The Last Days of Hattusa

Biblical Archeology ^ | 5/072016 | Trevor Bryce

[wildbill]

Mysterious Collapse of a Great Ancient Empire. From his capital, Hattusa, in central Anatolia, the last-known Hittite king, Suppiluliuma II (1207 B.C.-?), ruled over a people who had once built a great empire—one of the superpowers (along with Egypt, Mittani, Babylon and Assyria) of the Late Bronze Age. The Kingdom of the Hittites, called Hatti, had stretched across the face of Anatolia and northern Syria, from the Aegean in the west to the Euphrates in the east. But now those days were gone, and the royal capital was about to be destroyed forever by invasion and fire.

[wildbill]

The Hittites and the Egyptians had a titanic struggle between their empires. But they eventually made a peace treaty and the record of that treaty is the first known diplomatic treaty in history.

[wildbill]

Good article on Hittite empire’s collapse for GGG

[Trumpet 1]

Constant wars, royal family infighting, need for manpower for farming, need for manpower for military battles. Toss in some illnesses and no anti-biotics and add a drought and you have got a collapse of a civilization. And of course a few pirates lurking nearby with lots of eager bad guys waiting to seize power. Gee, about the same story every time.

[BenLurkin]

Interesting!

[Red Badger]

Obviously fell because of globull warming!......

[Verginius Rufus]

Trevor Bryce is one of the leading experts on the Hittites alive today.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks wildbill.

One of *those* topics, bigtime.

• Centuries of Darkness: A Challenge to the Conventional Chronology of Old World Archaeology -- Fifteen Frequently Asked Questions
  by Peter James in collaboration with I. J. Thorpe, Nikos Kokkinos, Robert Morkot & John Frankish

  [snip] The question is whether those tree-ring centuries are linked with post-Hittite cultures (as the conventional chronology would have it) or with those of the Hittite Empire (as our model predicts). If Hittite buildings destroyed at the very end of the Late Bronze Age were to be found exclusively with timbers dating from considerably before 1200 BC, then our theory would be in trouble... We stress the word exclusively here, because as with radiocarbon dating there is an 'old wood' problem in tree-ring dating. Dendrochronology can rarely give us a date when a particular piece of wood was used; even less often will it give a date for an archaeological destruction. Dendrochronology gives us the dates when tree rings grew, so one has to be very careful about using it to date archaeological levels... Only the results from one Hittite site have been formally published, those from Tille Höyük on the Euphrates. These were striking. The construction of the last phase of the Tille Höyük Gateway is dated to 1101 + 1 BC, with its use lying in the 11th century BC. Yet Tille Höyük was an Imperial Hittite outpost, which on the conventional chronology would have been constructed about 1300 BC, and destroyed c. 1190 BC. The dendro-date is clearly impossible for the conventional chronology. Furthermore, the best fit for this sample (using the normal T-score statistical test) is actually in 942 + 1 BC (James et al. 1998, 41, n. 10)! An extra statistical test had to be introduced to avoid this awkward conclusion. Kuniholm does indeed have tree-rings for those "nasty centuries". Nastily for the conventional chronology, at Tille Höyük they are associated with the remains of an Empire which was supposed to have fallen at least a century earlier. [/snip]

• "Forgotten Empires" Remembered -- Restoring the Hittites and Mitanni to Their Places in History
  by Lisa Liel

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[SunkenCiv]

http://www.varchive.org/tac/dakhamun.htm

[snip] In the course of the brief reign of Ramses I (Necho I), Tirhaka, who had fought against Sennacherib, Esarhaddon and Assurbanipal, died at his capital of Napata. In Assurbanipal’s words, “The night of death overtook him.” He left behind, widowed, his chief wife Duk-hat-amun, but no sons — a son and another wife had been captured years earlier by Esarhaddon in Memphis and deported to Assyria. The succession to the Ethiopian throne would pass through Duk-hat-amun if she could find a husband of royal blood; if not, Tirhaka’s nephew, Tandamane, was next in the line of succession. [/snip]

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks wildbill.

