kings of Bianas (Van), and apparently domiciled on the middle Euphrates N. of Taurus in the 9th century B.C. This name again may safely be identified with Khatti-Kheta.
The Khatti also appear on a “prophecy-tablet,” referring ostensibly to the time of Sargon of Agadé (middle of 4th millennium B.C.); but the document is probably of very much later date. Lastly, a fragmentary chronicle of the 1st Babylonian Dynasty mentions an invasion of Akkad by them about 1800 B.C.
From all these various sources we should gather that the Hittites were among the more important racial elements in N. Syria and S.E. Asia Minor for at least a thousand years. The limits at each end, however, are very ill defined, the superior falling not later than 2000 B.C. and the inferior not earlier than 600 B.C. This people was militant, aggressive and unsettled in the earlier part of that time; commercial, wealthy and enervated in the latter. A memorial of its trading long remained in Asia in the shape of the weight-measure called in cuneiform records the maneh “of Carchemish.” These Hittites had close relations with other Asia Minor peoples, and at times headed a confederacy. During the later part of their history they were in continual contact with Assyria, and, as a Syrian power, and perhaps also as a Cappadocian one, they finally succumbed to Assyrian pressure.
The “Hittite” Monuments.—It remains to consider in the light of the foregoing evidence a class of monuments to which attention began to be called about 1870. In that year two Americans, Consul J. A. Johnson and the Rev. S. Jessup, rediscovered, at Hamah (Hamath) on Orontes, five basaltic blocks bearing pictographic inscriptions in relief, one of which had been reported by J. L. Burckhardt in 1812. In spite of their efforts and subsequent attempts made by Tyrwhitt Drake and Richard Burton, when consul at Damascus, proper copies could not be obtained; and it was not till the end of 1872 that, thanks to W. Wright of Beirut, casts were taken and the stones themselves sent to Constantinople by Subhi Pasha of Damascus. As usually happens when a new class of antiquities is announced, it was soon found that the “Hamathite” inscriptions did not stand alone. A monument in the same script had been seen in Aleppo by Tyrwhitt Drake and George Smith in 1872. It still exists, built into a mosque on the western wall of the city. Certain clay sealings, eight of which bore pictographic signs, found by A. H. Layard in the palace of Assur-bani-pal at Kuyunjik (Nineveh), as long ago as 1851 and noticed then as in a “doubtful character,” were compared by Hayes Ward and found to be of the Hamathite class. A new copy of the long known rock-sculpture at Ivriz[1] in S.W. Cappadocia was published by E. J. Davis in 1876, and clearly showed Hamathite characters accompanying the figures. Davis also reported, but did not see, a similar inscription at Bulgar Maden, not far away. Sculptures seen by W. Skene and George Smith at Jerablus, on the middle Euphrates, led to excavations being undertaken there, in 1878, by the British Museum, and to the discovery of certain Hamathite inscriptions accompanying sculptures, a few of which were brought to London. The conduct of these excavations, owing to the death of George Smith, devolved on Consul Henderson of Aleppo, and was not satisfactorily carried out. Meanwhile Wright, Ward and Sayce had all suggested “Hittite” as a substitute for “Hamathite,” because no other N. Syrian people loomed so large in ancient records as did the Hittites, and the suggestion began to find acceptance. Jerablus was confidently identified with Carchemish (but without positive proof to this day), and the occurrence of Hamathite monuments there was held to confirm the Hittite theory.
