HIT'TITES. A name that properly designates a rather promiscuous group of nations whose set tlements extended from the westerly portions of Asia Minor to Armenia, northward close to the Caspian Sea, and southward to the watershed between the Euphrates and the Orontes. Be sides this we also find references in the Old Testament to Hittites in Southern Palestine around Hebron (Gen. xxiii.). and Hittites are likewise frequently mentioned among the pre Israelitish inhabitants of Palestine, and along side the Canaanites. Amorites, Hivites, Perizzites, and Girgashites. It is quite impossible, however, to determine absolutely whether the same group (or subdivision of the same group) is intended in all cases. The indications are in favor of sep arating the Hittites of Central Palestine from those in the south and from the Hittites of Northern Syria and Asia Minor. The geographi cal nomenclature of the Old Testament is fre quently vague, and Hittite is a term which is variously used by different writers. So far as the Hittites. whom tradition places around He bron, are concerned, we are limited in our knowl edge to the account of Abraham's purchase of the field of Machpelah from the sons of Meth (Gen. xxiii.). and to incidental references, such as Gen. xxvi. 34, which point to scattered Hittite settle ments as far south as Cesar and Beersheba. They are on friendly terms with Edomites and Hebrews, but there is nothing to indicate their ethnic relationship to those two groups. Equally unsatisfactory is our knowledge of the llittites of Central Palestine. We encounter them merely as one in the confederated group of pre-Israclitish inhabitants of Canaan proper. and considering the uncertain character of Hebrew traditions when it comes to specific names of peoples, there is no special value to be attached to this group big. When we reach the days of David we find ourselves on safer historical ground. The pres ence of Criah the Hittite (husband of Bath sheba) in the army of David (11. Sam. xxiii. 39) is a valuable indication that at this period a group known as the Hittites was still recognized, and there is no valid objection against regarding these Hittites as descendants of those whom tra dition places around Hebron, which, it, will be recalled, is also the centre of David's political activity. In Solomon's days (1. Kings xi. 1) we learn of alliances with Ilittite4, and here at last we have the Hittites of the north whose historical importance far outranks those of the south. The 'kings of the Hittites' to whom the writer in 11. Kings vii. 6 refers are powerful rulers who as early as 1600 B.C. had established themselves on the Orontes, and whom the Egyp tians, when under Thothmes I. they began their series of Asiatic campaigns, found to be most formidable enemies. While obliged to submit to Egypt for a while, the Hittites maintained a spirit of independence, and centuries afterwards the Babylonians and Assyrians were checked in their advance toward the west by the Hittites gathered at Carchemish, Kadesh, larash, Ila math, and elsewhere. It is not until the days
of Sargon 11. (n.c. 721-705) that these Hittites along the Orontes are finally subdued and dis appear from the horizon of history. Hittites, however, are not limited to Northern Syria. Monuments have been found in Cappadocia, Paphlagonia, Lyeaonia, and Phrygia which by their general art, costumes of the personages sculptured on them, and above all by the char acter of the inscriptions accompanying the monu ments, are identical with numerous Hittite re mains found at Carchemish. Marash, and Ila math. It is the existence of these monuments spread over so large a district that enables us to form an idea of the important part played in ancient history by the Hittites. The inscriptions themselves have .not yet been fully deciphered, but a beginning has been made. and enough is now known to warrant the assumption that be tween e.1200 and 800 n.c. Ilittites formed the controlling element in Central and NVestern Asia Minor; and it also appears quite certain that the spread Wens gradual from the region of Cilicia to the north, northeast, northwest, and west. These Hittites appear to have been of a mixed ethnic type, of Turanian and Semitic elements, with a general tendency toward the prevalence of the Semitic over the non-Semitic.
According to Jensen, indeed, the Hittite lan guage is Aryan in character: but this view is open to serious objections, and it is more likely that the Hittite language will be found to be affiliated with the Semitic stock, There is also a possibility of a direct connection between Hittite characters and Egyptian hieroglyphics, though it is not possible to speak with certainty on Isis and numerous other points connected with the 11 it tites. Further researches and s in Hittite districts are needed, and above all the discovery of a key that %%111 enable scholars satis factorily to interpret the inscriptions. The Ilit tite script. it may be added. is partly pict aria I and partly syllabic. By virtue of its pictorial •haracter it is possible to determine the general meaning of a Ilittite inscription much more read ily than to determine how it is to be read.
BIntionssettv. Perrot and Chipiez, History of Art in Sardinia, lsiu .Minor, Judtra, etc., vol. ii. (Paris, 1883) ; Sayce. The Hittites (London, 1888) ; Wright, The Empire of the Hittites ( Lon don, 1884 ; La ut shee re, lie la rnee it de in langur (Hs Hittites ( Paris, 1831) ; Jen-en, Hillikr and Artnenicr (Stras-burg, 1S9S) ; Messer schniidt, narkungen zu elan thithiselan n sehrif n (Berlin, 1898) ; id., Corpus ascrip tionunt I)' lticuruui 19(0) . For densen's attempts at decipherment of the llittite inscrip tions. consult his article: in the Zt itschrif 1 der di nisch. n Noryt nlasndisehrn Gest lischaft, vol. xlviii. (Leipzig, 1834). See CAHCHEM