Hittites: And Their Contemporaries in Asia Minor - Hardcover

MacQueen, J. G.

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9780500021088: Hittites: And Their Contemporaries in Asia Minor

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0500021082 ISBN 13: 9780500021088

Publisher: Thames & Hudson, 1986

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The Hitites were an Indo-European- speaking people who occupied a large part of present-day Turkey in the second half of the second millennium B.C. Evidence from Kultepe (Kanesh) and elsewhere in Anatolia suggests that they were already present in the area by the beginning of the millennium, but the date of their arrival, the route by which they came, and the way in which they superseded their Hattian predecessors are all matters on which there is a considerable amount of uncertainty. By about 1650 the Hittites had established their capital at Bogazkoy (Hattusas) in central Turkey, and soon their influence began to be felt as far afield as northern Syria. In 1595 they captured Babylon, on the lower Euphrates, and this event marks their emergence as a great power in the Middle Eastern world. From then on they dealt on equal terms with Assyria, Babylon and Egypt until the destruction of their empire by the mysterious "Sea Peoples" about 1200. Mr Macqueen examines the textual and archaeological evidence for a reconstruction of Hittite history and geography, and suggests economic reasons which may have provided the dynamics for the internal organization and the imperial expansion of the Hittite empire. He also examines, within the context of his theme, daily life in Late Bronze Age Anatolia, warfare, politics and religion, administration, literature, art and architecture. His survey covers the cultures of other Anatolian peoples who came into contact with the Hittites- notably the Arzawans, whose kingdom in western Turkey was for much of the period a formidable obstacle to Hittite aspirations.

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