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Definition:
Late in the third millennium B.C., waves of invaders speaking Indo-European languages
crossed the Caucasus Mountains into Anatolia. Among them were the bronze-working,
chariot-borne warriors who conquered and settled the central plain. Building on older
cultures, these invaders borrowed even their name, the Hittites, from the indigenous
Hatti whom they had subjugated. They adopted the native Hattic deities and adapted to
their written language the cuneiform alphabet and literary conventions of the Semitic
cultures of Mesopotamia.
The Hittites imposed their political and social organization on their dominions in the Anatolian interior and northern Syria, where the indigenous peasantry supported the Hittite warrior caste with rents, services, and taxes. In time the Hittites won reputations as merchants and statesmen who schooled the ancient Middle East in both commerce and diplomacy. The Hittite Empire achieved the zenith of its political power and cultural accomplishment in the fourteenth and thirteenth centuries B.C., rivaling the power of the Egypt, Baylon or Assyria, but the state collapsed after 1200 B.C. when the Phrygians, clients of the Hittites, rebelled and burned Hattusas, the city which served as the center of political and religious power.
Also Known As: none
Alternate Spellings: none
Common Misspellings: none
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A system of human beliefs, ideals and practices which is harder to define than it may at first appear.
