The world of the Neo-Hittite kingdoms: a political and military history

Abstract

This book provides an account of the military and political history of the Neo-Hittite kingdoms, which developed in south-eastern Anatolia and northern Syria during the Iron Age following the collapse of the Late Bronze Age Hittite empire. The book is divided into three parts. Parts I begins with a chapter on the last decades of the empire and proceeds, in Chapters 2-4, from a treatment of the Hittites' Anatolian successors to a discussion of the chief features of the Neo-Hittite kingdoms and their possible links with the biblical Hittites. Part II deals with the individual Neo-Hittite kingdoms, their rulers, and their Luwian hieroglyphic inscriptions, and also with the contemporary Aramaean states and the other kingdoms of the age, notably the Neo-Assyrian empire. Part III integrates the histories of the various Neo-Hittite states with those of their neighbours and contemporaries up to the time when the last Neo-Hittite kingdom was absorbed into the Assyrian provincial administration. The overall aim of this Part is to provide a historical synthesis of the Neo-Hittites and their contemporaries in the period from the 12th to the late 8th century. Assyria will play a major role throughout this synthesis, but the focus will be primarily on the cities, states, and territories that made up the world of the Neo-Hittite kingdoms.