Hittites and Kassites

1
Hittites and Kassites

• Old Babylon fell (approximately 1595 B.C.E.) to
  bands of Hittite raiders from Asia Minor (modern
  Turkey). The Hittites withdrew, leaving
  Mesopotamia to the Kassites. The Kassites ruled
  Mesopotamia until 1000 B.C.E.

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BACKGROUND INFORMATION Hittites and Kassites

• Anatolia has been a land bridge between Europe
  and Asia, a highway for armies, and a melting pot
  of nations for six thousand years.
• The ancient world called it Asia Minor because it
  resembled the larger continent of Asia.
• Its central part consists of a plateau surrounded
  by the high Taurus Mountains in the south and the
  Anti-Taurus Mountains in the east with the land
  gradually sloping towards the coastal plains in
  the west and south.
• In area, it is comparable to the state of
  California, but there is little arable land.

• Many diverse peoples lived in Anatolia in 400
  BCE.
• Organized into tribes, hostile to each other,
  they spent their lives farming or fighting.
• In 800 B.C., the Hittites, an Indo European
  people, migrated into Anatolia from the region
  north of the Black Sea, conquered the indigenous
  population, and formed the ruling class for one
  of the great empires of the ancient world.

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Hittites and Kassites

• With a highly developed military machine, the
  Hittites conquered Babylonia and Syria, and
  fought successfully against Egypt.
• They maintained their superiority through
  strategy, good weapons, and by skill in
  diplomacy.
• Their government was a federal state under a
  centralized administration ruled by a king whose
  power was controlled by a council of nobles.
• The king, nobles, and people had rights and
  duties guaranteed them by law.
• The law code substituted the revengeful principle
  of an eye for an eye for the milder principle of
  reparation.

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Hittites and Kassites

• There was no literature, no single language, and
  few works of art.
• They did use iron, as early as 1600 BC., but
  mostly for jewelry and not for weapons.
• They were known throughout the ancient world for
  their ability to train horses. They wrote the
  first book on horse training.
• They also perfected the two-wheeled war chariot.

5
Hittites and Kassites

• Soon after 1200 B.C., the remnants of the Hittite
  population moved into the plains of northern
  Syria where they intermarried with Arameans,
  Hurrians, and Syrians. After 1000 B.C., they were
  completely assimilated by the advancing Assyrian
  Empire.

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HATTUSASCAPITAL CITY OF THE HITTITES

• The center of Hittite power was their capital
  city of Hattusas, built by King Hattusilis I,
  (1650-1620 B.C.).
• It was at Hattusas that the Hittite kings
  conducted the affairs of government, administered
  their diverse empire, and built their royal
  palaces and temples.

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HATTUSAS

• Hattusas was located on the top of a steep cliff
  overlooking a wide, cultivated valley.
• Surrounded by a double wall, the city stretched
  for four miles and was impregnable.
• The walls were the central feature of Hattusas
  and show a great ability to construct massive
  brick and stone fortifications.
• The outer wall was twenty feet high the inner
  was thirty feet high, and both were constructed
  with massive, irregular stones fitted together
  without mortar to support an upper structure of
  brick covered with stucco.
• Towers were placed at one hundred foot intervals
  as an added defense.
• Entrance to the city was through three gates
  the Lions Gate, the Kings Gate, and the Sphinx
  Gate.
• The only sculptures found in the city were
  discovered at the gates.
• Two fierce stone lions guarded the Lions Gate a
  warrior dressed in a kilt and a helmet, and
  carrying a battle ax, guarded the Kings Gate,
  while two sphinxes protected the third gate.
• Inside the walls, four buildings have been
  identified as temples, others as storerooms, and
  one as the library for the royal archives.

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HITTITE EXPANSION

• The next period of Hittite history was one of
  wars and expansion, culminating in the Hittite
  domination of both Palestine and Syria.
• Two great warrior kings, Suppiluliumas,
  (1374-1355 B.C.), and Muwatallis. (1306- 1282
  B.C.), were greatly responsible for creating this
  large empire.
• Suppiluliumas conquered the cities of Aleppo,
  Damascus, and Carchemish in Syria, and added the
  coastal plain of Lebanon, so that the empire
  stretched from the Euphrates in the east, to
  Palestine in the south, to the Mediterranean in
  the west, and the Black Sea in the north.
• His power was so great that the Egyptian queen,
  widow of Tutankhamen, asked to marry
  Suppiluliumass son.
• The king considered the request, but the plans
  for the wedding miscarried when the Hittite
  envoys were murdered by irate Egyptian nobles.

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HITTITE EXPANSION

• Muwatallis, (1306-1282 B.C.), faced a renewed and
  vigorous Egyptian attempt to recover Syria and
  reassert Egyptian influence in the Near East.
• He met and defeated the Egyptian army at Kadesh
  and maintained Hittite supremacy in the south.
• After his reign, Hittite power declined.

