Anatolia
Introduction
The earliest Indo-European people settled in Anatolia about 2500 B.C. These were the ancestors of the Hittites. The Hittites were descended from the line of Heth, son of Canaan, son of Ham, who was the son of Noah (Genesis 10:15). The sons of Heth lived not only in Anatolia, but also had lived in Canaan even in the early days, for Abraham bought a field and cave to bury his wife Sarah in from a Hittite, named Ephron (Genesis 23). It is known that they dwelt in Hebron, which is in Canaan. Caleb later inherits this land (Joshua 14:13). The Hittites were also one of the nations that the Israelites were supposed to drive out of the land (Deuteronomy 7:1).
The land of Anatolia they lived in had extremes in temperature and fierce storms to deal with. They learned how to use metals and to farm.
About 2000 B.C., the valley of the Halys River was settled by the Khatti, about which there is little known. The Hittites conquered these people about 1900 B.C. and established Hattusas as their capital. The Hittites controlled most of Anatolia within a century.
One of the greatest kings before the Empire period was Mursilis I, who established a federation of 10 city-states, which were vassals of the ‘Great King’. In 1595 B.C., Mursilis conquered northern Syria. He continued down to the Tigris-Euphrates valley. He captured Babylon and the Amorite dynasty with the help of the Kassites. Soon after his return home, he was assassinated because of a palace conspiracy. The country fell into a state of anarchy.
In 1525 B.C., a noble named Telipinus seized the throne. He married into the royal family and destroyed his rivals. He also established a law, that if a king may have no heir, the noble of highest rank would receive the throne. The noble would then marry into the royal line, just as he had done. After his reign, the Hittites’ rule and land borders remained status quo until the rise of the Hittite empire.
The Hittite Empire
The empire began under the rule of Suppiluliumas in 1380 B.C., and he ruled for 40 years. He was a great military leader. He established an administration that would effectively rule the vast empire he established. He had advanced military equipment: for example, a new chariot design with 2-spoked wheels, unlike previous chariot designs with 4 solid wheels. They were designed also to hold 3 men instead of 2. Most of Syria fell to the Hittites under Suppiluliumas’ army. One of his sons was to marry the widow of Tutankhamun, but was murdered. Though Suppiluliumas did not live much longer, under his successors his empire was not seriously threatened. Ramses II of Egypt fought with the Hittites at Kadesh in 1300 B.C. Ramses did not win; yet again, he rose against them years later when Hattusilis III was in power over the Hittites. Hattusilis was concerned about the growing power of the Assyrians, and made a treaty with Ramses II that neither side would threaten each other again. There were two copies found of this treaty, the silver tablet of Ramses, and the clay tablet of the Hittites, in Hattusas.
Around 1200 B.C., the Hittites were threatened by a group of people known as the Phrygians, and they could not drive them out. Some of the Hittites had lived on in Palestine since that time, and also had scattered city-states throughout the land during Solomon’s day (cf. 1 Kings 10:29; 2 Kings 7:6).
Hittite Language
The Hittite language was written with their own system of hieroglyphics, though it had been determined that the language is of Indo-European origin. This is evident in noun suffixes and verbs, as well as the roots of the words.
Hittite Government
They had a feudal society similar to the Assyrians. Nobles served as judges and also could elect kings, up until the time where Telipinus ordered his decree on succession. The king thereafter had supreme authority and was often referred to as "the Sun", and it was believed that they had a special relationship with the gods.
The Hittites also had a well-developed legal system. There was little usage for capital punishment. There was usually compensation to the victims for crimes, as opposed to the code of Hammurabi’s "eye for an eye" policy.
Agriculture was the main source of their economy. They also had an extensive supply of iron ore, the only vast supply of the Middle East. They learned how to weld iron to perfection, and kept their methods a secret from other civilizations. They would extract the iron with limestone, reheat it and cool it once again to produce a most useful material, which is known as wrought iron.
Religion
The gods, like many others in history, were anthropomorphic in character. They also had the "same needs and shortcomings as human beings’ (Howe, 73). Priests gave them offerings of food and clothing daily, and were not surprised not to hear from them. The most important deity was Teshub, the god of weather. Ishtar was another important deity, a goddess of fertility, whom they adopted from the Babylonians. The king served as chief priest during festival times to the gods. Ishtar-worship was introduced to the Lydians, which they in turn introduced Ishtar to the Greeks who called her ‘Great Mother’, or Cybele.
Sources
Howe, Helen and Robert Howe. Ancient and Medieval Worlds. White Plains: Longman, 1992. Chapter 3.