Muwatalli , 14th King of the Hittites I

• Preferred Name: Muwatalli , 14th King of the Hittites I^{[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]}
  
• Gender: M
  
• http://familysearch.org/v1/TitleOfNobility: 14th King of the Hittites - Middle Kingdomuntil 1420 BC
  
• MilitaryService: killed his predecessor Huzziya II
  
• MilitaryService: killed in a palace by Himuili, the Chief of the Palace Servants, and Kantuzili, the Overseer of the Gold Chariot Fighters1420 BC
  
• FSID: GQGZ-512
  
• http://familysearch.org/v1/TitleOfNobility: King of the Hittites with note: -- Wikiwand: Muwatalli I -- Hittites.info: Middle Empire, Commonly referred to as the Middle Kingdom
  
• Death: 1420 BC
  
• MilitaryService: Chief of the Royal Bodyguard of Huzziya
  
• Notes:

  === Life Sketch ===
  Muwatalli I was a king of the Hittites.
  Muwatalli killed his predecessor Huzziya II. He was the Chief of the Royal Bodyguard of Huzziya, but later he killed him. He may have been Huzziya's younger brother.
  Muwatalli's Chief of the Royal Bodyguard was called Muwa. Muwattalli himself was killed in a palace by Himuili, the Chief of the Palace Servants, and Kantuzili, the Overseer of the Gold Chariot Fighters.
  His wife was called Walanni.
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muwatalli_I