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HITTITE RELIGIONTHE TEMPLE AT YNZILIKAYA

• Hittite theology was not greatly developed.
• The gods were invisible and immortal, but their
  needs and interests were human.
• They had to be fed, appeased, and flattered.
• Evil spirits and demons were always ready to
  cause misfortune.

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THE TEMPLE AT YNZILIKAYA

• There was no single, unified, Hittite religion,
  as each city-state kept local gods.
• The Hittite kings assumed the office of supreme
  priest of the realm.
• During the Empire period (1400-1200 B.C.), a
  number of gods and goddesses were designated as
  national deities and worshiped at the capital
  with elaborate rituals.
• It was during this period also that Yazilikaya,
  one of the most important religious shrines, was
  built at a great rock sanctuary two miles from
  Hattusas.
• Here a natural outcrop of limestone cliffs formed
  an enclosed grove.
• Worshippers would pass through the building and
  find themselves in the rock sanctuary with gods
  and goddesses carved in bas-relief upon its
  walls.

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THE TEMPLE AT YNZILIKAYA

• Yaziltkaya represents the official pantheon in
  its final form, but unfortunately only a few of
  the gods and goddesses have been identified.
• The most important god seen in the temple was the
  weather god, Teshub.
• Teshub was worshipped as the King of Heaven,
  Lord of the Land of the Hatti.
• Another recognizable deity is Telipinu, the son
  of the weather god, and the patron god of
  vegetation.
• He is shown holding a twig or an ear of corn.
• One of the winged figures in the procession was
  the Moon god from Mesopotamia.
• The final figure, dressed in the robes of a king,
  has been identified as a sun god or a deified
  king.

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HITTITE WARFARE

• Hittite military superiority over the other
  peoples of the ancient world lay in the
  perfection of a new weapon, the light, horse-
  drawn, battle chariot.
• The chariot had been invented by tile Sumenians,
  but their chariot was little more than a cart on
  solid disc wheels pulled by an onager, where as
  the Hittite vehicle was a buggy with two-spoked
  wheels pulled by two horses.
• This chariot revolutionized military strategy
  because it gave the Hittites great speed and
  mobility in moving into battle, and it
  demoralized foot-soldiers who had to stand
  against charging horses and vehicles.

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HITTITE WARFARE

• Three men usually rode in a Hittite chariot a
  driver and two warriors, one on either side of
  the driver.
• The warriors were armed with a lance, a bow, and
  a rectangular or ax-shaped shield.
• The infantry comprised the rest of the military
  force, and it was used only to mop up after the
  chariot had done its work there was no cavalry
  or navy.

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HITTITE WARFARE

• Strategy was simple catch the enemys army in
  the open and cut it to pieces with the chariots.
• The tactical genius of the Hittite kings is best
  known from the battle of Kadesh.
• The Hittites invaded Syria in 1296 B.C. to
  counteract increased Egyptian activity there
  under Ramses II.
• The Hittite army was encamped north of the city
  of Kadesh on the Orontes River when word came
  that the Egyptian army was advancing northward
  towards Kadesh, The Hittite king, Muwatalus, laid
  his trap carefully.
• Two soldiers posing as deserters were sent to
  Ramses to lure him northward with the false
  information that the Hittite army was many miles
  away at Aleppo.
• Ramses, with one-third of his army, rushed
  northward and camped to the west of Kadesh,
  completely unaware that the Hittite army had
  crossed the Orontes.
• Hidden by the city, the Hittites were now
  opposite him, and in a brilliant movement, the
  Hittite army re-crossed the Orontes and closed in
  on the Egyptian camp from the southeast, cutting
  off Ramses communication with the rest of his
  army.

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HITTITE WARFARE

• Ramses realized his desperate situation only when
  he captured two genuine Hittite spies who
  admitted, under beating, that the Hittite army
  was behind Kadesh and moving up from the
  southeast rather than the north as Ramses
  expected.
• With darkness approaching, Muwatallis retired
  into Kadesh and prepared for a siege, but Ramses
  retreated without attempting to take the city.

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HITTITE WARFARE

• Kadesh was a decisive battle of history because
  with the Egyptian retreat from Syria, the entire
  balance of power in the Near East shifted from
  them to the Hittites.
• Kadesh is also the first battle in history that
  can be reconstructed from written documents, it
  is interesting to note that all the documents are
  Egyptian accounts of the battle, and so Ramses
  becomes the victor.
• Yet historians know from other sources,
  particularly from the provisions of the peace
  treaty, that the war was a Hittite victory.

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The Assyrians (1100-612 B.C.E.)

• The Assyrians were a fierce, warlike people who
  originated in Asia Minor.
• By 665 B.C.E., Assyrian warriors had conquered
  Syria and Palestine and much of Mesopotamia.
• Their southern border was Egypt.
• The Assyrians used terror to govern subject
  peoples.
• Their soldiers were among the first to carry
  weapons made of iron.

