Niksar , historically known as Neocaesarea (Νεοκαισάρεια), is a city in Tokat Province , Turkey . It is the seat of Niksar District . Its population is 37,017 (2022). It was settled by many empires. Niksar is known as " Çukurova of North-Anatolia" due to its production of many kinds of fruits and vegetables. On May 2, 2018, Niksar was included in the World Heritage tentative list.
119-651: Niksar has been ruled by the Hittite , Persian , Greek , Pontic , Roman , Byzantine , Danishmend , Seljuk and Ottoman Empires. It has always been an important place in Anatolia because of its location, climate and productive farmland. It was known as Cabira in the Hellenistic period ( Κάβειρα in Greek ). It was one of the favourite residences of Mithridates the Great , who built
238-570: 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
357-454: A change. Part of the kingdom was now annexed to the Roman Empire , being united with Bithynia in a double province called Pontus and Bithynia : this part included only the seaboard between Heraclea (today Ereğli ) and Amisus ( Samsun ), the ora Pontica . The larger part of Pontus, however, was included in the province of Galatia. Hereafter the simple name Pontus without qualification
476-466: 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
595-481: A great council was held there, the acts of which are still extant. In the early church baptism was generally by immersion. Baptism by perfusion, that is by pouring the water over the candidate, was permitted in the case of the seriously ill and where sufficient water for immersion was unobtainable or impractical, as in, for example, prisons. The Council of Neocaesarea ruled that individuals baptized by perfusion were disqualified from being presbyters. This became an issue in
714-536: 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
833-635: A palace there, and later of King Polemon I and his successors. In 72 or 71 BCE, the Battle of Cabira during the Third Mithridatic War took place at Cabira, and the city passed to the Romans. Niksar was called Diospolis , Sebaste , and Neokaisareia during the Roman period. Pompey made it a city and gave it the name of Diopolis, while Pythodoris , widow of Polemon, made it her capital and called it Sebaste. It
952-457: 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
1071-710: Is a region on the southern coast of the Black Sea , located in the modern-day eastern Black Sea Region of Turkey . The name was applied to the coastal region and its mountainous hinterland (rising to the Pontic Alps in the east) by the Greeks who colonized the area in the Archaic period and derived from the Greek name of the Black Sea: Εύξεινος Πόντος ( Eúxinos Póntos ) , "Hospitable Sea", or simply Pontos ( ὁ Πόντος ) as early as
1190-476: Is a main ingredient of dolma , a very popular dish in Turkey. [REDACTED] This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Smith, William , ed. (1854–1857). "Cabira". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography . London: John Murray. Hittites The Hittites ( / ˈ h ɪ t aɪ t s / ) were an Anatolian Indo-European people who formed one of
1309-581: 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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#17330849430241428-506: 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
1547-547: 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
1666-462: Is located at 40°35' north latitude and 36°58' east longitude. Its average altitude is 350 m above sea level. It is surrounded by Erbaa on the northwest, Tokat on the southwest, Almus on the south, Başçiftlik on the southeast and Akkuş on the north. It is one of the five largest counties of Tokat. The Canik Mountains are to the north, Dönek Mountain to the south, and the Niksar Lowland
1785-582: Is not known precisely when it assumed the name of Neocaesarea, mentioned for the first time in Pliny , "Hist. Nat.", VI, III, 1, but judging from its coins, one might suppose that it was during the reign of Tiberius . In 344 the city was completely destroyed by an earthquake Neocaesarea became part of the Eastern Roman Empire when the Roman Empire divided into two parts in AD 395. Another earthquake occurred in 499,
1904-450: Is only one inscription attesting it, he seems to have adopted the title “king of kings.” The very small number of Hellenistic Greek inscriptions that have been found anywhere in Pontus suggest that Greek culture did not substantially penetrate beyond the coastal cities and the court. During the troubled period following the death of Alexander the Great , Mithridates Ktistes was for a time in
2023-513: Is referred to as Neocaesarea in Ponto to distinguish it from Neocaesarea in Syria. Noted bishops include Saints Gregory Thaumaturgus, Paul of Neocaesarea, and Thomas, a 9th-century martyr. Gregory of Nyssa claimed that about 240, when Gregory Thaumaturgus was consecrated bishop of his native city, Neocæsarea had only seventeen Christians and that at his death (270) it counted only seventeen pagans. In 315
2142-564: Is situated between these mountains. The Niksar Lowland is one of the most important lowlands of the Black Sea Region. The Canik Mountains are covered with plateaus that lie parallel to the Black Sea. Çamiçi High Plateau is one of the most important ones. Niksar lands are irrigated by large and small tributaries of the Kelkit River . Forests cover 53% of the plateau, and pasture 12%; 32% of
