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. _Doghanludere_ 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, and powerful enough to write to
the Babylonian court as a sovereign of equal standing. His letter
shows that he considered the rise of Assyria a menace to himself.
Winckler claims to read _Hatti_ as the name of the possessors of
Boghaz Keui, and to find in this name the proof of the Hittite
character of Syro-Cappadocian power and of the imperial predominance
of the city. But it remains to be proved whether these tablets were
written there, and not rather, being in a foreign script, abroad, like
most of the Tell el-Amarna archives. O. Puchstein has cleared and
studied important architectural remains. _Euyuk_; large mound with
remains of palace entered between sphinxes. Sculptured wall-dados, but
no Hittite inscriptions. Cuneiform tablets; some Babylonian, others in
a native language. Also inscriptions in early Phrygian character and
language, found in 1894. The most famous of Hittite reliefs is here--a
double-headed eagle "displayed" on the flank of one of the gateway
sphinxes. This is supposed to have suggested to the Seljuks of Konia
their heraldic device adopted in the 13th century, which, brought to
Europe by the Crusaders, became the emblem of Teutonic empire in 1345.
This derivation must be taken, however, _cum grano_, proof of its
successive steps being wanting. Kara-Euyuk; a mound near Dedik,
partially excavated by E. Chantre in 1894. Cuneiform tablets and small
objects possibly, but not certainly, Hittite. A colossal eagle was
found on a deserted site near _Yamuli_ on the middle Halys, in 1907 by
W. Attmore Robinson.
[Illustration: Map of Hittite remains.]
D. SOUTH CAPPADOCIA.--_Karaburna_; long, incised rock-inscription.
_Bogja_, eight hours west of Kaisariye; four-sided _stela_ with
incised inscription. _Assarjik_, on the side of Mt. Argaeus; incised
rock-inscription. _Ekrek_; a fragmentary inscription in relief and an
incised inscription on a _stela_ of very late appearance. _Fraktin_ or
_Farakdin_ (probably anc. _Das-tarkon_); sculptured rock-panel showing
two groups of figures in act of cult, with hieroglyphs in relief.
_Arslan Tash_, near Comana (Cappadocia), on the Soghan Dagh; two
colossal lions, one with incised inscription. _Tashji_ in the Zamanti
valley; rock-relief with rudely incised inscription. _Andaval_ and
_Bor_; inscriptions incised on sculptured _stelae_ of kings (?),
probably from Tyana (_Ekuzli Hissar_). All are now in Constantinople.
A silver seal with hieroglyphs, now at Oxford, came also from Bor.
_Nigdeh_; basalt drum or altar with incised inscription. _Ivriz_;
rock-sculpture of king adoring god, with three inscriptions in relief.
A second sculpture, similar in subject but smaller and much defaced,
was found hard by in 1906. _Bulgar Maden_; long incised rock
inscription, near silver-mines. _Gorun_ (Gurun); two rock-inscriptions
in relief, much damaged. _Arslan-Tepe_, near Ordasu (two hours from
Malatia); large mound whence two sculptured _stelae_ or wall-blocks
with inscriptions in relief have been unearthed (now in Constantinople
and the Louvre). Four other reliefs, reported found near Malatia and
published by J. Garstang in _Annals Arch. and Anthrop._, 1908,
probably came also from Arslan Tepe. _Palanga_; lower aniconic half of
draped statue with incised inscription, now in Constantinople. Also a
small basalt lion. _Arslan Tash_, near Palanga; two rude gateway
lions, uninscribed. _Yapalak_; defaced inscription, reported by J. S.
Sterrett but never copied. _Izgin_; obelisk with long inscription in
relief on all four faces, now in Constantinople. These last four
places seem to lie on a main road leading from Cappadocia to Marash
and the Syrian sites. The expedition sent out by Cornell University in
1907 found several Hittite inscriptions on rocks near _Darende_ in the
valley of the Tokhma Su.
