It would thus appear that, as the Hittites bore down upon Egypt from the north, they occupied the fertile plain of Mamrc, and built Hebron seven years before they had secured sufficient foot hold in Egypt to found thcir capital city of Zoan.
When David sent "Joab and the captains of the host" to number the people (2 Sam. xxiv), it is recorded that they came to Gilead, and to the land of Tahtim-hodshi, and this is the Hittite Kadesh on the Orentes, the southern capital of their em pire.
The description given in the Book of Joshua (Josh. i :4), which was long thought to be exag gerated, may now be taken as strictly accurate.
In the war with Rameses II., Kheta-sira, the king of the Hittites, had under his command the Dardanians and the Trojans, and ten or more other peoples, either as subjects or allies. It is clear that a mighty host was brought into the field by a voice of command that must be obeyed.
(3) Geographical Position of Hittite In scriptions. The existence of their inscriptions and sculptures over a very large extent of coun try bears witness to the wide extent of their em pire.
All the inscribed stones in Hamath must have been carved near where they were found, for all but one (the fragment No. H. I.) were very large and could not have been carried from a distance unless at great cost. Even the fragment was large enough to require a camel to carry it, and the Hamathitcs had not regarded it as of any im portance until the attention of scholars gave them an idea that it had a marketable value.
At Jerabis, the ancient Carchemish, on the Euphrates, a number of these inscriptions have been discovered, and the inscribed stones have been obtained for the British Museum.
On the old road from Carchemish and Nlarash Colonel C. W. Wilson discovered two Hittite in scriptions at Gurum, within the frontiers of Cap padocia. They have been found also far to the north of this point, and in the northwest of Asia Minor.
"That their empire extended," says Dr. Isaac Taylor, "as far as the Euxine and the iEgean, is shown by hieroglyphics and sculptures in the un mistakable style of Hittite art which are scattered over Asia Minor, more especially in Lydia, Lyca onia, Cappadocia, and Cilicia. Scholars are only
just beginning to realize the vast extent of their dominion and their important place in primitive history. Until the rise of Assyria they were the most powerful nation of northwestern Asia." (The Alphabet, Dr. Isaac Taylor,vol. p. 121.) (4) Art and Literature. In the Egyptian in scription concerning the great battle the enemy is called "the miserable king of the Hittites," be fore the battle contest, while afterward lie is called "the great king of thc Hittites," show ing that he won a partial, if not a decided, victory over the Egyptian forces. When the ambassadors of Kheta-sira, ''the great king of the Hittites," went down to Egypt to make a treaty with Ram cses II they carried with them a silver plate on which the Hittite text of the treaty was engraved in their own language and character. This text has been lost, but a copy of it in hieroglyphics ap pears. on the walls of the temples of Rameses.
This people was well acquainted with silver. and attention has frequently been called to their presence in the vicinity of silver mines. Their bargain with the patriarch Abraham at Hebron involved the earliest money transaction on record, and the "shekel" referred to in the phrase "cur rent money with the merchant," was doubtless the forerunner of the com with which wc are ac quainted. We find among them considerable progress in commerce, law, and civil institu tions.
They use silver as the standard of value, bal ances for weighing it, and a regular recognized form of sale and conveyance.
Professor Sayce says their art was a modifica tion of that of Babylon before the rise of the Assyrian empire. This, somewhat modified by Egypt, was borne by the Hittites throughout Asia Minor. "The art and culture, the deities and ritcs, which Lydia owed to Babylon, were brought by the hands of the Hittites, and bore upon them a Hittite stamp. This artistic culture and writings were carried by them into Asia Nlinor, which they overran and subdued." (Sayce, "lierodottts," pp. 426-432).