2261-508: Is that its speakers migrated from Phrygia , past literary notice, across Pontus during the early Iron Age. The Greeks , who spoke a closely related Indo-European tongue, followed them along the coast. The Greeks are the earliest long-term inhabitants of the region from whom written records survive. During the late 8th century BC, Pontus further became a base for the Cimmerians , another Indo-European speaking people; however, these were defeated by
2380-654: Is that of Scylax of Korianda , who in the 7th century BC described Greek settlements in the area. By the 6th century BC, Pontus had become officially a part of the Achaemenid Empire , which probably meant that the local Greek colonies were paying tribute to the Persians. When the Athenian commander Xenophon passed through Pontus around a century later in 401-400 BC, in fact, he found no Persians in Pontus. The peoples of this part of northern Asia Minor were incorporated into
2499-510: 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
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#17330849430242618-533: 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
2737-577: The 499 Nicopolis earthquake . During the Middle Ages, the Muslims and Christians disputed the possession of Neocaesarea, and in 1068 a Seljuk general, Melik-Ghazi , whose tomb is still visible, captured and pillaged it. When the Seljuqs raided Anatolia in 1067, Neocaesarea was conquered by Afşın Bey , one of the commanders of Alp Arslan . The Byzantines retook the area in 1068. Conquered by Artuk Bey after
2856-524: The Aeschylean Persians (472 BC) and Herodotus ' Histories (circa 440 BC). Having originally no specific name, the region east of the river Halys was spoken of as the country Ἐν Πόντῳ ( En Póntō ) , lit. "on the [Euxinos] Pontos", and hence it acquired the name of Pontus, which is first found in Xenophon 's Anabasis ( c. 370 BC ). The extent of the region varied through
2975-561: 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
3094-467: 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
3213-644: The Battle of Manzikert , Neocæsarea once again returned to Byzantium in 1073. The city became part of the domain of Roussel de Bailleul , a Norman mercenary who had rebelled against the Byzantine empire, and who held the town until 1075. Melik Gümüştekin Ahmet Gazi (better known as Danishmend Gazi ), founder of the Danishmend , was the next conqueror of Neocaesarea. After the conquest the Gazi made it his capital city, and, under
3332-619: The Beylik of Tacettin , a beylik and became the center of the latter principality. After Kadı Burhanettin (who conquered Niksar in 1387) was killed in battle, the people of Niksar sought aid from the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid I . The Sultan's son, Süleyman Çelebi , took Niksar for the Ottomans. In the later Ottoman period, Niksar became part of Tokat Province . Fatih Mehmet launched a raid on Trabzon from Niksar, and Selim I and Suleiman
3451-575: The Bucellarian Theme . Progressively, these large early themes were divided into smaller ones, so that by the late 10th century, the Pontus was divided into the themes of Chaldia , which was governed by the Gabrades family, and Koloneia. After the 8th century, the area experienced a period of prosperity, which was brought to an end only by the Seljuk conquest of Asia Minor in the 1070s and 1080s. Restored to
3570-634: 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 ,
3689-658: The Komnenos dynasty. Through a combination of geographic remoteness and adroit diplomacy, this remnant managed to survive, until it was conquered by the Ottomans in 1461 after the Fall of Constantinople itself. This political adroitness included becoming a vassal state at various times to both Georgia and to various inland Turkic rulers. In addition, the Empire of Trebizond became a renowned center of culture under its ruling Komnenos dynasty. Under
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3808-702: The Lydians , and became a distant memory after the campaigns of Alyattes . Since there was so little literacy in northeastern Anatolia until the Persian and Hellenistic era, one can only speculate as to the other languages spoken here. Given that Kartvelian languages remain spoken to the east of Pontus, some are suspected to have been spoken in eastern Pontus during the Iron Age: the Tzans are usually associated with today's Laz . The first travels of Greek merchants and adventurers to
3927-547: 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:
4046-603: 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
4165-624: 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
4284-551: 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
4403-569: The 4th century BC ruled the Greek city of Cius (or Kios) in Mysia , with its first known member being Ariobarzanes I of Cius and the last ruler based in the city being Mithridates II of Cius . Mithridates II's son, also called Mithridates , would proclaim himself later Mithridates I Ktistes of Pontus. As the Encyclopaedia Iranica states, the most famous member of the family, Mithradates VI Eupator , although undoubtedly presenting himself to
4522-609: 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
