The
Great Ancient Civilizations of Asia Minor
(Part 2)
By Madison Nef
(If you
haven’t read part 1, please read that first.)
Picking
up where we left off at the end of the last paper, after the battle for the
Levant between the Hittites and the Egyptians, we start to see more and more
documents being made as the Hittites learn more literature, picking up in the
13th and 14th centuries. The first types of documents we
see are the treaties- and often these were long preambles or just religious
justifications. The Hittites were very
compulsive and orderly, so among their legal documents you will often find
population numbers, soldier counts, and resources.
There
were also religious documents, often telling about the different rituals and
how they were performed. Upon entering a Hittite temple, there was a washroom
off to the right as the Hittites believed that there had to be purification to
go in front of the Gods. Their ceremonies were very long and precise, as they
ALSO believed that if you messed up one word that the Gods would get mad at not
just you, but your whole village. The punishment would vary depending on the
God you had managed to anger: if you angered Teshab (the weather god) you might
get heavy thunderstorms with a lot of lighting (which could ruin crops). If you
angered the sun god, there was fear of drought.
The third and final type of
document was the ones containing the Hittite myths and legends. A well known
myth is the one about Telepinu, the god of Vegetation, or “The Myth of the
Missing God”. In the story, Telepinu
gets mad at the Hittites for worshipping him incorrectly and puts his right
foot into his left boot (or something strange like that) and storms off,
leaving the vegetation to die while he is gone and a poor harvest to be had. Finally,
he is brought back when Arinna (the sun goddess) sends an eagle to fine him.[1] If you look at Greek myths, a lot of them can
be traced back to the Hittites, including the famous story of Demeter and
Persephone.
The
Hittites have always been good at art and architecture, often adapting the
aesthetics from the Middle East. The aesthetics they adapted slowly turned into
their own, and if you look at artwork coming straight up to catholic art you
can see that it is based off of the Hittite aesthetics.
In 1650
BC, plans to rebuild the Hittite capital Hattusas were made by the king
Hatusalis. However, the reconstruction of the city didn’t actually begin until
about 1300 BC, as in the 15th century the Hittite rulers were too busy fighting
to have time for the city. When Hattusas WAS rebuilt, it was under the reign of
Hattusalis III. He was VERY conscious of his place as king, and he not only
expanded the city but also gave it better fortifications, building the King’s
Gate to the East of the city and the Lion’s Gate to the West. Surprisingly, the
upper part of the city wasn’t housing for people but in fact a complex of many
different temples.
The
reasoning for this was to make Hattusas a ritual capital- Hattusalis wanted to
take all of the different gods and relocate their main temples to the one
capital, that way when other kings came to visit him, they had to pass by all
the temples to get to the citadel- and they couldn’t help but be impressed by
all the culture. With all the building
of the temples, there was a large increase in architectural skills, and in the
great wall you can see impressive stone masonry- the wall was built to last
through a siege of battering rams, towers, and other impacts of war. While
Hattusas was seized and taken over at least 3 times in its history, it is
thought to have been through treachery as all the walls are completely intact
to this day.
Hattusalis
III’s Background
Hattusalis was the fourth son of Mursilis II and Queen Gassulawiya. Mursilis appointed Hattusalis as a priest of Sausga (or Ishtar) of Samuha- to which Hattusalis worshipped and thought of as his patron goddess ‘til his death. He ended up marrying a priestess of Ishtar, Queen Pudahepa.[2] Hattusalis’ older brother moved his brother to Tarhuntassa and appointed him the governor of Hattusas. From there, Hattusalis became a commander for the Hittite forces and led them during the infamous Battle of Kadesh against the Egyptians in 1274 BC. He conquered Nerikand, and became the High Priest of its storm god. He named his first son Nerikkaili in honor of this.[3]
Hattusalis was the fourth son of Mursilis II and Queen Gassulawiya. Mursilis appointed Hattusalis as a priest of Sausga (or Ishtar) of Samuha- to which Hattusalis worshipped and thought of as his patron goddess ‘til his death. He ended up marrying a priestess of Ishtar, Queen Pudahepa.[2] Hattusalis’ older brother moved his brother to Tarhuntassa and appointed him the governor of Hattusas. From there, Hattusalis became a commander for the Hittite forces and led them during the infamous Battle of Kadesh against the Egyptians in 1274 BC. He conquered Nerikand, and became the High Priest of its storm god. He named his first son Nerikkaili in honor of this.[3]
Hattusalis’
nephew, Mursilis II, moved his capital back to Hattusas, removing Hattusalis as
the governor. He then deposed Hattusalis from his title of High Priest, which
sparked a vicious civil war. In the end, Hattusalis won and exiled his nephew.