1. Tudhaliya ap ... 16th King of the Hittites I,     d. 1390 BC

1. Title: Hittites.info: Middle Empire, Commonly referred to as the Middle Kingdom
   Publication: Name: https://web.archive.org/web/20130729215948/http://www.hittites.info/history.aspx?text=history%2FMiddle+Empire.htm#Alluwamna;
   Note: (Telipinu is usually considered the last king of the Old Empire. For other scholars, the Middle Empire is sometimes begun with Tudḫaliya II. The creation of a “Middle Empire” is most useful in terms of the Hittite language, which has a “Middle Hittite” dialect. There is no real break in Hittite history either at Telipinu or Tudḫaliya II, although Tudḫaliya II's reign does show the introduction of many Hurrian influences previously unseen in Ḫatti.) Telipinu (~1525~1500), Son-in-Law of Ammuna Telipinu becomes king: Ḫuzziya I tried to have Telipinu and Ištapariya killed, but Telipinu received word of the attempt, drove out Ḫuzziya and his accomplices, and took the throne. The death of Ḫuzziya I and his five brothers: Ḫuzziya I had five brothers whom Telipinu exiled to estates for supporting Ḫuzziya when he attempted to kill Telipinu. During Telipinu’s reign, Ḫuzziya I and his five brothers were killed by Tanuwa the Staff Bearer, supposedly without Telipinu’s knowledge. Tanuwa, Taḫurwaili, and Taruḫšu (all of whom had killed sons of Ammuna at one point or another) were condemned by the pankuš (the assembly), but Telipinu overruled the decision and made them into farmers instead (Telipinu, after all, benefited greatly from their neferious activities). The Telipinu Proclamation: He drew up his Proclamation in an attempt to end the constant assassinations and to secure the means of succession in the Hittite realm. See The Telipinu Proclamation. Military Exploits: He appears to have solidified the Hittite territorial position and even expanded it a little. He destroyed the city of Ḫaššuwa. The losses of Arzawa, the lands beyond the Taurus (principally Kizzuwatna), and Syria were accepted. He is the first king to make a treaty with a foreign state, that of Kizzuwatna (CTH #21). The Kizzuwatnan king Išputaḫšu claimed the title of Great King, and the kingdom was powerful for the next century. He defeated Luḫḫa. The Hittite Laws: Hoffner (1995) p. 214 considers the first attestation of the Laws to have been compiled by Telipinu. His reasoning is that the script matches and that Telipinu’s proclamation includes laws at the end of it, and is a legal document itself. Culture and Society Telipinu begins the trait with which the Middle Kingdom begins and ends: that of legal reforms. The Laws and the Telipinu Proclamation represent Telipinu’s interest in legal matters. Foreign Relations Kizzuwatna: Išputaḫšu, son of Pariyawatri, claimed the title Great King of Kizzuwatna. Made a parity treaty with Telipinu, referred to in a catalogue text. Fragments of this treaty have been found, written in both Akkadian and Hittite. Išputaḫšu’s seal uses a central field of Luwian heiroglyphs, probably to be read "Šarri-Tešup." The earliest treaties between Hittite kings and foreign rulers are unfortunately badly fragmentary. All later Hittite treaties included a historical introduction of previous relations between the Hittite ruler and his treaty partner which justified the making of the treaty. Any historical introuctions which may have existed in these early treaties have unfortunately been lost. The earliest treaty to preserve this historical introduction is that between Tudḫaliya II and Šunnaššura of Kizzuwatna. But this document, taken along with the similarly styled Indictment of Madduwatta from the same reign, makes it clear that the tradition had already become well established. So at some unknown point, perhaps from the very beginning, treaties included the historical introduction. Strictly speaking, there is no need for such an introduction, so we might inquire about its origins. Fortunately, given our knowledge of Hittite society, not only are these introductions not surprising, but they are actually expected. We have seen how the various Ḫattian inspired mythological texts were actually ritual texts with a mythological, semi-historical introduction justifying and explaining the ritual. When they began to form treaties with their foreign neighbors, the Hittites seem to have simply transfered this tradition over to their treaty documents. The tradition would continue unabated until the end of Hittite history, and it would continue to affect treaties well after the disappearance of the Hittite empire. Alluwamna (~1500~?), Son-in-Law of Telipinu Easton (1981) 33f. has argued that Alluwamna should be placed before Taḫurwaili rather than after him. Alluwamna was banished to Malitaškur by Telipinu for partaking in a revolt (Easton (1981) 27). Rise of a Hurrian Kingdom (Since Ḫantili was the son of his predecessor, and we have no real information about Alluwamna’s reign, I tentitively give it some length, which would increase the odds of Idrimi’s early career falling in this reign, but I have no real chronology for Idri-mi’s early career. Hell, his