Who Were the Hittites?
Archaeology and the Bible give different answers
Who were the Hittites? At one time the Hittites were one of three superpowers in the ancient world. Tudhaliya IV (1237–1209 B.C.E.) ruled over the Hittite Kingdom during its heyday and is depicted here on a rock carving from the Hittites’ sacred open-air shrine at Yazilikaya, less than a mile from the Hittite capital of Hattusa in present-day Turkey. Photo: Sonia Halliday.
Who were the Hittites? This question is not as simple as it appears. There is plenty of evidence from archaeology and the Biblical texts, but the two sources of information are not compatible, which adds an element of mystery to this ancient kingdom. The article “The Hittites—Between Tradition and History” in the March/April 2016 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review examines what archaeology and the Bible say about the Hittites.
Who were the Hittites according to archaeology? As early as 1900 B.C.E., an Indo-European people began to settle in what is now Turkey. By the 16th century B.C.E., they were powerful enough to invade Babylon. Their might continued to expand until they were a superpower on the level with Egypt and Assyria. Relations with Egypt were particularly volatile and included the famous Battle of Kadesh and the eventual signing of the world’s oldest peace treaty. The Hittite capital, Hattusa, has been excavated, revealing a formidable and religious empire.
Excavation evidence shows that Hattusa was invaded and burned in the early 12th century B.C.E., but this was after the city had largely been abandoned. In the 14th century B.C.E., Carchemish in northern Syria was made a vice-regal seat. As the Hittites began abandoning the land of Hatti during the region-wide decline at the end of the 12th century B.C.E., they may have fled to this location.
Who were the Hittites according to the Bible? The Hittites play a prominent role at key places in the Hebrew Bible: Ephron the Hittite sells Abraham the family burial ground (Genesis 23); Esau married Hittite women, and Rebecca despised them (Genesis 26:34); frequently they are listed as one of the inhabitants of Canaan (e.g., Exodus 13:5; Numbers 13:29; Joshua 11:3); King David had Uriah the Hittite killed in order to acquire Uriah’s wife (2 Samuel 11); King Solomon had Hittites among his many wives (1 Kings 10:29–11:2; 2 Chronicles 1:17); and the prophet Ezekiel degrades Israel with the metaphor of a Hittite mother (Ezekiel 16:3, 45).
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“The impression is that many Hittites are living in the land of Canaan during the time of the Founding Families … And this impression is reinforced by Biblical references to Hittites during the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah,” notes the BAR article “The Hittites—Between Tradition and History.”
The wall around Hattusa was more than 6 miles long and had several decorated gates. Visitors to the city would enter through the Lion Gate—named for the stone lions on either side of the entrance. The lion was a symbol of protection, defiance and royalty in Hittite culture. Photo: Sonia Halliday Photographs/Photo by Jane Taylor.
According to the BAR article, “[T]his still leaves us with an open question regarding the references to the Hittites during the time of the patriarchs. To a certain extent, the composition history of the Pentateuch may be relevant to this discussion. If one were to assume that these narratives depict historical realities that were written down close to the time of occurrence, then one might conclude that the references are to the original Hittites rather than the Neo-Hittites. However, the majority of scholars believe that these narratives were composed hundreds of years after the events that they describe and often contain anachronisms for the time of composition superimposed on the narrative time. This would suggest that the references reflect the Neo-Hittites.”
So who were the Hittites? The older Hittites never self-identified as Hittites, but called their language Nesite and their land Hatti, referring to themselves as the people of Hatti. Had scholars known from the beginning what has been subsequently uncovered, these people would probably be called Nesites or perhaps Nesians. When the once-mighty kingdom collapsed, those in the former Syrian vassal states kept the culture alive, becoming the Neo-Hittites. The archaeological record reveals the story of the original Hittites, while the Bible refers mostly to the Neo-Hittites.
For more on the Hittites as told through archaeology and the Bible, read the full article “The Hittites—Between Tradition and History” in the March/April 2016 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.
