Luxor4u

If you can drag yourself away from football (England v Kosovo) or the Great British Bake Off tonight, there’s a 2 hour long programme on the Hittites

20.00 Smithsonian Channel

It’s a repeat, of course. Circa 1970 I think, but should be interesting none the less....especially their interaction with the Egyptians.

Thanks for that Newcastle I have half a mind that I have seen it but as you say quite some time ago. If I am not mistaken I think they try to explain why such a mighty empire suddenly disappeared so suddenly from history and it all came down to family infighting, anyway thanks for the heads up, just programmed in a reminder.

I watched last nights programme and enjoyed it very much, it was a very comprehensive time line of the rise and fall of the Hittite empire and put several Egypt related events into context. These included the letter sent by Ankhesenamun the widow of king Tut to the Hittite king requesting he send her a husband and the peace treaty with Ramesses II after the battle of Kadesh. There was no new information regarding the letter that would throw more light on the subject other than it being in the official Hittite archives discovered at their ancient capital of Hatusha in the present day region of Anatolia in Turkey, it did however give a lot more background to the political situation and vying for power in the region of Syria at that particular time in history. It was interesting to see how the empire seemed to arise out of nowhere (that was never really explained) rose to great heights and extended its influence only to collapse again, it then rose again under another ruler to be even greater than before leading to the conflict with Egypt as the two empires clashed at Kadesh. Contrary to the boastful inscriptions all over Ramesses’s temples of his great victory over the Hittites their own records show it was a stalemate with both forces having to retreat. Curiously it was the plague brought to Hatusha by Egyptian prisoners of war that decimated the Hittite empire for over 20 years that eventually led to a peace treaty being agreed between the two warring empires, a treaty that was never broken. I had thought it was the same programme I had seen years ago, but it was not, although this gave much the same reasons for the empires decline from family feuding and infighting.

Interesting stuff, the Sea people were attributed to the Hittites eventual destruction I was led to believe.

A mysterious people, and I am not really sure who the Sea People really were ?
Though my best bet is they were Greek or of Greek origin, given that they had similar battle headgear as depicted in the pictograms, and could possibly have come from the Agean sea or the Med, maybe one of the islands there ? if they were not mainland Greek.

All empires fail eventually, or get passed over to another central governing body in another land. I suppose it is the very nature of an Empire that it cannot be sustained. ?

The Arzawa empire bordered them to the West and the Mitanni empire to the South East which more or less kept them and the Egyptian empire separated. When the Hittites invaded Mitanni it brought them into conflict with the Egyptians at what today would be approximately the Syrian border. Their first empire fell due to a combined attack from the Arzawa and Mitanni empires and as I explained earlier, after they conquered Mitanni and fought with the Egyptians at Kadesh they were seriously weakened by a plague that made them unable to continue, add to that the death of a ruler and much political machinations they eventually just abandoned their fortress city and capital of Hatusha and seemed to just disperse and disappear into history. Much is now known about the Hittite empire from their cuneiform clay tablets they left behind with many written in the hieratic language so were decipherable to scholars. I find their history almost as interesting as the Egyptian one except for their general lack of good architecture and statues, I am sure as time passes they may make more discoveries that will throw more light on that era, as for the ‘Sea People’ well just about anywhere may qualify, Cyprus, the Greek mainland and many others that had ship building technology, or my guess is Crete.

I too found the Hittite documentary riveting.....although I think I might have nodded off at one point for 10 minutes of the 2 hours.

It was very thorough although, in line with most such historical programmes, it gave one narrative as indisputable fact whereas there’s huge gaps in our knowledge of the period.

In particular, the identity of the Egyptian queen seeking a husband is much debated in egytological circles. Ankhesenamun fits very well....but there’s a good case to be made for Nefertiti or even (though less likely) Meritaten.

Anyone interested in the so-called Zannanza affair should read:

http://echoesfromthegnosis.blogspot.com ... ffair.html

You must have really nodded off it was 2.5 hours long