Two different types of "Hittites" are mentioned in the Hebrew Bible (or Old Testament): the Canaanites, who were enslaved by Solomon; and the Neo-Hittites, Hittite kings of northern Syria who traded with Solomon. The events related in the Old Testament occurred in the 6th century BC, well after the glory days of the Hittite Empire had ended. The discovery of the Hittite capital city of Hattusha was an important event in archaeology of the near east, because it increased our understanding of the Hittite Empire as a powerful, sophisticated civilization of the 13th through 17th centuries BC.
What we call the Hittite civilization began as an amalgam of people who lived in Anatolia during the 19th and 20th centuries BC (called the Hatti), and new Indo-Europeans migrants into the Hatti region called the Nesites or the people of Nesa. One of the pieces of evidence for such a cosmopolitan empire is that the cuneiform archives at Hattusha are written in several languages, including Hittite, Akkadian, Hattic, and other Indo-European languages. During their heyday between 1340 and 1200 BC, the Hittite empire ruled much of Anatolia--roughly what today is Turkey.
The top photograph is of the Lion's Gate entrance to Hattusha; the lower picture is of a rock relief at Yazilikaya at Hattusha, showing a carving of the Hittite king Tudhaliya IV being embraced by his personal god Sarruma (Sarruma's the one with the pointed hat). Tudhaliya IV is credited with the final wave construction of Yazilikaya during the 13th century BC. These and more photos in the
Walking Tour of Hattusha were taken by
Nazli Evrim Serifoglu.
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