The land of the Hittites

by John Garstang

THE HITTITE STATES after the Revival of the Xth Century B.C.

On the outskirts of the Hittite kingdoms there were already present most of the elements of the powers that later were to submerge them. In the immediate West we place the Muski-Phrygians, but the mutual boundary is indefinable and probably varied constantly.[948] East of the Euphrates, Mitanni was no more, and Assyria was recruiting; while from the south and south-east there had already begun the steady infiltration of Aramæan peoples, who now occupied most of the tongue of land between the Orontes and the Euphrates.[949] Damascus was their centre, and within the Hittite-Assyrian sphere they had already planted strong settlements in the plains westward of the Euphrates. Even the kings of Samalla are early found with Semitic names,[950] a fact which corresponds with the character of a whole series of its monuments.[951] We may suspect from the name in like manner the Aramæan extraction of the dynasty of Bit Adini, which ruled over a broad and numerously peopled Hittite tract extending from south of Carchemish even across the Euphrates, including probably the site of Tell-Ahmar. Shugab lay also on both banks of the river, somewhat further north. In the north-east a new and formidable power akin to the earlier Hittites was gathering strength in the vicinity of Lake Van, by name Urartu; but the Cimmerian hordes had not as yet appeared in the north.

Many of the surface monuments of the Hittites seem to belong to this period of revival: they are linked by various common features in detail, and illustrate at the same time the development of new motives in art. The increasing power of the priest-king is reflected in the prominence now given to his portrait as a chief subject for the sculptures.[952] His dress has now assumed a magnificence of embroidery and tapestry unknown in earlier times, though clearly derived, as regards the close cap, long robe, mantle, and shoes, from the priestly dress of the bygone age. On the rock carving of Ivrîz he pays his devotions to a god of agriculture, who presents so many new features that he might at first sight be taken for an entirely new conception, notwithstanding that his dress is obviously a direct modification only of the time-honoured and sacred costume of the Hatti gods. Yet he is a descendant of the Son-god of Boghaz-Keui,[953] and his new virtues are a product of the Hittite lands. Now he has become the peasant’s god, the patron of agriculture, himself rewarding toil with fruit and corn. In Babylonia, where the grain grew wild, and the harvest was a gift of nature varying only in degree, the function of the consort to the earth-goddess, as the fertiliser, had been a secondary consideration. In the prominence of manhood under the Hatti kings, the god had received his separate local attributes and sanctuary. Now he appears, alone, in a third phase clearly developed upon a soil where the goddess was benign only to those who toiled. Here the clearing of the ground, irrigation, ploughing, sowing, and constant tending were necessary before the harvest could be won; and in this attribution the god is worshipped. The Greeks, when they arrived upon the scene, saw in him their own Hercules as the god of toil. His dress, however, as we have mentioned, betokens his Hittite origin. The tunic and turned-up shoes, though more elaborate, remain essentially the same as of old. The national hat, however, has lost its height, and is also broader; and the same difference may be noted in the newly found Amazon figure at Boghaz-Keui. This change, indeed, may be traced back to the later years of the Hatti period, if reliance may be placed on the Egyptian representation[954] of the Hittite monarch who visited Rameses II. The pigtail, moreover, has disappeared, and from the source last quoted and other considerations we are inclined to believe that even in the Hatti period it was already antiquated, surviving only in religious representations as sanctified by time. For civil purposes it may even then have been replaced by the new style, which at any rate is characteristic of the monuments of the age we are considering, in which the hair is gathered in a thick bunch curling backward behind the neck.[955]

The range of these changes in detail on both sides of the Taurus is another indication of close bonds between the various branches of the Hittite peoples. In the architecture of these times there appears a new and striking motive, equally wide in its distribution, in the lion corner-stone.[956] The lion itself we have seen to have been early introduced into Hittite symbolism, but the earliest examples in the round seem to be the product of this age. The carvings of Sakje-Geuzi, which show the Hittite style just tinged with Assyrian or Aramaic (Semitic) influence, can be assigned with some certainty to the period 900-850 B.C. At Sinjerli the great lions seem to be of earlier date,[957] but in any case there is a remarkable coherence in design and method of employment between all the recorded specimens; as well as a correspondence in treatment of detail with the lions which decorate the chief gateway and the tank at Boghaz-Keui.[958]

One of the lions of Marash is covered with an inscription, the nature of which seems to conform entirely with the dominant theocratic ideals of the age.[959] The monuments and ruins of this place are in themselves evidence of a city of remarkable strength and of conspicuous importance in the Hittite world,[960] of which it was one of the last surviving members. Unhappily for history we must still wait here as elsewhere for the evidences which the excavator’s spade alone can satisfactorily bring to light. The bare references in the Assyrian annals to the capture of this or that city, or to the various desperate coalitions of the Hittite states against the power that threatened their independence, if not their existence, tell us little but the date and manner of their downfall. If one could but penetrate the gloom that enshrouds the story of the Hittites in these stirring times, how many Iliads could be written to delight their readers!

