BC 1800’s are the years when the first information about Hattis belonging to Aglutinant language group and Indo-European Hittites started to be gained. This period is the beginning of Hittites culture and the stages of development. Hattis are the representative of the culture which developed between Northern Cappadocia and Central Black Sea Region in BC 2500-2000. Symbols of this region such as fortified cities, royal tombs and treasures are the symbols of Hattian Culture. The region was also governed by city states. This period which ended with the fires after big wars is followed by Assyrian Trade Colonies period. It is possible to make an inference from the written documents that Hittites started to invade Anatolia in the late BC 3000 and in the early 2000 with small groups of people. It is estimated that Hittites came to Anatolia through the northern Black Sea or northeastern, Caucasus and settled in the northern part of Kızılırmak curve.
They spread towards to Middle Anatolia with several attacks and they widened their territory. They seized the territories of Hattian Princes.
In the late period of Assyrian Trade Colonies (BC 1800-1730) , King of Kuşşara Pithana and his son Anitta were on the history stage. They seized Kaniş/Neşa which was named as Naşili in Hittites language and announced it as the center of the kingdom. King of Kuşşara Anitta tells that Hattian King Pijusti attacked and destroyed his city . “ I seized the city with a nocturnal attack and I planted crabgrass everywhere. May the curse of god of thunder come on the one who became the king and settle down in Hattis . “
Hattis were announced as the capital by the Hittites King Hattuşili I in the second half of BC 17th century. After Hattişuli I provided the unity of the core state settled in Kızırılmak curve , he attacked the northern Syria and Hurri state in the Upper Euphrates Region. He was giving a cue of being a world state to the kings of Hittite who were going to chase him. Murşili kept on his attacks in the south and deactivated the city states in Syria and seized the Mesopotamian trade routes. Aleppo was seized and the army attacked on Babylon and ended the Hammurabi dynasty. Murşili’s murder by Hammurabi brought the period of confusion. Although Hantili was on power, he was also murdered soon. Zidanta and Huzziya I who were on the throne were also killed after Hantili. Kingdom of Mitanni seized the the states in southern Taurus Mountains, the other regions in South and Southeast Anatolia again.
While Telipinu was on the throne, he was able to give an end to the blood feund in the palace. He stopped the wars made against far kingdoms and he tried to reorganize the administration in Anatolia. For this reason, he founded the state system. Telipinu issued the edict named as Telipuni’s Edict and he set up rules for the throne inheritance.
“Middle Kingdom” followed the period of Telipinu as to the traditional Hittites period categorization. Although this period kings Tuthaliye I and Arnuvanda I tried to spread the influence area of Hittites towards to Eastern Anatolia, they didn’t give up being successful in Northern Syria after the success of Hattuşili I and Murşili. A bronze sword exhibited in Çorum museum has a writing on it. The writing tells us about the successful operation of Tuthaliye from Aegean Coasts to Aşşuvaon. This sword was gained as the prize of war.
Tuthaliya I had to cope with Kaşkas, sworn enemy of Hittites. The military operations performed to top part of The Euphrates river and againts Hurris in northern Mesopotamia were also explained in the writings. It is understood that Tuthaliya I was able to restore the power of the kingdom in Hatti country. However, the kingdom of Tuthaliya I was limited between the borders of Anatolia.
Şuppiluliuma first secured the sovereignty in Anatolia when he was on the throne. Then he seized some parts of Syria and Northern Mesopotamia . He fought with Kaşkas and he made a deal with Ugarit King Nigmedu II. He took the advantage of the conflict in Egypt after the death of Tutankhamon and he seized Carchemish and put an end to Mitanni Kingdom.
The operations of Murşili II was in the same period with the plague and conflicts in Syria due to the growing influence of Assyrian. By the way, Assyrians spread to upper Belih region in upper Mesopotamia and Carchemish. In the nineth year of the Great King, Piyaşşili who was ruling Carchemish died in a religious ceremony in Kizzuvatna country. The conflicts in Syria started again. The king’s coming to Carchemis with his soldiers and Piyaşşili’s son’s going on throne regulated the country. Northern Syria was taken under strict control of Great Hittites Kingdom again.
