Hittite Empire

The Hittites were an Indo-European-speaking people who built one of the great powers of the Late Bronze Age Near East, centred on their capital Hattusa in north-central Anatolia.

The Hittite state is conventionally dated from around 1650 BCE, when rulers such as Hattusili I and his successor Mursili I forged a kingdom from the Anatolian plateau; Mursili famously raided as far as Babylon around 1595 BCE, helping to topple its first dynasty. After a less-documented 'Middle Kingdom' interval, the empire reached its height in the New Kingdom period from the late 15th through the 13th centuries BCE. Under Suppiluliuma I the Hittites became a dominant force, expanding into Syria and contending with the kingdom of Mitanni and the New Kingdom of Egypt for control of the Levant. This rivalry culminated in the Battle of Kadesh (c. 1274 BCE) between Muwatalli II and Ramesses II of Egypt, one of the largest chariot battles of antiquity, which was followed years later by a celebrated peace treaty, among the earliest surviving international agreements. The Hittites are notable for their advanced use of chariotry, their multilingual archives of cuneiform tablets that have illuminated Bronze Age diplomacy and law, and their early ironworking. Their kingship and administration governed a patchwork of vassal states bound by treaties. Around 1178 BCE Hattusa was destroyed by fire amid the broader Late Bronze Age Collapse, as waves of invaders, internal strain, drought, and the disruptions associated with the Sea Peoples brought down the empire. Smaller Neo-Hittite (Syro-Hittite) states preserved elements of Hittite culture in the centuries that followed.

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