Being the last born son in his family, Hattusalis was never in line for the
throne, and was only able to secure his position as king by defeating his
nephew and showing his appreciation for art and the “1000 god of Hatti”. He is
well known for signing a written peace treaty between the Egyptians and the
Hittites- which has become the earliest known treaty in history.
Hattusalis
went on to write an apology after overthrowing his son, explaining his actions.
His reasoning for the apology was to stay on the good side of his patron
goddess (who, ironically, is the goddess of oaths and love). He also renamed
the gods, calling them by their Hurrian names (as Pudahepa was a Hurrian) - the
weather god was named Teshab, and the sun goddess of Arinna was renamed Hepatu.
The Hittites, as mentioned above, were very dedicated to their gods and didn’t
want to offend them in any way, and they felt that by calling the gods by a
pronounced name it was profane. The Hurrians, on the other hand, had names for
all their gods, and used them on a regular basis.
Ancient Greek Civilizations
The first known civilization in Greece sprouts from the island Crete- by 2800 BC an unknown civilization had appeared on the island. They left writings behind, but they are in an unknown language named Linear A and in the form of sylabri- symbols that represent syllables. There have been many tries to link the language to modern linguistics, but there are so few of the documents that it is hard to decipher and is still a mystery to this day. However, it IS known that the people living on the island of Crete DID NOT speak Greek- they likely spoke a non-Indo-European tongue.
The first known civilization in Greece sprouts from the island Crete- by 2800 BC an unknown civilization had appeared on the island. They left writings behind, but they are in an unknown language named Linear A and in the form of sylabri- symbols that represent syllables. There have been many tries to link the language to modern linguistics, but there are so few of the documents that it is hard to decipher and is still a mystery to this day. However, it IS known that the people living on the island of Crete DID NOT speak Greek- they likely spoke a non-Indo-European tongue.
By 1903,
much of the palace had been dug up and showed signs of Cnossus being a very
advanced city, as the findings exhibited a lot of artwork and writing. In 1905,
Evans finished his excavations on the palace and moved on to the so-called “throne
room” (called so because of the large throne in the middle of the room). The
room was recreated by artists Emile Gillierons Jr. and Sr. While the
recreations were based off of Evans’ archeological findings, the best known
frescoes from the throne room were almost entirely due to the Gillierons.
The
Minoans were traders, and actually had established trading posts on the shores
of Asia Minor by the year 2100 BC. Judging by the trade winds of the Mediterranean,
the Minoans likely ended up trading with Syria and Egypt if they used the sea
as their way of transport (which research findings suggest they did). What’s
more, the Minoan rulers were suspected to have had a firm control on the sea
surrounding Crete, as excavations found no signs of walls or any type of
fortification. Either the Minoans were idiots leaving their island unprotected,
or they had good control over what happened in their territory.
In fact, there is PROOF that the
Minoans traded with Egypt- they are referenced in old Egyptian documents as the
Keftiu, strange traders from Cnossus. But exactly what were the Minoans trading?
Records show that their main export was perfumed oil, made from the olive oil
and wild flowers.[5]
Aside from that they also traded timber, metals, and textiles with the
Egyptians which they would then use to make pottery and jewelry. The perfumed
oils were the biggest export because of all the sacrificial rights and rituals
that were going on in this time period- the oils were often used after
sacrificing an animal to one of the gods, to sanitize the altar so that bug and
rodent infestations were small. The perfumed oil was also used for bathing and
was used in place of soap.
In 1400
BC, The Palace of Minos was destroyed. How it happened remains a mystery today-
archaeologists have looked into the possibility of a volcanic eruption, but
there is no evidence of it. However, the find did give rise to the myth of
Theseus and Ariadne. The myth is that Ariadne was the daughter of Minos, and
she fell in love with Theseus (Theseus was going to kill the minotaur). To aid
him with the slaying of the minotaur, she gave him a sword and a ball of yarn
to help him find his way out of the labyrinth. [6]
The
palace was rebuilt, more beautiful and precise than ever with four doorways
rather than two- however, it wasn’t long before Cnossus was sacked by Greeks from
the mainland. This civilization is thought to be the first Greek speakers of
the time, and they completely took over Cnossus. The palace was the only thing
spared, and the Greeks took over Minoan trading posts and goods. They seemed to
spring up at about 1900 BC and moved their way through Greece, and by 1600 BC
there were 12-15 different empires along the coast of Greece, a few of the
notable ones being Athens, Sparta and Mycenae.
In 1600
BC, Cnossus was lost again when a volcano erupted on the nearby island of
Thera, destroying the city (and many others surrounding it) in flames. There is
speculation among scholars if this was the end of the culture or not though, as
the Mycenaean language, Linear B, continued to be found after the eruption.
