of Hatti’s Anatolian cities and states. This is because we can match
up many Syrian city-names known from written records with
actual sites–like Carchemish on the Euphrates, Aleppo (called
Halab/p by the Hittites), Alalah (modern Tell Atchana on the
northern bend of the Orontes). So too we can identify the Bronze
Age royal city of Ugarit in western Syria, from its extensive
surviving tablet-archives and building remains, and we have a fairly
clear idea of the extent and boundaries of the kingdom (also called
Ugarit) of which it was the capital. Similarly, a number of cities and
territories controlled by Egypt in southern Syria and Palestine can
be precisely located, for their descendants exist today, like Beirut,
Byblos, Sidon and Tyre, along the Levantine coast. Using these
cities as markers, we can reconstruct with a fairly high degree of
accuracy the network of city-states and larger kingdoms in Syria
and Palestine, even if their precise boundaries remain uncertain.
Late Bronze Age Anatolia is a rather different proposition. But
let’s start with a positive. The Hittite capital Hattusa was identified
almost as soon as excavations began on the site in the early
twentieth century. And in fairly recent years a number of other
Hittite cities have been discovered, within or near the‘homeland’
region. They’ve long been known to us from the capital’s written
0 100 200 300 400 kmHattusaKummanniAlalah
UgaritUGARIT
AMURRUQatna
QadeshAleppoEmarCarchemishMITTANISUBARIALSHENIHRIYAISUWAASSYRIAEuphratesTigrisOrontesNUHASHSHI ASHTATASYRIANDESERTHAYASAAZZI
Samuha?Adalur^ RangeANTI-TAURUS^Salt Lake MTS
Marassantiya
(core region)LAND OFHATTI UPPER LANDLOWERLAND
TARHUNTASSAKIZZUWATNA
Ura?
ALASIYAHAPALLAPITASSALUKKAParhaBeycesultan
Kastar
yaApasa
MilawataMaeanderMediterranean
SeaBlack SeaTUMMANAPA L A KASKAMASA?Karabel passLazpa Hermus
ARZAWA-MIRARIVERSEHA
LANDTr oyWILUSASea of Marmara
SakaryaBabylonCaicusSarrisaSapinuwaAlaca H. Ta p i k k aMap 6.1 The Hittite world.
THE SETTING FOR AN EMPIRE 47