 |page=32 |chapter=Of Arms and the Man}}</ref>

==Archeological discovery==
[[File:AlacaStandarte.jpg|thumb|upright|An [[Alaca Höyük bronze standards|Alaca Höyük bronze standard]] from a third millennium BC pre-Hittite tomb ([[Museum of Anatolian Civilizations]], [[Ankara]])]]
[[File:Furniture support- female sphinx with Hathor-style curls MET DP110464.jpg|thumb|upright|Ivory Hittite Sphinx, 18th century BC]]

===Biblical background===
{{see also|Biblical Hittites}}
Before the archeological discoveries that revealed the Hittite civilization, the only source of information about the Hittites had been the Hebrew Bible. [[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]]...".<ref>{{cite book |author=Francis William Newman |date=1853 |title=A history of the Hebrew monarchy: from the administration of Samuel to the Babylonish Captivity |edition=2nd |publisher=John Chapman |location=London |page=179 note 2}}</ref>

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".<ref>The Hittites: the story of a forgotten empire By Archibald Henry Sayce Queen's College, Oxford. October 1888. Introduction</ref> Sayce and other scholars also noted that Judah and the Hittites were never enemies in the Hebrew texts; in the [[Books of Kings|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 [[Books of Chronicles|1 Chronicles]] 11.

===Initial discoveries===
French scholar [[Charles Texier]] found the first Hittite ruins in 1834 but did not identify them as such.<ref name=Erimtan/><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Texier |first1=Charles |title=Rapport lu, le 15 mai 1835, à l'Académie royale des Inscriptions et Belles-lettres de l'Institut, sur un envoi fait par M. Texier, et contenant les dessins de bas-reliefs découverts par lui près du village de Bogaz-Keui, dans l'Asie mineure |journal=Journal des Savants |date=1835 |pages=368–376 |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015036636960;view=1up;seq=372 |trans-title=Report read on 15 May 1835 to the Royal Academy of Inscriptions and Belle-lettres of the Institute, on a dispatch made by Mr. Texier and containing drawings of bas-reliefs discovered by him near the village of Bogaz-Keui in Asia Minor |language=fr |access-date=10 October 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190428022424/https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015036636960;view=1up;seq=372 |archive-date=28 April 2019 |url-status=live }}</ref>

The first archaeological evidence for the Hittites appeared in tablets found at the ''[[karum (trade post)|karum]]'' of Kanesh (now called [[Kültepe]]), containing records of trade between Assyrian merchants and a certain "land of ''Hatti''". Some names in the tablets were neither Hattic nor Assyrian, but clearly [[Indo-European languages|Indo-European]].{{sfn|Kloekhorst|2014}}

The script on a monument at [[Boğazkale]] by a "People of Hattusas" discovered by [[William Wright (missionary)|William Wright]] in 1884 was found to match peculiar [[logogram|hieroglyphic]] scripts from [[Aleppo]] and [[Hama]] in Northern [[Syria]]. In 1887, excavations at [[Amarna]] in [[Egypt]] uncovered the diplomatic correspondence of Pharaoh [[Amenhotep III]] and his son, [[Akhenaten]]. Two of the letters from a "kingdom of ''Kheta''"—apparently located in the same general region as the Mesopotamian references to "land of ''Hatti''"—were written in standard Akkadian cuneiform, but in an unknown language; although scholars could interpret its sounds, no one could understand it. Shortly after this, Sayce proposed that ''Hatti'' or ''Khatti'' in Anatolia was identical with the "kingdom of ''Kheta''" mentioned in these Egyptian texts, as well as with the biblical Hittites. Others, such as [[Max Müller]], agreed that ''Khatti'' was probably ''Kheta'', but proposed connecting it with Biblical [[Kittim]] rather than with the [[Biblical Hittites]]. Sayce's identification came to be widely accepted over the course of the early 20th century; and the name "Hittite" has become attached to the civilization uncovered at Boğazköy.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Rediscovery of the Hittites |url=https://www.hethport.uni-wuerzburg.de/HPM/hpm-en.php?p=anfhet-en |access-date=2022-03-28 |website=www.hethport.uni-wuerzburg.de |archive-date=20 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220320075723/https://www.hethport.uni-wuerzburg.de/HPM/hpm-en.php?p=anfhet-en |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[Image:Hattusa_Yerkapi_rampant.JPG|thumb|[[Hattusa]] ramp]]

During sporadic excavations at Boğazköy ([[Hattusa]]) that began in 1906, the archaeologist [[Hugo Winckler]] found a royal archive with 10,000 tablets, inscribed in cuneiform Akkadian and the same unknown language as the Egyptian letters from ''Kheta''—thus confirming the identity of the two names. He also proved that the ruins at Boğazköy were the remains of the capital of an empire that, at one point, controlled northern Syria.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Güterbock |first1=Hans Gustav |title=Recent Developments in Hittite Archaeology and History: Papers in Memory of Hans G. Güterbock |date=1 January 2002 |publisher=Eisenbrauns |isbn=978-1-57506-053-8 |page=101 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5a8-NudlBx8C&q=Hugo+Winckler+Bo%C4%9Fazk%C3%B6y+capital+empire+that+controlled+northern+syria |access-date=18 February 2022 |language=en}}</ref>

[[File:Drinking_cup_in_the_shape_of_a_fist,_MFA,_Boston_(11244059164).jpg|thumb|Drinking cup in the shape of a fist; 1400–1380 BC, [[Museum of Fine Arts, Boston]]]]

Under the direction of the [[German Archaeological Institute]], excavations at Hattusa have been under way since 1907, with interruptions during the world wars. Kültepe was successfully excavated by Professor [[Tahsin Özgüç]] from 1948 until his death in 2005. Smaller scale excavations have also been carried out in the immediate surroundings of Hattusa, including the rock sanctuary of [[Yazılıkaya]], which contains numerous [[rock relief]]s portraying the Hittite rulers and the gods of the Hittite pantheon.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hatır |first1=Ergün |last2=Korkanç |first2=Mustafa |last3=Schachner |first3=Andreas |last4=İnce |first4=İsmail |title=The deep learning method applied to the detection and mapping of stone deterioration in open-air sanctuaries of the Hittite period in Anatolia |journal=Journal of Cultural Heritage |date=1 September 2021 |volume=51 |pages=38–39 |doi=10.1016/j.culher.2021.07.004 |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1296207421001096 |access-date=18 February 2022 |language=en |issn=1296-2074|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

===Writings===
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 language|Akkadian]], the diplomatic language of the time, or in the various dialects of the Hittite confederation.<ref>''The Hittite Empire''. Chapter V. Vahan Kurkjian</ref>

===Museums===
The [[Museum of Anatolian Civilizations]] in [[Ankara]], Turkey houses the richest collection of Hittite and Anatolian artifacts.{{citation needed|date=July 2021}}

==Geography==
[[File:Museum_of_Anatolian_Civilizations052_kopie1.jpg|thumb|upright|Ceremonial vessels in the shape of [[sacred bull]]s, called ''Hurri'' (Day) and ''Seri'' (Night) found in [[Hattusa]], Hittite Old Kingdom (16th century BC) [[Museum of Anatolian Civilizations]], [[Ankara]]]]
{{Main|Hittite sites}}
The Hittite kingdom was centered on the lands surrounding Hattusa and Neša (Kültepe), known as "the land Hatti" ({{Hittite|Ha-at-ti}}). After Hattusa was made the capital, the area encompassed by the bend of the [[Kızılırmak River]] (Hittite ''Marassantiya,'' Greek ''Halys'') was considered the core of the Empire, and some Hittite laws make a distinction between "this side of the river" and "that side of the river". For example, the [[Bounty (reward)|bounty]] for an escaped slave who had fled beyond the river is higher than for a slave caught on the near side.{{Citation needed|date=August 2021}}

To the west and south of the core territory lay the region known as ''[[Luwians|Luwiya]]'' in the earliest Hittite texts. This terminology was replaced by the names [[Arzawa]] and [[Kizzuwatna]] with the rise of those kingdoms.<ref>John Marangozis (2003) ''A Short Grammar of Hieroglyphic Luwian''</ref> Nevertheless, the Hittites continued to refer to the language that originated in these areas as [[Luwian language|Luwian]]. Prior to the rise of Kizzuwatna, the heart of that territory in [[Cilicia]] was first referred to by the Hittites as [[Adana|Adaniya]].{{sfn|Beal|1986}} Upon its revolt from the Hittites during the reign of [[Ammuna]],{{sfn|Beal|1986|p=426}} it assumed the name of Kizzuwatna and successfully expanded northward to encompass the lower [[Anti-Taurus Mountains]] as well. To the north lived the mountain people called the [[Kaskians]]. To the southeast of the Hittites lay the Hurrian empire of [[Mitanni]].

At its peak during the reign of [[Muršili II]], the Hittite empire stretched from Arzawa in the west to Mitanni in the east, and included many of the Kaskian territories north as far as [[Hayasa-Azzi]] in the far north-east, as well as south into [[Canaan]] near the southern border of [[Lebanon]].{{Citation needed|date=August 2021}}

==History<!--'History of the Hittites' redirects here-->==
[[File:Indo-European expansions.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35| Scheme of Indo-European language dispersals from c.&nbsp;4000 to 1000 BC according to the widely held [[Kurgan hypothesis]].<br />– Center: Steppe cultures<br />1 (black): Anatolian languages (archaic PIE)<br />2 (black): Afanasievo culture (early PIE)<br />3 (black) Yamnaya culture expansion (Pontic-Caspian steppe, Danube Valley) (late PIE)<br />4A (black): Western Corded Ware<br />4B-C (blue & dark blue): Bell Beaker; adopted by Indo-European speakers<br />5A-B (red): Eastern Corded ware<br />5C (red): Sintashta (proto-Indo-Iranian)<br />6 (magenta): Andronovo<br />7A (purple): Indo-Aryans (Mittani)<br />7B (purple): Indo-Aryans (India)<br />[NN] (dark yellow): proto-Balto-Slavic<br />8 (grey): Greek<br />9 (yellow):Iranians<br />– [not drawn]: Armenian, expanding from western steppe]]