E. NORTH SYRIA.--_Marash_; several monuments (_stelae_, wall-blocks
and two lions) with inscriptions, both in relief and incised (part are
now at Constantinople, part in Berlin and America); evidently one of
the most important of Hittite sites. _Karaburshlu_, _Arbistan_,
_Gerchin_, _Sinjerli_; mounds about the head-waters of the Kara Su.
The last-named mound, brought to O. Puchstein's notice in 1882 by the
chance discovery of sculptured wall-dados, now in Constantinople, was
the scene of extensive German excavations in 1893-1894, directed by F.
v. Luschan and K. Koldewey, and was found to cover a walled town with
central fortified palace. Hittite, cuneiform and old Aramaean
monuments were found with many small objects, most of which have been
taken to Berlin; but no Hittite inscriptions came to light.
_Sakchegeuzu_ (Sakchegozu), a site with several mounds between
Sinjerli and Aintab; series of reliefs, once wall-dados, now in Berlin
and Constantinople. This site is in process of excavation by Professor
J. Garstang of the University of Liverpool. A sculptured portico has
come to light in the smallest of the five mounds, and much pottery,
with incised and painted decoration, has been recovered. _Aintab_;
fragment of relief inscription. _Samsat_ (Samosata); sculptured stela
with incised inscription much defaced. _Jerablus_; see above. Several
Hittite objects sent from Birejik and Aintab to Europe probably came
from Jerablus, others from _Tell Bashar_ on the Sajur. _Kellekli_,
near Jerablus; two _stelae_, one with relief inscription. _Iskanderun_
(Alexandretta); source of a long inscription cut on both sides of a
spheroidal object of unknown origin. _Kirchoglu_, a site on the Afrin,
whence a fragmentary draped statue with incised inscription was sent
to Berlin. _Aleppo_; inscription in relief (see above). _Tell Ahmar_
(on left bank of Euphrates); large _stela_ with sculpture and long
relief inscription, found in 1908 with several sculptured slabs and
two gateway lions, inscribed in cuneiform. Two hours south, a lion and
a fragment of a relief inscription were found in 1909 by Miss G. L.
Bell. _Tell Halaf_ in Mid-Mesopotamia, near Ras el-Ain; sculptures on
portico of a temple or palace; cuneiform inscriptions and large
mounds, explored in 1902 by Oppenheim. _Hamah_; five blocks inscribed
in relief (see above).
F. OUTLYING SITES.--_Erzerum_; source of an incised inscription,
perhaps not originally found there. _Kedabeg_; metal boss or hilt-top
with pictographs, found in a tomb and stated by F. Hommel to be
Hittite, but doubtful. _Toprak Kaleh_; bronze fragments with two
pictographs; doubtful if Hittite. _Nineveh_; sealings, see above.
Babylon; a bowl and a stela of storm-god, both with incised
inscriptions; doubtless spoil of war or tribute brought from Syria.
The bowl is inscribed round the outside, the _stela_ on the back.
(For a detailed description of the subjects of the reliefs, &c., with
the necessary illustrations, see the works indicated in the
bibliography.)
