| PLOWRIGHT WORLD Ancient History : Hatti - Hittite - Mitanni Page 1 |
| This is a very useful, for brevity, combination write-up of a number of historically and geographically connected peoples. |
| Hatti The Kingdom of Hatti, with its heart in central Anatolia, became a major threat to Egyptian control of Syria/Palestine during the Amarna period. The history of the Hittite empire is divided into three periods: the Old Kingdom (ca.1700-ca.1500 BCE; from the Egyptian Thirteenth Dynasty to end of Seventeenth), the poorly-documented Middle Kingdom (ca.1500-ca.1400 BCE; beginning of Eighteenth Dynasty), and the glorious New Kingdom, or Empire Period (ca.1400-ca.1190 BCE; from Amenhotep III to the end of the Nineteenth Dynasty). The Old Kingdom There are few documents surviving from the Old Kingdom. Much of what is known about its history comes from a single document called "The Edict of Telipinus". Telipinus was one of that period's last kings, and attempted to contrast the sorry condition of his day by comparing it to the glorious past. The Hittites considered a Labarnas mentioned in the "Edict" as the founder of the dynasty, but he may not have been in fact. However, his name and that of his wife Tawannannas were frequently used in royal names in later times. His son Labarnas, called Hattusilis, became king. He seems to have been the nephew of Tawannannas. He is called both "King of Hattusas" and "Man of Kussara", so it is possible that the original capital of the kingdom was at Kussara. In any event, he moved to Hattusas, which had previously been destroyed by another king of Kussara, and made it the Hittite capital, which distinction it would retain nearly uninterrupted during the entire history of the Hittite kingdom. The identification of ancient place names from such texts as the "Edict of Telipinus" is often controversial, but some Hittite cities have been located, such as Tuwanuwa (classical Tyana, near modern Bor), Hupisna (classical Heraclea Cybistra, modern Eregli), Parsuhanda (probably modern Acemh�y�k), and Lusna (classical Lystra). Landa was probably in the north, but the rest of these cities are south of the Kizil River (ancient Halys), in an area called by the Hittites "the Lower Land". This indicates the early Hittites began their empire by crossing the Kizil and moving to the south. The Middle Kingdom After the death of Telipinus towards the end of the Egyptian Seventeenth Dynasty came a brief period of obscurity that lasted until the beginning of the Hittite empire under Suppiluliumas. The Syrian provinces fell to Hanigalbat, which was a Hurrian kingdom. They in turn lost them to Egypt after the eighth campaign of Tuthmose III. King Tudhaliyas II conquered Arzawa and Assuwa in the west and entered into a treaty with Kizzuwadna, later incorporating it into his kingdom. It appears that the Egyptians were allied with the Hittites and aided them in their successful attack on Aleppo. This cooperation can be inferred from an agreement, dating to early in the reign of Tuthmose III, in which a Hittite king, probably Zidantas II or Huzziyas, would pay tribute to Egypt in return for certain adjustments of the frontier. In the north, however, the Hittites were threatened by Kasku tribes which blocked access to the Black Sea. The son of Tudhaliyas II, Arnuwandas I, succeeded him but had problems in every direction. Hattusas was burned down and Arzawa became independent; its king is mentioned in the Amarna letters. The Hurrians founded a new state known as Mitanni and began to threaten the Hittites' southern borders. Early in the reign of Tuthmose's son Amenhotep II, Egypt formed an alliance with the Mitanni that would prove disastrous for the Hittites. They lost their Syrian holdings and the Mitanni advanced into Kizzuwadna in southern Anatolia. A daughter of Artatama I of the Mitanni married the young Tuthmose IV, thereby cementing the alliance. Arnuwandas's son Tudhaliyas III spent his reign campaigning in attempts to gain back lost territories, but success would only come to Tudhaliyas's son Suppiluliumas. Source: |
| For New Kingdom click Page 2 below. |