During the age of pyramid building in Egypt, there was another great power in the region and that was the Hittites of what is now Central Turkey. From their capital of Hattus they at one time controlled the entire Anatolian region and as far south as Damascus in Syria. Typical of the time, it was important for the kings to show their prowess and right to rule by dominating those that surround them. The Hittites were no exception.

Nearly every year there were campaigns to either put down rebellion in subject areas or to stop attacks from their many enemies. This included conflicts with Egypt, their neighbors to the south, though for the most part, the Hittite kings would much rather not go through the expense of a costly campaign and settle things amenably.

Like most peoples of the time, if a conflicting city were to change its mind and submit to the will of the Hittites, little action would be taken against the town as long as they towed the Hittite line. However, if they resisted, the result would be the complete sacking and burning of the town, the death or mutilation (generally by blinding) of a goodly percentage of the population, the removal of all goods and livestock and the enslavement of many. Not at all nice people, but then, they expected nothing less in return. This allowed the Hittites to be in total control of their part of the world during the Bronze Age periods of the 14th and 13th Centuries BC. What probably brought the civilization down were several years of drought where they could not provide enough food for their people and an interruption of food from the Nile Delta by pirates and neighboring states. If a ruler could not provide for his people, that pretty well meant the end and in this case it doomed the civilization.

This book by Trevor Bryce continues with the excellent books as of late covering early civilizations and is #120 in the popular 'Warrior' series. All of these books follow a similar theme with an introduction, a look at how things were organized, how soldiers were enlisted, what they wore and used as weapons, and how they functioned on a campaign. There is also a section on training and discipline, their belief system and how they worked together in battle. This was a time when chariotry was the key to doing well in battle with infantry basically to mop up and protect the king or generals. Then we go into what it was like to be a Hittite soldier, along with his duties and what he did off hours. The book concludes with a look at existing sites and museums, of which there are quite a lot more than one would suspect. This is all enhanced by images from docu-dramas on the Hittites, period artifacts and the superb illustrations of Adam Hook, whose work we have seen many times in other books of early history.

It is a book that should be on the shelf of any serious historian or those who have an interest in this era. One I enjoyed reading and can highly recommend to you.

August 2007

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