===Origins===

The ancestors of the Hittites came into [[Anatolia]] between 4400 and 4100 BC, when the Anatolian language family split from (Proto)-Indo-European.<ref>Kloekhorst, Alwin, (2022). [https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/82F6A46F99BB62BB588D3EFC130292CE/9781108499798c5_63-82.pdf/anatolian.pdf "Anatolian"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220928045050/https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/82F6A46F99BB62BB588D3EFC130292CE/9781108499798c5_63-82.pdf/anatolian.pdf |date=28 September 2022 }}, in: Thomas Olander (ed.), The Indo-European Language Family: A Phylogenetic Perspective, Cambridge University Press, p. 78: "...the Anatolian split may be dated to the period between 4400–4100 BCE. If Proto-Anatolian indeed first broke up into its daughter languages around the thirty-first century BCE...it would mean that it had some 1,300–1000 years to undergo the specific innovations that define Anatolian as a separate branch..."</ref> Recent genetic and archaeological research has indicated that Proto-Anatolian speakers arrived in this region sometime between 5000 and 3000 BC.<ref>Lazaridis, Iosif, et al., (2022). [https://reich.hms.harvard.edu/sites/reich.hms.harvard.edu/files/inline-files/8_25_2022_Manuscript1_ChalcolithicBronzeAge_2.pdf "The genetic history of the Southern Arc: A bridge between West Asia and Europe"], in: Science, 26 Aug 2022, Vol 377, Issue 6609, [Research Article Summary, p. 1]: "Around 7000-5000 years ago, people with ancestry from the Caucasus [...] moved west into Anatolia [...] Some of these migrants may have spoken ancestral forms of Anatolian [...]"</ref> The Proto-Hittite language developed around 2100 BC,<ref>Kloekhorst, Alwin, (2022). [https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/82F6A46F99BB62BB588D3EFC130292CE/9781108499798c5_63-82.pdf/anatolian.pdf "Anatolian"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220928045050/https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/82F6A46F99BB62BB588D3EFC130292CE/9781108499798c5_63-82.pdf/anatolian.pdf |date=28 September 2022 }}, in: Thomas Olander (ed.), The Indo-European Language Family: A Phylogenetic Perspective, Cambridge University Press, p. 75: "...a Proto-Hittite ancestor language that may have been spoken only a few generations before the oldest attestations of Kanišite Hittite (twentieth century BCE), i.e. around 2100 BCE..."</ref> and the Hittite language itself is believed to have been in use in [[Central Anatolia Region|Central Anatolia]] between the 20th and 12th centuries BC.<ref>Kroonen, Guus, et al., (2018). [https://zenodo.org/record/1240524#.YVvHl31Z3IU "Linguistic supplement to Damgaard et al. 2018: Early Indo-European languages, Anatolian, Tocharian and Indo-Iranian"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190629152739/https://zenodo.org/record/1240524#.YVvHl31Z3IU |date=29 June 2019 }}, in ''Zenodo 2018'', p. 3: "...The Anatolian branch is an extinct subclade of the Indo-European language family attested from the 25th century BCE onwards (see below) that consists of Hittite (known 20th–12th centuries BCE), Luwian (known 20th–7th centuries BCE), and a number of less well-attested members, such as Carian, Lycian, Lydian, and Palai..."</ref>

The Hittites are first associated with the kingdom of [[Kussara]] sometime prior to 1750 BC.<ref name="Kuhrt-1995">{{cite book |last1=Kuhrt |first1=Amélie |date=1995 |title=The Ancient Near East, Volume I |location=London and New York |publisher=Routledge |pages=[https://archive.org/details/ancientneareastc00akuh/page/226 226–27] |isbn=978-0-415-16763-5 |url=https://archive.org/details/ancientneareastc00akuh/page/226 }}</ref>

Hittites in Anatolia during the [[Bronze Age]] coexisted with [[Hattians]] and [[Hurrians]], either by means of conquest or by gradual assimilation.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Puhvel |first1=J. |year=1994 |title=Anatolian: Autochton or Interloper |journal=Journal of Indo-European Studies |volume=22 |issue=3 & 4 |pages=251–264 }}.</ref><ref name = "cvhjei">{{Cite journal |last1=Steiner |first1=G. |year=1990 |title=The Immigration of the First Indo-Europeans into Anatolia Reconsidered |journal=Journal of Indo-European Studies |volume=18 |issue=1 & 2 |pages=185–214 }}.</ref> In archaeological terms, relationships of the Hittites to the [[Ezero culture]] of the Balkans and [[Maykop culture]] of the [[Caucasus]] had previously been considered within the migration framework.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Mallory |first1=J. P. |title=In Search of the Indo-Europeans: Language, Archaeology, and Myth |date=1989 |publisher=Thames and Hudson |location=New York |isbn=978-0-500-05052-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wLeYkgEACAAJ |access-date=18 February 2022 |language=en}}</ref>

Analyses by [[David W. Anthony]] in 2007 concluded that steppe herders who were archaic Indo-European speakers spread into the lower Danube valley about 4200–4000 BC, either causing or taking advantage of the collapse of [[Old Europe (archaeology)|Old Europe]].{{sfn|Anthony|2007|p=133}} He thought their languages "probably included archaic Proto-Indo-European dialects of the kind partly preserved later in Anatolian,"{{sfn|Anthony|2007|p=229}} and that their descendants later moved into Anatolia at an unknown time but maybe as early as 3000 BC.{{sfn|Anthony|2007|p=262}}

[[J. P. Mallory]] also thought it was likely that the Anatolians reached the Near East from the north either via the Balkans or the [[Caucasus]] in the 3rd millennium BC.{{sfn|Mallory|Adams|1997|pp=12–16}} According to Parpola, the appearance of Indo-European speakers from Europe into Anatolia, and the appearance of Hittite, was related to later migrations of Proto-Indo-European speakers from the Yamnaya culture into the Danube Valley at c. 2800 BC,{{sfn|Parpola|2015|pp=37–38}}{{sfn|Anthony|2007|pp=345, 361–367}} which was in line with the "customary" assumption that the Anatolian Indo-European language was introduced into Anatolia sometime in the third millennium BC.<ref>{{cite web |title=Anatolian languages |website=[[Encyclopædia Britannica Online]] |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Anatolian-languages |access-date=1 May 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160316002105/https://www.britannica.com/topic/Anatolian-languages |archive-date=16 March 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref>

However, Petra Goedegebuure has shown that the Hittite language has borrowed many words related to agriculture from cultures on their eastern borders, which is evidence of having taken a route across the Caucasus.<ref>{{Citation|title=Petra Goedegebuure {{!}} Anatolians on the Move: From Kurgans to Kanesh (Marija Gimbutas Memorial Lecture)|date=5 February 2020|publisher=Oriental Institute, University of Chicago|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pe4jnBdVxjw|language=en|access-date=2021-11-23|archive-date=20 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211120023201/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pe4jnBdVxjw|url-status=live}}</ref>

A team at the [[David Reich Lab]] demonstrated that the Hittite route must have been via the Caucasus and not the Balkans, since Yamnaya expansion into the Balkans carried a component of Eastern Hunter Gatherer ancestry that does not exist in any ancient Anatolian DNA samples, which indicates also that Hittites and their cousin groups split off from the Proto Indo Europeans before the formation of the Yamnaya which did admix with Eastern Hunter Gatherers.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://reich.hms.harvard.edu/sites/reich.hms.harvard.edu/files/inline-files/8_25_2022_Manuscript1_ChalcolithicBronzeAge_1.pdf |title=The genetic history of the Southern Arc: A bridge between West Asia and Europe|first1=Iosif |last1=Lazaridis|first2=Songül|last2=Alpaslan-Roodenberg|journal=[[Science (journal)|Science]]}}</ref>

The dominant indigenous inhabitants in central Anatolia were Hurrians and Hattians who spoke non-[[Indo-European languages]]. Some have argued that Hattic was a [[Northwest Caucasian languages|Northwest Caucasian language]], but its affiliation remains uncertain, whilst the [[Hurrian language]] was a near-[[language isolate|isolate]] (i.e. it was one of only two or three languages in the [[Hurro-Urartian languages|Hurro-Urartian family]]). There were also [[Assyria]]n colonies in the region during the [[Old Assyrian Empire]] (2025–1750 BC); it was from the Assyrian speakers of [[Upper Mesopotamia]] that the Hittites adopted the [[cuneiform script]]. It took some time before the Hittites established themselves following the collapse of the Old Assyrian Empire in the mid-18th century BC, as is clear from some of the texts included here. For several centuries there were separate Hittite groups, usually centered on various cities. But then strong rulers with their center in Hattusa (modern Boğazkale) succeeded in bringing these together and conquering large parts of central Anatolia to establish the Hittite kingdom.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.utexas.edu/cola/centers/lrc/eieol/hitol-0-X.html |title=Hittite Online |first1=Winfred P. |last1=Lehmann |first2=Jonathan |last2=Slocum |work=Linguistics Research Center |publisher=University of Texas at Austin: College of Liberal Arts |access-date=12 April 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100412083827/http://www.utexas.edu/cola/centers/lrc/eieol/hitol-0-X.html |archive-date=12 April 2010 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

===Early period===
[[File:Sphinx_Gate,_Alaca_Höyük_03.jpg|thumb|The Sphinx Gate ([[Alaca Höyük]], [[Çorum]], Turkey)]]
[[Image:Hattusa reliefs1.jpg|thumb|Reliefs and hieroglyphs from Chamber 2 at Hattusa built and decorated by Šuppiluliuma II, the last king of the Hittites]]
[[File:Hittite Chariot.jpg|thumb|right|Hittite chariot, from an Egyptian relief]]

The Hittite state was formed from many small polities in North-Central Anatolia, at the banks of the [[Kızılırmak River]], during the Middle Bronze Age (c. 1900–1650 BC).<ref>Matessi, Alvise, (2021). [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S027841652100026X "The ways of an empire: Continuity and change of route landscapes across the Taurus during the Hittite Period (ca. 1650–1200 BCE)"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230629035626/https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S027841652100026X |date=29 June 2023 }}, in: Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, Volume 62, June 2021: "...the Hittite state emerged in Hatti, in the bend of the Kızılırmak, from a mosaic of canton polities occupying North-Central Anatolia during the Middle Bronze Age (MBA; ca. 1900–1650 BCE)."</ref> The early history of the Hittite kingdom is known through four "cushion-shaped" tablets, (classified as KBo 3.22, KBo 17.21+, KBo 22.1, and KBo 22.2), not made in Ḫattuša, but probably created in [[Kussara]], [[Nesha|Nēša]], or another site in Anatolia, that may first have been written in the 18th century BC,{{sfn|Kloekhorst|Waal|2019|p=189}}{{sfn|Kloekhorst|2020}} in Old Hittite language, and three of them using the so-called "Old Script" (OS);<ref>Kloekhorst, Alwin, and Willemijn Waal, (2019). [https://scholarlypublications.universiteitleiden.nl/access/item%3A3303401/view "A Hittite scribal tradition predating the tablet collections of Ḫattuša?: The origin of the 'cushion-shaped' tablets KBo 3.22, KBo 17.21+, KBo 22.1, and KBo 22.2."], in: Zeitschrift Für Assyriologie Und Vorderasiatische Archäologie, 109(2), '''p. 190''': "...Three of the four documents that have this peculiar 'cushion-shape' are generally regarded as showing Old Script (OS): KBo 3.22, KBo 17.21+, and KBo 22.1..."</ref> although most of the remaining tablets survived only as Akkadian copies made in the 14th and 13th centuries BC. These reveal a rivalry within two branches of the royal family up to the Middle Kingdom; a northern branch first based in [[Zalpuwa]] and secondarily [[Hattusa]], and a southern branch based in [[Kussara]] (still not found) and the former Assyrian colony of [[Kültepe|Kanesh]]. These are distinguishable by their names; the northerners retained language isolate Hattian names, and the southerners adopted Indo-European Hittite and Luwian names.{{sfn|Forlanini|2010|pp=115–135}}

Zalpuwa first attacked [[Kültepe|Kanesh]] under Uhna in 1833 BC.{{sfn|Forlanini|2010|p=121}} And during this [[Karum (trade post)|kārum]] period, when the merchant colony of the Old Assyrian Empire was flourishing in the site, and before the conquest of [[Pithana]], the following local kings reigned in Kaneš: Ḫurmili (prior to 1790 BC), Paḫanu (a short time in 1790 BC), Inar ({{Circa|1790}}–1775 BC), and Waršama ({{Circa|1775}}–1750 BC).<ref>Kloekhorst, Alwin, (2021). [https://www.academia.edu/53253292/A_new_interpretation_of_the_Old_Hittite_Zalpa_text_CTH_3_1_N%C4%93%C5%A1a_as_the_capital_under_%E1%B8%AAuzzii_a_I_Labarna_I_and_%E1%B8%AAattu%C5%A1ili_I_2021_ "A new interpretation of the Old Hittite Zalpa-text (CTH 3.1): Nēša as the capital under Ḫuzzii̯a I, Labarna I, and Ḫattušili I"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211007014823/https://www.academia.edu/53253292/A_new_interpretation_of_the_Old_Hittite_Zalpa_text_CTH_3_1_N%C4%93%C5%A1a_as_the_capital_under_%E1%B8%AAuzzii_a_I_Labarna_I_and_%E1%B8%AAattu%C5%A1ili_I_2021_ |date=7 October 2021 }}, in ''Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol.141, No. 3'', p. 564.</ref>