later career is difficult enough! Idri-mi’s inscription is found in ANET pg. 557f.) A unique autobiography written by Idri-mi of Alalaḫ sheds some dim light not only on the weakness of the Hittite kingdom in this period, but also on the rise of the Hurrian kingdom of Mittanni in Syria and northern Mesopotamia, which would assume its position as Ḫatti’s greatest rival in this period. Idri-mi’s autobiography is so unique because it is inscribed on a statue of himself which seems to have become some sort of dynastic heirloom. Even after it had been smashed in the final destruction of Alalaḫ several generations after Idri-mi’s life, it’s pieces seem to have been carefully buried by some reverent individual. Idri-mi’s life story reads like a great romantic adventure - the prince, driven from his home and forced to spend long years in exile, returned victoriously to repossess his homeland and live out a glorious reign. Or at least, this is the story he tried to present. The reality was somewhat different. Idri-mi was a young son of Ilim-ilimma, the ruler of Ḫalap, and a wife of his from the nearby city of Emar. Ilim-ilimma’s kingdom encompassed not only Ḫalap itself, but also the lands of Mukiš, Niya, and Ama’e. At some point, "an evil deed happened in Ḫalap," and Idri-mi and his brothers fled to Emar, the residence of their mother’s family. The nature of the "evil deed" is not specified, but it may have been the violent suppression of a revolt in the kingdom against its Hurrian overlord, since Idri-mi reported that his forefathers had had treaty relations with the Hurrian king. If so, then Idri-mi’s forced flight would indicate the Hurrian king’s victory and the ousting of Ḫalap’s ruling family. What we seem to be witnessing is the end of the period of division within the Hurrian lands, as the various contending kingdoms were slowly brought under the thumb of the Hurrian kingdom of Mittanni. Ḫalap itself, although clearly within Hurrian lands, had so far successfully been able to resist being classified as Hurrian. This kingdom, with a long, proud tradition of its own, was not about to let itself be absorbed under the label "Hurrian." Idri-mi felt no differently. He recognized that his anscestors had treaty relations with “the kings of the Hurrian warriors”, but he refused to recognize Ḫalap as Hurrian. This belief did not originate with him. Even the Hittite kings recognized Ḫalap as somehow different from the other Hurrian entities of Syria (See the seige of Uršu). In Emar, Idri-mi proved more ambitious than his older brothers. Feeling disgraced at having been ousted from Ḫalap, he took his horse, chariot, and groom and left Emar, crossed through the wilderness and entered the territory of Sutian tribesmen. He only stayed with them for a night before moving on to Ammia in the land of Canaan. He found natives of his father’s kingdom residing in Ammia, and when they recognized him as the son of their old lord they became his men. For several years Idri-mi stayed in Ammia, growing older and gathering together a force around him. How the history of the Hittites and of the Hurrians correlates with this phase of Idri-mi’s career is not at all clear, and the next point at which we can try to make a correlation will not occur for several more reigns in Ḫatti. As such, we must set aside Idri-mi’s adventures for now and return to the highlands of Anatolia. Ḫantili II (?), Son of Alluwamna The first Great King in several generations to receive the royal blood from his father. A land grant text of king Alluwamna records the granting of land to his son, Ḫantili. Two of the Offering Lists (See Hittite Offerings Lists, B and E) have a Ḫantili listed after Alluwamna. It would be very difficult to deny the existence of a Ḫantili II on the basis of this information alone, let alone the rest of the evidence available. See Otten (1987) 25. Foreign Relations Kizzuwatna Ḫantili II was not in a position to change anything in the international balance of power, and had to be content with a continuation of the existing conditions. Friendly relations with the kingdom of Kizzuwatna continued with the securing of a treaty between Ḫantili and Kizzuwatna’s king Paddatiššu (HDT #1). Like the one sealed by their predecessors, Telipinu and Išputaḫšu, this treaty promised mutual friendship on strictly reciprocal terms. Taḫurwaili (?), First Cousin of Telipinu Taḫurwaili’s placement is very uncertain and is based largely on stylistic considerations about his seal. It is not known whether or not this Taḫurwaili is the same Taḫurwaili active in the reigns of Ammuna, Ḫuzziya I, and Telipinu. A Taḫurwaili is referred to in CTH #23, a fragmentary text which may date to the reign of either Telipinu or Alluwamna. His role in the text is entirely unknown. As a first cousin of Telipinu, he must have been the son of one of Ammuna’s brothers. This would have made him a direct male descendent of Zidanta I, so that his royal blood stemmed ultimately from Zidanta’s wife. It was tenuous, but the blood line was carried on. Foreign Relations Kizzuwatna: Taḫurwaili ..
   
