Hittite Empire

(noun)

An ancient Anatolian people who established an empire at Hattusa in north-central Anatolia around 1600 BCE. It reached its height during the mid-14th century BCE.

Related Terms

Examples of Hittite Empire in the following topics:

  • The Hittites

    • The Hittite Empire reached its height during the mid-fourteenth century BCE under Suppiluliuma I.
    • The Hittite kingdom is conventionally divided into three periods, the Old Hittite Kingdom (ca. 1750–1500 BCE), the Middle Hittite Kingdom (ca. 1500–1430 BCE) and the New Hittite Kingdom (the Hittite Empire proper, 1430–1180 BCE).
    • By 1160 BCE, the Empire had collapsed.
    • "Neo-Hittite" post-Empire states, petty kingdoms under Assyrian rule, may have lingered on until ca. 700 BCE.
    • The Hittite Empire is shown in Blue, ca. eighteenth century BCE–ca. 1178 BCE.

  • The Hittites

    • The Hittite Empire reached its height during the mid-14th century BCE under Suppiluliuma I, when it encompassed an area that included most of Asia Minor as well as parts of the northern Levant and Upper Mesopotamia.
    • The conventional name "Hittites" is due to their initial identification with the Biblical Hittites, according to 19th century archaeology.
    • The Hittites are thereby counted among the Canaanites.
    • The Hittite Empire at its greatest extent under Suppiluliuma I (c. 1350–1322 BCE) and Mursili II (c. 1321–1295 BCE)
    • The approximate extent of the maximum area of the Hittite rule (light green) and the Hittite rule c. 1350-1300 BCE (green line).

  • The New Kingdom

    • The New Kingdom of Egypt, also referred to as the Egyptian Empire, is the period in ancient Egyptian history between 1550-1070 BCE, covering the Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Twentieth Dynasties of Egypt.
    • New Kingdom Egypt would reach the height of its power under Seti I and Ramesses II, who fought against the Libyans and Hittites.
    • Eventually, the Egyptians and Hittites signed a lasting peace treaty.
    • The heavy cost of warfare slowly drained Egypt's treasury and contributed to the gradual decline of the Egyptian Empire in Asia.
    • This map shows the Egyptian (green) and Hittite (red) Empires around 1274 BCE.

  • The Assyrians

    • The Assyrian Empire was a major Semitic kingdom, and often empire, of the Ancient Near East.
    • Following the fall of the Akkadian Empire, c. 2154 BCE, and the short-lived succeeding Sumerian Third Dynasty of Ur, which ruled southern Assyria, Assyria regained full independence.
    • However, a shift in the Assyrian's dominance occurred with the rise of the Middle Assyrian Empire (1365 BCE-1056 BCE).
    • Additionally, during this period, Assyria overthrew Mitanni and eclipsed both the Hittite Empire and Egyptian Empire in the Near East.
    • It overthrew the Twenty-Fifth dynasty of Egypt, and conquered a number of other notable civilizations, including Babylonia, Elam, Media, Persia, Phoenicia/Canaan, Aramea (Syria), Arabia, Israel, and the Neo-Hittites.

  • Babylon

    • Following the sack of Babylon by the Hittites, the Kassites invaded and took over Babylon, ushering in a dynasty that was to last for 435 years until 1160 BCE.
    • Throughout the duration of the Neo-Assyrian Empire (911-608 BCE) Babylonia was under Assyrian domination or direct control.
    • Babylon thus became the capital of the Neo-Babylonian Empire.
    • By 141 BCE, when the Parthian Empire took over the region again, Babylon was in complete desolation and obscurity.
    • Under the Parthian, and later, Sassanid Persians, Babylon remained a province of the Persian Empire for nine centuries.

  • The Phoenicians

    • Although Egyptian seafaring expeditions had already been made to Byblos to bring back "cedars of Lebanon" as early as the 3rd millennium BCE, continuous contact only occurred in the Egyptian New Empire period.
    • During the early Iron Age, around 1200 BCE, Sea Peoples appeared in the area from the north, which weakened and destroyed the Egyptians and Hittites, respectively.

  • The Empire Style

  • The German Empire

  • The Brazilian Empire

  • Naming of the Byzantine Empire

    • While the Western Roman Empire fell, the Eastern Roman Empire, now known as the Byzantine Empire, thrived.
    • The Byzantine Empire, sometimes referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire in the East during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul, originally founded as Byzantium).
    • Both "Byzantine Empire" and "Eastern Roman Empire" are historiographical terms created after the end of the realm; its citizens continued to refer to their empire as the Roman Empire and thought of themselves as Romans.
    • Over time, the culture of the Eastern Roman Empire transformed.
    • Just as the Byzantine Empire represented the political continuation of the Roman Empire, Byzantine art and culture developed directly out of the art of the Roman Empire, which was itself profoundly influenced by ancient Greek art.