An outline, era by era

Hittite Empire; Battle of Kadesh (~1274 BCE) vs. Egypt

Bronze Age · ~3300 – ~1200 BCE

The Hittites ruled a kingdom in central Anatolia, in present-day Turkey, from their capital Hattusa. Their kingdom took shape in the 1600s BCE and reached its greatest power in the 1300s and 1200s BCE, when kings such as Suppiluliuma I and Muwatalli II controlled Anatolia and much of northern Syria. They spoke Hittite, the oldest written Indo-European language, and wrote it in cuneiform on clay tablets.

The Hittites were one of the great powers of the Late Bronze Age, alongside Egypt, Babylonia and Assyria. Their main rival was Egypt, and the two clashed over Syria. Around 1274 BCE Ramesses II of Egypt and Muwatalli II fought at Kadesh on the Orontes river, probably the largest chariot battle of the ancient world. Some years later the two kings made a written peace treaty, and copies survive in both languages. Around 1200 BCE the Hittite state collapsed and Hattusa was abandoned.

Things happened, and the rest is history

  1. Suppiluliuma I and the conquest of northern Syria

    Event

    What happened

    Around 1350 BCE the Hittite king Suppiluliuma I begins to rebuild Hittite power after years of attacks on Anatolia. In a first Syrian campaign, the so-called One Year Syrian War, dated by many scholars to about 1340 BCE but debated, he defeats Tushratta of Mitanni's allies in Syria and takes Aleppo among other places. After Tushratta is assassinated and Mitanni falls into a succession crisis, a later Syrian war, often placed in the 1320s BCE, brings the capture of Carchemish. Suppiluliuma sets his sons on the thrones of Carchemish and Aleppo, and makes treaties with Syrian kingdoms such as Ugarit and Amurru, which had been under Mitanni or Egyptian influence.

    The rest is history

    These conquests made the Hittites the dominant power in northern Syria and brought them to the border zone claimed by Egypt. Mitanni was reduced to a weak state under Hittite protection, and Assyria later took much of its land. The dispute between Hatti and Egypt over Kadesh and Amurru is a separate, later story, but it grew out of this new Hittite presence in Syria. It continued for several generations, leading to the clash at Kadesh under Muwatalli II around 1274 BCE and to the treaty of about 1259 BCE. Carchemish stayed in the hands of Suppiluliuma's descendants and was the Hittite viceregal seat in Syria until the empire fell around 1200 BCE.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryDeeds of Suppiluliuma (Res Gestae Suppiluliumae). Hittite royal annals written by his son Mursili II, from Hattusa, c. 1320s BCE.
    2. BookBryce, Trevor. The Kingdom of the Hittites. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.Chapter on Suppiluliuma I and the Syrian campaigns.
    3. BookBeckman, Gary. Hittite Diplomatic Texts. Writings from the Ancient World 7. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1996.Translations of the treaties with Syrian kingdoms and Mitanni.

  2. Muwatalli II moves the capital and the Hittite response to Egypt

    Event

    What happened

    Around 1295 BCE Muwatalli II becomes king of Hatti and, some years later, moves his court from Hattusa south to a city called Tarhuntassa, whose exact location is still unknown. He places his brother Hattusili in charge of the northern lands from Hattusa. In the following years he gathers a coalition of Syrian vassals and allied lands against Egypt, which has been pressing north into the region around Kadesh and Amurru under Seti I and then Ramesses II.

    The rest is history

    This preparation led directly to the clash at Kadesh around 1274 BCE, where the Hittite side fielded a large chariot force and allied contingents. After Muwatalli died, his son Mursili III (Urhi-Teshub) ruled, moved the court back to Hattusa, and was later removed by his uncle Hattusili III around 1267 BCE. Hattusili III then made peace with Ramesses II in the treaty of about 1259 BCE. The location of Tarhuntassa and the exact reasons for the move remain debated.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryApology of Hattusili III. Hittite royal text in Akkadian and Hittite cuneiform, from Hattusa, c. 1250 BCE.
    2. BookBryce, Trevor. The Kingdom of the Hittites. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.Chapters on Muwatalli II, Kadesh and Hattusili III.

  3. Ramesses II wins the Battle of Kadesh

    Heroic tale

    The legend

    Ramesses II marches into Syria and is tricked by two spies who tell him the Hittites are far away. Hittite chariots then smash into his army and he is left almost alone. He calls on the god Amun, charges into the enemy, and by his own strength turns the day into a great victory.

