On the Egyptian monuments the people are always figured as a yellow race, with very prominent protuberant noses and large nostrils, retreating forehead and chin and thick lips, high cheek bones, black hair and eyes. They are generally portrayed as beardless and as wearing the hair in a queue. They appear short in stature, but heavy in build. Since the Assyrians were not expert in drawing, as were the Egyptians, the Assyrian portraiture gives nothing additional. The monuments of the Hittites corroborate all the details afforded by the Egyptian portraiture except the color, which the nature of the remains does not indicate. But the men are everywhere portrayed as wearing high boots with the toes curling upward and even backward, and generally as wearing mittens with a separate stall for the thumb only. The raiment seems heavy and agrees with the items just given in suggesting the emergence of the people from a cold snowy climate. Along with this goes the fact that the region into which they spread favors their coming by a route between the Black Sea and the Caspian. The evidence points to a period between 1600 and 1300 B.C. as the time when perhaps they pushed their outposts south ward till forced back by Egyptian and perhaps Philistine resistance, when they spread eastward toward the Egean. Their centers were at Carchemish, Hamath, Kadesh on the Orontes, Senjirli, and Boghazkeui, while Hebron seems to have been their most southern point of settlement. The mention in the historical books of the Old Testament suggests that they constituted an element in the population of Palestine. Some points of their physiognomy seem to corroborate Jensen's contention that they were "proto-Armenians." On the other hand, the accounts of the many Assyrian campaigns in Armenia do not contain a single hint that the sturdy opponents of that power in the Armenian Mountains were of the Hittite race. This is the more decisive since the Assyrians were at the time in conflict with Hittites elsewhere. Moreover, other physiological characteristics, such as hair (especially the queue), and the high cheek bones seem to connect them with the Mongolian race.
The idea of a Hittite "empire" in the sense of a unified rule is not borne out by the historical indications, but what does appear is the appearance of confederation (see § 4 above). As invaders of southern Asia and opponents of Egyptian and later of Assyrian aggression, there was a power of reserve which with other marks suggests mutual support and a power of confederation which contrasts strongly with Semitic separativeness. The condition is something like that of the Philistines whose cities were under individual rule yet who acted together in case of aggressive campaigns. Their meaning for civilization is only secondary, through the Greek. They unquestionably influenced early Greek inscriptions and art--early Greek writing was boustrophedon. A Hittite seal in the possession of Dr. Ward is unmistakably allied to the Mycenaean seals and drawings. The Eons of Mycenae, the rope pattern of Greek adornment, the Greek sphinx, and some of the Greek deities are firmly held to be of Hittite origin. Dr. Ward suggests that not improbably they gave to the Greeks the last five letters of the Greek alphabet, a suggestion which does not seem to have been used in attempts at decipherment. See Assyria; Canaan, Canaanites, § 7; Carchemish.
Bibliography: F. Brown, in Presbyterian Review, 1880; W. Wright, The Empire of as Hittites, London, 1888; Ball in PSBA, x (1888), 437 sqq.; G. Perrot and C. Chipies, History of Art in . . Assyria, Phanicia . . . and Asia Minor, 2 vols., London, 1884-85; A. H. Sayce, The Hittites; the Story of a forgotten Empire, London, 1888; C. R. Conder, Altaic Hieroglyphs and Hittite Inscriptions, ib. 1889; J. Campbell, The Hittites, 2 vols.. Toronto, 1890 (covers language, ethnology, and history); Halivy, in MEvaires de Cacad6xiie des inscriptions et belles-lettres, Paris, 1892; idem, in Revue almitique, i. 56 sqq., 126 sqq.; F. E. Peiser, Die hditisrhan I nachriftan, Berlin, 1892 (attempts decipherment); T. Tyler, in Religious systems of the world. London, 1893; C. A. de Care. Gill Hethei-Palaapi, 3 vols., Rome, 1894-1902 (identifies the Hittites and the Pelasgians); J. F. McCurdy, History, Prophecy and the Monuments, i., §§ 156-167, New York. 1894; P. Jensen, Hittiter and Armenier, Strasburg, 1898 (sums up his work on the inscriptions); idem, in H. V. Hilprecht, Explorations in Bible Lands, pp. 753-793, Philadelphia, 1903; L. Messerschmidt, Bemerkungen su den hetitischsn Inschriften, also Corpus inscriptionum Hitticarum, all in Miuheilungen der roorderasiatischen Oessllschaft, Berlin, 1898, 1900, 1902, 1906; W. H. Ward, in H. V. Hilpreeh, Recent Research in Bible Lands, pp. 159-190, Philadelphia, 1898; Menant, in MEvwires de 1'acadfie des inscriptions, vol. xxxiv. 1 sqq.; Nowack, Archäologie, i. 96, 282, 341; especially H. Winokler and O. Puahetem in Mittedungen der deutschen Orient-(lesellackaft, for 1908-08, especially Dec., 1907, and E. Meyer in 3itsunpabarichte der preussischen Akadernie der Wissenschaften, Jan., 1908. The files of the PSBA since 1887 contain much material which is pertinent.
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