Muvvattalli who were on throne after his father without any struggle ruled the country as the Great King for more than twenty years. His younger brother Hattuşili served to his king as the leader of military forces, palace officer, governor in the peaceless parts of north and Hattis. In this period, Muvattalli moved his palace from Hattis to Tarhutaşa with the statues of his gods and ancestors. Egypt was the country with which Hittites had conflict due to the Amurru region in Central Syria. This caused Kadesh War. (BC 1274)
Today, the depiction of Kadesh War can be seen on the reliefs of Abydos, Luxor, Abu Simbel’s walls and Ramsesseum pylons in Egypt. The hieroglyphs which tell the victory of Rammes II against Hittites King Muvattalli accompanies to the reliefs. Even though the pharoah prepared for the war well, the winner were the Hittites. Amurru was taken under control of Hittites again and Benteşina who was a seperatist local king was exiled to Anatolia and Kadesh Castle was taken under the control of Hittites.
When Great King Muvattali II died, an old rule was obeyed and Murşili III / Urhi – Teşup was enthroned instead of Hattuşili who was the most powerful man of the kingdom. He moved the capital from Tarhuntaşa to Hattuşa again. The peaceful manner between the great king and Hattuşili deteriorated in the course of time and this ended with the removal of the great king by his uncle Hattuşili. Hattuşili III explained this event as the “Justice Problem” which was decided by the gods. Hattuşili III sticked to religious and political tasks strictly due to the fact that he was not enthroned legally. The great Queen Puduhepa helped him with the religious tasks.
Ramses II was ruling the region since the period of Muvattalli II and Kadesh War. Hattuşili continued his usual relationships with Ramses II as he did with both Assyrian and Babylon kings. He ended the war continuing since the time of Şuppiluliuma I and signed a treaty with Egypt. This treaty was found out with the clay tablet which was excavated in Hattis and exhibited in İstanbul Museum of Archeology today. It was written in Akkadian. In addition to this, its copies written in Egyptian hieroglyph can be found in Eygpt Ramesseum. The treaty signed with Ramses II was the peak for Hattuşili to reach during his reign.This success enriched his status against Assyrian and Babylon rivals and Ahhiyava, his rival in Aegean.
Hattuşili III , who was not enthroned illegally, gained a political and international appreciation ; however, it was important for him to organize issues about the person who were going to be enthroned. The inheritor , who was chosen before, was changed and Prince Tuthaliya IV was enthroned. After Tuthaliye was enthroned, he made a deal with Tarhuntaşşa King Kurunta and Tarhuntaşa country borders were decided again. The king , son of Muvattali II ,was regarded as the same with the level of Carchamish King.
Şuppiluliuma II , son of Tuthaliya IV , was known as the last king of Hittites. He gained some military successes despite the conflict growing with the food shortage . It is written on an inscription in Güneykale that Şuppiluliuma fought successfully in Central and Southwest Anatolia and he established authority in Tarhuntaşa. It is written on the cuneiform tablets that he made deal with Alaşiya inspected by the Great King and Khargamish King.
The reason why Hittites Empire collapsed in BC 1200 couldn’t be found out. It is claimed that there are several reasons for the collapse of the empire. During the reign of the latest empire, there were conflicts among the people and even-increasing controversies among the Hittite aristocrats. The written documents dating back to the latest period of Hittites Government prove that loads of crops were transferred from Syria and Egypt to Anatolia which was in poverty. The conflicts in Anatolia and decreasing influence of Hittites on Syria are also regarded as the reason or the result of this collapse. The written documents show that apart from the oldest Indo-European Hittite language, Pala and Luwian languages, Hurri, Hatti languages and Akkadian were also used as written languages. Each sign in these languages written in cuneiform symbolizes a syllable. Another writing is a picture writing that Hittites used was hieroglyph which was in Luwian language. In this hieroglyph which was completely different from Egyptian hieroglyph, the syllables and even the words could be symbolized with only one sign. Hieroglyph was mostly preferred in stamps and on the big inscriptions such as rock monuments. Literacy in Hittites was a skill belonging to a small group of people. The fact that the kings couldn’t read cuneiform can be found out with the ending “ read aloud” at the end of the letters. There are writings such as ; almanacs, ritual texts, historical documents relating to events, treaties, donation documents, letters which were written in cuneiform writing. This writing was written on wet clay tablets with a pointed tool. The clay tablets ,especially the ones which burnt, kept their formation very well upto now. The presence of wooden and metal tablets are seen in the same writings. On the first metal tablet found in 1986 in Hattis , there is a treaty writing between Hittite King and Tarhantuşa King.