    The rest is history

    The story comes from Egyptian temple reliefs and from texts known as the Poem and the Bulletin, carved on walls at Karnak, Luxor, Abu Simbel and elsewhere. They are royal propaganda. The Egyptian army was surprised and nearly routed, and Ramesses did not capture Kadesh. Hittite sources and later events suggest Muwatalli kept control of the region, and Egypt did not gain Kadesh. The battle was more of a bloody draw, and Egypt claimed it as a triumph. Years later Ramesses made peace with Hattusili III, Muwatalli's brother.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryThe Poem and Bulletin of the Battle of Kadesh. Egyptian royal inscriptions, reign of Ramesses II, c. 1274 BCE onwards, carved at Karnak, Luxor, Abydos, Abu Simbel and the Ramesseum.
    2. BookKitchen, K. A. Pharaoh Triumphant: The Life and Times of Ramesses II. Warminster: Aris & Phillips, 1982.Account of the reign, including the Kadesh campaign.
    3. BookBryce, Trevor. The Kingdom of the Hittites. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.Covers the Hittite view of the Syrian wars.

  4. The treaty between Egypt and Hatti

    Popular belief

    The legend

    It is often said that the treaty between Ramesses II and Hattusili III is the oldest peace treaty in the world, and that a copy hangs at the United Nations in New York to honour it.

    The rest is history

    The treaty is real and was made in about 1259 BCE, in the twenty-first year of Ramesses. The Egyptian version is carved on the walls of Karnak, and the Hittite version, in Akkadian, was found on clay tablets at Hattusa. The two texts differ in wording but agree on peace, mutual defence and the return of fugitives. It is not the earliest known treaty, since earlier agreements between Mesopotamian cities and Hittite kings exist, but it is the best known because both sides survive. A replica of the Hittite tablet is displayed at the United Nations. The original tablet is in the Istanbul Archaeology Museums.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryTreaty between Ramesses II and Hattusili III. Egyptian hieroglyphic version from Karnak and Akkadian version on clay tablets from Hattusa, c. 1259 BCE.
    2. BookBeckman, Gary. Hittite Diplomatic Texts. Writings from the Ancient World 7. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1996.English translation of the Hittite treaties, including the Egyptian one.
    3. BookBryce, Trevor. Letters of the Great Kings of the Ancient Near East. London: Routledge, 2003.

  5. The Hittites as a lost people

    Popular belief

    The legend

    The Hittites are said to have been forgotten for thousands of years, known only from a few mentions in the Bible, until archaeologists suddenly rediscovered a lost empire.

    The rest is history

    The Bible does mention Hittites, but as a small people in Canaan, and nineteenth-century scholars were unsure how they related to the great power known from Egyptian records. In 1906 Hugo Winckler began excavating Boğazköy, the site of Hattusa, and found thousands of cuneiform tablets, many in an unknown language. In 1915 Bedřich Hrozný showed that this language, Hittite, was Indo-European. The archive proved a major kingdom had ruled Anatolia. The Hittites of the Bible were probably a different, later group, as the Neo-Hittite states of Syria kept the name after the empire fell.

    Sources

    1. BookBryce, Trevor. The Kingdom of the Hittites. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.
    2. BookHrozný, Bedřich. Die Sprache der Hethiter. Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1917.Hrozný's decipherment of Hittite as an Indo-European language.

  6. The Hittites and the secret of iron

    Popular belief

    The legend

    The Hittites are said to have invented ironworking and to have kept it a state secret, using iron weapons to build their empire until its fall spread the technique across the world.

    The rest is history

    The idea goes back to early twentieth-century scholars, but the evidence does not support it. Iron objects were rare in the Bronze Age and mostly ceremonial. Hittite texts mention iron as a valuable metal, and one letter from a Hittite king to a ruler of Assyria or another king discusses sending an iron dagger blade. Hittite armies were equipped mainly with bronze. Ironworking spread widely only after about 1200 BCE, when the Hittite state had already fallen, and it developed across several regions rather than from one secret source.

    Sources

    1. ArticleMuhly, James D., Robert Maddin, Tamara Stech, and Ekrem Özgen. "Iron in Anatolia and the Nature of the Hittite Iron Industry." Anatolian Studies 35 (1985): 67-84.
    2. BookBryce, Trevor. The Kingdom of the Hittites. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.

  7. The Sea Peoples destroy the Hittite Empire

    Popular belief

    The legend

    Around 1200 BCE, invaders from the sea known as the Sea Peoples sweep through Anatolia and Syria and burn Hattusa, bringing the empire to an end in a single blow.

    The rest is history

    The Sea Peoples appear in Egyptian inscriptions of Ramesses III, who claims to have defeated them around 1177 BCE. A Hittite-era letter from Ugarit shows that enemy ships were raiding the coast in the last years of the Late Bronze Age. But the evidence for Hattusa suggests a more gradual end. The city was largely emptied before it burned, and royal goods were removed. Scholars point to famine, civil conflict between rival branches of the royal house, and the wider breakdown of trade. How much the Sea Peoples mattered is debated.

    Sources

    1. BookCline, Eric H. 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2014.
    2. BookBryce, Trevor. The Kingdom of the Hittites. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.

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