Home | Category: Hittites and Phoenicians / Canaanites and Early Biblical Peoples / Canaanites and Early Biblical Peoples
HITTITES
Hittite Lion The Hittite Empire dominated Asia Minor and parts of the Middle East from 1750 B.C. to 1200 B.C. Once regarded as a magical people, the Hittites were known for their military skill. They developed an advanced chariot and were one of the first cultures to smelt iron and forge it I to weapons and tools. They fought with spears from chariots and did not possess the more advanced composite bow.
The Hittites were an Indo-European people that served as a conduit and bridge for the cultures of Asia, the Middle East and Europe. They created a society with a government and laws, similar to those in Sumer in Mesopotamia . The Hittites fought against Kings of Babylonians and the Pharaohs of Egypt for possession what is now Israel, Lebanon and Syria. In the 12th century their empire fell to the Assyrians.
In the Bible, the Hittites were a source of land and wives for Old Testament patriarchs, including David, who ordered the beautiful Basheba into his bed and then arranged the death of Uriah, her inconvenient Hittite husband. Uriah was a Hittite captain, was in David’s army.
According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art: “The Hittites, who spoke an Indo-European language (a family of languages that includes English), dominated much of Anatolia and neighboring regions between about 1650 and 1200 B.C. It has been suggested that groups speaking languages related to Hittite first entered Anatolia at the end of the third millennium B.C., but the Hittites first rose to prominence around 1750 B.C., when King Pithana and his son Anitta captured the important city of Kanesh as well as a number of other city-states, including that of Hattusha (modern Bogazköy). [Source: Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art. "The Hittites", Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, October 2002, metmuseum.org \^/]
Books: "Kingdom of the Hittites" by Trevor Bruce (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005). "Life and Society in the Hittite World by Trevor Bruce (Oxford University Press, 20020.
Hittites — the Name
According to Crystal Links: “Hittites is the conventional English-language term for an ancient people who spoke an Indo-European language and established a kingdom centered in Hattusa (Hittite Hattushash) where today is the village of Bogazköy in north-central Turkey, through most of the second millennium B.C.. [Source:Crystal Links +/]
“The Hittite kingdom, which at its height controlled central Anatolia, north-western Syria down to Ugarit, and Mesopotamia down to Babylon, lasted from roughly 1680 B.C. to about 1180 B.C.. After 1180 B.C., the Hittite polity disintegrated into several independent city-states, some of which survived as late as around 700 B.C.. +/
“The Hittite kingdom, or at least its core region, was apparently called Hatti in the reconstructed Hittite language. However, the Hittites should be distinguished from the "Hattians", an earlier people who inhabited the same region until the beginning of the 2nd millennium B.C., and spoke a non-Indo-European language conventionally called Hattic. +/
“Hittites or more recently, Hethites is also the common English name of a Biblical people who are called Children of Heth. These people are mentioned several times in the Old Testament, from the time of the Patriarchs up to Ezra's return from Babylonian captivity. The archaeologists who discovered the Anatolian Hittites in the 19th century initially believed the two peoples to be the same, but this identification remains disputed.The Hittites were also famous for their skill in building and using chariots. Some consider the Hittites to be the first civilization to have discovered how to work iron, and thus the first to enter the Iron Age.” +/
Hittite Empire
The Hittites established an empire that stretched across Anatolia and the Levant and southward to Kadesh (on the border of present-day Lebanon and Syria) from about 1700 to 1200 B.C. The Babylon empire came to an end when the Hittites sacked Babylon in 1595 B.C. See Mesopotamia
Hittite monarchs ruled as viceroys of the storm god of the mountainous homeland. The Hittite empire had many vassals states, possibly including Troy. When the Hittite empire collapsed many great cities in Asia Minor were sacked. The two headed eagle was the a Hittite religious symbol. It is said to have inspired the Austrian eagle which first appeared in the Crusades.
