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88-457: As argued by Gernot Wilhelm  [ de ] , the toponym Kumme has a plausible Hurrian etymology , and can be interpreted as a combination of the root kum- , which according to him refers to building activity, and the suffix -me , well attested in other Hurrian words. This explanation is also accepted by Daniel Schwemer  [ de ] and Volkert Haas , who suggests meanings “to build” or “to pile up” for kum- . The same root

176-534: A numen . Daniel Schwemer assumes that the toponym served as a stand-in for the name of Teshub in this context. A single Assyrian name alluding to Kumme is also known, Bēl-Kumme-ilā’ī. Later references to Kumme come from the Neo-Assyrian period . It was the center of one of the small kingdoms which formed a buffer zone between Assyria and Urartu , alongside nearby Shubria , Musasir and Ukku. Both linguistically and culturally, it retained its Hurrian character. It

264-570: A certain "land of Hatti ". Some names in the tablets were neither Hattic nor Assyrian, but clearly Indo-European . The script on a monument at Boğazkale by a "People of Hattusas" discovered by William Wright in 1884 was found to match peculiar 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

352-466: 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." 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

440-618: A guide, and a Gutian general, the city was a stop on a route leading from mountainous areas east of the Tigris to Jezirah , at least if the Nineveh area was to be avoided. Volkert Haas concluded it was located on the modern border between Turkey and Iraq . Daniel Schwemer suggests it is to be found in the proximity of modern Zakho . This possibility is also accepted by Steven W. Holloway. However, it has been criticized by Karen Radner, who argues that based on letters of Sargon II it can be assumed it

528-434: A king of Kurdā, the weather god of Kumme ( IŠKUR be-el ku-um-mi ki ) is invoked among the divine witnesses, separately from the weather god of Aleppo  [ de ] . The same king at one point offered a vase to this deity. The city is also mentioned in a Hurrian incantation from Mari, which directly refers to its main god with the name Teshub instead of using a logogram. Various textual sources indicate that Kumme

616-435: A major religious site by both Hurrians and Hittites through the second half of the second millennium BCE. Hurrian myths portray Kumme as the residence of Teshub, while one of his enemies bears the name Ullikummi , “Destroy Kumme!”. The tale of Appu indicates that it was conventionally associated with him in a similar manner as Nineveh was with Šauška , Sippar with Shamash or Babylon with Marduk . This association

704-536: A non- 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 c.  1430 BC . One innovation that can be credited to these early Hittite rulers

792-505: A part of it. 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 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

880-557: Is also mentioned in a fragment of a Hurrian adaptation of the Epic of Gilgamesh . Other deities worshiped in Kumme included Kumarbi , as indicated by an Ugaritic text referring to him as “Kumarbi Urkini Kummeni” ( kmrb urgnkmn ) and the “lady of Kumme”, according to Volkert Haas to be identified as Šauška. While Hurrian myths also mention a temple of Ḫepat located in Kumme, it is not certain if they reflect historical reality. As already attested in

968-581: 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. The Hittite state was formed from many small polities in North-Central Anatolia, at

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1056-506: Is due to the initial identification of the people of Hattusa with the Biblical Hittites by 19th-century 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. Before

1144-547: Is evidence of having taken a route across the Caucasus. David Reich, Iosif Lazaridis, Songül Alpaslan-Roodenberg et al. have 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

1232-566: Is no indication that Assyrian kings made offerings to the weather god of Kumme after the ninth century BCE, he is referenced in a later source, the so-called Götteraddressbuch , which records deities worshiped in Assur and a number of other major Assyrian cities. Relations between Assyria and Kumme remained positive during the reign of Ashurnasirpal II (883-859 BCE), and some of its inhabitants might have fled to Assyria due to Urartian conquests of king Minua (reigned 810-785 BCE), who apparently turned

1320-431: Is possible an unrelated city named Kumma existed in the proximity of Ḫurma in southern Anatolia . Karen Radner additionally lists Qumenu as an Urartian form of the name. However, according to Schwemer, while this view is commonly accepted in scholarship, it is doubtful if these two names refer to the same city. Kumme is to be distinguished from Kummanni (classical Comana ), a city in the north of Kizzuwatna , though