_Structures._--The structural remains found as yet on Hittite sites are
few, scanty and far between. They consist of: (a) Ground plans of a
palatial building and three temples and fortifications with sculptured
gate at Boghaz Keui. The palace was built round a central court, flanked
by passages and entered by a doorway of three _battants_ hung on two
columns. The whole plan bears more than a superficial resemblance to
those of Cretan palaces in the later Minoan period. Only the rough core
of the walls is standing to a height of about 3 ft. The fortifications
of the citadel have an elaborate double gate with flanking towers, (b)
Fortifications, palace, &c., at Sinjerli. The gates here are more
elaborate than at Boghaz Keui, but planned with the same idea--that of
entrapping in an enclosed space, barred by a second door, an enemy who
may have forced the first door, while flanking towers would add to his
discomfiture. The palace plan is again rectangular, with a central
pillared hall, and very similar in plan to that of Boghaz Keui. The
massive walls are also of similar construction. Dados of
relief-sculpture run round the inner walls; this feature seems to have
been common to Hittite buildings of a sumptuous kind, and accounts for
most of the sculptured blocks that have been found, e.g. at Jerablus,
Sakhchegeuzu, Euyuk, Arslan Tepe, &c. Columns, probably of wood, rested
on bases carved as winged lions, (c) Gate with sculptured approach at
Euyuk. The ground plan of the gate is practically the same in idea as
that at Sinjerli. Structures were found at Jerablus, but never properly
uncovered or planned, (d) Sculptured porticoes of temples or palaces
uncovered at Sakchegeuzu and Tell Halaf (see above). On other sites,
e.g. Arslan Tepe (Ordasu), Arbistan, Marash (above the modern town and
near the springs), Beikeui, mounds, doubtless covering structures, may
be seen, and sculptured slabs have been recovered. The mounds, probably
Hittite, in N. Syria alone are to be counted by hundreds. No tombs
certainly Hittite have been found,[4] though it is possible that some of
the reliefs (e.g. at Fraktin) are of funerary character.
_Sculptures and other Objects of Art._--The sculptures hitherto found
consist of reliefs on rocks and on _stelae_, either honorific or
funerary; reliefs on blocks forming parts of wall-dados; and a few
figures more or less in the round, though most of these (e.g. the
sphinxes of Euyuk and the lions of Arslan Tash and Marash) are not
completely disengaged from the block. The most considerable sculptured
rock-panels are at Boghaz Keui (see Pteria); the others (Ivriz, Fraktin,
Karabel, Giaur Kalessi, Doghanludere), it should be observed, all lie N.
of Taurus--a fact of some bearing on the problem of the origin and local
domicile of the art, since rock-reliefs, at any rate, cannot be
otherwise than _in situ_. Sculptured _stelae_, honorific or funerary,
all with pyramidal or slightly rounded upper ends, and showing a single
regal or divine figure or two figures, have come to light at Bor,
Marash, Sinjerli, Jerablus, Babylon, &c. These, like most of the
rock-panels, are all marked as Hittite by accompanying pictographic
inscriptions. The wall-blocks are seldom inscribed, the exceptions (e.g.
the Arslan Tepe lion-hunt and certain blocks from Marash and Jerablus)
being not more certainly wall-dados than _stelae_. The only fairly
complete anthropoid statue known is the much-defaced "Niobe" at Suratlu
Tash, engaged in the rock behind. The aniconic lower part of an
inscribed statue wholly in the round was found at Palanga, and parts of
others at Kirchoglu and Marash. Despite considerable differences in
execution and details, all these sculptures show one general type of
art, a type which recalls now Babylonian, now Assyrian, now Egyptian,
now archaic Ionian, style, but is always individual and easily
distinguishable from the actual products of those peoples. The figures,
whether of men or beasts, are of a squat, heavy order, with internal
features (e.g. bones, muscles, &c.) shown as if external, as in some
Mesopotamian sculptures. The human type is always very brachycephalic,
with brow receding sharply and long nose making almost one line with the
sloping forehead. In the sculptures of the Commagene and the Tyana
districts, the nose has a long curving tip, of very Jewish appearance,
but not unlike the outline given to Kheta warriors in Egyptian scenes.
The lips are full and the chin short and shaven. The whole physiognomy
is fleshy and markedly distinct from that of other Syrians. At Boghaz
Keui, Euyuk and Jerablus, the facial type is very markedly non-Semitic.
