THE ANCIENT HITTITES. 



Bv Dr. Leopold Messerschmidt." 



In addition to the two o'reut spheres of ancient culture found in 

 western Asia, the Eg-yptian and the Bal)ylonian, we meet in the nortli, 

 chiefly in Asia Minor, a third element which we are accustomed to call 

 the Hittite civilization. We have as yet comparatively little knowl- 

 edge of this people and their histor}^, for only in one or two places 

 have tliere been thorough excavations. The Hittite inscriptions them- 

 selves have not been deciphered, and tlie Egyptian and Assyrian inscrip- 

 tions give only such meager items as records of warfare required. The 

 Old Testimient, to which until now our acquaintance with the name of 

 the Hittites has been chiefly due, is too remote from the events in time 

 and place and too indeflnite in details to be of much service. Although 

 our knowledge of the Hittites is thus, in many respects, so incomplete, 

 yet we are able to construct a somewhat connected picture of the 

 development of their civilization. 



Egyptian and Assyrian inscriptions tell of warfare from about 1500 

 to about 700 B. c. , with various peoples in North Syria, North Mesopota- 

 mia, Cilicia, Ca[>padocia, and Armenia. These peoples were neither 

 Semites nor Indo-Europeans, yet they must have been interrelated as 

 parts of a great group of peoples or common race. In favor of this 

 view, the names of persons and g-ods come down to us which by their 

 identical formation bear evidence of relationship and it is moreover 

 improbable that entirely distinct races would at about the same period, 

 and partly mingled, advance in the saiue direction and toward the same 

 regions. On the other hand, it is self-evident, and proven also by 

 certain facts, that these individual peonies, notwithstanding their gen- 

 eral connection, were really distinct from one another in culture and in 

 dialect, a phenomenon well known among the Semites as well as among 

 the Indo-Europeans. 



One of these peoples, known through Egyptian inscriptions as the 

 Cheta, or Chatti according to Assj'rian inscriptions, must be mentioned 

 at once, since the name is signiflcant, for we are accustomed to desig- 

 nate the entire group as '"Hittites,"' their individual names being 



« Translation of Die Hettiter, von Dr. Leopold Messerschmidt. Part 1 of vol. iv 

 of Der alte Orient. Leipzig, J. C. Hinrichs, second enlarged edition, 35 pp., 8vo, 

 1903. 



681 