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The Assyrian Empire

• The Assyrian political development was unlike
  that of any of the other Mesopotamian peoples.
• Their relative isolation until 1300 B.C.E. and
  the necessities of waging constant warfare after
  this date led them to develop an extremely
  militaristic system.
• The Assyrians disseminated stories of their
  cruelty and brutality in order to terrorize their
  subject peoples.
• Archaeologists disagree on how much influence the
  Sumerians and Old Babylonians had on the
  Assyrians.
• Some parts of the Code of Hammurabi were
  maintained.
• Significant changes were made in the lex talionis
  and the Babylonian system of punishment which was
  based on social class.
• Finally, where the Babylonians reserved the most
  severe penalties for treason, the Assyrians
  prescribed the greatest penalties for
  homosexuality and abortion.
• Some contend that the reason the Assyrians
  considered these acts so grave was because they
  might lead to a lower birthrate and adversely
  affect the size of the military.

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The Chaldeans (New Babylonians 612-538 B.C.E.)

• The Chaldeans drove the Assyrians out of the
  lower Tigris- Euphrates Valley in 612 B.C.E. In
  587 B.C.E. the Chaldeans conquered Syria and
  Palestine.
• Their king, Nebuchadnezzar, destroyed the Temple
  of Solomon and ordered that the leading Jews in
  Jerusalem should be brought to Babylon as slaves
  (Babylonian Captivity in the Book of Daniel).
• Cyrus, King of the Medes and Persians, defeated
  the Chaldeans in 538 B.C.E.

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The Chaldean Religion

• The Chaldeans tried to revive the Old Babylonian
  precepts. They restored Marduk as the chief of
  the gods.
• In fact, the Chaldeans practiced an essentially
  astral religion.
• The gods were envisioned as forces beyond human
  understanding which were centered in the heavenly
  bodies.
• Chief among the Chaldean beliefs was the
  necessity of submitting to fate.
• Surviving texts and temple ornaments indicate
  that the Chaldeans were uninterested in questions
  about life after death

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The Babylonian Empire

• The Amorite victory over the Akkadians (ca. 2000
  BCE.) catalyzed a series of important political
  and cultural developments.
• Through trade, the Babylonians influenced much of
  the ancient world. The Code of Hammurabi (ca.
  1750) elaborated a way of life that had developed
  for centuries.
• The Code presents a compilation of traditions and
  laws that were shared by many of the Mesopotamian
  peoples.

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The Babylonian Empire

• The administration of justice is unequal.
• Membership in a social class determines the
  punishment for a crime.
• In Old Babylon there were three classes. The
  highest class consisted of the King, his retinue,
  priests, and wealthy individuals.
• The second class was made up of free individuals
  Slaves belonged to the lowest class.

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The Babylonian Empire

• The administration of justice was semi-private.
• Individuals and families bore much of the
  responsibility for enforcing the Code.

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The Babylonian Empire

• The idea of justice was based on a concept of
  retribution or lex talionis (law of reciprocal
  punishment in kind an eye for an eye).

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Babylonian Government

• Recent archaeological research has called into
  question the long-held belief that the Babylonian
  government was a theocracy (government by
  priests).
• Priests controlled a substantial amount of
  property but individual owners predominated.
• The King (lugal) exercised power independently
  from the temple.

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The Persians

• Cyrus, king of the southern Persians, led his
  satrapies (vassals) in a successful campaign
  against the Medes in 559 B.C.E
• In the next twenty years his armies created a
  vast empire.
• In 539 B.C.E.. Cyrus conquered the Chaldeans.
  Cambyses, Cyruss son, conquered Egypt in 525
  B.C.E.
• Cambysess successor was Darius the Great.
• Darius governed between 522 and 486 B.C.E.
• He extended the Persian Empire, bringing the
  Persians into conflict with the Greeks.
• Xerxes, Dariuss successor, failed in his attempt
  to conquer the Greeks in 479 B.C.E.
• The Persians constructed a network of roads which
  provided a communications system for the
  government.
• The Royal Road ran for more than 1600 miles from
  Susa (on the Persian Gulf) to Sardis (in Asia
  Minor).

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The Persian Religion

• Zoroastrianism was the Persian religion.
• The prophet Zoroaster established the essentials
  of this religion shortly before 600 B.C.E.
• Zoroastrianism is known primarily as a
  monotheistic religion characterized by worship of
  the holy god Ahura Mazda, who seeks to enlist the
  goodness of humankind in his cosmic struggle
  against the evil spirit Ahriman.
• After death, humans are rewarded or punished on
  the basis of how responsibly they conduct their
  lives.
• Those who sin are sentenced to a period of
  retribution in hell.
• Unlike in Christianity, however, all Zoroastrians
  eventually do find a place in heaven.

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REASONS FOR DECLINE

• Mesopotamia possessed no natural boundaries.
• A near-constant state of warfare existed in the
  region.
• This prevented any city-state or group of
  city-states from developing enough power to hold
  off its rivals.
• After 538 B.C.E., Mesopotamia was absorbed into
  the larger empires that had appeared in the East
  (Persian) and West (Alexander after 330 B.C.E.).