Hatti — the Hittite kingdom

c. 1650–1180 BC lasted 470 years 6 rulers 2 documents

Region: Hattusa, central Anatolia

Era: c. 1650–1180 BC

A superpower that was almost entirely forgotten until its capital archive was dug up in 1906 — and which produced the oldest surviving peace treaty in the world.

Ends in the Bronze Age collapse. The longest-lasting kingdom in this section, and the one least known before 1906.

Rulers (6)

Hattusili I

#1 c. 30 years (1650–1620 BC)

Seat: Hattusa

Established the capital at Hattusa

Mursili I

#2 c. 30 years (1620–1590 BC)

Seat: Hattusa

Sacked BABYLON c. 1595 BC, ending Hammurabi’s dynasty

Suppiluliuma I

#3 c. 22 years (1344–1322 BC)

Seat: Hattusa

Turned the kingdom into an empire rivalling Egypt

Muwatalli II

#4 c. 23 years (1295–1272 BC)

Seat: Hattusa

Fought Ramesses II at Kadesh, c. 1274 BC

Hattusili III

#5 c. 30 years (1267–1237 BC)

Seat: Hattusa

Signed the Treaty of Kadesh with Ramesses II

Suppiluliuma II

#6 c. 29 years (1207–1178 BC)

Seat: Hattusa

Last known king; Hattusa falls in the Bronze Age collapse

The kingdom that connects the others

Hatti is the piece that makes the rest of this section a network rather than a list. Mursili I sacked Babylon and ended the dynasty Hammurabi founded — one kingdom on this page terminating another. Muwatalli II and Hattusili III fought and then treatied with Egypt, whose divine dynasties open the Turin Canon.

The Hittites were known to the 19th century almost solely as a people mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, and were widely doubted. The excavation of Hattusa in 1906 produced roughly 30,000 cuneiform tablets and an empire nobody had a place for.

Recorded by

The Treaty of Kadesh

Contemporary

Date: c. 1259 BC

The peace between Ramesses II of Egypt and Hattusili III of Hatti, after the battle at Kadesh. The oldest surviving peace treaty in the world.

Uniquely, it survives from BOTH sides - Egyptian hieroglyphic versions at Karnak and the Ramesseum, and Akkadian cuneiform tablets from Hattusa. The two texts differ tellingly: each side’s copy presents the other as having sued for peace. A replica hangs at the United Nations.

Reference

The Hattusa archive

Contemporary

Date: Excavated from 1906; tablets c. 1650–1180 BC

Roughly 30,000 cuneiform tablets from the Hittite capital: treaties, annals, law, ritual, and the royal correspondence of an empire.

Before 1906 the Hittites were known almost solely as a people mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, and were widely doubted. The archive produced an empire that had to be fitted into a Bronze Age everyone thought was settled - the clearest case in this section of a text-only people turning out to be an archaeological fact.

Reference

← Babylon

All kingdoms Named Giants