Syro-Hittite states

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The states that are called Neo-Hittite, or more recently Syro-Hittite, or Aramean (after the Arameans and the Aramaic language), were Luwian, Aramaic and Phoenician-speaking political entities of the Iron Age in northern Syria and southern Anatolia that arose following the collapse of the Hittite Empire around 1180 BC and which lasted until roughly 700 BC. The term "Neo-Hittite" is sometimes reserved specifically for the Luwian-speaking principalities like Milid and Carchemish, although in a wider sense the broader cultural term "Syro-Hittite" is now applied to all the entities that arose in south-central Anatolia following the Hittite collapse—such as Tabal and Quwê—as well as those of northern and coastal Syria.^[1]

Late Bronze Age-Early Iron Age transition

The vast Hittite empire at its maximum expansion in the lands of central Anatolia

The collapse of the Hittite Empire is usually associated with the gradual decline of Eastern Mediterranean trade networks and the resulting collapse of major Late Bronze Age cities in the Levantine coast, Anatolia and the Aegean.^[2] In the middle of the 13th century BC, great groups of Greeks speaking ancient Dorian dialects moved from the north through the Balkan region to the south. The Thracians who occupied this region, and northern Greece, were forced to move to the western coasts, and later to the inland of Anatolia, where they became known as Phrygians and Mysians. At the end of the 13th century BC, the Mycenean palaces in inland Greece were destroyed by invaders and almost simultaneously sea-raiders devastated the palace at Pylos. ^{[3] [4]} A few decades later, at the beginning of the 12th century BC, Homeric Troy was destroyed^[5] and the Hittite Empire suffered a sudden devastating attack from the Kaskas, who occupied the coasts around the Black Sea, and who were joined with the Mysians. They proceeded to destroy almost all Hittite sites but they were finally defeated by the Assyrians beyond the southern borders near Tigris^[6] These great population movements in the Eastern-Meditterannean are documented in the records of Ramesses III (1186–1155 BCE) as an invasion by the so-called sea peoples.^[7] Mentioned as being among them are the people of Adana (Dnnym or Danuna) in Cilicia and probably the Troyans. Hatti, Arzawa (Lydia), Alashiya (Cyprus), Ugarit and Alalakh were destroyed.^[8] The invaders were defeated near the borders of Egypt.

It seems that the sea-peoples contributed to the collapse of the Empire, although they are only mentioned in the Egyptian records and the archaeological evidence is insufficient. Their invasion caused the movement, by both land and sea, of large populations seeking new land to settle.^[9] In fact, it is recorded that the foreign countries made a conspiracy in their islands and that no land could stand before their arms. The Hittites were strong enough to survive the first stream of emigrations, but they didn't escape the second, where they were surrounded by enemies. The Caska were a continuous trouble, the borders with Arzawa were never considered safe, Mitanni to the south was always an enemy and a few decades earlier the Hittites suffered a great defeat against the Assyrians beyond the borders.^[10]

Hattusa, the Hittite capital, was completely destroyed. Following this collapse of large cities and the Hittite state, the Early Iron Age in northern Mesopotamia saw a dispersal of settlements and ruralization, with the appearance of large numbers of hamlets, villages, and farmsteads.^[11] Syro–Hittite states emerged in the process of such major landscape transformation, in the form of regional states with new political structures and cultural affiliations. David Hawkins was able to trace a dynastic link between the Hittite imperial dynasty and the "Great Kings" and "Country-lords" of Melid and Karkamish of the Early Iron Age, proving an uninterrupted continuity between the Late Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age at those sites.^[12]

Aside from literary evidence from inscriptions, the uninterrupted cultural continuity in the region of Neo-Hittite states from the Late Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age is now further confirmed by the recent archaeological work at the sites of Aleppo (Temple of the Storm God on the Citadel)^[13] and Ain Dara (Temple of Ishtar-Shawushka),^[14] where temples built in the Late Bronze Age continue into the Iron Age without hiatus, and those temples witness multiple rebuildings in the Early Iron Age.

List of Syro-Hittite states

Historical map of the Neo-Hittite states, c. 800 BCE. Borders are approximate only.

The northern group includes:

• Tabal. It may have included a group of city states called the Tyanitis (Tuwana, Tunna, Hupisna, Shinukhtu, Ishtunda)
• Kammanu (with Melid)
• Hilakku
• Quwê (with a stronghold at modern Karatepe)
• Gurgum
• Kummuh
• Carchemish

The southern, Aramaic, group includes:

• Palistin (cpital was probably Tell Tayinat)^[17][18]
• Bit Gabbari (with Sam'al)
• Bit-Adini (with the city of Til Barsip)
• Bit Bahiani (with Guzana)
• Pattin (also Pattina or Unqi) (with the city of Kinalua, maybe modern Tell Tayinat^[19])
• Ain Dara, a religious center
• Bit Agusi (with the cities of Arpad, Nampigi, and (later on) Aleppo)
• Hatarikka-Luhuti (the capital city of which was at Hatarikka)
• Hamath

Inscriptions

Luwian monumental inscriptions in Anatolian hieroglyphs continue uninterrupted from the 13th-century Hittite imperial monuments to the Early Iron Age Syro-Hittite inscriptions of Karkamish, Melid, Aleppo and elsewhere.^[20] Luwian hieroglyphs was chosen by many of the Syro-Hittite regional kingdoms for their monumental inscriptions, which often appear in bi or tri-lingual inscriptions with Aramaic, Phoenician or Akkadian versions. The Early Iron Age in Northern Mesopotamia also saw a gradual spread of alphabetic writing in Aramaic and Phoenician. During the cultural interactions on the Levantine coast of Syro-Palestine and North Syria in the tenth through 8th centuries BCE, Greeks and Phrygians adopted the alphabetic writing from the Phoenicians.^[21]

See also

• Aramaeans
• Aram Damascus
• Bronze Age collapse
• Stele of Zakkur

Notes

External links

• Neo-Hittite Monuments
• http://www.bible-history.com/ancient_art/orthostat_relief_hunting_scene.html