The land of the Hittites

by John Garstang

For transport in war the Hittites seem to have employed freely a covered wagon on four wheels, a characteristic vehicle throughout western Asia to-day, and drawn then as now either by bullocks or a pair of horses. In addition, the hardy ass was also requisitioned, represented as struggling with the weight of his panniers.[892] Though for the frontier wars with Egypt, fought out mostly near the Lebanon, the Hittite doubtless employed a strategic base in northern Syria, such as Carchemish, yet for his Syrian campaigns, and for the general control of his Syrian dependencies, it becomes almost self-evident that there must have been one route at least available for wheeled traffic connecting with the interior and the capital. But it is by no means easy to determine which of the several passes may have been used for this purpose.[893] The history of these times leads us to infer a system of communication throughout the empire, with Boghaz-Keui as its focus. From this centre, to judge by the disposition of the earlier monuments and other evidence, roads already radiated in several directions. To the north was Sinope,[894] which seems at one time to have been the first port of the country, but to have fallen into decline with Boghaz-Keui itself. To the east we must infer a road connecting the valley of the Halys, whether by way of Sivas or otherwise, with that of the Tochma Su,[895] and so leading down to the frontier at Malatia. A southerly bifurcation of this route led by Albistan down the passes of the Pyramus to Marash,[896] communicating thence severally with Carchemish, Aleppo, and the valley of the Kara Su, wherein lay the cities of Sakje-Geuzi and Sinjerli. A more direct track over the mountains from Mazaca (Cæsarea) to Marash passed by Kuru-Bel near old-time Comana,[897] whence also Dastarkon (near Ferakdin) might be approached. The line of communication from Boghaz-Keui to Mazaca is not known, but a direct road from the former towards Tyana is traceable, and possibly it sent off a branch corresponding with the modern route from Injessu to Cæsarea. Whether in its direct southerly line it continued as a wheel track thus early through the Cilician gates to Tarsus is open to question, though it was clearly open some three centuries later.[898] Westward also there must have been established now or shortly afterwards an embranchment connecting Tyana by way of Ardistama with Iconium; while, as we have already noted,[899] the existence of a main westerly route from Boghaz-Keui to the Lydian coast is testified by the contemporary sculptures of Giaour-Kalesi and Kara-Bel.

Of the cities which these roads connected there remains little trace. At Boghaz-Keui only the buried remains of the palace built by Mursil[900] and the sculptured sanctuary which we have dated to the age of Hattusil[901] can be assigned with any security to the two centuries that we have been considering. At Eyuk and Malatia the cubical building blocks decorated with sculptures seem to indicate the existence of palaces as early as the reign of Subbi-luliuma.[902] The site of Sakje-Geuzi was already occupied by Hittite people, and probably counted six walled townships and citadels within its neighbourhood;[903] we suspect it to be the centre of the state that later becomes known in the Assyrian records by the name of Iaudi. Sinjerli was also a large and flourishing city,[904] the capital of the kingdom later called by the Assyrians Samalla. Carchemish,[905] Aleppo,[906] and Hamath[907] are also known as Hittite cities from the history of these times, but no remains of buildings have been found within their areas that can be assigned to this period.[908] We may infer, however, from the evidence of the excavations at Sinjerli, and from contemporary Egyptian sculptures, as well as from the designs of late fortifications, that the cities of this age were already surrounded by masoned walls, supported by numerous external towers, and entered through gateways barred by a pair of double doors and guarded by wing towers on either hand. But most of the visible architectural remains of Boghaz-Keui, and nearly all those that have come to light in Syria, including those of Marash, belong upon our evidence to a later period after the disintegration of the empire, when for a while in the development of history the opportunity occurred for a revival of local arts upon the old models among the small kingdoms that survived.

The disintegration of the Hittite empire introduces a new phase of their history. With it was involved the downfall of the Hatti rulers, indicated by the failure of the archives of Boghaz-Keui after the reign of Arnuandas, two generations after the time of Hattusil, and hence probably about 1200 B.C. In the great combine of land and sea powers against Egypt, which Rameses III. resisted and dispersed,[909] the Hittites again figure among the confederates, but this time no longer as leaders; and subsequently they appear no more in Egyptian history. They had held sway over Asia Minor for about two centuries, a lengthy period for an oriental dynasty, and now they were submerged by historical movements, of which the details are wanting so far as it affected them, though the development of events may be traced in outline. As often in the history of Asia Minor, the tide of immigration that had formerly set westward had now turned, and, sweeping irresistibly from Europe southward and eastward over the Greek world and the Ægean Islands, traversed also the peninsula.[910] The wave which Rameses III. turned away from the Egyptian frontier had swept away the Hatti power, and it may be thought that their part in the movement, like that of others, was migratory rather than warlike, pressed onwards by newcomers from beyond.