In 1876 Sayce pointed out the resemblance between certain Hittite signs and characters in the lately deciphered Cypriote syllabary, and suggested that the comparison might lead to a beginning of decipherment; but the hope has proved vain. To this scholar, however, is owed the next great step ahead. In 1879 it first occurred to him to compare the rock-monuments at Boghaz Keui (see Pteria) and Euyuk in N. Cappadocia, discovered by Texier and Hamilton in 1835 and subsequently explored by G. Perrot and E. Guillaume. These, he now saw, bore Hittite pictographs. Other rock-sculptures at Giaur Kalessi, in Galatia, and in the Karabel pass near Smyrna, he suspected of belonging to the same class[2]; and visiting the last-named locality in the autumn, he found Hittite pictographs accompanying one of the two figures.[3] He announced his discoveries in 1880, and proclaimed the fact that a great Hittite empire, extending from Kadesh to Smyrna, had risen from the dead. A month later he had the good fortune to recover copies of a silver boss, or hilt-top, offered to various museums about 1860, but rejected by them as a meaningless forgery and for a long time lost again to sight. Round the rim was a cuneiform legend, and in the field a Hittite figure with six Hittite symbols engraved twice over on either hand of it. Reading the cuneiform as Tarqu-dimme sar mat Erme (i.e. “T. king of the country E.”), Sayce distributed phonetic values, corresponding to the syllables of the two proper names, among four of the Hittite characters, reserving two as “ideograms” of “king” and “country,” and launched into the field of decipherment. But he subsequently recognized that this was a false start, and began afresh from another basis. Since then a number of other monuments have been found, some on new sites, others on sites already known to be Hittite, the distribution of which can be seen by reference to the accompanying map. It will be observed that, so far as at present known, they cluster most closely in Commagene, Cappadocia and S. Phrygia.
The following notes supplement the map:—
A. West Asia Minor.—“Niobe” (Suratlu Tash) and Karabel (two); rock-cut figures with much defaced hieroglyphs in relief. Remains of buildings, not yet explored, lie near the “Niobe” figure. Nothing purely Hittite has been found at Sardis or in any W. Asian excavation; but small Hittite objects have been sold in Smyrna and Aidin.
B. Phrygia.—Giaur-Kalessi; rock-cut figures and remains of a stronghold, but no inscriptions. Doghanlüdere and Beikeui in the Phrygian rock-monument country; at the first is a sculptured rock-panel with a few pictographs in relief; at the latter a fragment of an inscription in relief was disinterred from a mound. Kolitolu Yaila, near Ilghin; block inscribed in relief, disinterred from mounds apparently marking a camp or palace-enclosure. Eflatun Bunar (= Plato’s Spring), W. of Konia; megalithic building with rude and greatly defaced reliefs, not certainly Hittite: no inscription. Fassiler, W. of Konia; gigantic stela, or composite statue (figure on animals), not certainly Hittite; no inscription. Konia; relief of warrior, drawn by Texier in 1835 and since lost; of very doubtful Hittite character. A gold inscribed Hittite ring, now at Oxford, was bought there in 1903. Emirghazi (anc. Ardistama?); three inscriptions in relief (two on altars) and large mounds. Evidently an important Hittite site. Kara-Dagh; hill-sanctuary with incised carving of seated figure and inscriptions, found by Miss G. L. Bell and Sir W. M. Ramsay in 1907 (see their Thousand and One Churches, 1909).
C. North Cappadocia.—Boghaz Keui (see Pteria); large city with remains of palace, citadel, walls, &c. Long rock-cut inscription of ten lines in relief, two short relief inscriptions cut on blocks, and also cuneiform tablets in Babylonian and also in a native language, first found in situ in 1893, and showing the site to be the capital of Arzawa, whence came two of the Tell el-Amarna letters. Near the site are the rock reliefs of Yasili Kaya in two hypaethral galleries, showing, in the one, two processions composed of over sixty figures meeting at the head of the gallery; in the other, isolated groups of figures, fifteen in number (see for detailed description Murray’s Guide to Asia Minor, 1895, pp. 23 ff.). Pictographs accompany many of the figures. The whole makes the most extensive group of Hittite remains yet known. Boghaz Keui was never thoroughly explored until 1907, the survey of Perrot and Guillaume having been superficial only and the excavations of E. Chantre (1894) very slight. In 1906 a German expedition under Professor H. Winckler undertook the work, and great numbers of cuneiform tablets were found. These refer to the reigns of at least four kings from Subbiluliuma (= Saplel, see above) to Hattusil II. or Khartusil (= Khetasar, see above). The latter was an ally of Katashmanturgu of Babylon,
- ↑ First described by the Turk, Hajji Khalifa, in the 17th century; first seen by the Swedish traveller Otter in 1736, and first published in 1840 in Ritter’s Erdkunde, iii., after a drawing by Major Fischer, made in 1837.
- ↑ The “Niobe” statue near Manisa was not definitely known for “Hittite” till 1882, when G. Dennis detected pictographs near it.
- ↑ The “pseudo-Sesostres” of Herodotus, already demonstrated non-Egyptian by Rosellini. The second figure was unknown, till found by Dr Beddoe in 1856.