BAS Library Members: Read the full article “The Hittites—Between Tradition and History” in the March/April 2016 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.
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Related reading in Bible History Daily:
All-Access members, read more in the BAS Library:
Sacred Sex in the Hittite Temple of Yazilikaya
Hittites in the Bible: What Does Archaeology Say?
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Dr. White:
Actually, the transliteration of Hittite and Hittites from the Hebrew in Genesis 23:10 and 15:20 is a bit of a misnomer introduced by the Masoretic scholars of Tiberias who vocalized the text of the Hebrew Bible around 800 CE. If we examine historical changes in the Hebrew language introduced in the area of Tiberias, we can see that between about 250 CE and 450 CE, there was a shift of many short A vowels to I vowels in closed unstressed initial syllables (usually followed by an accented syllable).
Thus, prior to that time, the Hebrew actually was read Hatti and Hattis. And that is why we call Moses’ sister Maryam: Miryam. The Greek (and Arabic) reading is Mariam/Maryam.
Furthermore, if we look at the Greek Septuagint translation of ca. 250 BCE: Χετταῖος, we see that the initial consonantal transcription does not reflect the ḥêṯ that we see in our Hebrew Bibles, but that of an earlier consonant, ḫayt, that merged into ḥêṯ in the second century CE that is not pronounced in modern Hebrew, but persists in Arabic.
Thus the Hittite and Hittites were actually pronounced Ḫatti and Ḫattis by the writers of Genesis, just as those ancient people referred to themselves. The consonant ḫayt [IPA: x] was a voiceless velar fricative, the same as Greek chi, and similar to the Ashkenazi (European) Jewish pronunciation of ḥêṯ.
Respectfully,
Robert M Goodman
Based on historic fact we do know that the Hittite empire at one time extended into the land of Canaan and the Hittites fought the Egyptians. It would therefore seem to make sense that to some extent the Hittites were allied with the Israelites and that as the Hittite empire retreated, Hittite cities in the area were absorbed by the Israelites.
The Hittites were an ancient group of Indo-Europeans who moved into Asia Minor and formed an empire at Hattusa in Anatolia (modern Turkey) around 1600 BCE. The Hittite Empire reached great heights during the mid-1300s BCE, when it spread across Asia Minor, into the northern Levant and Upper Mesopotamia.
The part so very true and most interesting was that the Hittites were Indo-European hailing from Scandinavia. Scholars have suspected and concluded in deductive anticipation of this fact for generations now. These same Indo-Europeans also filled the area of Iran. There is strong evidence where foundations for religious belief, especially the messianic belief system, originated with the Indo-European. When we dare to delve deeply enough, we are going to discover where not only the original Sumerians were Indo-European, but so were the original founders of Egypt as we now know the Minoans were, and likewise, the original Canaanite tribe of Hebrew (Hibiru) and the Clan of Abraham. All of these grand empires corrupted due to invasions from southern Asia and eventually collapsed because of them.
Another asinine liar. WHITE (LEPROSY GENE) CAME FROM THE NEANDERTHAL AND WHITE PEOPLE ARE DESCENDANTS OF CANAAN. GENES-IS 36:12 AND JEREMIAH 49:10. WHITE PEOPLE ARE THE ONLY ONES WHO ARE A COLOR. THEY’RE LEPERS. NOTHING MORE THAN LEPERS AND NOT STOLEN IDENTITIES. NOT EUROPEAN. NOT CAUCASIAN. NOT ATTACHED TO A LAND OR PLACE. THEY WERE DISCOVERED LIVING UNDER A ROCK (CAVE-MAN). LEPERS.