2. Title: Swartzentrover.com: Huzziya II King of the Hittites
   Author: Some or all info taken from Hittites.info
   Publication: Name: http://swartzentrover.com/cotor/Bible/Timelines/Hittites/Huzziya%20II.htm;
   Note: Huzziya II King of the Hittites Titles Tabarna, Great King (See Easton (1981) 38, 41). Queen Šummiri, wife. See Hittite Offerings Lists section D Changing Landscape in the South In 1458, in the 22nd year of his official reign, Thutmose III of Egypt (1479-1425) began the sole rule of his reign, no longer having to deal with Hatšepsut, the dowager queen and co-regent of Egypt, who had been the real power on the throne up until that time. Thutmose appears to have spent most of that co-regency with the army, and the beginning of his sole rule would fundamentally alter Egypt’s role in the Near East. Thutmose’s grandfather, Thutmose I, had conducted previously unparalled military campaigns as far north as the land of Mittanni. But he accomplished little more than the plundering of distant Syrian territories and the establishment of Egyptian claims in this region. His son, Thutmose II, had a short reign of perhaps eight years and restricted his activities to Palestine. Thutmose II’s wife, Hatšepsut, did not seem to take a great interest in Syria. So it was that after the death of Thutmose I Syria more or less slipped away from the Egyptians, and it is surely no coincidence that this was also the greatest period of Mitannian expansion into Syria. Also during this period the cities of Kadesh, under a king named Duruša, and Tunip appear to have become dominant regional powers in Syria, perhaps under Mittannian aegis (this seems certain for Tunip, at any rate). Kadesh even controlled territory as far south as the Palestinian city of Megiddo. So when Thutmose III came into his own, the Syrian vassals either rebelled, or had already freed themselves from the Egyptian yoke. Thutmose decided to reassert Egyptian authority in Syria, and he began the process right from the very beginning of his sole rule. His first target was the powerful coalition created by Duruša of Kadesh. Duruša had made the city of Megiddo his headquarters for his stand against the Egyptian invasion, and this was where he concentrated his army. Thutmose marched out of Egypt and engaged the enemy before the city and drove them back behind the walls. It took a seven month seige for Thutmose to force the city to surrender to him. At the seige’s successful conclusion, he claimed to have secured the allegiance of 119 towns and cities, although this number seems to include towns taken by the pharaoh and his army in sub-campaigns during the course of the seige. The important city of Damascus, located in the district of Apa, was among the list, although Kadesh itself managed to avoid being taken by the Egptians at this time. Thutmose’s second, third, and fourth campaigns seem to have been little more than shows of strength in his conquered territories in an attempt to put down what fighting spirit remained in Palestine. In his twenty-fourth regnal year - during the second campaign - a sign of Hurrian weakness was revealed by the fact that Thutmose received a large lump of lapis lazuli as a gift from the king of Assyria. It was not until his twenty-nineth year that Thutmose campaigned in Syria again. For this campaign, he constructed a fleet which could quickly carry his troops directly to Syria by sailing along the Palestinian coast rather than by marching overland through Palestine. The fleet landed on the coastal plains before Mt. Lebanon and captured the port city Ullaza (just north of modern Tripoli), which up until that time had belonged to the territory of Tunip, a Mitannian vassal. On his homeward journey the pharaoh moved inland from Ullaza and captured the city Ardata. The capture of Ullaza was an important victory for the furthering of Thutmose’s Syrian ambitions. It gave him a port to which he could bring his troops over water, and it also gave him easy access to inland Syria, especially to the troublesome and still independent Kadesh. Not one for hesitation, Thutmose followed up his advantage the very next year by marching on Kadesh. Unfortunately, his Syrian possessions were anything but secure. Kadesh’s territory was plundered, but the city remained uncaptured, and when Thutmose returned, he had to pacify Ardata again. In spite of these setbacks, Thutmose successfully added a new conquest to his territory, that of Ṣumur, another important port city located north of Ullaza. This city, like Ullaza, would come to play an important role in Egypt’s Syrian empire. Thutmose spent the next two years preparing for a major offensive against the Mitannian king himself. A battle was inevitable. The Mitannian ruler could hardly continue to let the Egyptian pharaoh crush his vassals with impunity. In the meantime Tunip attempted to recapture Ullaza from the Egyptians by instigating a revolt there, and Thutmose had to put down that rebellion in his thirty-first year. His eigth campaign, in his thirty-third regnal year, was the crowning achievement of his Syrian campaigns. Probably sailing his troops to Ullazu, he then struck inland across the Lebanese mountains and the Orontes river and into the territory of Qatna. From here he turned and marched northwards. His hope was to encounter the Mitannian king, but the Mitannian king apparently did not feel up to the challenge, and he fled before the oncoming pharaoh, abandoning his territories to their fate. Thutmose engaged the enemy west of Halap, and then continued north and fought the enemy again in the land of Kargamiš. At some point in this journey, he cut down some of the cedars of Lebanon in order to make boats to be used in a crossing of the Euphrates, into Naharin, the Egyptian name for the Mitannian homeland. The ships were placed on cattle drawn carts and brought to the Euphrates somewhere near Kargamiš. When Thutmose reached the Euphrates, he found the stela of his grandfather, Thutmose I, and set up a stela of his own next to it. He then crossed over the Euphrates, into Mittanni proper, and turned southwards, plundering the towns he came across while the defending armies fled before him. Thutmose probably crossed back over to the west side of the Euphrates somewhere near Emar, and then struck out across the desert towards the coast. When he entered the land of Niya, which either now or earlier when he marched north fell into Egyptian hands, he took great pride in his feats of hunting, wherein he took 120 elephants. After this he turned south, and marched against the still defiant city of Kadesh. Finally, Thutmose’s army would prove too much for this Syrian kingdom, and after a siege the city fell into Egyptian hands. This campaign was a great victory for Thutmose. The kings of Babylonia, Assyria, and Hatti all sent gifts to him in recognition of his accomplishment. Huzziya II may have been the Hittite king who sent the Hittite gifts, although this is uncertain. The fact that the Mittannian ruler did not send gifts is hardly surprising, but at least indicates that he was not prepared to accept his losses and seek out peaceful co-existance. After this campaign Thutmose seems to have attempted to establish some sort of permanent Egyptian authority in Syria. He bragged about his eighth campaign conquests that, “Every year there is hewed [for me in Dja]hi genuine cedar of Lebanon, which is brought to the Court - life, prosperity, health! Timber comes to Egypt for me, advancing ... New [wood] of Negau [is brought], the choicest of God's Land ..., to reach the Residence City, without passing over the seasons thereof, each and every year. When my army which is in garrison in Ullaza comes, [they bring the tribute], which is the cedar of the victories of my majesty, through the plans of my father [(the god) Amon-Re], who entrusted to me all foreign countries. I have not given (any) of it to the Asiatics, (for) it is a wood which he loves.” (ANET 240) Whatever Thutmose’s ambitions may have been, the Syrian states weren’t so enthusiastic about Egyptian suzreignity. Thutmose was back in his nineth campaign in order to suppress the land of Nuhašši. Thutmose installed prince Taku on the Nuhaššian throne. In his thirty-fifth year, Thutmose engaged a Mitannian army at Ara'na, northwest of Halap, and sent them fleeing towards Naharin. His campaigns for the next two years are lost, but in his thirty-eigth year he was back campaigning in Nuhašši. This victory resulted in Alalah sending gifts to the pharaoh for the first time. Little information is available for the next few years, but information about his seventeenth and final campaign, in his forty-second year, has been preserved. In this year Thutmose captured the city of Irqata, located between Ṣumur and Ardata. Ṣumur, Ullaza, Ardata, and Irqata would all come to play an important role in the conflict between Egypt and Hatti several generations later. Having captured Irqata, Thutmose then turned inland and captured the proud city of Tunip. On his return march, he encountered Mitannian garrisons in three of Kadesh’s cities and duly took them prisoner. This campaign seems to have stablized the situation in Syria, and for the last twelve years of his reign the old pharaoh did no campaigning. Egypt’s Asiatic empire had been established in all its essentials, reaching as far north as Nuhašši and perhaps some territory around Halap. The Death of Huzziya Huzziya II was killed by Muwattalli I. Here we have possibly the first complete break with the ancient royal blood line. Without evidence, we cannot say one way or the other. Foreign Relations Kizzuwatna: Contemporary with Talzu of Kizzuwatna (A king before Šunaššura. See Beal (1986) 432.).
   