1408-546: Is possible that it retained independence from more powerful neighbors due to its religious significance. Adad-nirari II (reigned 911-891 BCE) visited Kumme in 895 BCE during a military campaign against Habhu, apparently a polity hostile to it, and made a sacrifice to the weather god, calling him his “lord”. He referred to him with the Mesopotamian name Adad , though according to Daniel Schwemer this should only be considered an Assyrian interpretation of his identity. While there

1496-622: Is presumed to form the basis of the reconstructed toponym *Kumar, from which the theonym Kumarbi was likely derived. It is also attested in the word kumdi , “tower”, and in personal names in the texts from Nuzi . An alternate proposal is to link it with the Akkadian term kummu , “cella” or “sanctuary”. The name of Kumme is also attested in Akkadian texts as Kummu or Kummum and in Hittite ones as Kummiya. An additional Hittite form might be Kumma, though it

1584-510: Is the oldest historically attested Indo-European language. 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 . Cultural links to prehistoric Scandinavia have also been suggested. Scholars once attributed

1672-533: 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. 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

1760-561: The 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 Kassite allies, who were to 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

1848-467: The Anitta text, begin by telling how Pithana the king of Kussara conquered neighbouring Neša ( Kanesh ), this conquest took place around 1750 BC. However, the real subject of these tablets is Pithana 's son Anitta ( r.  1745–1720 BC), 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

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1936-634: 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 ,

2024-547: The Mediterranean coastline, starting from the Aegean , and continuing all the way to Canaan, founding the state of Philistia  – 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:

2112-603: The Middle Assyrian Empire and the empire of Mitanni . By the 12th century BC, much of the Hittite Empire was annexed by the Middle Assyrian Empire , with the remainder sacked by Phrygian newcomers to the region. From the late 12th century BC, during the Late Bronze Age collapse , the Hittites splintered into several small independent states , some of which survived until the eighth century BC before succumbing to

2200-624: The Neo-Assyrian Empire ; lacking a unifying continuity , their descendants scattered and ultimately merged into the modern populations of the Levant and Mesopotamia . The Hittite language —referred to by its speakers as nešili , "the language of Nesa "—was a distinct member of the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family ; along with the closely related Luwian language , it

2288-521: The article wizard to submit a draft for review, or request a new article . Search for " Gernot Wilhelm " in existing articles. Look for pages within Misplaced Pages that link to this title . Other reasons this message may be displayed: If a page was recently created here, it may not be visible yet because of a delay in updating the database; wait a few minutes or try the purge function . Titles on Misplaced Pages are case sensitive except for

2376-551: The 13th century BC into the 12th century BC with drought for three consecutive years in 1198, 1197 and 1196 BC. 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

2464-609: The Anatolian civilization "[was] worthy of comparison to the divided Kingdom of Egypt", and was "infinitely more powerful than that of Judah". Sayce and other scholars also noted that Judah and the Hittites were never enemies in the Hebrew texts; in the 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

2552-483: 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

2640-457: 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 alliance by marriage of another of his sons with

2728-461: The Hittite was a captain in King David 's army and counted as one of his "mighty men" in 1 Chronicles 11. French scholar Charles Texier found the first Hittite ruins in 1834 but did not identify them as such. The first archaeological evidence for the Hittites appeared in tablets found at the karum of Kanesh (now called Kültepe ), containing records of trade between Assyrian merchants and

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2816-539: 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 – making an annual tour of the Hittite holy cities, conducting festivals and supervising the upkeep of the sanctuaries. During his reign ( c.  1400 BC ), King Tudhaliya I, again allied with Kizzuwatna, then vanquished

2904-545: The Hittite capital of Hattusa, which houses the world's most comprehensive exhibition of Hittite art and artifacts. 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 . The modern conventional name "Hittites"

2992-566: The Hittite language itself is believed to have been in use in Central Anatolia between the 20th and 12th centuries BC. The Hittites are first associated with the kingdom of Kussara sometime prior to 1750 BC. Hittites in Anatolia during the Bronze Age coexisted with Hattians and Hurrians , either by means of conquest or by gradual assimilation. In archaeological terms, relationships of