One set of tablets, known collectively as the [[Anitta text]],<ref>ed. [[StBoT]] 18</ref> begin by telling how [[Pithana]] the king of [[Kussara]] conquered neighbouring Neša ([[Kanesh]]),<ref name="Kuhrt-1995"/> this conquest took place around 1750 BC.<ref>Kloekhorst, Alwin, (2021). [https://www.academia.edu/53253292/A_new_interpretation_of_the_Old_Hittite_Zalpa_text_CTH_3_1_N%C4%93%C5%A1a_as_the_capital_under_%E1%B8%AAuzzii_a_I_Labarna_I_and_%E1%B8%AAattu%C5%A1ili_I_2021_ "A new interpretation of the Old Hittite Zalpa-text (CTH 3.1): Nēša as the capital under Ḫuzzii̯a I, Labarna I, and Ḫattušili I"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211007014823/https://www.academia.edu/53253292/A_new_interpretation_of_the_Old_Hittite_Zalpa_text_CTH_3_1_N%C4%93%C5%A1a_as_the_capital_under_%E1%B8%AAuzzii_a_I_Labarna_I_and_%E1%B8%AAattu%C5%A1ili_I_2021_ |date=7 October 2021 }}, in ''Journal of the American Oriental Society'', Vol. 141, No. 3, p. 564: "...Around 1750 BCE, Pitḫāna, king of Kuššara, conquered Nēša and took over power. He was succeeded by his son Anitta..."</ref> However, the real subject of these tablets is [[Pithana]]'s son Anitta ({{reign|1745|1720}} BC),{{sfn|Forlanini|2010|p=122}} who continued where his father left off and conquered several northern cities: including Hattusa, which he cursed, and also Zalpuwa. This was likely propaganda for the southern branch of the royal family, against the northern branch who had fixed on Hattusa as capital.{{sfn|Forlanini|2010|p=130}} Another set, the Tale of Zalpuwa, supports Zalpuwa and exonerates the later [[Ḫattušili I]] from the charge of sacking [[Kültepe|Kanesh]].{{sfn|Forlanini|2010|p=130}}

Anitta was succeeded by [[Zuzzu]] ({{reign|1720|1710|lk=no}} BC);{{sfn|Forlanini|2010|p=122}} but sometime in 1710–1705 BC, Kanesh was destroyed, taking the long-established Assyrian merchant trading system with it.{{sfn|Forlanini|2010|p=121}} A Kussaran noble family survived to contest the Zalpuwan/Hattusan family, though whether these were of the direct line of Anitta is uncertain.{{sfn|Bryce|2005|p=}}

Meanwhile, the lords of [[Zalpa]] lived on. Huzziya I( the "elder" Huzziya), descendant of a Huzziya of Zalpa, took over Hatti. His son-in-law [[Labarna I]], a southerner from Hurma usurped the throne but made sure to adopt Huzziya's grandson Ḫattušili as his own son and heir. The location of the land of Hurma is believed to be in the mountains south of [[Kussara]].<ref>Joost Blasweiler (2020), [https://www.academia.edu/42931706/ The kingdom of Hurma during the reign of Labarna and Hattusili. Part I.] academia.edu</ref>

===Old Kingdom===
[[File:Hattusa.rampart.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Hattusa]] ramp]]

The founding of the Hittite Kingdom is attributed to either Labarna I or [[Ḫattušili I|Hattusili I]] (the latter might also have had Labarna as a personal name),{{sfn|Forlanini|2010|p=119}} who conquered the area south and north of Hattusa. Hattusili I campaigned as far as the Semitic [[Amorite]] kingdom of [[Yamkhad]] in [[Syria]], where he attacked, but did not capture, its capital of [[Aleppo]]. Hattusili I did eventually capture Hattusa and was credited for the foundation of the Hittite Empire.

<blockquote>Hattusili was king, and his sons, brothers, in-laws, family members, and troops were all united. Wherever he went on campaign he controlled the enemy land with force. He destroyed the lands one after the other, took away their power, and made them the borders of the sea. When he came back from campaign, however, each of his sons went somewhere to a country, and in his hand the great cities prospered. But, when later the princes' servants became corrupt, they began to devour the properties, conspired constantly against their masters, and began to shed their blood.</blockquote>

This excerpt from ''The Edict of Telepinu'', dating to the 16th century BC, is supposed to illustrate the unification, growth, and prosperity of the Hittites under his rule. It also illustrates the corruption of "the princes", believed to be his sons. The lack of sources leads to uncertainty of how the corruption was addressed. On Hattusili I's deathbed, he chose his grandson, [[Mursili I]] (or Murshilish I), as his heir.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.worldhistory.org/hittite/|title=The Hittites|last1=Mark|first1=Joshua|date=28 April 2011|access-date=9 May 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210413083436/https://www.worldhistory.org/hittite/|archive-date=13 April 2021|encyclopedia=[[World History Encyclopedia]]|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:The İnandık vase, a Hittite four-handled large terracota vase with scenes in relief depicting a sacred wedding ceremony, mid 17th century, found in İnandıktepe, Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, Ankara (26167755270).jpg|thumb|upright|The İnandık vase, also known as a [[Hüseyindede vases|Hüseyindede vase]], a large, four-handled Hittite terracotta vase with scenes in relief depicting a sacred wedding ceremony, mid 17th century BC, İnandıktepe, Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, Ankara]]

Mursili continued the conquests of Hattusili I. In 1595 BC ([[middle chronology]]) or 1587 BC (low middle chronology), Mursili I conducted a great raid down the Euphrates River, bypassing Assyria and sacking [[Mari, Syria|Mari]] and [[Babylon]], ejecting the [[Amorite dynasty|Amorite rulers]] of the [[Old Babylonian Empire]] in the process. Rather than incorporate [[Babylonia]] into Hittite domains, Mursili seems to have instead turned control of Babylonia over to his [[Kassites|Kassite]] allies, who were to [[Kassite dynasty|rule it]] for the next four centuries. Due to fear of revolts at home, he did not remain in Babylon for long. This lengthy campaign strained the resources of Hatti, and left the capital in a state of near-anarchy. Mursili was assassinated by his brother-in-law [[Hantili I]] during his journey back to Hattusa or shortly after his return home, and the Hittite Kingdom was plunged into chaos. Hantili took the throne. He was able to escape multiple murder attempts on himself, however, his family did not. His wife, [[Harapsili]] and her son were murdered. In addition, other members of the royal family were killed by [[Zidanta I]], who was then murdered by his own son, [[Ammuna]]. All of the internal unrest among the Hittite royal family led to a decline of power. The Hurrians, a people living in the mountainous region along the upper [[Tigris River|Tigris]] and [[Euphrates River|Euphrates]] rivers in modern south east Turkey, took advantage of the situation to seize Aleppo and the surrounding areas for themselves, as well as the coastal region of Adaniya, renaming it Kizzuwatna (later [[Cilicia]]). Throughout the remainder of the 16th century BC, the Hittite kings were held to their homelands by dynastic quarrels and warfare with the Hurrians. The Hurrians became the center of power in Anatolia.{{sfn|Roebuck|1966|p=93}}<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.periclespress.net/Hittites_resources.html|title=The Hittites – Resources of Ancient Anatolia|date=May 2017|website=Pericles Press|access-date=5 May 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170306132041/http://www.periclespress.net/Hittites_resources.html|archive-date=6 March 2017|url-status=live}}</ref> The campaigns into [[Amurru kingdom|Amurru]] and southern Mesopotamia may be responsible for the reintroduction of cuneiform writing into Anatolia, since the Hittite script is quite different from that of the preceding Assyrian colonial period.

The Hittites entered a weak phase of obscure records, insignificant rulers, and reduced domains. This pattern of expansion under strong kings followed by contraction under weaker ones, was to be repeated over and over through the Hittite Kingdom's 500-year history, making events during the waning periods difficult to reconstruct. The political instability of these years of the Old Hittite Kingdom can be explained in part by the nature of the Hittite kingship at that time. During the Old Hittite Kingdom prior to 1400 BC, the king of the Hittites was not viewed by his subjects as a "living god" like the [[pharaoh]]s of Egypt, but rather as a first among equals.{{sfn|Roebuck|1966|p=94}} Only in the later period from 1400 BC until 1200 BC did the Hittite kingship become more centralized and powerful. Also in earlier years the succession was not legally fixed, enabling [[Wars of the Roses|"War of the Roses"]]-style rivalries between northern and southern branches.

The next monarch of note following Mursili I was [[Telepinu]] ({{Circa|1500 BC}}), who won a few victories to the southwest, apparently by allying himself with one Hurrian state (Kizzuwatna) against another. Telepinu also attempted to secure the lines of succession.{{sfn|Forlanini|2010|pp=115–116}}

===Middle Kingdom===
[[File:Yazilikaya_B_12erGruppe.jpg|thumb|left|Twelve Hittite gods of the Underworld in the nearby [[Yazılıkaya]], a sanctuary of [[Hattusa]]]]
The last monarch of the Old Kingdom, Telepinu, reigned until about 1500 BC. Telepinu's reign marked the end of the "Old Kingdom" and the beginning of the lengthy weak phase known as the "Middle Kingdom".{{sfn|Gurney|1966|p=25}} The period of the 15th century BC is largely unknown with few surviving records.{{sfn|Gurney|1966|pp=25–26}} Part of the reason for both the weakness and the obscurity is that the Hittites were under constant attack, mainly from the Kaskians, a non-[[Proto-Indo-Europeans|Indo-European]] people settled along the shores of the [[Black Sea]]. The capital once again went on the move, first to [[Sapinuwa]] and then to [[Samuha]]. There is an archive in Sapinuwa, but it has not been adequately translated to date.

It segues into the "Hittite Empire period" proper, which dates from the reign of [[Tudhaliya I]] from {{Circa|1430 BC}}.

One innovation that can be credited to these early Hittite rulers is the practice of conducting treaties and alliances with neighboring states; the Hittites were thus among the earliest known pioneers in the art of international politics and diplomacy. This is also when the Hittite religion adopted several gods and rituals from the Hurrians.

===New Kingdom===
[[File:Hattusa,_capital_of_the_Hittite_Empire_38.jpg|thumb|Tudhaliya IV (relief in [[Hattusa]])]]
[[File:Ankara_Muzeum_B19-45.jpg|thumb|upright|Exact replica of a Hittite monument from Fasıllar, {{Circa|1300 BC}} ([[Museum of Anatolian Civilizations]])]]

With the reign of Tudhaliya I (who may actually not have been the first of that name; see also [[Tudhaliya]]), the Hittite Kingdom re-emerged from the fog of obscurity and entered the "Hittite Empire period". Many changes were afoot during this time, not the least of which was a strengthening of the kingship. Settlement of the Hittites progressed in the Empire period.{{sfn|Roebuck|1966|p=94}} However, the Hittite people tended to settle in the older lands of south Anatolia rather than the lands of the Aegean. As this settlement progressed, treaties were signed with neighboring peoples.{{sfn|Roebuck|1966|p=94}} During the Hittite Empire period the kingship became hereditary and the king took on a "superhuman aura" and began to be referred to by the Hittite citizens as "My Sun". The kings of the Empire period began acting as a high priest for the whole kingdom{{snd}}making an annual tour of the Hittite holy cities, conducting festivals and supervising the upkeep of the sanctuaries.{{sfn|Roebuck|1966|p=94}}

During his reign ({{Circa|1400 BC}}), King Tudhaliya I, again allied with Kizzuwatna, then vanquished the Hurrian states of [[Aleppo]] and Mitanni, and expanded to the west at the expense of Arzawa (a Luwian state).

