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Contents

• 
  1Archaeological discovery
  
  • 
    1.1Biblical background
    
  • 
    1.2Initial discoveries
    
  • 
    1.3Writings
    
  • 
    1.4Museums
    
• 
  2Geography
  
• 
  3History
  
  • 
    3.1Origins
    
  • 
    3.2Early Period
    
  • 
    3.3Old Kingdom
    
  • 
    3.4Middle Kingdom
    
  • 
    3.5New Kingdom
    
    • 
      3.5.1Battle of Kadesh
      
    • 
      3.5.2Downfall and demise of the Kingdom
      
  • 
    3.6Syro-Hittite Kingdoms
    
• 
  4Government
  
  • 
    4.1Religion in Early Hittite Government to establish control
    
  • 
    4.2Political dissent in the Old Kingdom
    
  • 
    4.3The Pankus
    
• 
  5Language
  
• 
  6Art
  
• 
  7Religion and mythology
  
• 
  8Law
  
  • 
    8.1Use of laws
    
  • 
    8.2Law reform
    
  • 
    8.3Examples of laws
    
• 
  9Biblical Hittites
  
• 
  10See also
  
• 
  11References
  
• 
  12Literature
  
• 
  13Further reading
  
• 
  14External links
  

Archaeological discovery[edit]

One of the Alaca Höyük bronze standards from a pre-Hittite tomb dating to the third millennium BC, from the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations,Ankara.

Biblical background[edit]

See also: Biblical Hittites

Before the archeological discoveries that revealed the Hittite civilization, the only source of information about the Hittites had been the Old Testament. Francis William Newman expressed the critical view, common in the early 19th century, that, "no Hittite king could have compared in power to the King of Judah...".^[7]

As the discoveries in the second half of the 19th century revealed the scale of the Hittite kingdom, Archibald Sayce asserted that rather than being compared to Judah, the Anatolian civilization "[was] worthy of comparison to the divided Kingdom of Egypt", and was "infinitely more powerful than that of Judah".^[8] Sayce and other scholars also noted that Judah and the Hittites were never enemies in the Hebrew texts; in the Book of Kings, they supplied the Israelites with cedar, chariots, and horses, and in the Book of Genesis were a friend and ally to Abraham. Uriah the Hittite was a captain in King David's army and counted as one of his "mighty men" in 1 Chronicles 11.