3080-468: 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

3168-572: The Hittites to the Ezero culture of the Balkans and Maykop culture of the Caucasus had previously been considered within the migration framework. 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 . He thought their languages "probably included archaic Proto-Indo-European dialects of

3256-463: 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' enemies from all directions were able to advance even to Hattusa and raze it. However, the kingdom recovered its former glory under Šuppiluliuma I ( c.  1350 BC ), who again conquered Aleppo. Mitanni was reduced to vassalage by

3344-551: 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 . The ancestors of the Hittites came into Anatolia between 4400 and 4100 BC, when the Anatolian language family split from (Proto)-Indo-European. Recent genetic and archaeological research has indicated that Proto-Anatolian speakers arrived in this region sometime between 5000 and 3000 BC. The Proto-Hittite language developed around 2100 BC, and

3432-464: The Kaskians, Phrygians and Bryges . The Hittite Kingdom thus vanished from historical records, much of the territory being seized by Assyria. Alongside with 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 . A study of tree rings of juniper trees growing in the region showed a change to drier conditions from

3520-525: 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. While Šuppiluliuma I reigned, the Hittite Empire was devastated by an epidemic of tularemia . The epidemic afflicted the Hittites for decades and tularemia killed Šuppiluliuma I and his successor, Arnuwanda II . After Šuppiluliuma I's rule, and

3608-467: The Old Babylonian period, Kumme could also be used as a theophoric element in Hurrian names. Examples include Paiš-Kumme (“Kumme may uplift”) from Nuzi, Kummen-ewri (“Kumme is the lord”) from Tikunani , Kummen-adal (“Kumme is strong”) from Mari and Ari-Kumme (“Kumme gave” or “Give, Kumme”) from a Middle Assyrian text. According to Thomas Richter, such names reflect the perception of the city itself as

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3696-539: 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 Pharaohs of Egypt, but rather as a first among equals. Only in the later period from 1400 BC until 1200 BC did the Hittite kingship become more centralized and powerful. Also in earlier years

3784-454: 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". The period of the 15th century BC is largely unknown with few surviving records. Part of the reason for both the weakness and the obscurity is that the Hittites were under constant attack, mainly from the Kaskians,

3872-562: The Proto Indo Europeans before the formation of the Yamnaya which did admix with Eastern Hunter Gatherers. 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 language , but its affiliation remains uncertain, whilst the Hurrian language was a near- isolate (i.e. it

3960-468: The Zalpuwan/Hattusan family, though whether these were of the direct line of Anitta is uncertain. Meanwhile, the lords of Zalpa lived on. Huzziya I , 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

4048-595: 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, which was in line with the "customary" assumption that the Anatolian Indo-European language was introduced into Anatolia sometime in the third millennium BC. However, Petra Goedegebuure has shown that the Hittite language has borrowed many words related to agriculture from cultures on their eastern borders, which

4136-626: 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. Under the direction of the German Archaeological Institute , excavations at Hattusa have been under way since 1907, with interruptions during

4224-589: 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 ...". 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,

4312-659: The banks of the Kızılırmak River , during the Middle Bronze Age (ca. 1900–1650 BC). 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 , Nēša , or another site in Anatolia, that may first have been written in the 18th century BC, in Old Hittite language, and three of them using

4400-431: 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 for an escaped slave who had fled beyond the river is higher than for a slave caught on the near side. To the west and south of the core territory lay the region known as Luwiya in

4488-441: 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. During sporadic excavations at Boğazköy ( Hattusa ) that began in 1906,

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4576-402: The brief reign of his eldest son, Arnuwanda II, another son, Mursili II , became king ( c.  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

4664-407: 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

4752-550: The city into one of his fortresses. Multiple references to Kumme are also present in letters from the reign of Sargon II , which indicate that it was once again an independent small kingdom at this point in time. One of these documents states that its king at the time bore the name Ariye. While formally independent, Kumme did not rule over a large territory and its rulers were effectively subordinate to Assyria, acting as providers of both resources and information. An Assyrian ambassador ( qēpu , literally “trusted one”) named Aššur-rēṣūwa