Another weak phase followed Tudhaliya I, and the Hittites' [[Hittite Wars of Survival|enemies from all directions]] were able to advance even to Hattusa and raze it. However, the kingdom recovered its former glory under [[Šuppiluliuma I]] ({{Circa|1350 BC}}), who again conquered Aleppo. Mitanni was reduced to vassalage by the Assyrians under his son-in-law, and he defeated [[Carchemish]], another Amorite city-state. With his own sons placed over all of these new conquests and Babylonia still in the hands of the allied [[Kassites]], this left Šuppiluliuma the supreme power broker in the known world, alongside Assyria and Egypt, and it was not long before Egypt was seeking an [[Marriage of state|alliance by marriage]] of another of his sons with the widow of [[Tutankhamen]]. That son was evidently murdered before reaching his destination, and this alliance was never consummated. However, the [[Middle Assyrian Empire]] (1365–1050 BC) once more began to grow in power with the ascension of [[Ashur-uballit I]] in 1365 BC. Ashur-uballit I attacked and defeated [[Shattiwaza|Mattiwaza]] the Mitanni king despite attempts by the Hittite king Šuppiluliuma I, now fearful of growing Assyrian power, attempting to preserve his throne with military support. The lands of the Mitanni and Hurrians were duly appropriated by Assyria, enabling it to encroach on Hittite territory in eastern [[Asia Minor]], and [[Adad-nirari I]] annexed Carchemish and northeast Syria from the control of the Hittites.<ref name=Roux>{{cite book |first1=Georges |last1=Roux |title=Ancient Iraq|year=1993 |publisher=Penguin (Non-Classics) |isbn=978-0140125238 |url=https://archive.org/details/ancientiraq00roux |url-access=registration }}</ref>

While Šuppiluliuma I reigned, the Hittite Empire was devastated by [[Hittite plague|an epidemic]] of [[tularemia]]. The epidemic afflicted the Hittites for decades and tularemia killed Šuppiluliuma I and his successor, [[Arnuwanda II]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Zuckerman |first1=Molly K. |last2=Martin |first2=Debra L. |title=New directions in biocultural anthropology |date=2016 |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell |location=Hoboken, New Jersey |isbn=978-1118962961 |page=297 |edition=1st |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J4DODAAAQBAJ&dq=hittite+plague&pg=PA297}}</ref> After Šuppiluliuma I's rule, and the brief reign of his eldest son, Arnuwanda II, another son, [[Mursili II]], became king ({{Circa|1330 BC}}). Having inherited a position of strength in the east, Mursili was able to turn his attention to the west, where he attacked Arzawa. At a point when the Hittites were weakened by the tularemia epidemic, the Arzawans attacked the Hittites, who repelled the attack by sending infected rams to the Arzawans. This was the first recorded use of [[biological warfare]]. Mursili also attacked a city known as Millawanda ([[Miletus]]), which was under the control of [[Ahhiyawa]]. More recent research based on new readings and interpretations of the Hittite texts, as well as of the material evidence for Mycenaean contacts with the Anatolian mainland, came to the conclusion that Ahhiyawa referred to [[Mycenaean Greece]], or at least to a part of it.<ref>{{cite journal | pmid=17499936 | year=2007 | last1=Trevisanato | first1=S. I. | title=The 'Hittite plague', an epidemic of tularemia and the first record of biological warfare | journal=Medical Hypotheses | volume=69 | issue=6 | pages=1371–1374 | doi=10.1016/j.mehy.2007.03.012 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Windle|first1=Joachim Latacz|title=Troy and Homer: Towards a Solution of an Old Mystery|year=2004|location=Oxford|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-926308-0|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ccQIyA9CW-wC|pages=121–122|access-date=2 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170227092043/https://books.google.com/books?id=ccQIyA9CW-wC|archive-date=27 February 2017|url-status=live}}</ref>{{sfn|Bryce|2005|pp=57–60}}<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Beckman|first1=Gary M.|last2=Bryce|first2=Trevor R.|last3=Cline|first3=Eric H.|title=Writings from the Ancient World: The Ahhiyawa Texts|journal=Writings from the Ancient World|year=2012|location=Atlanta|publisher=Society of Biblical Literature|url=http://www.sbl-site.org/assets/pdfs/pubs/061528P.front.pdf|issn=1570-7008|page=6|quote=At the very least, perhaps we can say that the Ahhiyawa Problem/Question has been solved and answered after all, for there is now little doubt that Ahhiyawa was a reference by the Hittites to some or all of the Bronze Age Mycenaean world.|access-date=2 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160423201908/http://www.sbl-site.org/assets/pdfs/pubs/061528P.front.pdf|archive-date=23 April 2016|url-status=live}}</ref>

====Battle of Kadesh====
[[File:Ramses IIs seger över Chetafolket och stormningen av Dapur, Nordisk familjebok.png|thumb|Egyptian pharaoh [[Ramesses II]] storming the Hittite fortress of [[Siege of Dapur|Dapur]]]]
{{Main|Battle of Kadesh}}
Hittite prosperity was mostly dependent on control of the trade routes and metal sources. Because of the importance of Northern Syria to the vital routes linking the [[Cilician Gates|Cilician gates]] with Mesopotamia, defense of this area was crucial, and was soon put to the test by Egyptian expansion under Pharaoh [[Ramesses II]]. The outcome of the [[Battle of Kadesh]] is uncertain, though it seems that the timely arrival of Egyptian reinforcements prevented total Hittite victory.{{sfn|Gurney|1966|p=110}} The Egyptians forced the Hittites to take refuge in the fortress of [[Kadesh (Syria)|Kadesh]], but their own losses prevented them from sustaining a siege. This battle took place in the 5th year of Ramesses ({{Circa|1274 BC}} by the most commonly used chronology).

====Downfall and demise of the kingdom====
[[File:Treaty of Kadesh.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Egyptian–Hittite peace treaty|Egypto-Hittite Peace Treaty]] (c. 1258 BC) between [[Hattusili III]] and [[Ramesses II]], the earliest known surviving peace treaty, sometimes called the Treaty of Kadesh after the [[Battle of Kadesh]] ([[Istanbul Archaeology Museum]]).]]
[[File:Museum_of_Anatolian_Civilizations080.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Chimera (mythology)|Chimera]] with a human head and a lion's body; Late Hittite period in [[Museum of Anatolian Civilizations]], [[Ankara]]]]

After this date, the power of both the Hittites and Egyptians began to decline yet again because of the power of the Assyrians.{{sfn|Gurney|1966|p=36}} The Assyrian king [[Shalmaneser I]] had seized the opportunity to vanquish [[Hurrians|Hurria]] and Mitanni, occupy their lands, and expand up to the head of the [[Euphrates]], while [[Muwatalli II|Muwatalli]] was preoccupied with the Egyptians. The Hittites had vainly tried to preserve the Mitanni Kingdom with military support.<ref name=Roux /> Assyria now posed just as great a threat to Hittite trade routes as Egypt ever had. Muwatalli's son, [[Urhi-Teshub]], took the throne and ruled as king for seven years as [[Mursili III]] before being ousted by his uncle, [[Hattusili III]] after a [[Hattusili's Civil War|brief civil war]]. In response to increasing Assyrian annexation of Hittite territory, he concluded a peace and alliance with Ramesses II (also fearful of Assyria), presenting his daughter's hand in marriage to the Pharaoh.{{sfn|Gurney|1966|p=36}} The [[Treaty of Kadesh]], one of the oldest completely surviving treaties in history, fixed their mutual boundaries in southern Canaan, and was signed in the 21st year of Rameses (c. 1258 BC). Terms of this treaty included the marriage of one of the Hittite princesses to Ramesses.{{sfn|Gurney|1966|p=36}}<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.reshafim.org.il/ad/egypt/ramses-hattusili-treaty.htm |title=The peace treaty between Ramses II and Hattusili III |work=Ancient Egypt: an introduction to the history and culture |date=December 2006 |access-date=27 January 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110608080809/http://www.reshafim.org.il/ad/egypt/ramses-hattusili-treaty.htm |archive-date=8 June 2011 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Hattusili's son, [[Tudhaliya IV]], was the last strong Hittite king able to keep the Assyrians out of the Hittite heartland to some degree at least, though he too lost much territory to them, and was heavily defeated by [[Tukulti-Ninurta I]] of Assyria in the [[Battle of Nihriya]]. He even temporarily annexed the island of [[Cyprus]], before that too fell to Assyria. The last king, [[Šuppiluliuma II]] also managed to win some victories, including a naval battle against [[Alashiya]] off the coast of Cyprus.<ref name="naval">Horst Nowacki, Wolfgang Lefèvre ''Creating Shapes in Civil and Naval Architecture: A Cross-Disciplinary Comparison'' Brill, 2009 {{ISBN|9004173455}}</ref> {{dubious span|text=But the Assyrians, under [[Ashur-resh-ishi I]] had by this time annexed much Hittite territory in Asia Minor and Syria, driving out and defeating the Babylonian king [[Nebuchadnezzar I]] in the process, who also had eyes on Hittite lands.|date=June 2023|reason=not sourced, and dubious because Ashur-resh-ishi I and Nebuchadnezzar I are not of the same period as Suppiluliuma II}}
Bryce sees the Great Kingdom's end as a gradual disintegration. Pointing to the death of Hattusili as a starting point. Tudhaliya would have to put down rebellions and plots against his rule. This was not abnormal. However the Hittite military were stretched thin, due to a lack of manpower and hits to the [[Hittites#Population|population]] of the Empire. Putting down revolts and civil wars with brute force was not something Hatti could do to the same extent anymore. Every soldier was also a worker away from the [[Hittites#Economy|economy]], such as food production. Thus, casualties from war became ever more costly and unsustainable.<ref>{{cite book|last=Bryce|first=Trevor|year=2024|title= Hattusili: The Hittite Prince who stole an Empire|publisher=Bloomsbury|isbn=978-1-3503-4182-1|pages=182–183}}</ref>

The [[Sea Peoples]] had already begun their push down the [[Mediterranean]] coastline, starting from the [[Aegean Sea|Aegean]], and continuing all the way to Canaan, founding the state of [[Philistia]]{{snd}}taking [[Cilicia]] and Cyprus away from the Hittites en route and cutting off their coveted trade routes. This left the Hittite homelands vulnerable to attack from all directions, and Hattusa was burnt to the ground sometime around 1180 BC following a combined onslaught from new waves of invaders: the Kaskians, [[Phrygians]] and [[Bryges]]. The Hittite Kingdom thus vanished from historical records, much of the territory being seized by Assyria.{{sfn|Gurney|1966|p=39}} Alongside these attacks, many internal issues also led to the end of the Hittite Kingdom. The end of the kingdom was part of the larger [[Bronze Age Collapse]].<ref>{{Cite book |title=Western Civilization |last1=Spielvolgel |first1=Jackson |publisher=Wadsworth Cengage Learning |year=2011 |isbn=978-1111342142 |location=Boston, MA |page=30}}</ref> A study of tree rings of juniper trees growing in the region showed a change to drier conditions from the 13th century BC into the 12th century BC with drought for three consecutive years in 1198, 1197 and 1196 BC.<ref>{{Cite news |date=8 February 2023 |title=Drought may have doomed ancient Hittite empire, tree study reveals |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/feb/08/ancient-hittite-empire-tree-study-drought |access-date=9 February 2023 |issn= |archive-date=1 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230401205008/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/feb/08/ancient-hittite-empire-tree-study-drought |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Post-Hittite period===
[[File:Hetite_God_in_Aleppo.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Luwians|Luwian]] storm god [[Tarḫunz]] in the [[National Museum of Aleppo]]]]
{{Main|Syro-Hittite states}}
By 1160 BC, the political situation in Asia Minor looked vastly different from that of only 25 years earlier. In that year, the Assyrian king [[Tiglath-Pileser I]] was defeating the ''[[Mushki]]'' (Phrygians) who had been attempting to press into Assyrian colonies in southern Anatolia from the Anatolian highlands, and the Kaska people, the Hittites' old enemies from the northern hill-country between Hatti and the Black Sea, seem to have joined them soon after. The Phrygians had apparently overrun [[Cappadocia]] from the West, with recently discovered epigraphic evidence confirming their origins as the Balkan "Bryges" tribe, forced out by the Macedonians.

