The Kingdom of the Hittites

by Trevor Bryce

Book Overview

In the fourteenth century BC the Hittites became the supreme political and military power in the Near East. How did they achieve their supremacy? How successful were they in maintaining it? What brought about their collapse and disappearance? This comprehensive history of the Hittite kingdom examines recent archaeological discoveries and original texts, giving the ancient Hittites the opportunity to speak to the modern reader for themselves.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0199240108
• ISBN13: 9780199240104
• Release Date: May 1999
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 482 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 8.4" x 5.4"

Customer Reviews

First rate description of a significant Bronze age civilisation.

This book is a first class description of the Hitties.

Why Should You Care About The Hittites?

For starters, these are not the Hittites of the Bible (who are later, located in Syria and/or Canaan and are only to an unclear extent influenced by the earlier Hittites). No, these are the Indo-European speaking Hittites of second millennium B.C. (1700 to 1200) Anatolia. So if you're not a budding Hittitologist yourself, you can be forgiven for wondering why you should care.Well, here's why: context. The Hittites were a superpower, and without knowing something about them, you can't get a clear picture of any of their neighbors. The history recounted in _The Kingdom of the Hittites_ interacts with and impacts upon the death of pharaoh Tutankhamen, the Trojan War and the migration of the Sea Peoples, for instance and just for starters.Beyond that, their history is interesting reading in its own right. The sources available reveal an astonishing wealth of detail, and Bryce is able to recount all kinds of bloody family squabbles and intrigue, quoting from contemporary records and correspondence. Different Hittite monarchs emerge with clearly distinct personalities and character, and the book is an entertaining read.I can't give it five stars, though, because I think a few small additions would immensely improve it. The book needs more maps. Some illustrations would also be useful. Bryce himself suggests that "a comprehenive, up-to-date treatment of Hittite civilization and society might well provide a valuable complement to the present work." Fair enough: Bryce is writing a history, not an anthropological treatise. Nevertheless, the history would be more accessible and sometimes more interesting if preceded by an introductory chapter on Hittite culture -- marriage patterns, for instance, and religion, are points that recur in the history but are never thoroughly explained.

Excellent book on the Hittites

Trevor Bryce's book is the best English language book that one can find on the Ancient Hittites. Bryce gives a comprehensive update on the Hittite kingdom and the historical context for the reattribution of certain important Hittite texts and documents to certain Hittite kings. Bryce notes new evidence which shows that the Assyrian conquest of Hanigalbat must be dated to the reign of the Hittite king Urhi-Teshub--who is called Mursilis III in the historical texts. This event significantly undermined his authority as king and helped to partly bring about his eventual downfall. The author also documents the plotting and mass paranoia that afflicted the Hittite Empire where brothers and uncles competed violently with each other for the throne. Even a great Hittite ruler such as Mursilis I--who destroyed the Babylonian kingdom of Hammurabi's ancestors by seizing Babylon--was eventually assassinated in a palace coup while Suppiluliuma I, who established Hatti as the greatest Empire in the Ancient Near East through his 2 Syrian wars against Mitanni and Carchemish, murdered his older brother Tudhaliya the Younger in order to assume the throne after being passed over in the succession by Tudhaliya III, his father. Hattusilis III, who made peace with Ramses II, was forced to depose his nephew Urhi-Teshub after the latter tried to seize his own domestic bases of support in the Hittite Empire. The result of this turbulent political culture was that few Hittite kings dared to leave their capital of Boghazkoy for fear of a palace coup being hatched in their abscence. In addition, few Hittite vassals kings placed much weight upon the promises of a weak ruler who might be deposed in the blink of an eye. It took strong leadership, years of unrelenting military campaigns and often cruel reprisals by strong Hittite kings such as Suppiluliuma I, Mursilis II and Hattusilis III against rebellions waged by, for instance, the Kaska tribes of central Anatolia who fought a guerilla war against Hittite authority in order to preserved the Empire's unity. Bryce notes that the Hittite Empire--despite its inherently unstable political system--was the bedrock of stability in the heart of the Ancient Middle East. After its final destruction at the hands of the Sea Peoples in Year 8 of Pharaoh Ramses III (c.1175 BC), Canaan and the Levant was plunged into a state of upheaval by the appearance of local independent states such as the kingdoms of Edom, Moab, Philistia (ancient Gaza), Aram-Damascus and Ammon who competed among one another for control of various parts of this region. The only major deficiency in Bryce's book is a lack of detailed maps of Turkey and Syria. This is why I give it only 4 stars. But it is certainly worth every penny and and I highly recommend it. Bryce's prose is superb: you manage to see a Hittite king's view of their world from his own vantage point. In my opinion, it is by far the best study of the Hittite Kingdom to date--and one of the most

Good book, made better by prolific use of primary sources.

This book is an excellent read. It's principal strength lies in the use by the author of the ancient sources within the main body of the text, with good translations permitting the reader to see the evidence for the authors interpretations. This puts the reader in a better position to critically assess these interpretations and agree or disagree with them. Normally, access to any ancient sources other than Greek and Roman ones is difficult. In this book they are placed within the main text and so the reader does not even have to keep flipping forwards to appendices. Overall this is an excellent book on Hittite history.

Enjoyed the int. & ext. politics, 4/5 because of no visuals

425 Pages of Text, 8.5H x 5.25W (inches). I bought this book because I wanted to read about the Hittites of the Bible. Fortunately, however, this book is about the Kingdom of the Hittites in Asia Minor from about 1650-1200 B.C. The references to the Hittites of the Bible were either to a local Canaanite tribe or to neo-Hittite kingdoms of Syria. This book deals with relations of the Hittite Kingdom with its neighbors, who included the Egyptians, the Babylonians, the Mitanni, and the Assyrians among others. It also examines Hittite internal politics and dealings with its vassal states. The book is organized according to the reign of the Hittite kings, but also explores the Kingdom's formation and it's demise. Although it doesn't focus on culture or archeology this book could have used some pictures of artifacts or stelae. How about some computer renderings of Hatti or other major cities based on archeological digs? How about some artist recreations? It certainly could have used a more detailed and a greater number of maps. There are only four black and white maps. Because of the lack of visuals I gave this book 4 stars instead of 5. Some of the high points in the book are Mursili I's conquest of Babylon, the Battle of Kadesh between Muwatalli II and Ramesses II, and the overthrow of Urhi-Tesub.