Weeden, Mark; (2022) The Hittite Empire. In: Radner, Karen and Potts, Daniel and Moeller, Nadine, (eds.) The Oxford History of the Ancient Near East: Volume III: From the Hyksos to the Late Second Millennium BCe Hyksos to the Late Second Millennium BC. (pp. 529-622). Oxford University Press: Oxford, UK.

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Abstract

From the mid-seventeenth to the early twelfth centuries BC, Central Anatolia saw the development and expansion of the Hittite state whose influence came to spread beyond the Taurus mountains into Syria and which was seen at the time as one of the Great Powers of the Late Bronze Age. Commonly interpreted as a territorial state in its first phase and an empire in its second phase, this state’s center was situated in the mountainous city of Hattusa (modern Boğazköy), which was its enduring but not continual capital. The chapter focuses on how the Hittite state negotiated the exercise of authority over a highly fragmented landscape. Persistent fragility of dominion, internal dynastic squabbles and external conflicts, all rooted in deep-seated problems of achieving and capitalizing on territorial unity, brought forth innovative responses to the delegation of power, which manifested themselves in the development of a complex system of treaties as well as coordinated interventions in landscape management. The chapter also addresses questions resulting from the sources and the significant disconnect between material culture and archaeological evidence, on the one hand, and narratives owed to the copious textual material preserved on cuneiform tablets from the Hittite capital, on the other hand.

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