There is evidence showing that the Greeks may have rebuilt the palace once
again, but no one knows for sure.[7]
While the
Greeks adapted well to Minoan culture, they were quite a different people. They
were elite warriors, basing most of their power on chariots and horsepower. The
Greeks also constructed the first fortified citadel in 1600 BC- it was very
small, basically a palace with a few extra rooms for servants. Still, it showed
very good architecture for the time period. The Greek language, Linear B
(mentioned above) was actually an edited form of Linear A. A man by the name of
Michael Ventis managed to decode it in the early 1950’s using the same
technique used in World War II to decode German messages, and Linear B turned
out to be one of the earliest forms of Greek writing, or “east Greek”.[8]
The
language was printed on the baked tablets of clay, and they are readable enough
where they can supply us now with naval positions. We have also learned from
the tablets that the ancient Greek rulers went by the term “wanax” or “anax”,
which means “lord”. As the timeline progressed, such titles would only be used
to refer to the gods and Zeus, but in the Bronze Age (1600-1200 BC) “lord”
referred to the ruler/owner of the nearby citadel. Many of the early Greek
documents were found in the city of Pylos, but they only gave obscure and
miscellaneous information- lists of the king’s favorite bulls, lists of how
many wagon wheels were available, but no king lists, diplomatic records and
definitely no poetry or high literature that could have been found in the
Hittite empire.
Many of
the Aegeans living in the Greek empires did not speak Greek. They still spoke
the old, unidentified language and were referred to by the Greeks as pelasgians
or pre-Greek inhabitants. Miletus was a small island just off of the shore of
Asian Minor, and was one of the main Achaean trading posts. It was proved to
have Greek inhabitants on it when Linear B tablets were found on it just a few
years ago. It was also proved to have its own lord and palace.
Now,
if you controlled the trading posts, you were considered a lord, and the lord
lived in the palace. The palace was a very important place, so this was only
fitting- the palace was often the only place of literature and culture within
an empire and was also the place where the trading goods and slaves came in.
The slaves were often Anatolian women who were brought to the Greek empires for
their pottery and architectural skills. The Greek people adapted to the
Anatolian way quickly and this may be why we see Anatolian trends in the Greek
empires.
Finally,
we arrive at the Collapse of the Bronze Age, which took place between 1225 and
1100 BC. It was in this time period that both the Hittite AND the Greek Empire
collapsed- for an unknown reason. The evidence researchers DO have on the
collapse is very scrambled and miscellaneous, as the only text we have from the
collapse are whatever happened to be in the clay when the palace/empire got
torched. Scholars have suggested many-a-theory as to what may have happened, but
when checked into none of them seem to fit. Illness, natural disaster, and
other theories have been sought after but none make sense according to the
records that survived the collapse (for both empires).
The only
semi-logical theory is that the costs of war got to be too much for both sides
and they ended up being taken over by the peltast (lightly armed infantrymen).
There are old theories that suggest barbarians with iron weapons sacked the
empires, but the smithing of iron weapons wasn’t discovered until decades later
so this was ruled out. There were no records of plagues or natural disasters
among the records known to us, so it is unlikely that that was the case either.
However, plague cannot be ENTIRELY ruled out as many armies fighting in Syria
caught the plague and brought it back into the cities- the plague was actually
what killed the last known Hittite king, Suppiluliuma II.
As the
Bronze Age came to a close, a new time was beginning- the Iron Age, which would
last from 1150 BC to 550 BC. The Iron Age would bring about new weapons,
religious beliefs and rituals, new agricultural AND architectural wonders, and
of course the avid use of iron weapons and eventually armor. This brings to a
close part 2 of The Great Ancient Civilizations of Asia Minor.
[1]
History-World, http://history-world.org/hittite_gods.htm,
(accessed September 17, 2014)
[2] Letter
from Ramses II of Egypt to Pudahepa, from Women in Anatolia, 9000 Years
of the History of the Anatolian Woman, Turkish Republic Ministry of
Culture, Istanbul, 1993
[3]
Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hattusili_III,
(accessed September 17, 2014)
[4]
Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Evans#Discovery_of_Minoan_civilization,
(accessed September 18, 2014)
[5] Explore
Crete, http://www.explorecrete.com/nature/olive-oil-history.html,
(accessed September 18, 2014)
[6]
Encyclopedia Mythica, http://www.pantheon.org/articles/a/ariadne.html,
(accessed September 18, 2014)
[7]
Ancient History Encyclopedia, http://www.ancient.eu/knossos/,
(accessed September 18, 2014)
[8] Wikipedia,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linear_B#Michael_Ventris.27_identification_as_Greek,
(accessed September 18, 2014)
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