4840-412: 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. The campaigns into Amurru and southern Mesopotamia may be responsible for the reintroduction of cuneiform writing into Anatolia, since

4928-527: 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. 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 and Babylon , ejecting

5016-521: 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, 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 ,

5104-462: The diplomatic language of the time, or in the various dialects of the Hittite confederation. The Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara , Turkey houses the richest collection of Hittite and Anatolian artifacts. The Hittite kingdom was centered on the lands surrounding Hattusa and Neša (Kültepe), known as "the land Hatti" ( Ha-at-ti ). After Hattusa was made the capital, the area encompassed by

5192-453: The earliest Hittite texts. This terminology was replaced by the names Arzawa and Kizzuwatna with the rise of those kingdoms. Nevertheless, the Hittites continued to refer to the language that originated in these areas as Luwian . Prior to the rise of Kizzuwatna, the heart of that territory in Cilicia was first referred to by the Hittites as Adaniya . Upon its revolt from the Hittites during

5280-440: The first character; please check alternative capitalizations and consider adding a redirect here to the correct title. If the page has been deleted, check the deletion log , and see Why was the page I created deleted? Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gernot_Wilhelm " Hittites The Hittites ( / ˈ h ɪ t aɪ t s / ) were an Anatolian Indo-European people who formed one of

5368-494: The first major civilizations of Bronze Age West Asia . Possibly originating from beyond the Black Sea , they settled in modern-day Turkey in the early 2nd millennium BC . The Hittites formed a series of polities in north-central Anatolia , including the kingdom of Kussara (before 1750 BC), the Kanesh or Nesha kingdom ( c.  1750 –1650 BC), and an empire centered on Hattusa (around 1650 BC). Known in modern times as

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5456-478: 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. 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. During

5544-529: 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"), and the foundation of the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara , built 200 kilometers (120 mi) west of

5632-540: 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. 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. The Sea Peoples had already begun their push down

5720-520: The kind partly preserved later in Anatolian," and that their descendants later moved into Anatolia at an unknown time but maybe as early as 3000 BC. 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. According to Parpola, the appearance of Indo-European speakers from Europe into Anatolia, and

5808-403: The latter toponym might also be derived from the root kum- . It should also not be confused with Qumānu, a kingdom which was located in the plains around modern Alqosh . The precise location of Kumme is uncertain. Based on sources from Tell Shemshara and Tell al-Rimah dated to the eighteenth century BCE, including letters and an account of wine rations prepared for a man from Kumme, possibly

5896-451: 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

5984-1265: The local inhabitants reassure the Assyrian king of their loyalty, possibly to avoid a fate similar to Musasir, whose sanctuary of the god Ḫaldi was desecrated as punishment in 714. In texts from the reign of Sennacherib and later rulers, Kumme is no longer mentioned, and its ultimate fate is presently unknown. Gernot Wilhelm Look for Gernot Wilhelm on one of Misplaced Pages's sister projects : [REDACTED] Wiktionary (dictionary) [REDACTED] Wikibooks (textbooks) [REDACTED] Wikiquote (quotations) [REDACTED] Wikisource (library) [REDACTED] Wikiversity (learning resources) [REDACTED] Commons (media) [REDACTED] Wikivoyage (travel guide) [REDACTED] Wikinews (news source) [REDACTED] Wikidata (linked database) [REDACTED] Wikispecies (species directory) Misplaced Pages does not have an article with this exact name. Please search for Gernot Wilhelm in Misplaced Pages to check for alternative titles or spellings. You need to log in or create an account and be autoconfirmed to create new articles. Alternatively, you can use

6072-542: The mountains south of Kussara . The founding of the Hittite Kingdom is attributed to either Labarna I or Hattusili I (the latter might also have had Labarna as a personal name), 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

6160-673: The northerners retained language isolate Hattian names, and the southerners adopted Indo-European Hittite and Luwian names. Zalpuwa first attacked Kanesh under Uhna in 1833 BC. And during this 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 ( c.  1790 –1775 BC), and Waršama ( c.  1775 –1750 BC). One set of tablets, known collectively as