Homo-Sapiens (HUE-MANS) originated from Sumeria and the NEANDERTHALS are DENISOVANS (MAN-KIND). THE HEBREWS (HIBIRU) ARE NOT CANAANITES AS YOU PORTRAY. WHITE PEOPLE ARE THE DESCENDANTS OF CANAAN. ESAU’S FIRSTBORN SON ELIPHAZ WAS BORN OF A HORITE MOTHER (TROGLODYTES) NEANDERTHAL GENE LEPROSY. THEY WERE APES. JACOB WAS A STRANGER IN THE LAND OF CANAAN. CURSED BE CANAAN. GENES-IS 9:25. NOAH (UNCOVERED HIS NAKEDNESS MEANING ALBINO) CANAAN DESCENDANTS ARE WHITE. WHITE MAN IS HAMITE AS IN BUCKINGHAM PALACE. BEING WHITE IN THE BUYBULL IS A CURSE. BEING WHITE IN AFRICAN HISTORY WAS A CURSE OF LEPROSY IN THOSE DAYS. WHITE PEOPLE COME FROM HAM. MAN-KIND ARE NEANDERTHAL, ARE APES, WHITE, ARAB, CHINESE, INDIA. LEVITICUS 13:13 IS WHERE WHITE PEOPLE COMES FROM. LEPROSY.
There’s no such thing as Indo-European so stop the bullshit. Genes-is 36:12 And Timnaz was concubine to Eliphaz Esau’s son; and she bare to Eliphaz Amalek. THESE WERE THE ‘SONS’ OF ADAH (HORITE) ESAU’S WIFE. THESE ‘WERE THE HORITES’ OR TROGLODYTES (NEANDERTHAL) WHO MERGED SEED WITH ESAU. THE NEANDERTHAL HAS LEPROSY GENE. AMALEK BORN IN MOUNT SEIR.
Jeremiah 49:10 But I have made Esau bare (albino), I have uncovered his secret places, and he shall not be able to hide himself: his seed (Eliphaz, Amalek) is spoiled (leprosy: white as ‘snow’) and his brethren (Yaphet), and his neighbour’s, and he is not.
Bryant Wood looked at this question in some detail and offers a solution that I find persuasive (see https://biblearchaeology.org/research/divided-kingdom/2796-hittites-and-hethites-a-proposed-solution-to-an-etymological-conundrum?highlight=WyJoZXRoaXRlcyIsIidoZXRoaXRlcyciLCJhIiwiJ2EiLCJhJyIsImEncyIsImEncG9ncmFmaCIsImEnLiIsIidhJyIsIidhJywiLCJhJywiLCJwcm9wb3NlZCIsImhldGhpdGVzIGEiLCJoZXRoaXRlcyBhIHByb3Bvc2VkIiwiYSBwcm9wb3NlZCJd )
AudibleSunrise and Gonzo are engaged in what is known as speculation based on what they desire to be the truth rather than actually analyzing what transpired in history, and being honest about it. Unfortunately for the propagandists, they cannot explain why the proto-Armenians such as the “Hurrians”, “Hittites”, “Phrygians”, “Urartians”, “Mitanni”, etc disappeared and a “new” people (Armenians) appeared in the same general location. And the reason why no other people are applicable, is because the Armenians existed in these areas for many centuries before other nationalities started invading the Armenian Highlands and suddenly appeared from the west, south and east. Sorry, you can speculate and fantasize all you like, these facts will not change. By 500 BC, proto-Armenians in the Armenian Highlands had largely assimilated to the point that other nations only saw one nation and people: Armenia.
Hittites, like many other peoples had a home base and many others who traveled far. Abram was from Ur. There is no reason why the Bible references and the archaeological record could not be both true. Ur is very far from Canaan, so that means Abram could not have been from there?