But not much stress can be laid on these differences owing to (1) great
variety of execution in different sculptures, which argues artists of
very unequal capacity; (2) doubt whether individual portraits are
intended in some cases and not in others. The hair of males is
sometimes, but not always, worn in pigtail. The fashions of
head-covering and clothes are very various, but several of them--e.g.
the horned cap of the Ivriz god; the conical hat at Boghaz Keui,
Fraktin, &c; the "jockey-cap" on the Tarkudimme boss; the broad-bordered
over-robe, and the upturned shoes--are not found on other Asiatic
monuments, except where Hittites are portrayed. Animals in profile are
represented more naturalistically than human beings, e.g. at Yasili
Kaya, and especially in some pictographic symbols in relief (e.g. at
Hamah). This, however, is a feature common to Mesopotamian and Egyptian,
and perhaps to all primitive art.
The subjects depicted are processions of figures, human and divine
(Yasili Kaya, Euyuk, Giaur Kalessi); scenes of sacrifice or adoration,
or other cult-practice (Yasili Kaya, Euyuk, Fraktin, Ivriz, and perhaps
the figures seated beside tables at Marash Sakchegeuzu, Sinjerli, &c.);
of the chase (Arslan Tepe, Sakchegeuzu); but not, as known at present,
of battle. Both at Euyuk and Yasili Kaya reliefs in one and the same
series are widely separated in artistic conception and execution, some
showing the utmost _naivete_, others expressing both outline and motion
with fair success. The fact warns us against drawing hasty inductions as
to relative dates from style and execution.
Besides sculptures, well assured, Hittite art-products include a few
small objects in metal (e.g. heavy, inscribed gold ring bought by Sir W.
M. Ramsay at Konia; base silver seal, supported on three lions' claws,
bought by D. G. Hogarth at Bor; inscribed silver boss of "Tarkudimme,"
mentioned above, &c. &c.); many intaglios in various stones (chiefly in
steatite), mostly either spheroidal or gable-shaped, but a few
scarabaeoid, conical or cylindrical, bearing sometimes pictographic
symbols, sometimes divine, human or animal figures. The best collection
is at Oxford. The majority are of very rude workmanship, bodies and
limbs being represented by mere skeleton lines or unfilled outlines; a
few vessels (e.g. inscribed basalt bowl found at Babylon) and fragments
of ware painted with dark ornament on light body-clay, or in polychrome
on a cream-white slip, or black burnished, found on N. Cappadocian
sites, &c. The bronzes hitherto claimed as Hittite have been bought on
the Syrian coast or come from not certainly Hittite sites in Cappadocia
(see E. Chantre, _Mission en Cappadocie_). A great many small objects
were found in the excavations at Sinjerli, including carved ivories,
seals, toilet-instruments, implements, &c., but these have not been
published. Nor, except provisionally, has the pottery, found at
Sakchegeuzu.
_Inscriptions._--These, now almost sixty in number (excluding seals),
are all in a pictographic character which employed symbols somewhat
elaborately depicted in relief, but reduced to conventional and
"shorthand" representations in the incised texts. So far, the majority
of our Hittite inscriptions, like those first found at Hamah, are in
relief (cameo); but the incised characters, first observed in the Tyana
district, have since been shown, by discoveries at Marash, Babylon, &c.,
to have had a wider range. It has usually been assumed that the incised
inscriptions, being the more conventionalized, are all of later date
than those in relief; but comparison of Egyptian inscriptions, wherein
both incised and cameo characters coexisted back to very early times,
suggests that this assumption is not necessarily correct. The Hittite
symbols at present known show about two hundred varieties; but new
inscriptions continually add to the list, and great uncertainty remains
as to the distinction of many symbols (i.e. whether mere variants or
not), and as to many others which are defaced or broken in our texts.
The objects represented by these symbols have been certainly identified
in only a few instances. A certain number are heads (human and animal)
detached from bodies, in a manner not known in the Egyptian hieroglyphic
system, with which some of the other symbols show obvious analogies.
Articles of dress, weapons, tools, &c., also appear. The longer
inscriptions are disposed in horizontal zones or panels, divided by
lines, and, it seems, they were to be read _boustrophedon_, not only as
regards the lines (which begin right to left) but also the words, which
are written in columnar fashion, syllable _below_ syllable, and read
downwards and upwards alternately. The direction of reading is towards
any faces which may be shown among the pictographs. The words are
perhaps distinguished in some texts by punctuation marks.