Although the Hittite Kingdom disappeared from Anatolia at this point, there emerged a number of so-called [[Neo-Hittite states|Syro-Hittite states]] in Anatolia and northern Syria. They were the successors of the Hittite Kingdom. The most notable Syro-Hittite kingdoms were those at [[Carchemish]] and [[Melid]]. With the ruling family in Carchemish believed to have been a [[Carchemish#Kuzi-Teshub I|cadet branch]] of the then defunct central ruling Hittite line. These Syro-Hittite states gradually fell under the control of the [[Neo-Assyrian Empire]] (911–608 BC). Carchemish and Melid were made vassals of Assyria under [[Shalmaneser III]] (858–823 BC), and fully incorporated into Assyria during the reign of [[Sargon II]] (722–705 BC).

A large and powerful state known as [[Tabal (state)|Tabal]] occupied much of southern Anatolia. Known as Greek ''[[Tibareni|Tibarenoi]]'' ({{langx|grc|Τιβαρηνοί}}), Latin ''Tibareni'', ''Thobeles'' in [[Josephus]], their language may have been Luwian,<ref>Barnett, R.D., "Phrygia and the Peoples of Anatolia in the Iron Age", ''The Cambridge Ancient History, Vol. II, Part 2'' (1975) p. 422</ref> testified to by monuments written using [[Anatolian hieroglyphs]].<ref>The Georgian historian [[Ivane Javakhishvili]] considered Tabal, [[Tubal]], [[Jabal (name)|Jabal]] and [[Jubal (Bible)|Jubal]] to be ancient [[Georgians|Georgian]] tribal designations, and argued that they spoke [[Kartvelian languages]], a non-Indo-European language</ref> This state too was conquered and incorporated into the vast Neo-Assyrian Empire.

Ultimately, both Luwian hieroglyphs and cuneiform were rendered obsolete by an innovation, the [[alphabet]], which seems to have entered Anatolia simultaneously from the [[Aegean civilization|Aegean]] (with the Bryges, who changed their name to Phrygians), and from the [[Phoenicia]]ns and neighboring peoples in Syria.

==Government==
[[Image:AlacaStandarte_Hirsch%26Stiere.jpg|thumb|left|Bronze Hittite figures of animals ([[Museum of Anatolian Civilizations]])]]
[[Image:Alacastandarte_Hirsch&Löwen.jpg|thumb|left|[[Alaca Höyük bronze standards|Alaca Höyük bronze standard]] deer with gold nose and two lions/panthers ([[Museum of Anatolian Civilizations]])]]

The earliest known [[constitutional monarchy]] was developed by the Hittites.<ref>{{citation |date=12 September 2008 |title=The Hittites |work=smie.co |url=http://www.smie.co/html/cultural_history/hittites/hittites_3.shtml |access-date=1 September 2020 |archive-date=20 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171020063846/http://www.smie.co/html/cultural_history/hittites/hittites_3.shtml |url-status=dead }}{{better source needed|date=December 2015}}</ref>{{sfn|Akurgal|2001|p=118}}
The head of the Hittite state was the king, followed by the heir-apparent. The king was the supreme ruler of the land, in charge of being a military commander, judicial authority, as well as a high priest.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.allaboutturkey.com/hitit.htm|title=The Hittites|date=5 May 2017|website=all about turkey|access-date=5 May 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170513052831/http://allaboutturkey.com/hitit.htm|archive-date=13 May 2017|url-status=live}}</ref> However, some officials exercised independent authority over various branches of the government. One of the most important of these posts in the Hittite society was that of the ''[[gal mesedi]]'' (Chief of the [[Mesedi|Royal Bodyguards]]).{{sfn|Bryce|2002|p=22}} It was superseded by the rank of the ''[[gal gestin]]'' (chief of the wine stewards), who, like the ''gal mesedi'', was generally a member of the royal family. The kingdom's bureaucracy was headed by the ''[[gal dubsar]]'' (chief of the scribes), whose authority did not extend <!--as the chief bureaucrat's authority is bound to extend over several people, the 'only' is pointless. The sentence only makes sense if the authority was not over the king's scribe - if it was, there would be no point in mentioning the king's scribe-->over the ''lugal dubsar'', the king's personal scribe.

Egyptian monarchs engaged in diplomacy with two chief Hittite seats, located at Kadesh (a city located on the [[Orontes River]]) and Carchemish (located on the Euphrates river in Southern Anatolia).<ref>{{Cite journal|date=1 September 1884|title=The Empire of the Hittites|jstor=3156304|journal=The Old Testament Student|volume=4|issue=1|pages=32–34|doi=10.1086/469493}}</ref>
[[File:Hittite Kingdom.png|thumb|Map of the Hittite Empire at its greatest extent under Suppiluliuma I (c.1350–1322) and Mursili II (c.1321–1295).]]

===Religion of the early Hittites===
In the Central Anatolian settlement of [[Ankuwa]], home of the pre-Hittite goddess Kattaha and the worship of other Hattic deities illustrates the ethnic differences in the areas the Hittites tried to control. Kattaha was originally given the name Hannikkun. The usage of the term Kattaha over Hannikkun, according to Ronald Gorny (head of the Alisar regional project in Turkey), was a device to downgrade the pre-Hittite identity of this female deity, and to bring her more in touch with the Hittite tradition. Their reconfiguration of gods throughout their early history such as with Kattaha was a way of legitimizing their authority and to avoid conflicting ideologies in newly included regions and settlements. By transforming local deities to fit their own customs, the Hittites hoped that the traditional beliefs of these communities would understand and accept the changes to become better suited for the Hittite political and economic goals.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Gorny|first1=Ronald|date=Aug–Nov 1995|title=Hittite Imperialism and Anti-Imperial Resistance As Viewed from Alișar Höyük|jstor=1357346|journal=The Archaeology of Empire in Ancient Anatolia|issue=299/300|pages=69–70|doi=10.2307/1357346 |s2cid=163346233 }}</ref>

===The Pankus===
King [[Telipinu]] (reigned {{circa|1525|1500}} BC) is considered to be the last king of the Old Kingdom of the Hittites. He seized power during a dynastic power struggle. During his reign, he wanted to take care of lawlessness and regulate royal succession. He thus issued the ''[[Edict of Telepinu|Edict of Telipinus]]''. In this edict, he designated the Pankus, which was a general assembly, as the high court for constitutional crimes. Crimes such as murder were observed and judged by the Pankus. Kings themselves were also subject to jurisdiction under the Pankus. The Pankus also served as an advisory council for the king. The rules and regulations set out by the edict, and the establishment of the Pankus proved to be very successful and lasted all the way through to end of the New Kingdom.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Telipinus-Hittite-king#ref52857 |title=Telipinus Hittite king |date=5 May 2017 |website=Britannica |access-date=5 May 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170911120159/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Telipinus-Hittite-king#ref52857 |archive-date=11 September 2017}}</ref>

The Pankus established a legal code where violence was not a punishment for a crime. Crimes such as a murder and theft, which at the time were punishable by death, in other southwest Asian kingdoms, were not [[capital crime]]s under the Hittite law code. Most criminal penalties involved restitution. For example, in cases of thievery, the punishment of that crime would to be to repay what was stolen in equal value.<ref>{{cite web |title=Hittites |last=Eduljee |first=K.E. |date=5 May 2017 |website=Heritage Institute |url=http://www.heritageinstitute.com/zoroastrianism/ranghaya/hittites.htm#governance |access-date=5 May 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170505033626/http://www.heritageinstitute.com/zoroastrianism/ranghaya/hittites.htm#governance|archive-date=5 May 2017}}</ref>

===Foreign Policy and Wars===
The Hittite Great Kingdom frequently took booty people during its wars, which were an important source of labor in food production and replacement of [[Hittites#population|population]] losses.<ref name="Bryce 2024 130–134">{{cite book|last=Bryce|first=Trevor|year=2024|title= Hattusili: The Hittite Prince who stole an Empire|publisher=Bloomsbury|isbn=978-1-3503-4182-1|pages=130–134}}</ref> While they had frequent dealings with foreign powers, such as, Bryce thinks they may have had an [[non-aggression pact]] with [[Ahhiyawa]], having taken then traded back [[Millawanda]] in negotiations.<ref>{{cite book|last=Bryce|first=Trevor|year=2024|title= Hattusili: The Hittite Prince who stole an Empire|publisher=Bloomsbury|isbn=978-1-3503-4182-1|pages=150–162}}</ref> While the Hittites had a troubled relationship with [[new Kingdom|Egypt]], culminating in the famous [[battle of Kadesh]]<ref>{{cite book|last=Bryce|first=Trevor|author-link=Trevor Bryce|date=2023|title= Warriors of Anatolia: A Concise history of the Hittites|publisher=Bloomsbury|pages=158–166|isbn=978-1-3503-4885-1}}</ref> Hittite Queens often were influential wielders of power in foreign policy, such as via establishment of marriage alliances. An example of this is Queen [[Puduhepa]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Bryce|first=Trevor|author-link=Trevor Bryce|date=2023|title= Warriors of Anatolia: A Concise history of the Hittites|publisher=Bloomsbury|pages=196–201|isbn=978-1-3503-4885-1}}</ref> With the Hittites internationally being part of the [[Club of great powers]] with Hatti maintaining an alliance with Egypt after the [[Egyptian–Hittite peace treaty]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Bryce|first=Trevor|year=2024|title= Hattusili: The Hittite Prince who stole an Empire|publisher=Bloomsbury|isbn=978-1-3503-4182-1|pages=95–109}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Bryce|first=Trevor|author-link=Trevor Bryce|date=2023|title= Warriors of Anatolia: A Concise history of the Hittites|publisher=Bloomsbury|pages=224–230|isbn=978-1-3503-4885-1}}</ref> Hatti's northern and eastern frontiers were often unstable as evidenced by [[Battle of Ganuvara]] and [[Hittite Wars of Survival]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Bryce|first=Trevor|author-link=Trevor Bryce|date=2023|title= Warriors of Anatolia: A Concise history of the Hittites|publisher=Bloomsbury|pages=66–73|isbn=978-1-3503-4885-1}}</ref> While its relationship with Assyria was often troublesome, like around the time of [[Battle of Nihriya]]<ref>{{cite book|last=Bryce|first=Trevor|author-link=Trevor Bryce|date=2023|title= Warriors of Anatolia: A Concise history of the Hittites|publisher=Bloomsbury|pages=237–239|isbn=978-1-3503-4885-1}}</ref> or to its south with [[Battles of Alashiya]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Bryce|first=Trevor|author-link=Trevor Bryce|date=2023|title= Warriors of Anatolia: A Concise history of the Hittites|publisher=Bloomsbury|pages=238–239|isbn=978-1-3503-4885-1}}</ref>