3. Title: Wikiwand: Tudḫaliya I
   Author: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
   Publication: Name: https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Tud%E1%B8%ABaliya_I;
   Note: Tudhaliya I (sometimes referred to as Tudhaliya II, or even Tudhaliya I/II) was a king of the Hittite empire (New kingdom) ca. the early 14th century BC (short chronology). Identity Proper numbering of the Hittite rulers who bore the name Tudhaliya is problematic. There was a Hattian era figure who bore the name Tudhaliya who may or may not have ruled as king. Other reconstructions insert a Tudhaliya directly after Muwatalli I, but before the Tudhaliya discussed here. Some scholars call Tudhaliya I the first king of the New Kingdom, or Empire. Others give this honor to Suppiluliuma I. Tudhaliya may have been the grandson of the Middle Kingdom ruler Huzziya II. He may have been the direct successor of Muwatalli I, having overthrown him. The exact sequence of succession at the beginning of the New Kingdom is uncertain, however, because of the difficulty of placing Hattusili II. Tudhaliya I's reign includes a period of co-regency with Arnuwanda I, his son-in-law and adopted son. Biography The most famous event of Tudhaliya's reign was his conquest of the land Assuwa. Assuwa's name is believed by some scholars to be the origin of the modern place name Asia, although this is not beyond dispute. Further, there were many component territories within Assuwa, including the lands "Taruisa" and "Wilusiya," which are now generally accepted to be references to Troy/Ilios, although there is not enough evidence at this time to explain how these two lands came to apply to a single location. Family Tudhaliya's wife was Nikal-mati. He had a daughter Ašmu-nikal who married Arnuwanda.
   
