Customer Reviews

The Hittites

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The Hittites are one of the better-known unknown peoples - they are well known from the Bible; mentioned as one of the peoples in the Syro-Palestinian area during the time of the Patriarchs, they continued to be mentioned through a long span of the history of the Hebrew Bible. At some point, they stop being mentioned - most likely, the Hittite Empire collapsed just as Israel was growing strong under the united kingdom monarchy (or perhaps just before) and was later absorbed by the various empires (Assyrian, Greek, etc.) that swept across Asia Minor.

There aren't many texts on the Hittites; what books are available are often written for archaeologists and other scholars. O. R. Gurney was a professor at Oxford specialising in Assyriology, that branch of archaeology and history that studies the empires of the Fertile Crescent. This book is accessible and interesting; originally written in the early 1950s, it has been updated to take account of later archaeological finds and interpretations. The history of publishing in this kind of field is such that often the 'latest' book will be something decades old, so the 'antiquity' of the book here should not be an issue, and generally isn't, for the student and for the general reader.

Gurney discusses in his introduction the earliest archaeological discovery of the Hittites, lost for millennia to the world under the sands of Asia Minor (Turkey) and other countries at the northern end of the Tigris and Euphrates. From here, he looks at Hittite history in broad strokes - the earliest cities, the Old Kingdom, the period of Empire, the decline of Empire and subsequent rise of neo-Hittite kingdoms, possible connections with the early Greeks and Trojans, and finally the Hittites found in Palestine.

Gurney's following chapters look at the different aspects of Hittite life and culture - society structure from royalty to commoners; government and foreign policy; economy and lifestyles; law and institutions (there are tablets of laws found in various locations); warfare (some things shared with other nations at the time, and some uniquely Hittite features); languages and literature; religion; and art. With regard to languages, this continues to be a rapidly developing area, but the connection of Hittite to the Indo-European language family (through the Anatolian line) has been known since 1915; this was rather surprising, given that the other languages in the area are of the Semitic line, a non-Indo-European language family that included Sumerian and Akkadian, languages in evidence in Hittite areas, showing regional connections for trade and foreign relations. This shows that the Hittites are most likely of a different stock of people from the rest of the peoples of the ancient Near East -- strangers in the land, in a way.

Gurney's text adds details for the student that are worthwhile. For example, while reading about the downfall of the Hittites, Gurney mentions the Peoples of the Sea who were sweeping across portions of the eastern Mediterranean at that time, and tells how Palestine came to get its name, not data directly relevant, but useful and interesting nonetheless. The text is full of such things.

The book also contains many pictures, plates, and line-art drawings of inscriptions, maps, buildings and building plans, and other pieces of interest. There is a chronological list of the kings of the Hittites, ranging from early kings of unknown timing, to the known dated kings from 1740 to 1190 BCE. The bibliography is excellent, divided topically into eighteen different topics, for scholars and students to pursue particular subjects in relations to the Hittites in earnest. The index is very good, useful for Hittite, English and other words and names.

A fascinating book!

If you are not very familiar with ancient history, but want a good popular introduction to the Hittites, this is the book for you. Hittite is the oldest known Indo-european language, known mainly from thousands of tablets unearthed in central Turkey. The language is so archaic it is not classified with the others, but is considered derived from an earlier version. Hittite is the only language that preserves an explicit trace of the laryngeals, sounds that disappeared from all the other languages. The culture of central Turkey is identified with the Biblical Hittites. They just may have founded or helped to found Troy, and they may just be among the pre-Greek inhabitants of Greece. There are relatively few popular books on the Hittites, mainly because the field changes so fast. You scholars that are popular educators, get busy!

When Israelites arrived at their "promised land" land in Canaan, they met several other peoples, already settled there. One of them was the Hittites of Northern Syria - a civilized but also a "warrior" nation. The Old Testament told something about the Hittites but this civilizations' existence remained an enigma until the early 20th century. Since that time we learned a lot about this Indo-European people, especially after Hugo Winckler's excavations in Hattusa (Bogazkoy) of Central Anatolia. Oliver Robert Gurney, a well known hittitology specialist, presents us a rich summary of both Hittite history and culture in this excellent work. There are only a few books on Hittites, written for non-specialists, and this is probably the best one.