==Economy==
{{see also|Palace economy}}
The Hittite economy was an Agro-Pastoral one, growing fruits and vegetables with cattle and sheep being common. Grain silos where usually placed in administrative centers such as Hattusa. In theory the land was owned by the gods, while in practice the King controlled the best lands, with a variety of other ownership forms after this. Land could be granted by the King to individuals in exchange for military service. The workforce working in food production was critical to the economy, thus wars taking men away from this could impact the food output of the Great Kingdom. Temples were an important part of the economy.<ref name="Bryce 2024 213–226">{{cite book|last=Bryce|first=Trevor|year=2024|title= Hattusili: The Hittite Prince who stole an Empire|publisher=Bloomsbury|isbn=978-1-3503-4182-1|pages=213–226}}</ref>

Shekels, minas and talents were the standard form of 'currency'. They were weights in either, copper, bronze, silver or gold. With the ratio being 40 Shekels equaling 1 Mina, which is different from other great kingdoms where it could be 60 to 1. One shekel being 8.3 [[gram]]. A silver shekel being worth 150l of wheat, you could buy 3,600 square meters land plot for 2-3 shekels silver, with an similar sized vineyard going up to 40 shekels of silver. A male laborer could earn one silver shekel per month, with women half that. They could also be paid in kind, taking a part of the harvest, which could be better than a wage. Bryce notes that men also did the most physically demanding work.<ref name="Bryce 2024 213–226"/>

==Population==
Bryce cites a previous population estimate of 9,000–15,000 for Hattuša, but states that research by Jürgen Seeher now suggests the city would have had a population of 2,300–4,600, with a peak of 5,000 during special occasions. The total population of the kingdom was estimated at 140,000–150,000 by Zsolt Simon, whereas Bryce gives a figure of more than 200,000. Hatti was able to muster 47,500 thousand troops for Kadesh and might have mustered as many as 100,000 for military service, assuming that not all would necessarily participate in battle and some may have provided supporting labour. Thus military campaigns that were costly in lives resulted in difficulties maintaining Hittite food production and economy. Bryce speculates that 'booty-people' taken from foreign lands during campaigns would have been important to covering population depletion from wars. While Bryce does not give exact dates for his population estimates, they can be understood as covering reign of [[Hattusili III]], as this is the context in which Bryce provides them.<ref name="Bryce 2024 130–134"/>

==Language==
{{Main|Hittite language|Anatolian hieroglyphs}}
[[File:Hattusa_Bronze_Tablet_Cuneiform.JPG|thumb|upright|Bronze tablet from Çorum-Boğazköy dating from 1235 BC, photographed at [[Museum of Anatolian Civilizations]], [[Ankara]]]]
[[File:IndoEuropeanTree.svg|thumb|Indo-European family tree in order of first attestation. [[Hittite language|Hittite]] belongs to the family of Anatolian languages and the oldest written Indo-European language.]]
{{Indo-European topics}}

The Hittite language is recorded fragmentarily from about the 19th century BC (in the [[Kültepe]] texts, see ''[[Išḫara|Ishara]]''). It remained in use until about 1100 BC. Hittite is the best attested member of the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family, and the Indo-European language for which the earliest surviving written attestation exists, with isolated Hittite loanwords and numerous personal names appearing in an [[Akkadian language|Old Assyrian]] context from as early as the 20th century BC.{{Citation needed|date=August 2021}}

The language of the Hattusa tablets was eventually deciphered by a Czech linguist, [[Bedřich Hrozný]] (1879–1952), who, on 24 November 1915, announced his results in a lecture at the Near Eastern Society of Berlin. His book about the discovery was printed in [[Leipzig]] in 1917, under the title ''The Language of the Hittites; Its Structure and Its Membership in the Indo-European Linguistic Family''.<ref>Hrozný, Bedřich, ''Die Sprache der Hethiter: ihr Bau und ihre Zugehörigkeit zum indogermanischen Sprachstamm: ein Entzifferungsversuch'' (Leipzig, Germany: J.C. Hinrichs, 1917).</ref> The preface of the book begins with:

<blockquote>The present work undertakes to establish the nature and structure of the hitherto mysterious language of the Hittites, and to decipher this language [...] It will be shown that Hittite is in the main an Indo-European language.</blockquote>

The decipherment famously led to the confirmation of the [[laryngeal theory]] in Indo-European linguistics, which had been predicted several decades before. Due to its marked differences in its structure and phonology, some early [[philology|philologists]], most notably [[Warren Cowgill]], had even argued that it should be classified as a sister language to Indo-European languages ([[Indo-Hittite]]), rather than a daughter language. By the end of the Hittite Empire, the Hittite language had become a written language of administration and diplomatic correspondence. The population of most of the Hittite Empire by this time spoke Luwian, another Indo-European language of the Anatolian family that had originated to the west of the Hittite region.<ref name="Hawkins 1986">{{cite journal |last1=Hawkins |first1=David |title=Writing in Anatolia: Imported and Indigenous Systems |journal=World Archaeology |date=Feb 1986 |volume=17 |issue=3 |pages=363–376 |doi=10.1080/00438243.1986.9979976 |jstor=124701 }}</ref>

According to [[Craig Melchert]], the current tendency is to suppose that Proto-Indo-European evolved, and that the "prehistoric speakers" of Anatolian became isolated "from the rest of the PIE speech community, so as not to share in some common innovations."{{sfn|Melchert|p=7}} Hittite, as well as its Anatolian cousins, split off from [[Proto-Indo-European language|Proto-Indo-European]] at an early stage, thereby preserving archaisms that were later lost in the other Indo-European languages.{{sfn|Jasanoff|2003|p=20 with footnote 41}}

In Hittite there are many loanwords, particularly religious vocabulary, from the non-Indo-European [[Hurrian language|Hurrian]] and [[Hattic language|Hattic]] languages. The latter was the language of the Hattians, the local inhabitants of the land of Hatti before being absorbed or displaced by the Hittites. Sacred and magical texts from Hattusa were often written in Hattic, Hurrian, and Luwian, even after Hittite became the norm for other writings.{{Citation needed|date=August 2021}}

==Art==
[[File:Eflatunpinar.jpg|thumb|Monument over a spring at [[Eflatun Pınar]]]]
{{main|Hittite art}}
Given the size of the empire, there are relatively few remains of Hittite art. These include some impressive monumental carvings, a number of [[rock relief]]s, as well as metalwork, in particular the [[Alaca Höyük bronze standards]], carved ivory, and ceramics, including the [[Hüseyindede vases]]. The Sphinx Gates of [[Alaca Höyük]] and Hattusa, with the monument at the spring of [[Eflatun Pınar]], are among the largest constructed sculptures, along with a number of large recumbent lions, of which the [[Lion of Babylon (statue)|''Lion of Babylon'']] statue at [[Babylon]] is the largest, if it is indeed Hittite. Nearly all are notably worn. Rock reliefs include the [[Hanyeri relief]], and [[Hemite relief]]. The [[Niğde Stele]] from the end of the 8th century BC is a Luwian monument, from the Post-Hittite period, found in the modern Turkish city of [[Niğde]].

==Religion and mythology==
[[File:Museum_of_Anatolian_Civilizations027.jpg|thumb|upright|Stag statuette, symbol of a Hittite male god. This figure is used for the [[Hacettepe University]] emblem.]]
[[File:T._E._Lawrence_and_L._Woolley_at_Carchemish_(1913).jpg|thumb|right|Early Hittite artifact found by [[T. E. Lawrence]] and [[Leonard Woolley]] (right) in [[Carchemish]]]]
{{Main|Hittite mythology}}
Hittite religion and mythology were heavily influenced by their [[Hattians|Hattic]], [[Mesopotamian mythology|Mesopotamian]], [[Canaanite religion|Canaanite]], and [[Hurrians#Religion|Hurrian]] counterparts. In earlier times, [[Indo-European mythology|Indo-European]] elements may still be clearly discerned.

[[Weather god|Storm gods]] were prominent in the Hittite pantheon. [[Tarhunt]] ([[Hurrian]]'s Teshub) was referred to as 'The Conqueror', 'The king of Kummiya', 'King of Heaven', 'Lord of the land of Hatti'. He was chief among the gods and his [[symbol]] is the bull. As Teshub he was depicted as a bearded man astride two mountains and bearing a club. He was the god of battle and victory, especially when the conflict involved a foreign power.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://home.comcast.net/~chris.s/hittite-ref.html|author=Siren, Christopher B.|title='Hittite/Hurrian Mythology REF 1.2', ''Myths and Legends''|website=Comcast.net|access-date=8 February 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040706151443/http://home.comcast.net/~chris.s/hittite-ref.html|archive-date=6 July 2004|url-status=live}}</ref> Teshub was also known for his conflict with the serpent [[Illuyanka]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0KXABAAAQBAJ&q=Teshub%20Illuyanka&pg=PT32|title=A Brief Guide to the Greek Myths|last1=Kershaw|first1=Stephen P.|year=2013 |publisher=Little, Brown Book Group|isbn=978-1472107541|language=en}}</ref>

The Hittite gods are also honoured with festivals, such as [[Puruli]] in the spring, the ''nuntarriyashas'' festival in the autumn, and the KI.LAM festival of the gate house where images of the Storm God and up to thirty other idols were paraded through the streets.{{sfn|Bryce|2002|p=135}}

==Law==
{{Main|Hittite laws}}

Hittite laws, much like other records of the empire, are recorded on [[Cuneiform script|cuneiform]] tablets made from baked clay. What is understood to be the Hittite Law Code comes mainly from two clay tablets, each containing 186 articles, and are a [[Codification (law)|collection of practiced laws]] from across the early Hittite Kingdom.<ref name="Taş-2015">{{Cite journal|last1=Taş|first1=İlknur|last2=Dinler|first2=Veysel|date=2015-01-01|title=Hittite Criminal Law in the Light of Modern Paradigms: Searching for the traces of Modernday Criminal Law in the Past|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/312373101|journal=Aramazd Armenian Journal of Near Eastern Studies|volume=9|pages=73–90}}</ref> In addition to the tablets, monuments bearing Hittite cuneiform inscriptions can be found in central Anatolia describing the government and law codes of the empire.<ref name="Sayce-1905">{{Cite journal|jstor=3140922|title=The Hittite Inscriptions|journal=The Biblical World|volume=26|issue=1|pages=30–40|last1=Sayce|first1=A. H.|year=1905|doi=10.1086/473607|s2cid=143295386|url=https://zenodo.org/record/2165026|archive-date=13 May 2023|access-date=26 June 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230513032602/https://zenodo.org/record/2165026|url-status=live}}</ref> The tablets and monuments date from the Old Hittite Kingdom (1650–1500 BC) to what is known as the New Hittite Kingdom (1500–1180 BC).<ref name="Roth-1995">{{Cite journal|last1=Roth|first1=Martha|title=Law Collections from Mesopotamia and Asia Minor|url=http://www.g2rp.com/pdfs/LawCollectionsFromMesopotemiaAndAsiaMinor.pdf|journal=Writings from the Ancient World Society of Biblical Literature|volume=6|pages=213–246|access-date=1 May 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190428022130/http://www.g2rp.com/pdfs/LawCollectionsFromMesopotemiaAndAsiaMinor.pdf|archive-date=28 April 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> Between these time periods, different translations can be found that modernize the language<ref name="Hoffner-1981">{{Cite journal|jstor=1359903|title=The Old Hittite Version of Laws 164–166|journal=Journal of Cuneiform Studies|volume=33|issue=3/4|pages=206–209|last1=Hoffner|first1=Harry A.|year=1981|doi=10.2307/1359903|s2cid=159932628}}</ref> and create a series of legal reforms in which many crimes<ref name="Taş-2015"/><ref name="Roth-1995" /> are given more humane punishments. These changes could possibly be attributed to the rise of new and different kings throughout the history empire or to the new translations that change the language used in the law codes.<ref name="Roth-1995" /> In either case, the law codes of the Hittites provide very specific fines or punishments that are to be issued for specific crimes<ref name="Roth-1995" /><ref name="Coogan-2013">{{Cite book|title=A reader of ancient Near Eastern texts : sources for the study of the Old Testament|last1=Coogan |first1=Michael David|date=2013|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0195324921|location=New York|oclc=796081940}}</ref> and have many similarities to Biblical laws found in the books of Exodus and [[Book of Deuteronomy|Deuteronomy]].<ref name="Coogan-2013" /> In addition to criminal punishments, the law codes also provide instruction on certain situations such as inheritance and death.{{Citation needed|date=August 2021}}