We pass then to the last phase, which covers the period 850-700 B.C., during which the Hittite states were one by one submerged by the various powers that encircled them, and finally the Cimmerians blotted out from Asia Minor the memory of the past. The story is soon told; for we have only the record of the Assyrian[961] and Vannic[962] inscriptions to help in filling the outline of the Hittite story of these last centuries which was sketched in an earlier chapter. These records also are usually either brief and formal, or expressed in terms obviously exaggerated and partial; and the operations of which they tell were for the most part confined to the eastern Hittite states. Such as they are, however, they are welcome.

The story opens about 884 or 885 B.C., with the loss of Tul Barsip, a chief stronghold of the Bit Adini. This was, as it were, the warning of a long series of incursions by the Assyrian forces under Assur-nazir-pal and his successor, Shalmaneser II. The Euphrates was crossed by them on rafts of skin as aforetime. Shangara, King of Carchemish, was awed into sending a handsome tribute to secure the safety of his crown and life. Among his gifts were a royal chariot, objects of gold, silver, copper and iron, bulls of bronze, decorated cups and carvings in ivory. The route of the Assyrian leader lay by way of the Orontes valley, and for a brief moment, Lubarna, who at that time was head of the principalities of the Hattina, seems to have contemplated resistance. Realising, however, the inutility of such a course, he followed the example of Shangara, and paved with presents the way of the Assyrian king, who, with the route now open, passed onwards beyond the Lebanon. But the Hittite leaders were not yet conquered. Somewhere about 860 B.C. nearly all the Hittite states of Syria, including Carchemish, Bit Adini, Gurgum, Samalla, Quë, and the Hattina, leagued themselves in a determined effort to resist, if not to rid themselves of, the Assyrian menace. Taking advantage of the absence of Shalmaneser’s army in the north, where he was assailing the fastnesses of the Urartu, they even crossed the frontier and made considerable inroads upon the Assyrian lands. The vengeance of the Assyrian was swift. The towns of Bit Adini were taken by storm, and the Euphrates was crossed. Gurgum, one of the states first open to attack, seceded from the confederates and submitted. The combined army of Adini, Samalla, and the Hattina was next defeated, and the Assyrian forces pressed once more up the valley of the Orontes, this time in pursuit of the King of the Hattina, Shapalulme, who had escaped. Seizing the opportunity, the King of Samalla collected his troops, and being joined by the King of Carchemish, with reinforcements also from Quë and further west, he prepared to defend his country against the invader. The effort, however, was vain. The fortress of Shapalulme was burnt. It is even possible that the Assyrian passed over the Amanus into Cilicia,[963] being only stopped on the frontiers of the chief Hittite state by ambassadors and presents.[964] Hittite prisoners graced this triumph of the Assyrian conqueror, in his capital, being distinguished by their long robes and cumbrous hats.[965]

Though in the following year Bit Adini once more rebelled, with the result that two hundred villages and six fortresses were taken or destroyed, and Tell Barsip was garrisoned by Assyrian troops, it would seem that five years later the states of Carchemish, Kummukh, Milid, Samalla, Hattina and Gurgum[966] still acknowledged, however unwillingly, the suzerainty of their all-powerful neighbour, and their respective kings attended a conference at his bidding. Aleppo alone stood aloof, and was persuaded accordingly by force of arms. Satisfied apparently with their submission and attitude, the Assyrian king determined to try conclusions with the Aramæan power seated at Damascus. The Hittites of Hamath, Quë, and the Taurus fought against him in the great battle which ensued at Qarqar.[967] The issue was indecisive, but the Assyrian, as the attacker, lost prestige by his lack of success. Carchemish and other vassal states promptly refused to renew their tribute. Shalmaneser was a whole year suppressing this rebellion, and thereafter found it desirable to send an expedition to the frontier each year to maintain his authority.