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Hittites

The Hittite Empire at its peak. Hittites:blue; Mycenaean Greeks:pink; Assyria:green; Egypt: yellow)
Sun disks found in the royal tombs at Alaca Hüyük point to possible Indo-European influence.
Modern distribution of Hittite-Luwian DNA[1]
Relief of Suppiluliuma II, last known king of the Hittite Empire

The Hittites were an ancient people from Anatolia who spoke an Indo-European language. They wrote with cuneiform script. They established a kingdom centered at Hattusha in north-central Anatolia from the 18th century BC.

At its peak, the Hittite Empire covered most of modern Turkey and Syria. This was under the reigns of Suppiluliuma I (~1350–1322) and Mursili II (~1321–1295 BC). They had up-and-down relationships with the New Kingdom of Egypt to the south and the Assyrian Empire in Mesopotamia. They were a party to the first known peace treaty, made with Ramesses II of Egypt by Hattusili III in 1258 BC.

After 1180 BC, the empire disintegrated into several independent "Neo-Hittite" city-states, some surviving until as late as the 8th century BC.

  1. ↑ Data from Open Genomes and Damgaard et al. 2018; Map colouring: Casippo Open Genomes

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