Long and patient efforts have been made to decipher this script, ever
since it was first restored to our knowledge; and among the would-be
decipherers honourable mention must be made, for persistence and
courage, of Professor A. H. Sayce and of Professor P. Jensen. Other
interpretations have been put forward by F. E. Peiser (based on
conjectures as to the names on the Nineveh sealings), C. R. Conder
(based largely on Cypriote comparisons and phonetic values transferred
from these) and C. J. Ball (based on Hittite names recorded on Egyptian
and Assyrian monuments, and applied to word-groups on the Hittite
monuments). These, however, as having arbitrary and inadequate
foundations, and for other reasons, have not been accepted. F. Hommel,
J. Halevy and J. Menant have done useful work in distinguishing
word-groups, and have essayed partial interpretations. No other
decipherers call for mention. A. H. Sayce and P. Jensen alone have
enlisted any large body of adherents; and the former, who has worked
upon his system for thirty years and published in the _Proceedings of
the Society for Biblical Archaeology_ for 1907 a summary of his method
and results, has proceeded on the more scientific plan. His system,
however, like all others, is built in the main upon hypotheses incapable
at present of quite satisfactory verification, such, for example, as the
conjectural reading "Gargamish" for a group of symbols which recurs in
inscriptions from Jerablus and elsewhere. In this case, to add to the
other obvious elements of uncertainty, it must be borne in mind that the
location of Carchemish at Jerablus is not proved, though it is very
probable. Other conjectural identifications of groups of symbols with
the place-names Hamath, Marash, Tyana are bases of Sayce's system.
Jensen's system may be said to have been effectually demolished by L.
Messerschmidt in his _Bemerkungen_ (1898); but Sayce's system, which has
been approved by Hommel and others, is probably in its main lines
correct. Its frequent explanation, however, of incompatible symbols by
the doctrines of phonetic variation and interchange, or by alternative
values of the same symbol used as ideograph, determinative or phonetic
complement, and the occasional use of circular argument in the process
of "verification," do not inspire confidence in other than its broader
results. Sayce's phonetic values and interpretations of determinatives
are his best assured achievements. But the words thus arrived at
represent a language on which other known tongues throw little or no
light, and their meaning is usually to be guessed only. In some
significant cases, however, the Boghaz Keui tablets appear to give
striking confirmation of Sayce's conjectures.
Writing in 1903 L. Messerschmidt, editor of the best collection of
Hittite texts up to date, made a _tabula rasa_ of all systems of
decipherment, asserting that only one sign out of two hundred--the
bisected oval, determinative of divinity--had been interpreted with any
certainty; and in view of this opinion, coupled with the steady refusal
of historians to apply the results of any Hittite decipherment, and the
obvious lack of satisfactory verification, without which the piling of
hypothesis on hypothesis may only lead further from probability, there
is no choice but to suspend judgment for some time longer as to the
inscriptions and all deductions drawn from them.
_Are the Monuments Hittite?_--It is time to ask this question, although
a perfectly satisfactory answer can only be expected when the
inscriptions themselves have been deciphered. Almost all "Hittitologues"
assume a connexion between the monuments and the Kheta-Khatti-Hittites,
but in various degrees; e.g. while Sayce has said roundly that common
sense demands the acceptance of all as the work of the Hittites, who
were the dominant caste throughout a loosely-knit empire extending at
one time from the Orontes to the Aegean, Messerschmidt has stated with
equal dogmatism that the Hittites proper were only one people out of
many[5] in N. Syria and Asia Minor who shared a common civilization, and
that therefore they were authors of a part of the monuments
only--presumably the N. Syrian, Commagenian and Cataonian groups. O.