@Hagop I must disagree the hurrians were actually Porto Armenian. hittites are most definitely not armanian or Turks either, as the Turks came more from the north eastern central Asian steppe. I believe the Turks are honestly i newer expansion of the Huns which Hungary was named after. but truthfully I think all indo European tribes stemmed from Central Asia and were pushed further and further west which would make the most of Europeans in fact Eurasians and the others that are of Mediterranean decent ancient North Africans from the Mediterranean parts of north Africa that left moved north into Spain and into northern parts of the northern Mediterranean or Ireland I also believe the celts to be originally from Central Asia as in biblical times there where parts of Asia Minor named Galicia which means they were also nomadic people that moved I believe they may have split off one half going through North Africa the other going the through Anatolia into Europe and onto the island and up into Spain and Portugal from following the south Mediterranean Sea the NorthAfrican root this is just my opinion it might not be approved by the victors who wrote history but I do not always believe the victors story as the victors believe life as we know it only existed 8000 or so years ago which is complete BS and most of us that are smart enough know enough to question authority when regarding that statement I look into ancient text read thoroughly look into language markers as certain areas were ruled by the tongue of the time and a lot of people assimilated different languages as to coming into contact with new people and so the story goes that’s why it’s very hard to decipher who’s who I’ve seen some stuff about the Hittites that points to them being possibly Jewish or either that or the Jews were conquered by the Hittites and then the Jews took the lion of the hitti and made it they’re emblem hence the lion of Judah, hence the lion of heptusha not saying they are directly related but the hittites used the lion in they’re symbolism so did the Jews. or specifically the tribe of Judah, is there any relation here between Judah and the hittites. did the Jews assimilate borrow/steal another piece of an ancient superpowers history because it looked good on them? Will never really know we do know they lived very close to the Jews/Hebrews/Aramaic so didn’t the Egyptians and also many signs show the Jews borrowed from the Egyptians as well but this doesn’t make the Jews/Hebrews/Aramaics related to the Egyptians nor does it make the Jews/Hebrews/Aramaic s related to the hittites as they would not be related to the hittites because the Hittites language stems from indo European tongue which directly stems from ancient India or Central Asia either way same vicinity and the Aramaic or Hebrew is Afro Asiatic which doesn’t correlate To Indo European people at all now the Elamites,hurrian,hittites,Sumerian,Indo-Iranian and Indo-Aryen are all tongues that have to do with the ancient Indo European people regardless if your Persian or Armanian or Central Asian the Indo European stock of people has been proven to have stemmed from the Central Asian and Pontiac steppe in ancient times these people would’ve lived under the latitude and longitude of the ice caps in the last ice age and would have started a migration once they knew the ice caps were melting also there is a plausible case that has been made but this is not been Proven there was once a ancient land bridge that connected Sri Lanka to southern India there has been speculation that when the last ice age was in its melt the Dravidian people came to shore the land of India and the northerners moved out on a great migration away from the dravidians there are still people to this day that are on the islands of remote Indian Ocean that have these islanders that do not look Indian at all look closer related to Africans or aboriginal australians and not to say the least that at the last ice age melt there islands in the ocean sunk and they had to move to higher grounds which struck conflict with the northern Aryen Indians and they decided to get out and moved in all different directions apparently all peoples of north and South America Europe and parts of Asia share a common ancestor to Central Asia 25,000yrs ago but the victors don’t have that written in they’re book now do they?
The Hittites, most likely came from what is now Macedonia, or Southern Russia. The Hittites did not come in one fell swoop. Their migration was piecemeal, a slow gradual expansion. They spoke a Indo-European tongue, which influenced later Greek, Latin and Germanic languages/dialects. But, a lot is not known and sadly may never be known, such is the fog of antiquity. To state unequivocally that the Hittites were ‘Armenian’ is a colossal misreading of the facts.