The Hittites controlled vast trade routes that extended east into Asia, south into Egypt and Syria and north towards the Black Sea. As the moved towards the Mediterranean Sea they clashed with the Greece-based Mycenaeans who fought Troy in the Trojan Wars. For a time Troy was a major Hittite trading center. See Mycenaeans
Bogazkale (120 miles northeast of Ankara on the road to Samsun) was the capital of the Hittites, the first people to use iron. The empire they ruled, starting in 1,700 B.C., was as large and powerful and ancient Egypt. Located on a craggy hill and also known as Hattuşas, Bogazkale is ringed by the remains of a six-mile-long double wall. Most of the ruins are piles of stones and foundations with the exception of the stone lions at the Lion Gate, the 200 foot-long underground tunnel, and the 70 room "Big Temple." In nearby Yazilikaya you can see a natural open-air temple with base-reliefs carved into the rock faces. Twenty miles away in Alaca Höyük is a Hittite sphinx gate and the remans of a 6000-year-old pre-Hittite civilization.
Hittites and the Iron Age
The Iron Age began around 1,500 B.C. It followed the Stone Age, Copper Age and Bronze Age. North of Alps it was from 800 to 50 B.C. Iron was used in 2000 B.C. Improved iron working from the Hittites became wide spread by 1200 B.C.
relief of men with swords, maybe made of iron
Iron was made around 1500 B.C. by the Hitittes. About 1400 B.C., the Chalbyes, a subject tribe of the Hitittes invented the cementation process to make iron stronger. The iron was hammered and heated in contact with charcoal. The carbon absorbed from the charcoal made the iron harder and stronger. The smelting temperature was increased by using more sophisticated bellows.
Iron — a metal a that is harder, stronger and keeps an edge better than bronze — proved to be an ideal material for improving weapons and armor as well as plows (land with soil previously to hard to cultivate was able to be farmed for the first time). Although it is found all over the world, iron was developed after bronze because virtually the only source of pure iron is meteorites and iron ore is much more difficult to smelt (extract the metal from rock) than copper or tin. Some scholars speculate the first iron smelts were built on hills where funnels were used to trap and intensify wind, blowing the fire so it was hot enough to melt the iron. Later bellows were introduced and modern iron making was made possible when the Chinese and later Europeans discovered how to make hotter-burning coke from coal. [Source: "History of Warfare" by John Keegan, Vintage Books]
Metal making secrets were carefully guarded by the Hittites and the civilizations in Turkey, Iran and Mesopotamia. Iron could not be shaped by cold hammering (like bronze), it had to be constantly reheated and hammered. The best iron has traces of nickel mixed in with it. [Ibid]
About 1200 BC, scholars suggest, cultures other than the Hittites began to possess iron. The Assyrians began using iron weapons and armor in Mesopotamia around that time with deadly results, but the Egyptians did not utilize the metal until the later pharaohs. Lethal Celtic swords dating back to 950 BC have been found in Austria and its is believed the Greeks learned to make iron weapons from them. [Ibid]
The Hittites mined iron in the Black Sea region. Hittite Iron mines supplied the region with metal. Hittite technology helped ushered in the Iron Age.
Ancient Iron Smelting
Iron grave goods from a Greek warrior, 900 BC
Iron smelting was first developed by the Hittites and Africans in Termit, Niger around 1500 B.C. Iron was made around 1500 B.C. by the Hitittes. About 1400 B.C., the Chalbyes, a subject tribe of the Hitittes invented the cementation process to make iron stronger. The iron was hammered and heated in contact with charcoal. The carbon absorbed from the charcoal made the iron harder and stronger. The smelting temperature was increased by using more sophisticated bellows. About 1200 BC, scholars suggest, cultures other than the Hittites began to possess iron. The Assyrians began using iron weapons and armor in Mesopotamia around that time with deadly results, but the Egyptians did not utilize the metal until the later pharaohs.
According to People World: “In its simple form iron is less hard than bronze, and therefore of less use as a weapon, but it seems to have had an immediate appeal - perhaps as the latest achievement of technology (with the mysterious quality of being changeable, through heating and hammering), or from a certain intrinsic magic (it is the metal in meteorites, which fall from the sky). Quite how much value is attached to iron can be judged from a famous letter of about 1250 BC, written by a Hittite king to accompany an iron dagger-blade which he is sending to a fellow monarch. [Source: historyworld.net]
The letter from the Hittite king to a valued customer, probably the king of Assyria, about his order for iron, reads: 'In the matter of the good iron about which you wrote, good iron is not at present available in my storehouse in Kizzuwatna. I have already told you that this is a bad time for producing iron. They will be producing good iron, but they won't have finished yet. I shall send it to you when they have finished. At present I am sending you an iron dagger-blade.' [Source: H.W.F. Saggs Civilization before Greece and Rome, Batsford 1989, page 205]
The technology of iron is believed to have made its way to China via Scythian nomads in Central Asia around 8th century B.C. In May 2003, archeologists announced they found remains of an iron casting workshop along the Yangtze River, dating back to the Eastern Zhou Dynasty (770 - 256 B.C.) and the Qin Dynasty (221 -207 B.C.).
