Customer Reviews

The Hittites: And Their Contemporaries in Asia Minor (Revised and Enlarged Edition) (Ancient Peoples and Places)

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This clasic summary of all that is known about the long-forgotten Hittites of Anatolia was written in 1975 and updated in 1986. The paperback edition includes a page of added prefatory material summarizing--too briefly--finds made and new theories proposed in the last 10 years, including the discovery at last of tin mines in central Anatolia. Despite being behind the times, however, this information-packed 176-page book is an excellent source of solid information. (Aramco World

Although it has been updated, this book retains the emphasis and approach of its predecessors. The author is a fine scholar. The strengths of the book lie in its archeological information. But even here there are other sources for non-technical readers that are more helpful, such as the guide to the ruins of Hattusa by Juergen Seeher. The information about history and culture, drawn principally from textual sources (i.e., Hittite clay tablets) are better summarized in the two books by Trevor Bryce: Kingdom of the Hittites, and Life and Society in the Hittite World (both published by Oxford Univ. Press).

My main historical interest is from man's earliest origins down to the formation of the first great city states in the third and second millenium B.C. in Mesopotamia and Old Kingdom Egypt. Since the Hittite empire can be traced back to at least 2000 B.C., they just barely make it into the period I'm interested in. As result, I was mainly interested in the first half of the book, discussing the earliest origins of the Hittites, so I can only comment on that. However, I found it to be a very readable history, as McQueen's writing flows well and doesn't get bogged down in trivial facts. There is a lot of good information here, and it was exactly what I needed to fill a gap in my knowledge of the earliest civilizations. This is the second updated edition, but I'd love to see an even more recent study on the subject, and as a result of reading McQueen's book, I may see if there are anymore out there. Overall, a readable and scholarly book on this important, ancient civilization.

Anyone who remembers Macqueen's superb "Babylon" will not be surprised by his triumph here. Always accessible, always entertaining and full of surprises, Macqueen makes ancient history come alive. In short, an excellent read.

This book is one that you are not able to stop as soon you start. Very readable with a very nice fluent English. The author is a very good professor (Lecturer?) and knows how to keep your attention. Further, he is able to shows his opinion against the literature even when is not at a good position. The book has very nice maps and archeological site photos that really add nicely to the text. Sometimes you are able to read a book that make you think.Well done!

This book is rather outdated unfortunately. Hittite studies were only invented in the beginning of the last century so a difference of only a few years can matter a lot. This book is over thirty years old. They're still translating texts after all, and piecing together bits of data to make them fit. Even at the time I doubt it was especially good even as an introduction. At that time Gurney's book was the best available on the subject and it had been written in the '50s. This book is under 200 pages and is very basic. The data on archaeological excavations is quite good but again, it's limited. This book was written as part of a series which means that the author is not an expert in the field and isn't as familiar with the material as someone who devoted serious study to it. The best feature is the copious illustrations which alone prevent me from giving it Two Stars. Even if you have better books on the Hittites I'd recommend this one for the pics. Speaking of better books I'd recommend the one I mentioned above or better yet Trevor Bryce's The Kingdom of the Hittites and Life and Society in the Hittite World.

This is finely crafted introduction to Hittite history. The author makes an effort to emphasize the continuing discontinuities in Anatolian history, and looks carefully the many racial groups. My one complaint-- shouldn't the second edition have color photos?

The Hittites built an empire in antique times, stretching across much of Asia Minor -today's Turkey--and sometimes extending well into Syria, and at its peak, all the way to Babylon. They established their kingdom in the 1700s BC. At their peak, in the 1300s BC, their power rivaled Babylon and Egypt's. Hittite power rested partly on their mastery of the chariot, which could trample and generally disrupt enemy infantry formations. They won their signal victory against Ramses II -possibly the Pharaoh of Exodus-a Kadesh, in northern Syria, in 1286 BC, fighting the warrior Pharaoh to a draw and forcing a peace. The peace agreement is preserved in Egypt at Karnak and, separately, in an Akkadian versoin. The remarkable document, the first preserved international peace treaty, has 18 articles, and starts with:

"Reamasesa, the great king, the king of the country of Egypt, shall never attack the country of Hatti to take possession of a part (of this country). And Hattusili, the great king, the king of the country of Hatti, shall never attack the country of Egypt to take possession of a part (of that country). "

On my last visit to the remarkable Museum of Anatolian Civilization in Ankara, I saw correspondence that dates to the peace of Kadesh, between the Queen of Egypt and the Queen of the Hittites, in cuneiform tablet, still in its cuneiform-inscribed clay envelope.

Soon afterwards, the Hittite kingdom was over-run by the mysterious Sea Peoples, who may have originated in what's now the Greek Islands, and who also brought and end to Egypt's Middle Kingdom. The Hittites mentioned in the Bible are actually neo-Hittites, which were surviving Hittite groups based mainly in Syria.

The Hittites left extensive physical remains, notably the vast site of their ancient capital of Hattusas, near Bogazkale in the center of the Anatolian plateau. The ancient statue of their King, from the King's Gate at Hattusas, stands in the Museum of Anatolian Civilization. He is a misshapen fellow wearing a short skirt and a chain mail shirt (although some archaeologists think the etched curls on his chest are hair). You can also see the bas-reliefs of marching soldiers from Hattusas, with their funny-shaped conical helmets, spears held before shields, clunking rigidly forward. .

The Hittites worshipped a storm god, which seems appropriate, considering the ferocious storms that sweep the plateau and they worshiped and a fertility goddess, Kubaba, fore-runner of Cybele, and among the museum treasures are friezes of ceremonial offering to their gods. In this they follow a long Anatolian tradition, reaching back to 6000-8000 BC, of worshipping mother goddesses.

In the end, we know little about the Hittites, although their writing has been deciphered. They were Indo-Europeans, who probably swept into Anatolia from the Balkans, perhaps around 1800 BC, perhaps earlier. But what was unique about their civilization? And what contribution did they make to the formation of ancient world? That's what I hoped to learn from Macqueen's survey volume on the Hittites.

I was disappointed. Most of their records are commercial or military and they left little literature, poetry, and religious material. Their sculpture and bas-reliefs are rigid and bulky , derived from Assyrian and Babylonian traditions, and lack even naïve charm. Their only significance is their kingdom anticipated the establishment of a regional power in Asia Minor by the Byzantines, Seljuks, Ottomans, and now, by modern Turkey.

Macqueen's book, while it seeks to be a survey, digresses into technical discussions and into much speculation. I fear this will not satisfy readers seeking a clear overview of the significance of the Hittites and their civilization.

The single best source on the Hittites I am aware of, packed with jargon-free information on the history, language, religion, culture, and legacy of one of the ancient world's first and most war-like empires.

I wish I had known about the Hittites earlier. They slay me. Man, this book changed my life.