All of the above proposed “history” and discussion” is a bunch of BS. The Hittites were proto-Armenians and “historians”, namely who are Turkish, Israeli and British try their best to hide this fact. Why? It does not fit into their imperialist world view, and it has the potential to change a lot of things once this truth is revealed. For Turks who committed the Genocide against Armenians, and which is denied by the two key nations of Israel and UK, this can mean bigger claims of Armenian territory for the future and mean that the true original and real owners of “Anatolia” as well as parts of the lower Middle East are today’s Armenians. Indeed no other people existing today can make this claim other than perhaps the Greeks. All other peoples in this land are “newcomers”. Thus, the entirety of “Anatolia” is actually a join historical homeland of Armenians and Greeks. Not surprisingly, both these nations went through a Genocide by the Turks and their international handlers in order to remove traces of the real history and original inhabitants of Asia Minor.
What I’ve discovered is that sometimes translators of scriptures Miss Translate it’s not that scriptures are counter dictating each other it depends on who translated the taxes I have found error in the translated text and I believe that we should know and understand the culture before we can actually really Translate from another language custom and culture plays a role in translation take a western mindset and Eastern mindset they don’t translate well
I suppose am not what may be considered a religious man in the conventional sense but I know there is a higher authority than myself which is probably a decent foundation. I had a dream recently in which my grandmother (A devote Christian and Deaconess) told me to “remember the Hittite Road”… I am in Afghanistan fighting in what can be considered part of a global holy war and I wish I knew what that message meant. I cannot recall having ever heard of the Hittites prior to that dream but when I was told that message I immediately awoke and wrote down everything that occurred in that dream… I hope it is not a sign that our current conflicts may soon spill into Turkey/Iran. Peace and Blessings
Frankly, I find this entirely unconvincing.
The mocking tongue of so-called scholars and their myriad interpolations and pre–conceived notions which they thrust upon the text do not degrade the sacred voice of God found in scripture language.
Melchizedek, as a priest as well as king, was likely to have been associated with a sanctuary, probably dedicated to
The Hittites were a Hamitic POC. They were a “darkened” or “black” people that descended from the line of Ham the father of the dark races. During the scattering of Babel, the family of Heth divided itself into three groups. One of the groups followed its grandfather “Canaan” to the land of Canaan or “Gods land”, while the others journeyed northwest and east, into Asia Minor (Turkey), and Aramea (Syria).
what is your evidence that Hittites were black? I have not found anything supporting this. Please share with me as I have ben working or this for some time. Thank you and God bless!
Michelle: Archaelogist Clark Whisler in the thirties had a lecture on this subject wherein he revealed the migration of cultural artifact styles. A culture (like an amoeba) has a culture center surrounded by “marginal locations” within it’s bounds. His thesis was that innovations migrate from point of origin to surrounding sites over time, and if the whole scene is erased, by, say a large battle, the site where a researcher might discover some apparently newer innovation to some artifact is probably later in time, whereas at it’s point of origin with newer subsequent technology there might be no representation of the item. E.G.: Today, to find a surviving model T Ford, look in the Amazon basin, not New York City. I call this the “marginal survival of a culture trait”; someone else may have a better name.
Then as now family groups and communities immigrate from the land of their origin to the outer parts of their empire and when this empire disappears or retreats these communities may remain. So in the Bible when they refer to individuals at this latter period of time as Hittites it may just mean this a person from a community from this past empire that is still in existence from this time. There may have been merchants from the ancient empire we call the Hittites that remain in communities in Canaan long after the what we now call the Hittite Empire has disappeared.
As those of Gath were called Gittites, why wouldn’t those of Heth be called Hittites?
Heth is listed as the second son of Canaan, and Gath was a Philistine city.
I don’t appreciate these findings for “proof” that the bible is true, by faith we believe… I’m a history buff that loves it when God allows a little bit of evidence to be left for all the skeptics! So many times he told the ancients build an altar as a memorial….to whom?! Him? Yes and no but more to the skeptics. Well it’ll all come out in the wash! Can’t wait till the Red Sea gives up its proof!
There is a confusion between a Semetic tribe of Hetti living in Arabia and Canaan and the Hati people of Anatolia and northern Syria. The bible talks about the. small Hetti tribe who with other tribes like Medyans,Moabites,etc….shared the surrounding lands of Canaan.