I’ve always been fascinated by the Hittites, an ancient Indo-European civilization that flourished in what is now Turkey between 1700 and 1200 BCE. Like the United States, the Hittite Empire was a superpower in world politics of its time, conquering Babylon and clashing with fellow power Egypt for control of what is now Syria.
But apart from their skilled use of chariots and a few occasionally controversial mentions in the Old Testament, the Hittites are now little more than a footnote in the Western canon.
How did this happen? Why has this great power been largely forgotten in history? And does the fate of the Hittites suggest anything about America’s future?
Historians often disagree about the confluence of circumstances that caused a civilization to collapse. Disease, population migration, climate-related catastrophes such as famine, economic conflicts, rebellions and wars, dynastic rivalries, and cultural stubbornness in the face of crisis can all play a role. Despite the discovery of thousands of cuneiform stone tablets at the Hittite fortress capital of Huttusha in the early 1900s, Hittite scholars, known as Hittite historians, lack a complete and detailed record of the social, economic, and religious organization of the kingdom sufficient to confirm these collapse scenarios.
