The Kingdom of the Hittites
by Trevor Bryce
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Book Summary Information
Author: Trevor BryceEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1999-05-13
ISBN: 0199240108
Number of pages: 488
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Book Reviews of The Kingdom of the Hittites
Book Review: Excellent book on the Hittites
Summary: 4 Stars
Trevor Bryce's book is the best English language book that one can find on the Ancient Hittites. Bryce gives a comprehensive update on the Hittite kingdom and the historical context for the reattribution of certain important Hittite texts and documents to certain Hittite kings. Bryce notes new evidence which shows that the Assyrian conquest of Hanigalbat must be dated to the reign of the Hittite king Urhi-Teshub--who is called Mursilis III in the historical texts. This event significantly undermined his authority as king and helped to partly bring about his eventual downfall. The author also documents the plotting and mass paranoia that afflicted the Hittite Empire where brothers and uncles competed violently with each other for the throne. Even a great Hittite ruler such as Mursilis I--who destroyed the Babylonian kingdom of Hammurabi's ancestors by seizing Babylon--was eventually assassinated in a palace coup while Suppiluliuma I, who established Hatti as the greatest Empire in the Ancient Near East through his 2 Syrian wars against Mitanni and Carchemish, murdered his older brother Tudhaliya the Younger in order to assume the throne after being passed over in the succession by Tudhaliya III, his father. Hattusilis III, who made peace with Ramses II, was forced to depose his nephew Urhi-Teshub after the latter tried to seize his own domestic bases of support in the Hittite Empire. The result of this turbulent political culture was that few Hittite kings dared to leave their capital of Boghazkoy for fear of a palace coup being hatched in their abscence. In addition, few Hittite vassals kings placed much weight upon the promises of a weak ruler who might be deposed in the blink of an eye. It took strong leadership, years of unrelenting military campaigns and often cruel reprisals by strong Hittite kings such as Suppiluliuma I, Mursilis II and Hattusilis III against rebellions waged by, for instance, the Kaska tribes of central Anatolia who fought a guerilla war against Hittite authority in order to preserved the Empire's unity.
Bryce notes that the Hittite Empire--despite its inherently unstable political system--was the bedrock of stability in the heart of the Ancient Middle East. After its final destruction at the hands of the Sea Peoples in Year 8 of Pharaoh Ramses III (c.1175 BC), Canaan and the Levant was plunged into a state of upheaval by the appearance of local independent states such as the kingdoms of Edom, Moab, Philistia (ancient Gaza), Aram-Damascus and Ammon who competed among one another for control of various parts of this region.
The only major deficiency in Bryce's book is a lack of detailed maps of Turkey and Syria. This is why I give it only 4 stars. But it is certainly worth every penny and and I highly recommend it. Bryce's prose is superb: you manage to see a Hittite king's view of their world from his own vantage point. In my opinion, it is by far the best study of the Hittite Kingdom to date--and one of the most readable, too.
As an Aside, one should note that Bryce commits a small error in limiting king Urhi-Teshub's reign to just 5 years from 1272-1267 BC. (p.xiii) This king definitely ruled Hatti for 7 years and must be dated from 1272-1265 BC; consequently the chronology for all the following Hittite kings must be downdated by 2 years. (ie: Hatusilli at 1265-1235 BC rather than 1267-1237 BC--p.xxiii) As Hatusilli III explicitly states, he tolerated Urhi-Teshub's rule for 7 years until the latter started to seize control of the regions of Hakpissa, which was the seat of Hatusilli's power and Nerik, where he was the chief priest of the storm god (p.286) Once this event occured, Hatusillis rose up against Urhi-Teshub and succesfully overthrew the king claiming the throne in the process. Urhi-Teshub had seized these 2 Hittite regions in order to eliminate Hatusilli as a potential rival to his kingship but instead provoked the latter to rebel against him.
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