Puchstein[6] has denied to the Hittites some of the N. Syrian monuments,
holding these of too late a date (judged by their Assyrian analogies)
for the flourishing period of the Kheta-Khatti, as known from Egyptian
and Assyrian records. He would ascribe them to the Kummukh
(Commagenians), who seem to have succeeded the Khatti as the strongest
opponents of Assyria in these parts. He was possibly right as regards
the Sinjerli and Sakchegeuzu sculptures, which are of provincial
appearance. The following considerations, however, may be stated in
favour of the ascription of the monuments to the Hittites:--
(1) The monuments in question are found frequently whereever, from other
records, we know the Hittites to have been domiciled at some period,
i.e. throughout N. Syria and in Cataonia. (2) It was under the Khatti
that Carchemish was a flourishing commercial city; and if Jerablus be
really Carchemish, it is significant that apparently the most numerous
and most artistic of the monuments occur there. (3) Among all the early
peoples of N. Syria and Asia Minor known to us from Egyptian and
Assyrian records, the Kheta-Khatti alone appear frequently as leading to
war peoples from far beyond Taurus. (4) The Kheta certainly had a system
of writing and a glyptic art in the time of Rameses II., or else the
Egyptian account of their copy of the treaty would be baseless. (5) The
physiognomy given to Kheta warriors by Egyptian artists is fairly
representative of the prevailing type shown in the Hittite sculptures.
Furthermore, the Boghaz Keui tablets, though only partially deciphered
as yet, go far to settle the question. They show that whether Boghaz
Keui was actually the capital of the Hatti or not, it was a great city
of the Hatti, and that the latter were an important element in
Cappadocia from very early times. Before the middle of the 16th century
B.C. the Cappadocian Hatti were already in relations, generally more or
less hostile, with a rival power in Syria, that of Mitanni; and
Subbiluliuma (= Saplel or Saparura), king of these Hatti, a contemporary
of Amenophis IV. and Rameses I., seems to have obtained lasting dominion
in Syria by subduing Dushratta of Mitanni. Carchemish thenceforward
became a Hatti city and the southern capital of Cappadocian power. Since
all the Syrian monuments of the Hittite class, so far known, seem
comparatively late (most show such strong Assyrian, influence that they
must fall after 1100 B.C. and probably even considerably later), while
the North Cappadocian monuments (as Sayce, Ramsay, Perrot and others saw
long ago) are the earlier in style, we are bound to ascribe the origin
of the civilization which they represent to the Cappadocian Hatti.
Whether the Mitanni had shared in that civilization while independent,
and whether they were racially kin to the Hatti, cannot be determined at
present. Winckler has adduced evidence from names of local gods to show
that there was an Indo-European racial element in Mitanni; but none for
a similar element in the Hatti, whose chief god was Teshub. The majority
of scholars has always regarded the Hittites proper as, at any rate,
non-Semitic, and some leading authorities have called them
proto-Armenian, and believed that they have modern descendants in the
Caucasus. This racial question can hardly be determined till those Hatti
records, whether in cuneiform or pictographic script, which are couched
in a native tongue, not in Babylonian, are read. In the meantime we have
proper names to argue from; and these give us at least the significant
indication that the Hittite nominative ended in _s_ and the accusative
in _m_. In any case the connexion of the Hatti with the peculiar class
of monuments which we have been describing, can hardly be further
questioned; and it has become more than probable that the Hatti of
Cappadocia were responsible in the beginning for the art and script of
those monuments and for the civilization of which they are memorials.
Other peoples of north Syria and Asia Minor (e.g. the Kummukh or
Commagenians and the Muski or Phrygians) came no doubt under the
influence of this civilization and imitated its monuments, while subject
to or federated with the Hatti. Through Phrygia and Lydia (q.v.)
