life and society in the hittite world nov 2002

[...]... succeeded in its main aim if its readers on completing it feel that it has brought them closer to a knowledge and understanding of the life of the people, and the people themselves, who dominated a large part of the Near Eastern world throughout the Late Bronze Age Synopsis of Hittite History The kingdom of the Hittites rose in the central Anatolian plateau, in the region called the Land of Hatti, during the. .. place The considerable in uence of the Near Eastern world on the evolving civilization of Greece can now hardly be denied But the specifics of cultural transmission still remain debatable Chapter 14 deals with some of the possible links between the Near Eastern world and the world that lay in and across the Aegean, and the role which the Hittites may have played in establishing these links Otherwise there... warfare That may indeed have been the case more often than not in the Hittite world But the picture is only part complete In fact the great majority of texts from the Hittite archives have little or nothing to do with the military side of Hittite life They provide information on a wide range of other aspects which help create a more balanced view of life and society in the Hittite world In dealing with a... the alert against one of the Hittites’ greatest fears the outbreak of fire They had to ensure that all who left the fortified community in the morning, probably mainly peasant farmers, and returned in the evening after working in the fields were carefully scrutinized, to ensure there was no enemy presence among them They were responsible for the maintenance of buildings, roads, and irrigation canals They... status in the Syrian region and may even have been commensurate in importance and power with the pharaohs In these two instances,then,biblical tradition may reflect the continuing Hittite political and military and cultural presence in Syria, albeit in an attenuated and hybrid form, during the early centuries of the first millennium bc.4 I have devoted some space to the history of these latter-day Hittites... excavating the site which had so mystified Charles Texier seventy years earlier He sits in a hut on the site examining the large quantities of clay tablets which the excavations are bringing to light They are inscribed in the cuneiform script Winckler is able to read a number of these since they are in the language called Akkadian, the international language of diplomacy in the second millennium bc Winckler... experience from the tediously repetitive formulaic instructions in the texts the colour and noise and pageantry of the festival processions and the feasting and entertainment and sports contests associated with them? Military annals routinely list the peoples taken from subject territories in the aftermath of military conquest and resettled in the Hittite homeland We have only bald statistics What of the human... him and the great majority of his subjects, in both military and non-military contexts Even the king’s shoes and chariot could 16 King, Court, and Royal Officials be made only from the leather of animals slaughtered in the palace precincts and prepared under the strictest conditions of hygiene in the palace kitchen The King’s Officials While in a physical sense the king seems to have been kept well insulated... officials were wide-ranging In Hatti’s outlying regions they were responsible for the security of the frontiers and had charge of the garrisons stationed in the area They were strictly required in the instructions issued to them to ensure that fortresses and towns under their control were securely locked in the evenings They had to keep an adequate supply of timber on hand in case of siege They were warned... remain forever screened from the private lives and idiosyncracies and defects of the kings whose public exploits they extol If anything, the kings were as little known to most of their own subjects as they are to us When in residence in the capital they lived in Oz-like seclusion from the general populace behind the walls of the acropolis, which effectively cut off the palace district, sprawling over the . alt="" Life and Society in the Hittite World ❖ Life and Society in the Hittite World ❖ TREVOR BRYCE 3 3 Great Clarendon Street,Oxford ox2 6dp Oxford University Press is a department of the University. on the site examining the large quantities of clay tablets which the excavations are bringing to light. They are inscribed in the cuneiform script.Winckler is able to read a number of these since. region and may even have been commensurate in importance and power with the pharaohs. In these two instances,then,biblical tradition may reflect the continuing Hittite political and military and