=== Use of laws ===
The law articles used by the Hittites most often outline very specific crimes or offenses, either against the state or against other individuals, and provide a sentence for these offenses. The laws carved in the tablets are an assembly of established social conventions from across the empire. Hittite laws at this time have a prominent lack of equality in punishments in many cases, distinct punishments or compensations for men and women are listed.<ref name="Taş-2015"/><ref name="Coogan-2013" /> Free men most often received more compensation for offenses against them than free women did. Slaves, male or female, had very few rights, and could easily be punished or executed by their masters for crimes.<ref name="Taş-2015"/><ref name="Coogan-2013" /> Most articles describe destruction of property and personal injury, to which the most common sentence was payment for compensation of the lost property. Again, in these cases men oftentimes receive a greater amount of compensation than women.<ref name="Taş-2015"/><ref name="Coogan-2013" /> Other articles describe how marriage of slaves and free individuals should be handled. In any case of separation or estrangement, the free individual, male or female, would keep all but one child that resulted from the marriage.<ref name="Roth-1995" /><ref name="Coogan-2013" />

Cases in which capital punishment is recommended in the articles most often seem to come from pre-reform sentences for severe crimes and prohibited sexual pairings. Many of these cases include public torture and execution as punishment for serious crimes against religion. Most of these sentences would begin to go away in the later stages of the Hittite Empire as major law reforms began to occur.<ref name="Taş-2015"/><ref name="Roth-1995" />

=== Law reform ===
[[File:SUPPILULIUMA.jpg|thumb|Post-Hittite period statue of king Šuppiluliuma of the [[Luwians|Luwian]] state of [[Pattin]] ([[Hatay Archaeology Museum]])]]

While different translations of laws can be seen throughout the history of the empire,<ref name="Hoffner-1981" /> the Hittite outlook of law was originally founded on religion and were intended to preserve the authority of the state.<ref name="Taş-2015"/> Additionally, punishments had the goal of crime prevention and the protection of individual property rights.<ref name="Taş-2015" /> The goals of crime prevention can be seen in the severity of the punishments issued for certain crimes. Capital punishment and torture are specifically mentioned as punishment for more severe crimes against religion and harsh fines for the loss of private property or life. The tablets also describe the ability of the king to pardon certain crimes, but specifically prohibit an individual being pardoned for murder.<ref name="Taş-2015"/><ref name="Roth-1995" />

At some point in the 16th or 15th century BC, Hittite law codes move away from torture and capital punishment and to more humanitarian forms of punishments, such as fines.<ref name="Taş-2015"/><ref name="Roth-1995" /> Where the old law system was based on retaliation and retribution for crimes, the new system saw punishments that were much more mild, favoring monetary compensation over physical or capital punishment.<ref name="Taş-2015"/> Why these drastic reforms happened is not exactly clear, but it is likely that punishing murder with execution was deemed not to benefit any individual or family involved.<ref name="Taş-2015"/><ref name="Roth-1995" /> These reforms were not just seen in the realm of capital punishment. Where major fines were to be paid, a severe reduction in penalty can be seen. For example, prior to these major reforms, the payment to be made for the theft of an animal was thirty times the animal's value; after the reforms, the penalty was reduced to half the original fine. Simultaneously, attempts to modernize the language and change the verbiage used in the law codes can be seen during this period of reform.<ref name="Taş-2015"/><ref name="Sayce-1905" /><ref name="Roth-1995" /><ref name="Hoffner-1981" />

===Examples of laws===
[[Image:Sphinx_Gate,_Hattusa_01.jpg|left|thumb|Sphinx Gate entrance of the city of [[Hattusa]]]]

Under both the old and reformed Hittite law codes, three main types of punishment can be seen: Death, torture, or compensation/fines.<ref name="Taş-2015"/> The articles outlined on the cuneiform tablets provide very specific punishments for crimes committed against the Hittite religion or against individuals. In many, but not all cases, articles describing similar laws are grouped together. More than a dozen consecutive articles describe what are known to be permitted and prohibited sexual pairings.<ref name="Roth-1995" /><ref name="Coogan-2013" /> These pairings mostly describe men (sometimes specifically referred to as free men, sometimes just men in general)<ref name="Coogan-2013" /> having relations, be they consensual or not, with animals, step-family, relatives of spouses, or concubines.<ref name="Taş-2015"/> Many of these articles do not provide specific punishments but, prior to the law reforms, crimes against religion were most often punishable by death. These include incestuous marriages and sexual relations with certain animals.<ref name="Roth-1995" /><ref name="Coogan-2013" /> For example, one article states, "If a man has sexual relations with a cow, it is an unpermitted sexual pairing: he will be put to death."<ref name="Coogan-2013" /> Similar relations with horses and mules were not subject to capital punishment, but the offender could not become a priest afterwards.<ref name="Taş-2015"/><ref name="Roth-1995" /> Actions at the expense of other individuals most often see the offender paying some sort of compensation, be it in the form money, animals, or land. These actions could include the destruction of farmlands, death or injury of livestock, or assault of an individual.<ref name="Coogan-2013" /> Several articles also specifically mention acts of the gods. If an animal were to die by certain circumstances, the individual could claim that it died by the hand of a god. Swearing that what they claim was true, it seems that they were exempt from paying compensation to the animal's owner.<ref name="Roth-1995" /><ref name="Coogan-2013" /> Injuries inflicted upon animals owned by another individual are almost always compensated with either direct payment, or trading the injured animal with a healthy one owned by the offender.<ref name="Coogan-2013" />

Not all laws prescribed in the tablets deal with criminal punishment. For example, the instructions of how the marriage of slaves and division of their children are given in a group of articles, "The slave woman shall take most of the children, with the male slave taking one child."<ref name="Coogan-2013" /> Similar instructions are given to the marriage of free individuals and slaves. Other actions include how breaking of engagements are to be handled.<ref name="Roth-1995" /><ref name="Coogan-2013" />

==Biblical Hittites==
{{Main|Biblical Hittites}}

The Bible refers to people as "Hittites" in several passages. The relationship between these peoples and the Bronze Age Hittite Empire is unclear. In some passages, the Biblical Hittites appear to have their own kingdoms, apparently located outside geographic Canaan, and were powerful enough to defeat Syrian armies in battle. In these passages, the Biblical Hittites appear to refer to the Iron Age [[Neo-Hittite states|Syro-Hittite states]]. However, in most of their appearances, the Biblical Hittites are depicted as a people living among the Israelites{{snd}}Abraham purchases the Patriarchal burial-plot of Machpelah from [[Ephron (biblical figure)|Ephron the Hittite]] and Hittites serve as high military officers in [[David]]'s army. The nature of this ethnic group is unclear, but has sometimes been interpreted as a local Canaanite tribe who had absorbed Hittite cultural influence from the Syro-Hittite kingdoms to the north.{{sfn|Bryce|2005|pp=355–356}}<ref name="Woudstra1981">{{cite book|last1=Woudstra|first1=Marten|author-link=Marten Woudstra|title=The Book of Joshua|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BfG1svPVYyQC&pg=PA60|year=1981|publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing|isbn=978-0802825254|page=60|access-date=19 October 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160516073138/https://books.google.com/books?id=BfG1svPVYyQC&pg=PA60|archive-date=16 May 2016|url-status=live}}</ref>

Other biblical scholars (following [[Max Müller]]) have argued that the Bronze Age Hittites appear in Hebrew Bible literature and apocrypha as "[[Kittim]]", a people said to be named for a son of [[Javan]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://archive.org/stream/HittitesMittanisAryansIndoAryanSuperstrateInMitanniInternet/Hittites,%20Mittanis%20&%20Aryans%20Indo%20Aryan%20superstrate%20in%20Mitanni%20Internet_djvu.txt|title=Full text of "Hittites, Mittanis & Aryans Indo Aryan Superstrate in Mitanni Internet"|website=archive.org|language=en|access-date=2018-08-14}}</ref>

==In ancient Greek mythology==
One single mention of a Trojan ally named ''Keteians'' ({{langx|el|Κητειοι}}) is made by [[Homer]] in the [[Odyssey]]. Some scholars have proposed that the Homeric Keteians correspond to the Bronze Age Hittites.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kelder |first1=Jorrit |title=The Chariots of Ahhiyawa |journal=Dacia |date=2005 |page=65 |url=http://www.daciajournal.ro/pdf/DACIA%202004_2005/art12Kelder.pdf |access-date=19 March 2024 |archive-date=19 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240319235501/http://www.daciajournal.ro/pdf/DACIA%202004_2005/art12Kelder.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Peled |first1=Ilan |title=Law and Gender in the Ancient Near East and the Hebrew Bible |date=4 November 2019 |publisher=Routledge |page=85 |chapter=HL (Hittite Laws)|isbn=9781000733457 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Cvm7DwAAQBAJ}}</ref>

==See also==
{{Portal|Asia}}
* [[Hittite plague]]
* [[List of Hittite kings]]
* [[List of artifacts significant to the Bible]]
* [[Short chronology timeline]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