6248-453: The number is comparable to that of iron objects found in Egypt , Mesopotamia and in other places from the same period; and only a small number of these objects are weapons. X-ray fluorescence spectrometry suggests "that most or all irons from the Bronze Age are derived from" meteorites . The Hittite military also made successful use of chariots . Modern interest in the Hittites increased with

6336-611: The power of the Assyrians. The Assyrian king Shalmaneser I had seized the opportunity to vanquish Hurria and Mitanni, occupy their lands, and expand up to the head of the Euphrates , while Muwatalli was preoccupied with the Egyptians. The Hittites had vainly tried to preserve the Mitanni Kingdom with military support. Assyria now posed just as great a threat to Hittite trade routes as Egypt ever had. Muwatalli's son, Urhi-Teshub , took

6424-477: The reign of Ammuna , 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

6512-411: 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 and Euphrates rivers in modern south east Turkey, took advantage of the situation to seize Aleppo and the surrounding areas for themselves, as well as

6600-555: The so-called "Old Script" (OS); 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 Kanesh . These are distinguishable by their names;

6688-510: The southern branch of the royal family, against the northern branch who had fixed on Hattusa as capital. Another set, the Tale of Zalpuwa, supports Zalpuwa and exonerates the later Ḫattušili I from the charge of sacking Kanesh . Anitta was succeeded by Zuzzu ( r. 1720–1710 BC); but sometime in 1710–1705 BC, Kanesh was destroyed, taking the long-established Assyrian merchant trading system with it. A Kussaran noble family survived to contest

6776-476: The succession was not legally fixed, enabling "War of the Roses" -style rivalries between northern and southern branches. The next monarch of note following Mursili I was Telepinu ( c.  1500 BC ), who won a few victories to the southwest, apparently by allying himself with one Hurrian state (Kizzuwatna) against another (Mitanni). Telepinu also attempted to secure the lines of succession. The last monarch of

6864-532: The throne and ruled as king for seven years as Mursili III before being ousted by his uncle, Hattusili III after a 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. The Treaty of Kadesh , one of the oldest completely surviving treaties in history, fixed their mutual boundaries in southern Canaan, and

6952-434: The timely arrival of Egyptian reinforcements prevented total Hittite victory. The Egyptians forced the Hittites to take refuge in the fortress of Kadesh , but their own losses prevented them from sustaining a siege. This battle took place in the 5th year of Ramesses ( c.  1274 BC by the most commonly used chronology). After this date, the power of both the Hittites and Egyptians began to decline yet again because of

7040-500: 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 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

7128-571: 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 reliefs portraying the Hittite rulers and the gods of the Hittite pantheon. 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 ,

7216-499: The “deity of the inhabitants of the city of Qumenu” ( qu-me-nu-na-ú-e DINGIR) alongside figures associated with Ardini and Tushpa . The kingdom of Ukku, which was allied with Urartu, apparently attempted to influence Kumme to follow a similar path. A letter sent from Kumme to Sargon II additionally indicates that at one point the Urartian king Argishti II questioned why envoys from the city do not appear in his court, though in this text

7304-406: Was credited for the foundation of the Hittite Empire. "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

7392-486: Was located in a more mountainous area and closer to Urartu , which according to her might indicate it is to be found further upstream on the Lesser Khabur , in the proximity of modern Beytüşşebap . First references to Kumme occur in texts from Old Babylonian Mari . Due to the possible etymology of its name, it is assumed that it was a Hurrian city from the beginning of its history. In a treaty between Zimri-Lim and

7480-536: Was one of only two or three languages in the Hurro-Urartian family ). There were also Assyrian 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

7568-460: Was regarded as the main cult center of this god, and that as a result it was considered a religious site of “transregional significance” by the inhabitants of the Ancient Near East . A temple dedicated to him existed there. However, despite its religious importance, direct references to Kumme are relatively uncommon outside of literary texts dealing with its main deity. Kumme was recognized as

7656-450: 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. 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

7744-404: Was stationed in the city as well, and at one point seemingly came into conflict with local officials, which lead to mutual assassination attempts, the ultimate outcome of which is presently unknown. If the equivalence between the toponyms Kumme and Qumenu is accepted, the city might also be attested in Urartian sources, including an inscription from Meher Kapısı  [ de ] which mentions

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