4641-830: 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. Pontus Polemoniacus 40°36′N 38°00′E / 40.6°N 38.0°E / 40.6; 38.0 Pontus or Pontos ( / ˈ p ɒ n t ə s / ; Greek : Πόντος , romanized : Póntos , lit. 'sea', )
4760-508: The Archdiocese of Neocaesarea was confided to the metropolitan of Trebizond (Miklosich and Müller, "Acta", II, 154). About 1400 there was, however, a regular metropolitan (op. cit., II, 312), residing at Ordu . Among the twenty-seven bishops of this city mentioned by Le Quien , the most noted are Saints Gregory Thaumaturgus, Paul of Neocaesarea , and Thomas, a 9th-century martyr. Niksar is approximately 9,555 km (3,689 sq mi). It
4879-483: 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
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4998-457: 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
5117-430: The Byzantine Empire by Alexios I Komnenos , the area was governed by effectively semi-autonomous rulers, like the Gabras family of Trebizond. The region was secured militarily from the 11th through the 15th centuries with a vast network of sophisticated coastal fortresses. Following Constantinople's loss of sovereignty to the Fourth Crusade in 1204, the Pontus retained independence as the Empire of Trebizond under
5236-415: The Great, who for many years carried on war with the Romans. Under him, the realm of Pontus included not only Pontic Cappadocia but also the seaboard from the Bithynian frontier to Colchis , part of inland Paphlagonia , and Lesser Armenia . Despite ruling Lesser Armenia, King Mithridates VI was an ally of Armenian King Tigranes the Great , to whom he married his daughter Cleopatra. Eventually, however,
5355-421: The Greek world as a civilized philhellene and new Alexander, also paraded his Iranian background: he maintained a harem and eunuchs in true Oriental fashion; he gave all his sons Persian names; he sacrificed spectacularly in the manner of the Persian kings at Pasargadae (Appian, Mith. 66, 70); and he appointed “ satraps ” (a Persian title) as his provincial governors. Iranica further states, and although there
5474-408: 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
5593-490: 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
5712-444: 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"
5831-405: 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
5950-468: 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
6069-475: 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
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#17330849430246188-413: 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
6307-536: The Islamized Greeks continued speaking their language , known for its unique preservation of characteristics of Ancient Greek and still today there are some in the Of valley that speak the local Ophitic dialect . The Republic of Pontus ( Greek : Δημοκρατία του Πόντου , romanized : Dimokratía tou Póntou ) was a proposed Pontic Greek state on the southern coast of the Black Sea. Its territory would have encompassed much of historical Pontus and today forms part of Turkey's Black Sea Region. The proposed state
6426-501: 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
6545-413: 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
6664-424: The Magnificent raided the east from there. The town was predominantly Muslim in the mid 17th century. Neocaesarea was an episcopal see in the late Roman province of Pontus Polemoniacus . At first called Cabira, it became the civil and religious metropolis of Pontus. In around 315, the Synod of Neo-Caesarea was held there. It is now one of the bishoprics listed in the Annuario Pontificio as titular sees and
6783-475: 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
6902-427: 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
7021-400: 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,
7140-421: The Pontus region occurred probably from around 1000 BC, whereas their settlements would become steady and solidified cities only by the 8th and 7th centuries BC as archaeological findings document. This fits in well with a foundation date of 731 BC as reported by Eusebius of Caesarea for Sinope , perhaps the most ancient of the Greek colonies in what was later to be called Pontus. The epical narratives related to
7259-400: 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
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#17330849430247378-400: The Roman Emperor Diocletian decided to break up the area into smaller provinces under more localized administration. With the reorganization of the provincial system under Diocletian (about AD 295), the Pontic districts were divided up between three smaller, independent provinces within the Dioecesis Pontica : The Byzantine Emperor Justinian further reorganized the area in 536: By
7497-414: The Romans defeated both King Mithridates VI and his son-in-law, Armenian King Tigranes the Great, during the Mithridatic Wars , bringing Pontus under Roman rule. With the subjugation of this kingdom by Pompey in 64 BC, little changed in the daily lives of either the oligarchies that controlled the cities or for the common people there and in the hinterland, though the meaning of the name Pontus underwent
7616-408: 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
