Hittite Empire

The Hittites were an Indo-European people who entered Anatolia around 2000 BC and built an empire centred on the rock fortress of Hattusa in modern Turkey. The Old Kingdom (c. 1600 BC) raided as far as Babylon, and the New Kingdom under Suppiluliuma I (c. 1344–1322) and Muwatalli II (c. 1295–1272) stretched from the Aegean to the upper Euphrates, where it clashed with Egypt under Ramesses II at the great chariot battle of Kadesh in 1274 BC. The Hittite Empire collapsed about 1178 BC during the Late Bronze Age migrations known as the Sea Peoples. Smaller Neo-Hittite kingdoms in northern Syria — Carchemish, Hamath, Karatepe — survived until Assyrian conquest in the 8th century BC. The Old Testament uses the term broadly: Abraham bought a burial cave from Hittites at Hebron (Gen 23), Esau married Hittite wives (Gen 26:34), David’s loyal officer Uriah was a Hittite (2 Sam 11), and Solomon traded with the Hittite kings to the north (1 Kgs 10:29). The Hittites were among the world’s first major ironworkers, and the form of their suzerain-vassal treaties closely parallels the structure of the Sinai covenant.