influences of this same Cappadocian civilization passed towards the
west; and indeed, before the Greek colonization of Asia Minor, a loosely
knit Hatti empire may have stretched even to the Aegean. The Nymphi
(Kara Bel) and Niobe sculptures near Smyrna are probably memorials of
that extension. Certainly some inland Anatolian power seems to have kept
Aegean settlers and culture away from the Ionian coast during the Bronze
Age, and that power was in all likelihood the Hatti kingdom of
Cappadocia. Owing perhaps to Assyrian aggression, this power seems to
have begun to suffer decay about 1000 B.C. and thereafter to have shrunk
inwards, leaving the coasts open. The powers of Phrygia and Lydia rose
successively out of its ruins, and continued to offer westward passage
to influences of Mesopotamian culture till well into historic times. The
Greeks came too late to Asia to have had any contact with Hatti power
obscured from their view by the intermediate and secondary state of
Phrygia. Their earliest writers regarded the latter as the seat of the
oldest and most godlike of mankind. Only one Greek author, Herodotus,
alludes to the pre-historic Cappadocian power and only at the latest
moment of its long decline. At the same time, some of the Greek legends
seem to show that peoples, with whom the Greeks came into early contact,
had vivid memories of the Hatti. Such are the Amazon stories, whose
local range was very extensive, and the myths of Memnon and Pelops. The
real reference of these stories, however, was forgotten, and it has been
reserved to our own generation to rediscover the records of a power and
a civilization which once dominated Asia Minor and north Syria and
occupied all the continental roads of communication between the East and
the West of the ancient world. The credit of having been the first to
divine this importance of the Hittites should always be ascribed to
Sayce.
The history of the Hatti and their civilization, then, would appear to
have been, very briefly, this. They belonged to an ethnic scattered
widely over Eastern Asia Minor and Syria at an early period (Khatti
invaded Akkad about 1800 B.C. in the reign of Samsuditana); but they
first formed a strong state in Cappadocia late in the 16th century B.C.
Subbiluliuma became their first great king, though he had at least one
dynastic predecessor of the name of Hattusil. The Hatti now pushed
southwards in force, overcame the kingdom of Mitanni and proceeded
partly to occupy and partly to make tributary both north Syria and
western Mesopotamia where some of their congeners were already settled.
They came early into collision with Egypt, and at the height of their
power under Hattusil II. fought the battle of Kadesh with Rameses II.,
on at least equal terms. Both now and previously the diplomatic
correspondence of the Hatti monarchs shows that they treated on terms
of practical equality with both the Babylonian and the Egyptian courts;
and that they waged constant wars in Syria, mainly with the Amorite
tribes. At this time the Hatti empire or confederacy probably included,
on the west, both Phrygia and Lydia. The Boghaz Keui correspondence
ceases to be important with the generation following Hattusil II., and
in the Assyrian records, which begin about a couple of centuries later,
we find Carchemish the chief Hatti city and N. Syria called the
Hatti-land. It is possible therefore that a change of imperial centre
took place after the Hatti had ceased to fear Egypt in north Syria. If
so, the continuation of Hittite history will have to be sought among the
remains at Jerablus and other middle Euphratean sites, rather than in
those at Boghaz Keui. The establishment of the Hatti at Carchemish not
only made them a commercial people and probably sapped their highland
vigour, but also brought them into closer proximity to the rising North
Semitic power of Assyria, whose advent had been regarded with
apprehension by Hattusil II. (see above). One of his successors,
Arnaunta (late 13th century?), was already feeling the effect of
Assyrian pressure, and with the accession of Tiglath Pileser I., about a
century later, a long but often interrupted series of Assyrian efforts
to break up the Hatti power began. A succession of Ninevite armies
raided north Syria and even south-east Asia Minor, and gradually reduced
the Hatti. But the resistance of the latter was sturdy and prolonged.
They remained the strongest power in Syria and eastern Asia Minor till
well into the first millennium B.C., and their Syrian seat was not lost
finally till after the great extension of Assyrian power which took
place in the latter part of the 9th century. What had been happening to
their Cappadocian province meanwhile we do not yet know; but the
presence of Phrygian inscriptions at Euyuk and Tyana, ancient seats of
their power, suggests that the client monarchy in the Sangarius valley
shook itself free during the early part of the Hittite struggle with
Assyria, and in the day of Hatti weakness extended its dominion over the
home territory of its former suzerain. "White Syrians," however, were
still in Cappadocia even after the Cimmerians had destroyed the Phrygian
monarchy, allowing Lydia to become independent under the Mermnad
dynasty. Croesus found them centred at Pteria in the 6th century and
dealt them a final blow. But much of their secular or religious custom
lived on to be recorded by Greek writers, and regarded by modern
scholars as typically "Anatolian."