As a bit of an armchair travel nut and history buff I find it hard to walk past a book store. Especially a 2nd hand one where you just don't know what sort of bargain you are going to find.

Well I found this. As has been very well put forth by other reviewers it is actually quite an old book. Apparently it's been updated over the years but I seem to have scored one of the earlier printings (so my book is somewhat of a fossil/antique itself!).

Overall this is a great primer on the Hittites and for a layman such as myself it told me everything I wanted to know including discussion of the overall historical context of the Hittites, their religion and and what evidence they left behind for later generations. My edition has a number of useful photographs - though the photography has not necessarily aged well - and also the book in general is well set out and aids the reader breeze through it while retaining as much as possible.

And that's about that, though I would like to point out that these old Pelican books are often worth tracking down as they are still quite useful... earlier editions tended to come out in a blue cover.

Gurney's book was my first introduction to the Hittites. And despite the passage of years and several revisions, it remains one of the three best general introductions. Even a general reader limited to the English language, however, should not stop with this book. Two books by Trevor Bryce ("The Kingdom of the Hittites" and "Life and Society in the Hittite World") complement Gurney's treatment and are both up-to-date, well-informed and written in a readable style. Well written and inexpensively priced collections of Hittite texts in translation authored by G. Beckman and H. A. Hoffner can be found in the Society of Biblical Literature's series "Writings from the Ancient World".

This highly engaging book makes the Hittites accessible to the general reader. It opens with the story of the discovery of this culture with reference to the Old Testament, Egyptian records and the work of various scholars in the 19th and 20th centuries plus discussions of their various publications.

The main text is divided into State & Society, Life & Economy, Law & Institutions, Warfare, Religion, Literature and Art, as well as Languages & Peoples which includes discussions of Hittite, Hattian, Luwian, Palaic, Hurrian, Mitannian, Akkadian, Sumerian and Tabalic (hieroglyphic Hittite).

The book includes a Table of Hittite Kings, a bibliography and an index. There are black & white figures throughout the text and many plates with works of art, statues, seals, pottery and cuneiform tablets and photographs of the remains of Boghazkoy, Yazilikaya and Alaja Huyuk, plus a map of the Middle East and one of the layout of Boghazkoy (Hattusas).

For a brilliant discussion of the Hittite language, please consult Whence The Hittite? by Jaan Puhvel in the book Sprung from Some Common Source: Investigations into the Prehistory of Languages, edited by Sydney M Lamb and E Douglas Mitchell.

There is not a whole lot of general interest action on the Hittites. Despite the fact that they appear in the Bible, the Hittites were basically unknown until the mid 19th century. Since then much of the interest in them revolves around the "are they or aren't they" question of their indo-european origins. Although that question has been resolved in the affirmative, Gurney points out that the link is limited to the grammar of their language, while much of the vocabulary owes a debt to the more civilized people's to the south.

Gurney's discussion of the chariot is pretty limited- would have liked more, but I think that debate (where did the chariot come from? who invented it?) dates from after this book was written.

I heartily recommend the book "The Hittites" to anyone with an interest in the subject. It covers the subject from a number of angles, and includes illustrations which, although old (black-and-white), are very clear and useful for an understanding of the history of this people.

I am not an expert on history, and so cannot say how up-to-date the book is, but I would still strongly recommend it because of its readability. It would make a perfect starting point for anyone who wants to explore further.

Informative without being too pedantic, with detailed data by topic. Too bad it's out of print, as it is an excellent exposition of a civilization too long out of the minds of the average person.

This is a solid, if somewhat outdated, history of the Hittite culture. Gurney covers a vareity of basic themes: language, religion, government, social structure, etc. The pictures are old, black-and-white photographs, and the writing isn't too interesting, but this would be great for basic research.