The Hittites were one of the great powers in the ancient world across almost five centuries, between 1650 and 1200 BCE, with an empire centered in Anatolia — a region that includes much of modern Turkey — with political and socioeconomic interconnections throughout the ancient Near East and Eastern Mediterranean. In new research, scientists analyzed ring width and stable isotope records from ancient juniper trees recovered from archaeological excavations at the site of Gordion in central Anatolia, about 230 km west of the Hittite capital Hattusa. They identified an unusually severe continuous dry period from around 1198 to 1196 BCE.
The vast Hittite Kingdom and subsequently Empire, based in central Anatolia, Turkey, with its capital at Hattusa, is recognized from both rich archaeological remains and textual sources as one of the major Old World powers of the Eastern Mediterranean and Near East between 1650 and 1200 BCE.
At its apex, the Hittites maintained control over central, southern and southeastern Anatolia, the northern Levant and northern Syria, with almost all of Anatolia being under the Hittite sphere of influence.
During this time, the Hittite Empire vied with the Egyptian Empire for sociopolitical dominance in the Near East, a struggle that culminated in the largest battle of the era at Kadesh in Syria in the early 13th century BCE.
Around or shortly after 1200 BCE, the Hittite Empire and central administrative system collapsed in a great realignment that reverberated around the Near East.
The reign of the last known king, Suppiluliuma II, began around 1207 BCE and included claimed victories against several intra-Anatolian rivals (Wiyanawanda, Masa, Lukka and Ikkuna) and Alashiya (Cyprus) in sea and land battles, but no further Hittite rulers were recorded subsequently.
An inscription of the Egyptian ruler Ramesses III — dated to 1188 or 1177 BCE, depending on selection and debate in Egyptian history and chronology — lists the Hittites…
Read the full article here