PLATE LXXXIII
TYPES OF HITTITE ALLIES.
i. Mongoloid.
ii. Proto-Greek.
Temple of Rameses II. at Abydos.
Though we fail to identify the Hittite race,[721] there is some general indication of the direction whence they came. We have dismissed the direct evidence of the pigtailed element amongst the Hittite peoples, in spite of the temptation of the pigtails on the sculptures of Boghaz-Keui,[722] and the description of a pigtailed leader as a royal Hittite, lest we should push the argument there—from further than might be warranted. We may regard these facts, however, as a general indication of relationship with the East. The contact with Babylonia has been already argued, and we must recall the singular relations between the painted pottery of Sakje-Geuzi with that of Turkestan, extending over a long range of post-neolithic culture.[723] Another link, not previously mentioned, is the early employment by the Hittites of the horse, dating from at least the beginning of the second millennium B.C.,[724] and the antiquity of the remains of horses found equally in the mounds of Turkestan.[725] Another item of evidence on this question may be found in the footgear of the Hittites, which, except in the later sculptures of North Syria, is always represented, as we have seen, as a shoe or boot with upturned toe.[726] This feature is now specially characteristic of the Tartar peoples, and hence another eastward connection is suggested. But it is not so exclusively; the Arabs (who borrowed it in the Middle Ages from the Turks) employ it in the desert sands, and in the more special form in question it may be found in many mountain countries, for example Greece, and it has long been used in Crete. It is commonly supposed to be the natural form of snow-shoe for highland regions, though the shepherds of the Pyrenees, who also use it, believe it to be specially adapted to walking upon broken and stony ground. However that may be, most scholars are agreed that it argues a mountain origin for its Hittite wearers,[727] and this suggestion is borne out by the mountain cults found in the Hittite pantheon.[728] The mountains by which the Hittites reached the plateau of Asia Minor are not far to seek; they lie eastward, in Armenia, the Caucasus, and the Taurus.
PLATE LXXXIV
| 1. A LIVING AMORITE. (See pp. [12], [318].) | 2. SURVIVING HITTITE TYPE. |