In the redistribution of power that followed the dispersal of these peoples, the dominant position in Asia Minor seems to have been held by the Muski,[911] whom we presume to be a European people, akin to the Phrygian conquerors of later times.[912] With these newcomers at any rate the Assyrian kings were occupied for half a century. By 1170 B.C., it would appear, they had traversed Asia Minor and descended upon Kummukh, the Hittite state lying around Samsat, between Carchemish and Malatia, upon the Assyrian frontier; and it was not until 1120 that they were driven back by the valorous expeditions of Tiglath-Pileser I. It is possible that the Assyrian king followed up his victories as far as the Black Sea;[913] but in any case the power of the Muski would seem to have been broken and to have gradually declined until reinforced by the Thracian immigrants of the ninth and eighth centuries B.C.[914] In the meanwhile the Hittite states found the opportunity for a remarkable revival. The readiness of these peoples, though no longer politically united, to combine against a common enemy is well shown by the experiences of the Assyrian king, who had no sooner crossed the frontier at Malatia, than he was assailed on his right flank by twenty-three chieftains,[915] while in front lay sixty others whose domains extended to the Upper Sea. Though possibly this expedition lay eastward of the boundary of the Hittite lands, the central Hittite states did not escape from the ambitious raids of the Assyrian king, who crossing the Euphrates on rafts of skin, this time nearer to Carchemish, put Mount Bishri[916] to the sword, and advancing northwards, devastated the frontier lands (Muzri), which lay now, as we have seen, beyond Kummukh, nearer to the kingdom of Malatia. The Kumani, dwelling probably in the mountainous region round Comana (Shahr), seem to have gone out to the assistance of their kinsfolk, harassing the Assyrian probably on his left flank. But their native fastnesses and walled cities did not protect them from the vengeance of the Assyrian. Their advanced troops were overcome and imprisoned in the fortress of Arinni; while the remainder of their fighting men, some 20,000 strong, who lay entrenched on Mount Tala, were driven out and pursued as far as the range of Kharusa, on the frontiers.[917] Kibshuna, the capital of the Kumani, surrendered. The states of Syria were the next to fall to the Assyrian conqueror, for a fresh expedition passing up the Orontes seems to have crossed the Lebanon and reached the Mediterranean coast northward from Beyrout.[918]

Though the expeditions of Tiglath-Pileser I. were far-reaching, they do not seem to have established anything like a permanent hold over the Hittite states of Syria. Carchemish, upon the frontier, does not seem to have lost any of its independence, and it may be suspected that after the decline of the Hatti, this state remained the chief centre of the Hittite power.[919] There is indeed a suggestion that its kings were descended from, or early related to, the Hatti rulers,[920] and that at one time, perhaps in the eleventh century, they held sway as far as Gurun,[921] in the valley of the Tochma Su, indicating a kingdom which embraced all the central Hittite states. However that may be, some names of the early kings of Carchemish have been handed down among the archives of the Hatti,[922] under whom it seems clearly to have been already a state of major importance; and its independence was maintained, in name at least, as late as any of which the history is known.

The apparent independence of Carchemish throughout the reign of Tiglath-Pileser is not only a testimony to its own military resources, but an indication that the Assyrian conquests were not secured. The time of the great Assyrian empire was not yet, and as the Assyrian power gradually weakened for a while, so did that of the Hittite states revive. For something like a century and a half, until about 950 B.C., some semblance of Assyrian authority may still be traced on the near side of the Euphrates,[923] but in view of the history of these times it may be said that during the tenth century B.C., until the renewal of Assyrian invasions (about 850 B.C.), the Hittite states of Syria were free, and their works illustrate to us their latent vitality and the revival of their traditions.