7735-422: The ages but generally extended from the borders of Colchis (modern western Georgia ) until well into Paphlagonia in the west, with varying amounts of hinterland . Several states and provinces bearing the name of Pontus or variants thereof were established in the region in the Hellenistic , Roman and Byzantine periods, culminating in the late Byzantine Empire of Trebizond . Pontus is sometimes considered as
7854-473: 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
7973-502: 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
8092-488: 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,
8211-463: The area (including Trabezon and Kars in northeastern Turkey/the Russian Caucasus) until the 1920s, and in parts of Georgia and Armenia until the 1990s, preserving their own customs and dialect of Greek . One group of Islamicized Greeks were called the Kromli, but were suspected of secretly having remained Christians . They numbered between 12,000 and 15,000 and lived in villages including Krom, Imera, Livadia, Prdi, Alitinos, Mokhora, and Ligosti. Many of
8330-438: 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
8449-431: 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
8568-441: 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,
8687-402: 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
8806-407: 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
8925-407: The case of Novatian , who had received baptism by perfusion when dangerously ill. Being early placed at the head of an ecclesiastical province, Neocæsarea had four suffragan sees about 640 ("Ecthesis" of pseudo-Epiphanius, ed. Heinrich Gelzer , 539), retaining them until the tenth century, when Trebizond obtained its independence and, by degrees, the other three suffragans were suppressed. In 1391
9044-463: 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
9163-527: 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
9282-521: 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 ,
9401-462: 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
9520-453: 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
9639-421: The family. The typical kitchen has a fireplace on one side used for cooking or washing and a storeroom on the other in which dried foods, preserves, sauces, cheese and grape leaves are kept. Beside the storeroom is a wooden granary with partitions for storing cereals and legumes. In Turkey, it is common to eat meals around a low table. The famous local foods of Niksar are walnut, tomato paste and grape leaves which
9758-649: The first converts to Christianity . Acts 2:9 mentions them present in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost ; Acts 18:2 mentions a Jewish tentmaker from Pontus, Aquila , who was then living in Corinth with his wife Priscilla , who had both converted to Christianity, and in 1 Peter 1:1 , Peter the Apostle addresses the Pontians in his letter as the "elect" and "chosen ones". As early as
9877-494: 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
9996-478: 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
10115-529: 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
10234-540: 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
10353-570: 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
10472-425: The land is devoted to agriculture, and only 3% is unsuitable for farming. Beech, pine, horn beech, and spruce trees can be found in the higher altitudes to the north of Niksar. In the lowlands there are poplar and willow trees, and fruit trees in the valleys. Polecats, rabbits, wolves, foxes, lynxes, bears, and pigs are the main hunting animals that live in the mountains and forests. Partridges, quail and ducks are among
10591-506: 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
10710-412: The more important game birds found here. Niksar has a transitional oceanic climate and continental climate . It is generally cold and snowy in winter, and hot and moderately dry in summer. The most remarkable feature of traditional Tokat -Niksar houses is the kitchen. Called Aşevi or Aşgana in the local dialect, the kitchen is usually the largest room of the house and serves as a sort of lounge for
10829-542: 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
10948-606: The name Niksar, became a center of science and culture. The Danishmend Gazi's mausoleum stands in a large cemetery just outside the town. In 1100, Bohemond I of Taranto was held prisoner in Niksar castle until 1103. By 1175, during the reign of Kılıç Arslan II , Niksar was dependent on the Seljuks of Rum . After the Mongol invasion of the 13th century, Niksar was governed by the Eretnids and then
11067-673: 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
11186-453: 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
11305-504: The original home of the Amazons , in ancient Greek mythology and historiography (e. g. by Herodotus and Strabo ). Pontus remained outside the reach of the Bronze Age empires, of which the closest was Great Hatti . The region went further uncontrolled by Hatti's eastern neighbors, Hurrian states like Azzi and (or) Hayasa . In those days, the best any outsider could hope from this region
11424-611: 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