4. Title: "Officials and Administration in the Hittite World," by Tayfun Bilgin
   Author: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG, Dec 3, 2018
   Publication: Name: https://books.google.com/books?id=eheBDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA69&dq=Harap%C5%A1eki&source=gbs_selected_pages&cad=2#v=snippet&q=Muwatalli%20I&f=false;
   Note: There are few studies that deal with an overall treatment of the Hittite administrative system, and various other works on its offices and officials have tended to be limited in scope, focusing only on certain groups or certain time periods. This book provides a comprehensive investigation of the administrative organization of the Hittite state throughout its history (ca. 1650–1180 BCE) with particular emphasis on the state offices and their officials. Bringing together previous works and updating with data recovered in recent years, the study presents a detailed survey of the high offices of the state, a prosopographical study of about 140 high officials, and a theoretical analysis of the Hittite administration in respect to factors such as hierarchy, kinship, and diachronical changes.
   
5. Title: Wikiwand: Muwatalli I
   Author: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia "See also Muwatalli II"
   Publication: Name: https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Muwatalli_I;
   Note: Muwatalli I was a king of the Hittites. Biography Muwatalli killed his predecessor Huzziya II. He was the Chief of the Royal Bodyguard of Huzziya, but later he killed him. He may have been Huzziya's younger brother. Muwatalli's Chief of the Royal Bodyguard was called Muwa. Muwattalli himself was killed in a palace by Himuili, the Chief of the Palace Servants, and Kantuzili, the Overseer of the Gold Chariot Fighters. His wife was called Walanni.
   
6. Title: Wikiwand: Huzziya II
   Author: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
   Publication: Name: https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Huzziya_II;
   Note: Huzziya II was a king of the Hittites. He was killed by Muwatalli I, who seized the throne and was possibly the "Gal Mesedi" of the royal bodyguard. His wife was Queen Šummiri.
   