It was not only in Syria that this opportunity was afforded, for a parallel development of circumstances upon the plateau of Asia Minor seems to have encouraged the revival of the chief states also by the removal of their embarrassments. The Assyrian invasions had broken the strength of the Muski, who had for some time threatened to overwhelm and submerge the Hittite peoples; and now the gradual withdrawal of both enemies was marked by a cycle of Hittite works which proved how deep-rooted was their civilisation, and later history shows how radical must be the changes that would supplant it in their mountain homes. At Boghaz-Keui a new palace, unadorned, however, with sculptures, sprang up on the site of that of the Great Kings, which was now completely ruined. It is possible that the great walls of the citadel as they are now seen were the product also of this age.[924] They would seem to have been furnished, now or within a few generations, with the great arched gateways decorated with sculptures[925] which are one of their most striking features. Incidentally there is disclosed in the representation of a female warrior upon one of the great jambs[926] the development of, or union with, the Amazons,[927] whose fame lived in Greek history and tradition while the deeds of the old Hatti kings were already buried in oblivion. At Eyuk we have seen there is indication of a corresponding phase of local buildings, involving details of architecture and sculpture peculiarly Hittite.

It would seem, however, that it was not in the old centre of administration that the dominant Hittite spirit most revealed itself. The sculptures of Bor[928] and Ivrîz,[929] and the related inscriptions of Bulghar-Madên[930] and Karaburna,[931] with others on the Kara Dagh and at Bogche, as well as numerous minor works, are all indications of a considerable area united as a single kingdom, the centre of which was Tyana. The Assyrian records of later times tell indeed of a powerful tribe or people named by them the Khilakku, whose geographical disposition seems to correspond with this area. These two facts in association recall the tradition of a great ‘Cilician’ empire, mentioned by Solinus,[932] which was said to have embraced within its sway most of the great states of Asia Minor and of Syria that had formerly acknowledged the rule or suzerainty of the Hatti kings.[933]

Though this renaissance of the Hittite kingdoms may have been short-lived,[934] it was none the less real and general, as the peculiar features and relationship of the monuments of this age testify. Practically nothing is known, however, of the history of this period: their own inscriptions seem to be mostly theocratic or religious, while Egypt and Assyria were too much engaged with home affairs to send expeditions into Hittite-Syria, the records of whose adventures might otherwise have enabled us to penetrate into the obscurity which hides this brilliant epoch from our view. The period falls, however, within the first pale glimmer of Greek tradition, which enables us at any rate to interpret more clearly some aspects of the local monuments of these times. The map of the Hittite world[935] in the tenth century B.C., deduced from the disposition of their monuments, and from the records of the Assyrians when they came again into contact, is also instructive, and seems to us to indicate the home-lands or settling-places of the real Hittite peoples more clearly even than a map of the Hittite empire, based as that would necessarily be on the whole range of Hittite works[936] and the uncertain identification of Egyptian names. Eastward of the Khilakku,[937] the kingdom known by the Assyrians as Tabal seems for part of the time to have embraced most of the cities of the Anti-Taurus from Fraktin to Comana, extending northwards possibly as far as Ekrek and Mazaca (Cæsarea). It included numerous small states,[938] some of which at various times became separately prominent, among which Kammanu seems to be recognisable in Komana (identified with the modern Shahr), while the principality of Shinukhta and the city of Tynne[939] lay nearer to Tyana. On the Tochma Su, Guriania was the name of a minor kingdom seated at Gurun, while lower down old Malatia was the chief town of the kingdom of Milid (Miliddu), which still retained its great importance.[940] Gurgum lay seemingly around Marash, then known as Marghasi, to which we refer below, while Kummukh[941] extended, as we have seen, north-eastward up the near bank of the Euphrates. Several states lay in the valley between the Kurt Dagh and the Giaour Dagh,[942] like Mikhri, bordering on the Pyramus; Iaudi, with its centre (Kullani) possibly at Sakje-Geuzi or at Killiz; and Samalla, farther south, with its capital at Sinjerli; while lower down on the Kara Su was Unki,[943] which probably included Kurts-oghlu and the site of the classical Gindarus. The boundaries of the small states and larger kingdoms alike cannot be fixed, and probably varied continually with the ascendency of this chief or the other. The region last mentioned, for example, seems at one time to have been mostly subject to Samalla,[944] while at other times it was divided between Gurgum and the Hattina, or subject to one or other of these powers. The latter, as their name implies, were a Hittite folk, whose numerous principalities[945] lay in the valley of the Orontes,[946] with Hamath doubtless as their capital. Lastly, the Hatti themselves seem to be represented by the powerful kingdom of Carchemish on the Euphrates,[947] the boundaries of which were indefinite, but reached at any rate to the Khabour River on the south.