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* {{harvc|last=Goodnick-Westenholz|first=Joan|author-link=Joan Goodnick Westenholz|c=Historical Events and the Process of Their Transformation in Akkadian Heroic Traditions |in1=Konstan |in2=Raaflaub |year=2010 |pages=26–50}}
* {{cite book |author-link=Oliver Gurney |last=Gurney |first=O.R. |year=1966 |title=The Hittites |publisher=Penguin |isbn=0-14-020259-5}}
* {{cite book |last1=Güterbock |first1=Hans G. |author-link=Hans Gustav Güterbock |editor1-last=Tadmor |editor1-first=H. |editor2-last=Weinfeld |editor2-first=M. |editor1-link=Hayim Tadmor |editor2-link=Moshe Weinfeld |title=History, historiography and interpretation: studies in biblical and cuneiform literatures |date=1983 |publisher=Magnes Press, Hebrew University |location=Jerusalem |isbn=978-96-52-23459-9 |pages=21–35 |url=https://brill.com/edcollchap/book/9789004631618/B9789004631618_s004.xml |chapter=Hittite Historiography: A Survey }}
* {{cite book |last1=Hoffner |first1=H. A. Jr. |author1-link=Harry A. Hoffner |editor1-last=Wiseman |editor1-first=D.J. |title=Peoples of the Old Testament Times |date=1973 |publisher=Clarendon Press |location=Oxford |pages=197–228 |chapter=The Hittites and Hurrians}}
* {{cite book |title=Hittite studies in honor of Harry A. Hoffner Jr: on the occasion of his 65th birthday |date=2003 |publisher=Eisenbrauns |location=Winona Lake, Ind |doi=10.5325/j.ctv1bxh2x6 |isbn=1-57506-079-5 |jstor=10.5325/j.ctv1bxh2x6 |editor-last1=Beckman |editor-last2=Beal |editor-last3=McMahon |editor-first1=Gary |editor-first2=Richard |editor-first3=Gregory }}
* {{cite book | last1=Jasanoff | first1=Jay H. | author-link=Jay Jasanoff |title=Hittite and the Indo-European Verb | location=Oxford | publisher=Oxford University Press | year=2003 | isbn=978-0-19-924905-3}}
* {{cite book |last=Kloekhorst |first=Alwin |author-link=Alwin Kloekhorst |year=2007 |title=Etymological Dictionary of the Hittite Inherited Lexicon |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-16092-7}}
* {{cite conference |last=Kloekhorst |first=Alwin |author-link=Alwin Kloekhorst |date=19 June 2014 |title=Personal names from Kaniš: the oldest Indo-European linguistic material |conference=Farewell symposium Michiel de Vaan |location=Leiden |url=https://www.academia.edu/9794131 |access-date=3 December 2017 |archive-date=26 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201026143439/https://www.academia.edu/9794131/Personal_names_from_Kani%C5%A1_the_oldest_Indo_European_linguistic_material |url-status=live }}
* {{Cite journal|last1=Kloekhorst|first1=Alwin |author1-link=Alwin Kloekhorst|last2=Waal|first2=Willemijn |year=2019 |title=A Hittite Scribal Tradition Predating the Tablet Collections of Ḫattuša? |journal=Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und vorderasiatische Archäologie |volume=109 |issue=2 |pages=189–203 |doi=10.1515/za-2019-0014|hdl=1887/3199128 |s2cid=208141226|hdl-access=free }}
* {{Cite journal|last=Kloekhorst|first=Alwin |author-link=Alwin Kloekhorst|year=2020|title=The Authorship of the Old Hittite Palace Chronicle (CTH 8): A Case for Anitta |journal=Journal of Cuneiform Studies|volume=72|pages=143–155 |doi=10.1086/709313 |s2cid=224830641}}
* {{Cite book |editor-last1=Konstan |editor-first1=David |editor-last2=Raaflaub |editor-first2=Kurt A. |editor1-link=David Konstan |editor2-link=Kurt Raaflaub |title=Epic and History |year=2010 |location=Chichester |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=9781444315646 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AnXbhhN_kpIC }}
* {{cite book |last1=Macqueen |first1=J. G. |title=The Hittites and their contemporaries in Asia Minor |date=1986 |publisher=Thames and Hudson |location=London |isbn=0-500-02108-2 |edition=Rev. and enlarged}}
* {{cite book |last1=Mallory |first1=J.P. |author-link1=J. P. Mallory |last2=Adams |first2=D.Q. |year=1997 |title=Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-1-884964-98-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tzU3RIV2BWIC |access-date=24 March 2012 }}
* {{cite book |last1=Melchert |first1=H. Craig |author-link=Craig Melchert |editor1-last=Weiss |editor1-first=Michael |editor2-last=Garrett |editor2-first=Andrew |editor2-link=Andrew Garrett (linguist) |chapter=The position of Anatolian |title=Handbook of Indo-European studies |url=http://www.linguistics.ucla.edu/people/Melchert/The%20Position%20of%20AnatolianRevised3.pdf |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |archive-date=24 September 2018 |access-date=8 May 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180924012144/https://linguistics.ucla.edu/people/Melchert/The%20Position%20of%20AnatolianRevised3.pdf |url-status=live }} Listed as "to appear" on his [https://linguistics.ucla.edu/people/Melchert/recent_papers.html website] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240423132530/https://linguistics.ucla.edu/people/Melchert/recent_papers.html |date=23 April 2024 }} last updated on 29 May 2020.
* {{Cite book|last=Melchert|first=Craig|author-link=Craig Melchert|chapter=Luwian|title=A Companion to Ancient Near Eastern Languages|year=2020|location=Hoboken|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|pages=239–256|isbn=9781119193296|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LFbPDwAAQBAJ}}
* {{cite book |last1=Mendenhall |first1=George E. |author1-link=George E. Mendenhall |title=The tenth generation: the origins of the Biblical tradition |date=1973 |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |location=Baltimore |isbn=0-8018-1654-8 |url=https://archive.org/details/tenthgenerationo0000mend/ }}
* {{cite book |last1=Neu |first1=Erich |title=Der Anitta-Text |date=1974 |publisher=O. Harrassowitz |location=Wiesbaden |isbn=978-3-447-01571-4 |url=https://archive.org/details/studien-zu-den-bogazkoy-texten-18-erich-neu-der-anitta-text-studien-zu-den-bogazkoy-texten-1974/ |language=de }} [[Studien zu den Bogazkoy-Texten]] 18.
* {{cite book |last1=Orlin |first1=Louis L. |title=Assyrian Colonies in Cappadocia |date=1970 |publisher=Mouton |location=The Hague}}  {{doi|10.1515/9783110816327}}
* {{cite book |last1=Parpola |first1=Asko |author1-link=Asko Parpola |title=The Roots of Hinduism: The Early Aryans and the Indus Civilization |date=2015 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York |isbn=9780190226909 |url=https://archive.org/details/rootsofhinduisme0000parp }}  {{doi|10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190226909.001.0001}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Sürenhagen |first1=Dietrich |title=Forerunners of the Hattusili-Ramesses treaty |journal=British Museum Studies in Ancient Egypt and Sudan |date=October 2006 |issue=6 |pages=59–67 |url=http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/bmsaes/issuer/suerenhagen.html |archive-url=https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukgwa/20190801120130/https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/publications/online_journals/bmsaes/issue_6/s%c3%bcrenhagen.aspx |archive-date=1 Aug 2019 }}
* {{cite book |last1=Patri |first1=Sylvain |title=L'alignement syntaxique dans les langues Indo-Européennes d'Anatolie |date=2007 |publisher=Harrassowitz Verlag |location=Wiesbaden |isbn=978-3-447-05612-0 |url=https://www.harrassowitz-verlag.de/titel_3507.ahtml |language=fr |archive-date=9 March 2025 |access-date=21 December 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250309041009/https://www.harrassowitz-verlag.de/titel_3507.ahtml |url-status=live }} [[Studien zu den Bogazkoy-Texten]] 49.
* {{cite book|last=Roebuck|first=Carl|year=1966|title=The World of Ancient Times|publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons|location=New York|url=https://archive.org/details/worldofancientti00carl}}
* {{Cite journal|last=Weeden|first=Mark|title=After the Hittites: The Kingdoms of Karkamish and Palistin in Northern Syria|journal=Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies|year=2013|volume=56|number=2|pages=1–20|doi=10.1111/j.2041-5370.2013.00055.x|url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/19090558.pdf|archive-date=12 April 2021|access-date=3 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210412165934/https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/19090558.pdf|url-status=live}}
* {{Cite book|last=Yakubovich|first=Ilya|chapter=Hittite|title=A Companion to Ancient Near Eastern Languages|year=2020|location=Hoboken|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|pages=221–237|isbn=9781119193296|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LFbPDwAAQBAJ}}
{{refend}}

== Further reading ==
{{Library resources box |label=the Hittites |lcheading=Hittites}}
* {{cite book |last1=Bilgin |first1=Tayfun |title=Officials and administration in the Hittite world |date=2018 |publisher=de Gruyter |location=Berlin |isbn=9781501516627}}
* Jacques Freu and Michel Mazoyer, ''Des origines à la fin de l'ancien royaume hittite'', Les Hittites et leur histoire Tome 1, Collection Kubaba, L'Harmattan, Paris, 2007
* Jacques Freu et Michel Mazoyer, ''Les débuts du nouvel empire hittite'', Les Hittites et leur histoire Tome 2, Collection Kubaba, L'Harmattan, Paris, 2007
* Jacques Freu et Michel Mazoyer, ''L'apogée du nouvel empire hittite'', Les Hittites et leur histoire Tome 3, Collection Kubaba, L'Harmattan, Paris, 2008
* Jacques Freu et Michel Mazoyer, ''Le déclin et la chute de l'empire Hittite'', Les Hittites et leur histoire Tome 4, Collection Kubaba, L'Harmattan, Paris, 2010
* Jacques Freu et Michel Mazoyer, ''Les royaumes Néo-Hittites'', Les Hittites et leur histoire Tome 5, Collection Kubaba, L'Harmattan, Paris, 2012
* Imparati, Fiorella. "Aspects De L'organisation De L'État Hittite Dans Les Documents Juridiques Et Administratifs." ''Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient'' 25, no. 3 (1982): 225–67. {{doi|10.2307/3632187}}
* {{cite book |editor1-last=de Martino |editor1-first=Stefan |title=Handbook of Hittite Empire |date=2022 |publisher=De Gruyter Oldenbourg |isbn=978-3-11-066178-1 |language=en}}
* Stone, Damien. ''The Hittites: Lost Civilizations''. United Kingdom, Reaktion Books, 2023.

==External links==
{{Commons category|Hittites}}
{{Wikivoyage}}
{{Wikiquote}}
{{EB1911 poster|Hittites}}
* [https://phys.org/news/2023-02-drought-hittite-empire-collapse.html New research suggests drought accelerated Hittite Empire collapse - Phys.org February 8, 2023]
* [https://oi.uchicago.edu/getinvolved/member/events/20100407_hittitefrontiers.html Video lecture at Oriental Institute – Tracking the Frontiers of the Hittite Empire] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140411011646/https://oi.uchicago.edu/getinvolved/member/events/20100407_hittitefrontiers.html |date=11 April 2014 }}
* [http://www.pbase.com/dosseman/bogazkale Pictures of Boğazköy, one of a group of important sites]
* [http://www.pbase.com/dosseman/yazilikaya Pictures of Yazılıkaya, one of a group of important sites]
* [http://titus.uni-frankfurt.de/didact/idg/anat/hethbs.htm Der Anitta Text (at TITUS)]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070301053227/http://news.independent.co.uk/people/obituaries/article330433.ece Tahsin Ozguc]
* [http://www.hethiter.net/ Hethitologieportal Mainz, by the Akademie der Wissenschaften, Mainz, corpus of texts and extensive bibliographies on all things Hittite]
* {{cite web |title=Missione Archeologica Italiana a Uşaklı Höyük {{!}} MAIAC |url=http://usaklihoyuk.org |website=usaklihoyuk.org |access-date=17 January 2023 |language=it-it}}
* [https://external-preview.redd.it/XQSGeQ4EdaDZ7NTFyYo7r0wNUKogI3NpkDTuw3bhRew.jpg?auto=webp&s=2efd2bf0be391eb4bf5ad3599b87cb190ef74976 Map of Hittite Anatolia]

{{Ancient kingdoms in Anatolia}}
{{Anatolian peoples}}
{{Ancient Syria and Mesopotamia}}
{{Empires}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Hittites| ]]
[[Category:States and territories established in the 17th century BC]]
[[Category:States and territories disestablished in the 12th century BC]]
[[Category:Ancient peoples of Anatolia]]
[[Category:Ancient Syria]]
[[Category:History of the Mediterranean]]
[[Category:Former kingdoms]]
[[Category:Former empires]]