[OldNewYork]

Unfortunately the Hittites didn’t have the fall of the Hittites to learn from. What’s our excuse?

[Trumpinator]

The Smithsonian had an special on the Hittites hosted by Jeremy Irons.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFyxR1tSeY0

[wildbill]

Saw it. An unusually good dramatic recreation of people and events.

[Trumpinator]

Agree.

[Verginius Rufus]

Uriah the Hittite lived about 200 years after the fall of the Hittite kingdom.

So was he a real Hittite or did he just identify as one to impress Bathsheba?

[wildbill]

He was part of a refugee group of Hittites that fled their homeland due to a band of killers led by a mysterious leader known as Black Bart.

The legend of Black Bart survives is oral tradition and stories until this very day.

[SunkenCiv]

The term Hittite was lifted from the Old Testament to tag the so-called “forgotten empire” upon its discovery. But I’m sure you knew that. :’)

[Verginius Rufus]

In the Septuagint Uriah the Hittite is Ourias Chettaios. I think the term Hittite used of Bronze Age Asia Minor is just the English rendition of the name based on Hatti (an earlier people who spoke an unrelated non-Indo-European language before the Hittites of the 2nd millennium BC showed up).

[SunkenCiv]

Nope. The OT term was already being discussed as an historic people before the discovery of the so-called “forgotten empire”, the capital of which wasn’t discovered until late in the 19th c. The term Hatti is now used to refer to non-Hittites, in part due to the circa 1930s cracking of the cuneiform archive (by Emil Forrer I believe) which found NO trace of any language by that name (Hattish, Hittite, etc) even though the names had been clumsily applied.

Most of the problems stem from the fact that the conventional pseudochronology is dead wrong.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hittites#Biblical_background

[SunkenCiv]

The keywords Hittite, Hittites, Hattusa, Hattusas, and Hatti; sorted newest to oldest, duplicates out, five 'zot' topics out (how they got in, anyone's guess):

• Devastating 'World War ZERO' destroyed ancient civilisations and plunged Europe into a dark age [2016]
• World War Zero brought down mystery civilisation of 'sea people' [2016]
• Early Written Signs [2016]
• Traces of Vikings found at Bathonea archaeological excavation in Istanbul [2015]
• Archaeologists discover secret tunnel in ancient Hittite castle [2015]
• Archaeological team prepares 4,000-year-old Hittite meals [2015]
• Symbols of Hittite goddess of sexuality found on 4,000-year-old tablet discovered in central Turkey [2015]
• European languages linked to migration from the east [2015]
• Pollen Study Points to Drought as Culprit in Bronze Age Mystery (Global Warming in Ancient Times) [2013]
• Syrian Conflict Imperils Historical Treasures [2012]
• University of Toronto archaeologists find...cuneiform tablets in 2,700-year old Turkish temple [2009]
• Phaistos Disk: Greek or Luwian? [2009]
• Hittites' holy city Nerik to emerge [2008]
• Messages from the Dead [ Qatna's royal palace and cuneiform archive ] [2007]
• French Explorer's Bad Luck In Syria Avenged At Last (Hittites) [2006]
• Ancient Hittite Dam Inaugurated After 32 Centuries [2006]
• Hittite graves, artifacts unearthed in Adana [2006]
• First Toilet And Sewer System Of Prehistoric Period Found In Van [2004]
• Amazon Warrior Women [2004]
• Smenkhkhare, the Hittite Pharaoh [2004]
• History Channel to air Ancient Battles [Persians-Greeks-Romans - starts 7/23] [2004]
• Unearthed: the humble origins of world diplomacy (A Preserved Library from 1340BC discovered!) [2003]
• Unearthed: The Humble Origins Of World Diplomacy (Hittites) [2003]
• Key To An Ancient Tongue [2002]
• Recent Finds Prove That Homer's Stories Were More Than Myth [2002]
• Archaeologists Rewrite Timeline Of Bronze And Iron Ages, Alphabet [2001]

for more of interest (and some that got missed, try the Troy/Trojan War/Homer keywords.