Hittites, Hurrians, and Luwians
At the height of its power in the 14th-13th centuries BC, the Hittite kingdom was spread over most of Anatolia and Syria, stretching from the Aegean sea to the Euphrates river. The main part of the kingdom was in the northern part of Anatolia beside the Kızılırmak river (also known as the Halys river, from the ancient Greek Ἅλυς). The Hittites called this river Marassantiya.
In this area was the “capital” city Hattusa. It was the administrative and religious center of the kingdom. Hattusa was about 165 hectares in area (about 408 acres, 1.5 square kilometers, or 0.6 square miles), making it one of the largest ancient cities in history. Hattusa had two levels, an Upper City and a Lower City. The Upper City was surrounded by a wall and ramparts with five gates. It housed the administrators of the city, as well as the king and several temples. Residents and artisans lived in the Lower City.
To the north of the Marassantiya, there lived the Kaska tribes who were always a threat and a nuisance to the Hittites. Evidence shows that the Kaska people invaded and occupied Hittite lands several times over the centuries and often caused widespread devastation to farms and smaller towns.
To the south-east of the Hattusa were the Hurrians. They invaded Hatti from the east multiple times since at least 1650 BC until the 1300s BC, when Suppiluliuma I conquered Syria.
And to the south-west were the lands of the Arzawa — a group of smaller countries that were vassals to the Hittites, but whose people were unruly and unpredictable and were known to lead rebellions. Often they raided and pillaged Hittite land from the south.
The Hittites were surrounded by other peoples who did not much care for them, and this was a reason the Hittites loved expansion. If they controlled the lands of the people who didn’t like them, they didn’t need to worry about them as much. But, as we see from the Arzawa people, this philosophy didn’t often prove true.
Vassal states, like Arzawa, were controlled by their own smaller king who owed allegiance to the Hittite king. Instead of a treaty between the vassal state and Hatti which was usually an agreement of cooperation and mutual benefit, a vassal contract was a personal contract between the vassal king and the Hittite king. The vassal king was required to send an annual tribute to the Hittite king, and in return the vassal state received military protection from Hatti.
The vassal swore allegiance to the Hittite king and pledged support to his successors. However, a new contract was always drafted and agreed upon with each new Hittite king, so this clause is seemingly useless. In some cases a vassal state was exempt from the annual tribute if its king agreed to give power over the state directly to the Hittite king. Vassals were also forbidden to enter relationships with enemies of the Hittites or to go to war against other vassals or allies of the kingdom.
In the 14th century BC, Suppiluliuma I conquered Syria and established two viceregal kingdoms — Aleppo and Carchemish. Two of his sons were appointed to be the viceroys of these sub-kingdoms. They were Telipinu and Piyassili (who later was known as Sharri-Kushuh). The Hittite king was then able to maintain direct control over both Hatti and Syria.
A stated in a previous article, the Luwians were a branch of Indo-Europeans who migrated into Anatolia at (probably) the same time as the Hittites, and then separated afterwards (according to linguistic theory). Their origin isn’t certain, though there are theories that they came from Armenia, Iran, the Balkans, or central Asia.
By the time Assyrians came into Hatti around 2000 BC, the Luwians and Hittites were already two distinct peoples with two distinct languages. The Luwians lived in south-western Anatolia, and the Arzawa people were likely Luwian, though this is uncertain. The Assyrians didn’t distinguish the Luwians from the Hittites, calling them all nuwa’um.
By the 17th century BC, Luwia was an independent kingdom. During this time, there was in the south of Anatolia a state called Kizzuwatna, which was inhabited by both Luwians and Hurrians. We know that in this same area was a larger kingdom that arose called Tarḫuntašša, but whether or not this was a Luwian kingdom is still unknown. The same goes for the kingdom of Wilusa in the north-west part of Anatolia, where we now know the famous city of Troy once stood.
The Hurrians lived in Anatolia, Syria, and northern Mesopotamia. They first appeared around the 3rd millennium BC in a city known as Urkesh, located in the foothills of the Taurus Mountains in Al-Hasakah. Today the site is called Tell Mozan. The Hurrians were allies with the Akkadians, as the king of Urkesh is believed to be married to Tar’am-Agade, the daughter of the Akkadian king Naram-Sin.
Urkesh became a vassal state of Mari, an ancient Semitic state in Syria. In the late 19th century BC, the Assyrians took over Mari and therefore Urkesh, along with much of Syria. The Hurrians migrated west, and by 1723 BC they were living in northern Syria, having founded a kingdom called Yamhad. This kingdom was a joint-effort between the Hurrians and the Amorites.
The Hurrians also settled in Kizzuwatna with the Luwians, and Adaniya in what is now southern Turkey on the Seyhan river. They brought to Anatolia their religion, and the Hittites soon adopted many Hurrian gods into their beliefs.
One Hurrian king, Mursili I, would go on to sack Babylon and establish a dynasty. The first Hurrian ruler of Babylon was Kirta, who founded the kingdom Mitanni (shown in the map above). This kingdom eventually became one of the most powerful in the ancient near east, but was destroyed around 1365 BC by the Assyrians.
