LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Hittites
built 140 days ago
The Hittites were a group Indo-European people whose empire stretched across Turkey, Iraq, Syria and Palestine. Most of modern Turkey is considered to be the home land of the Hittite people. The peak of their civilization was reached from 1600 to 1200 BC. Their civilization ended as suddenly as it started. Originally the Hittites spoke a language similar to Sanskrit, a dead language of India. They were a warrior race notorious for their ferocity and brutality.
Source:
One of the most important features of the Hittites, which distinguishes them from their Oriental neighbors, is the humane character of their laws. Of great importance to them, as Albrecht Götze has pointed out, was a high valuation of human lives and the rights of the individual. Humiliating punishments like mutilation, which were practiced under Assyrian law, were almost completely absent. The killing and burning of the enemy, the erection of skull pyramids, the impaling and flaying of the enemy - all atrocities common to the Assyrians - were unthinkable in Hittite Asia Minor. Neither the texts nor the art monuments give evidence of such acts. In addition, the treatment of slaves was very humane.
Source:
Hittites had similar food as other Mediterranean people. Their chief food was bread. Meat was ... a part of their day to day menu. Rich people used to satisfy their appetite with homemade cheese and various other milk produced delicacies.
Source:
The Hittites ... had mineral riches in the form of copper, lead, silver, and iron. Their metallurgical techniques were advanced for the time; they may have been the first people to work iron.
Source:
About 2000 B.C. the Indo-European- speaking Hittites appeared in northern Asia Minor, a region rich in iron. In 1650 B.C. the Hittites began building a powerful empire. They extended their control in Asia Minor, seized northern Syria from the Egyptians, and expanded into northern Mesopotamia, where they conquered the Babylonians. Hittite culture was greatly influenced by contacts with the Babylonians. While they were less advanced than the peoples of Mesopotamia, they had learned to extract iron from ore - they were the first to make tools and weapons of iron. The Hittites heated iron ore and pounded out impurities before plunging it into cold water.
Source:
In 1290 B.C. soldiers of Egypt’s Rameses II and those of Muwatallis, King of the Hittites, met in battle. In the confrontation, Ramses was surrounded by thousands of Hittite warriors. Despite the likelihood of devastation Ramses wrestled a treaty from his enemy. Their agreement, known as the Qadesh Treaty, was set in writing. Peace was further solidified in 1250 B.C. by Ramses’ marriage to Muwatalliss’ daughter. Harmony between the two nations did not last long. In 1200 B.C. under new rule, Egypt destroyed the Hittite empire.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Hittites