11543-428: The region, mostly Greek, noted that the hinterlands remained disunited, and they recorded the names of tribes: Moskhians (often associated with those Muški), Leucosyri , Mares, Makrones , Mossynoikoi , Tibarenoi , Tzans and Chalybes or Chaldoi. The Armenian language went unnoted by the Hittites, the Assyrians, and all the post-Hittite nations; an ancient theory – first conjectured by Herodotus –
11662-527: 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
11781-411: 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
11900-600: The service of Antigonus , one of Alexander's successors , and successfully maneuvering in this unsettled time managed, shortly after 302 BC, to create the Kingdom of Pontus which would be ruled by his descendants mostly bearing the same name, until 64 BC. Thus, this Persian dynasty managed to survive and prosper in the Hellenistic world while the main Persian Empire had fallen. This kingdom reached its greatest height under Mithridates VI or Mithridates Eupator, commonly called
12019-604: 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;
12138-510: 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
12257-501: The subsequent Ottoman rule which began with the fall of Trebizond , particularly starting from the 17th century, some of the region's Pontic Greeks became Muslim through the Devşirme system. But at the same time some valleys inhabited by Greeks converted voluntarily, most notably those in the Of valley. Large communities (around 25% of the population) of Christian Pontic Greeks remained throughout
12376-476: 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
12495-503: The third and nineteenth satrapies of the Persian empire. Iranian influence ran deep, illustrated most famously by the temple of the Persian deities Anaitis, Omanes, and Anadatos at Zela , founded by victorious Persian generals in the 6th century BC. The Kingdom of Pontus extended generally to the east of the Halys River. The Persian dynasty which was to found this kingdom had during
12614-475: The three districts: Pontus Galaticus in the west, bordering on Galatia ; Pontus Polemoniacus in the centre, so called from its capital Polemonium ; and Pontus Cappadocicus in the east, bordering on Cappadocia (Armenia Minor). Subsequently, the Roman Emperor Trajan moved Pontus into the province of Cappadocia itself in the early 2nd century AD. In response to a Gothic raid on Trebizond in 287 AD,
12733-532: 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
12852-529: The time of the early Byzantine Empire, Trebizond became a center of culture and scientific learning. In the 7th century, an individual named Tychicus returned from Constantinople to establish a school of learning. One of his students was the early Armenian scholar Anania of Shirak . Under the Byzantine Empire, the Pontus came under the Armeniac Theme , with the westernmost parts (Paphlagonia) belonging to
12971-434: 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
13090-578: The travels of Jason and the Argonauts to Colchis , the tales of Heracles ' navigating the Black Sea, and Odysseus ' wanderings into the land of the Cimmerians , as well as the myth of Zeus constraining Prometheus to the Caucasus mountains as a punishment for his outwitting the Gods, can all be seen as reflections of early contacts between early Greek colonists and the local, probably Caucasian, peoples. The earliest known written description of Pontus, however,
13209-550: 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
13328-621: 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 ,
13447-406: 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
13566-665: Was discussed at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 , but the Greek government of Eleftherios Venizelos feared the precarious position of such a state and so it was included instead in the larger proposed state of Wilsonian Armenia. Neither state came into existence and the Pontic Greek population was subjected to genocide and expelled from Turkey after 1922 and resettled in the Soviet Union or in Macedonia . This state of affairs
13685-455: Was later formally recognized as part of the population exchange between Greece and Turkey in 1923. The Black Sea Region ( Turkish : Karadeniz Bölgesi ), comprising all or parts of 22 provinces, is one of Turkey 's seven census-defined geographical regions . It encompasses but is larger than historic Pontus. Mentioned thrice in the New Testament, inhabitants of Pontus were some of
13804-536: 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
13923-465: Was regularly employed to denote the half of this dual province, especially by Romans and people speaking from the Roman point of view; it is so used almost always in the New Testament . The eastern half of the old kingdom was administered as a client kingdom together with Colchis . Its last king was Polemon II . In AD 62, the country was constituted by Nero a Roman province . It was divided into
14042-450: 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
14161-557: Was temporary alliance with a local strongman. The Hittites called the unorganized groups on their northeastern frontier the Kaška . As of 2004 little had been found of them archaeologically. In the wake of the Hittite empire's collapse, the Assyrian court noted that the "Kašku" had overrun its territory in conjunction with a hitherto unknown group whom they labeled the Muški . Iron Age visitors to
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