Western Civilization

migrations, around 2000B.C.E. they began major no-

madic movements into Europe (including present-day

Italy and Greece), India, and western Asia. One group

of Indo-Europeans who moved into Asia Minor and

Anatolia (modern Turkey) around 1750B.C.E. coalesced

with the native peoples to form the Hittite kingdom

with its capital at Hattusha (Bogazk€oy in modern

Turkey).

THE HITTITE EMPIRE The Hittites began to spread out-

ward around 1600B.C.E., but it was not until around

two hundred years later that a new line of kings

created the Hittite New Kingdom or Hittite Empire.

Especially notable was Suppiluliumas (suh-PIL-oo-LEE-

uh-muss) I (ca. 1370–1330B.C.E.), one of the strongest

rulers of the era, who established Hittite control from

western Turkey to northern Syria. Suppiluliumas

formed an alliance with the Egyptians and then con-

quered Syria. The Hittites were the first of the Indo-

European peoples to make use of iron, enabling them

to construct weapons that were stronger and cheaper

to make because of the widespread availability of iron

ore. The end of Hittite power came in part from inter-

nal problems but also as a result of attacks by the Sea

Peoples from the west around 1200 B.C.E. and by a

group of aggressive tribespeople known as the Gasga,

who raided Hittite cities. By 1190B.C.E., Hittite power

had come to an end.

During its heyday, however, the Hittite Empire was

one of the great powers in western Asia. The Hittite

ruler, known as the Great King, controlled the core

areas of the kingdom, but in western and southern

Anatolia and Syria, he allowed local rulers to swear alle-

giance to him as vassals. However, constant squabbling

over succession to the throne at times tended to

weaken royal authority.

At its height, the Hittite Empire also demonstrated

an interesting ability to assimilate other cultures into

itsown.Inlanguage,literature,art,law,andreligion,

the Hittites borrowed much from Mesopotamia as

well as from the native peoples that they had sub-

dued. Hittite religion, for example, combined Indo-

European deities and Mesopotamian gods. Recent

scholarship has stressed the important role of the Hit-

tites in transmitting Mesopotamian culture, as they

transformed it, to later Western civilizations in the

Mediterranean area, especially to the Mycenaean

Greeks (see Chapter 3).

The crumbling of the Hittite kingdom and the weak-

ening of Egypt after 1200B.C.E. left a power vacuum in

western Asia, allowing a patchwork of petty kingdoms

and city-states to emerge, especially in the area at the

eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea. The Hebrews

were one of these peoples.

Stonehenge.The Bronze Age in northwestern Europe is

known for its megaliths, or large standing stones. Between

3200 and 1500B.C.E., standing stones arranged in circles or

lined up in rows were erected throughout the British Isles

and northwestern France. The most famous of these

megalithic constructions is Stonehenge in England.

TABLE 2.1 Some Indo-European Languages

Subfamily Languages

Indo-Iranian Sanskrit, Persian

Balto-Slavic Russian, Serbo-Croatian, Czech, Polish,

Lithuanian

Hellenic Greek

Italic Latin, Romance languages (French,

Italian, Spanish, Portuguese,

Romanian)

Celtic Irish, Gaelic

Germanic Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, German,

Dutch, English

NOTE: Languages in italic type are no longer spoken.

ª

Adam Woolfitt/CORBIS

On the Fringes of Civilization 29

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