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--General summaries: L. Messerschmidt, _The Hittites_
("Ancient East" series, vi., 1903); A. H. Sayce, _The Hittites_
("Bypaths of Biblical Knowledge" series, xii., 2nd ed. 1892); G.
Perrot and C. Chipiez, _History of Art in Sardinia, Judaea, Syria and
Asia Minor_ (Eng. trans., vol. ii., 1890); L. Lantsheere, _De la race
et de la langue des Heteens_ (1891); P. Jensen, _Hittiter und
Armenier_ (1898); M. Jastrow, final chapter in H. V. Hilprecht,
_Exploration in Bible Lands_ (1903); W. Wright, _Empire of the
Hittites_ (1884); F. Hommel, _Hettiter und Skythen_ (1898); D. G.
Hogarth, _Ionia and the East_ (1909); W. Max Muller, _Asien und
Europa_, chap. xxv. (1893). See also authorities for Egyptian and
Assyrian history.
Inscriptions: L. Messerschmidt, "Corpus inscr. Hettiticarum,"
_Zeitsch. d. d. morgenland. Gesellschaft_ (1900, 1902, 1906, &c.), and
"Bemerkungen zu d. Heth. Inschriften," _Mitteil. d. vorderasiat.
Gesellschaft_ (1898); P. Jensen, "Grundlagen fur eine Entzifferung der
(Hat. oder) Cilicischen Inschriften," _Zeitschr. d. d. morgenland.
Gesellschaft_ (1894); F. E. Peiser, _Die Hettitischen Inschriften_
(1892); A. H. Sayce, "Decipherment of the Hittite Inscriptions,"
_Proc. Soc. of Bibl. Archaeology_ (1903), and "Hittite Inscriptions,
translated and annotated," ibid. (1905, 1907); J. Menant, "Etudes
Heteennes," _Recueil de travaux rel. a la philologie, &c._, and _Mem.
de l'Acad. Inscr._, vol. xxxiv. (1890); J. Halevy in _Revue
semitique_, vol. i. Also divers articles by A. H. Sayce, F. Hommel and
others in _Proc._ and _Trans. Soc. Bibl. Arch._ since 1876, and in
_Recueil de travaux, &c._, since its beginning.
Exploration: G. Perrot and E. Guillaume, _Exploration arch. de la
Galatie_, &c. (1862-1872); E. Chantre, _Mission en Cappadocie_ (1898);
Sir W. M. Ramsay, "Syro-Cappadocian Monuments," in _Athen.
Mitteilungen_ (1889), with D. G. Hogarth, "Pre-Hellenic Monuments of
Cappadocia," in _Recueil de travaux_, &c. (1892-1895); and with Miss
Gertrude Bell, _The Thousand and One Churches_ (1909); C. Humann and
O. Puchstein, _Reisen in Nord-Syrien_, &c. (1890). J. Garstang in
_Annals of Archaeology and Anthropology_, i. (1908) and following
numbers. Reports on excavations at Sinjerli in _Berl. Philol.
Wochenschrift_ (1891), pp. 803, 951; and F. von Luschan, and others,
"Ausgrabungen in Sendschirli" in _Mitteil. Orient-Sammlungen_ (Berlin
Museum, 1893 ff.); and on excavations at Boghaz-Keui, H. Winckler in
_Orient. Literaturzeitung_ (Berlin, 1907); _Mitteil.
Orient-Gesellschaft_ (Dec. 1907). See also s.v. PTERIA. (D. G. H.)