Wednesday, October 16, 2024

Ancient History - Part 51: The Iron Age Is Born




The aforementioned horde that consumed Hatta was restricted to Cappadocia, including the Hittites' capital city, Hattusa. All of Syria was left untouched by this damning incursion. The Egyptian records state that other nations who stood before this horde included the Amorite and the Kedi people, but like the Hattans before them, fell underfoot to this bloody conquest, any survivors press-ganged into the invading army's frontline.

Due to the outside nature of Egypt's perspective, the genetic and cultural identity of this horde remains an unknown. There is speculation that this was a maritime tribe whose warriors landed in the northwestern Anatolia region, newly discovering a weakened force of natives to oppose them. Others theorize that this horde was none other than a conglomeration of north Cappadocian people, who simply decided to march from their steep lands while the Hattic lands were undefended and ripe for plundering hands.

Whether they came from the west or the north, as well as the composition of soldiers, those details make little difference in the final result: Imperial Hatta as Asia Minor knew it ended by 1200 B.C.

Microregions broke apart following the collapse of this once great empire, where warlords and other would-be leaders raced to make their claim for power amongst the ashes of Hatta, but none of these client-states would amount to anything worthy of being called an empire until the days of Sargon II many centuries ahead.

Prior to his death, king Hattushil II ushered large deposits of iron shipments into Egypt, and thereby the Near East, as a whole. This is a monumental achievement that the Hittites do not receive enough credit for because in doing this, they birthed the beginning of the Iron Age. While their civilization and history is long dead and ended, this final act of the Hittites and their last great king is something very much alive and still felt by the modern world today. 





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