7. Title: Wikiwand: Hittites
   Author: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
   Publication: Name: https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Hittites;
   Note: The Hittites (/ˈhɪtaɪts/) were an Anatolian people who played an important role in establishing an empire centered on Hattusa in north-central Anatolia around 1600 BC. This empire reached its height during the mid-14th century BC under Suppiluliuma I, when it encompassed an area that included most of Anatolia as well as parts of the northern Levant and Upper Mesopotamia. Between the 15th and 13th centuries BC, the Empire of Hattusa, conventionally called the Hittite Empire, came into conflict with the Egyptian Empire, Middle Assyrian Empire and the empire of the Mitanni for control of the Near East. The Assyrians eventually emerged as the dominant power and annexed much of the Hittite empire, while the remainder was sacked by Phrygian newcomers to the region. After c. 1180 BC, during the Bronze Age collapse, the Hittites splintered into several independent "Neo-Hittite" city-states, some of which survived until the 8th century BC before succumbing to the Neo-Assyrian Empire. The Hittite language was a distinct member of the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family, and along with the related Luwian language, is the oldest historically attested Indo-European language, referred to by its speakers as "nešili" "in the language of Nesa." The Hittites called their country the "Kingdom of Hattusa" (Hatti in Akkadian), a name received from the Hattians, an earlier people who inhabited the region until the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC and spoke an unrelated language known as Hattic. The conventional name "Hittites" is due to their initial identification with the Biblical Hittites in 19th century archaeology. The history of the Hittite civilization is known mostly from cuneiform texts found in the area of their kingdom, and from diplomatic and commercial correspondence found in various archives in Assyria, Babylonia, Egypt and the Middle East, the decipherment of which was also a key event in the history of Indo-European linguistics. The Hittite military made successful use of chariots. The development of iron smelting once was attributed to the Hittites of Anatolia during the Late Bronze Age, with their success largely based on the advantages of a monopoly on ironworking at the time. But the view of such a "Hittite monopoly" has come under scrutiny and is no longer a scholarly consensus. As part of the Late-Bronze-Age/Early-Iron-Age, the Bronze Age collapse saw the slow, comparatively continuous spread of iron-working technology in the region. While there are some iron objects from Bronze Age Anatolia, the number is comparable to iron objects found in Egypt and other places during the period; and only a small number of these objects are weapons. Hittites did not use smelted iron, but rather meteorites. In classical times, ethnic Hittite dynasties survived in small kingdoms scattered around modern Syria, Lebanon and Israel. Lacking a unifying continuity, their descendants scattered and ultimately merged into the modern populations of the Levant, Turkey and Mesopotamia. During the 1920s, interest in the Hittites increased with the founding of the modern Republic of Turkey and attracted the attention of Turkish archaeologists such as Halet Çambel and Tahsin Özgüç. During this period, the new field of Hittitology also influenced the naming of Turkish institutions, such as the state-owned "Etibank" ("Hittite bank"), and the foundation of the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara, 200 kilometers west of the Hittite capital and housing the most comprehensive exhibition of Hittite art and artifacts in the world. Archaeological discovery Biblical background 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...". 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." 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 friends and allies 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. Initial discoveries French scholar Charles Texier found the first Hittite ruins in 1834 but did not identify them as such. The first archaeological evidence for the Hittites appeared in tablets found at the "karum" of Kanesh (now called Kültepe), containing records of trade between Assyrian merchants and a certain "land of 'Hatti.'" Some names in the tablets were neither Hattic nor Assyrian, but clearly Indo-European. The script on a monument at Boğazkale by a "People of Hattusas" discovered by William Wright in 1884 was found to match peculiar hieroglyphic scripts from Aleppo and Hama in Northern Syria. In 1887, excavations at Amarna in Egypt uncovered the diplomatic correspondence of Pharaoh Amenhotep III and his son, Akhenaten. Two of the letters from a "kingdom of 'Kheta'"—apparently located in the same general region as the Mesopotamian references to "land of 'Hatti'"—were written in standard Akkadian cuneiform, but in an unknown language; although scholars could interpret its sounds, no one could understand it. Shortly after this, Sayce proposed that "Hatti" or "Khatti" in Anatolia was identical with the "kingdom of 'Kheta'" mentioned in these Egyptian texts, as well as with the biblical Hittites. Others, such as Max Müller, agreed that "Khatti" was probably "Kheta," but proposed connecting it with Biblical Kittim rather than with the Biblical Hittites. Sayce's identification came to be widely accepted over the course of the early 20th century; and the name "Hittite" has become attached to the civilization uncovered at Boğazköy. During sporadic excavations at Boğazköy (Hattusa) that began in 1906, the archaeologist Hugo Winckler found a royal archive with 10,000 tablets, inscribed in cuneiform Akkadian and the same unknown language as the Egyptian letters from Kheta—thus confirming the identity of the two names. He also proved that the ruins at Boğazköy were the remains of the capital of an empire that, at one point, controlled northern Syria. Under the direction of the German Archaeological Institute, excavations at Hattusa have been under way since 1907, with interruptions during the world wars. Kültepe was successfully excavated by Professor Tahsin Özgüç from 1948 until his death in 2005. Smaller scale excavations have also been carried out in the immediate surroundings of Hattusa, including the rock sanctuary of Yazılıkaya, which contains numerous rock reliefs portraying the Hittite rulers and the gods of the Hittite pantheon. Writings The Hittites used a variation of cuneiform called Hittite cuneiform. Archaeological expeditions to Hattusa have discovered entire sets of royal archives on cuneiform tablets, written either in Akkadian, the diplomatic language of the time, or in the various dialects of the Hittite confederation. Museums The Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara, Turkey houses the richest collection of Hittite and Anatolian artifacts. Geography Main article: Hittite sites The Hittite kingdom was centered on the lands surrounding Hattusa and Neša (Kültepe), known as "the land Hatti" (URUHa-at-ti). After Hattusa was made capital, the area encompassed by the bend of the Kızılırmak River (Hittite "Marassantiya") was considered the core of the Empire, and some Hittite laws make a distinction between "this side of the river" and "that side of the river." For example, the reward for the capture of an escaped slave after he managed to flee beyond the Halys is higher than that for a slave caught before he could reach the river. To the west and south of the core territory lay the region known as "Luwiya" in the earliest Hittite texts. This terminology was replaced by the names Arzawa and Kizzuwatna with the rise of those kingdoms. Nevertheless, the Hittites continued to refer to the language that originated in these areas as Luwian. Prior to the rise of Kizzuwatna, the heart of that territory in Cilicia was first referred to by the Hittites as Adaniya. Upon its revolt from the Hittites during the reign of Ammuna, it assumed the name of Kizzuwatna and successfully expanded northward to encompass the lower Anti-Taurus Mountains as well. To the north, lived the mountainous people called the Kaskians. To the southeast of the Hittites lay the Hurrian empire of Mitanni. At its peak, during the reign of Muršili II, the Hittite empire stretched from Arzawa in the west to Mitanni in the east, many of the Kaskian territories to the north including Hayasa-Azzi in the far north-east, and on south into Canaan approximately as far as the southern border of Lebanon, incorporating all of these territories within its domain. History Origins It generally is assumed that the Hittites came into Anatolia some time before 2000 BC. While their earlier location is disputed, it has been speculated by scholars for more than a century that the Yamnaya culture of the Pontic–Caspian steppe, in present-day Ukraine, around the Sea of Azov, spoke an early Indo-European language during the third and fourth millennia BC. The arrival of the Hittites in Anatolia in the Bronze Age was one of a superstrate imposing itself on a native culture (in this case over the pre-existing Hattians and Hurrians), either by means of conquest or by gradual assimilation. In archaeological terms, relationships of the Hittites to the Ezero culture of the B..