Hittites in the Bible
Hittite Seated Deity 13th Century BC The Hittites were mentioned numerous times in the Bible. The Near East at the time of the first Jews was a time of chaos. The Bronze Age was ending and the Iron Age was emerging and the Near East was a patchwork of rival kingdoms that included the Israelites, Jebusites, Amorites, Ammonsites, Hittites, Horvites and Philistines. The Assyrians and Phoenicians were rising, Egypt was in a temporary state of decline, and the Mycenaeans were fighting the Trojans in the Trojan War.
The Canaanites are believed to have been the first people to possess an alphabet. A 13th century B.C. tablet with column of Canaanite words was found at Ashkelon. Believed to have used to teach scribes languages, the tablet appears to have contained other columns with other languages, perhaps the Semitic cuneiform language of Akkadian and another unrelated tongue, possibly Hurrian or Hittite.
After Abraham returned from Jerusalem, he settled in Beersheba. Sarah died in Qiryat Arba, near Hebron, at the age of 127. Abraham buried her in Hebron in the cave of Machpelah, which he bought for 400 shekels from a Hittite who took advantage of his grievous state and overcharged him. Abraham never owned a piece of land in his entire life until he bought the cave. As a nomad he never needed a place to live but according to one scholar "the dead require a permanent resting place."
David seduced Bathsheba, wife of Uriah the Hittite, who was then killed after being sent to the front line of battle by David. The Prophet Nathan predicted that tragedies would occur in David’s family for this evil deed. Bathsheba later gave birth to Solomon.
The Old Testament is full of contradictory messages as are the New Testament and the Koran and other religious text. In Deuteronomy worshippers of Yahweh are told: “You shall annihilate them — the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebsuites — just as the Lord your God has commanded.” While in the book of Judges, an Israelite military leader proposes more tolerance towards the Ammonites: “Should you not possess what your god Chemosh gives you to possess? And should we not be the ones who possess everything that our god Yahweh has conquered for our benefit.”
Biblical Hittites
According to Crystal Links: “References to a people whose name is transcribed into English as "Hittites" (or sometimes "Hettites") are found throughout the Hebrew Bible. These Biblical references to the Hittites are summarized below. It should be noted that the corpus of the Hebrew Bible was probably compiled in its near-final form between the 7th and 5th centuries B.C., during or after the Babylonian exile, as related in the Book of Ezra, with a further revision in the Masoretic text occurring some time between ca. 200 B.C. and 100 AD, as inferred from textual analysis of the Septuagint, Dead Sea Scrolls, and other sources. [Source: Crystal Links +/]
david handing a letter to Uriah, the Hittite
“The Traditional View: Given the casual tone in which the Hittites are mentioned in most of these references, Biblical scholars before the age of archaeology traditionally regarded them as a smaller tribe, living in the hills of Canaan during the era of the Patriarchs. This picture was completely changed by the archaeological finds that placed the center of the Hatti/Hattusas civilization far to the north, in modern-day Turkey. Because of this perceived discrepancy and other reasons, some Biblical scholars reject Sayce's identification of the two people, and believe that the similarity in names is only a coincidence. In order to stress this distinction, E. A. Speiser called the Biblical Hittites Hethites in his translation of the Book of Genesis for the Anchor Bible Series. +/
“The Mainstream View: On the other hand, the view that the Biblical Hittites are related to the Anatolian Hittites remains popular. Apart from the coincidence in names, the latter were a powerful political entity in the region before the collapse of their empire in the 14th-12th centuries B.C., so one would expect them to be mentioned in the Bible, just in the way that the HTY post-Exodus are. A stone lion relief found a Beth Shan, near the Sea of Galilee, dated to about 1700 B.C., has been interpreted as confirming this identification, since lions are often pictured in Hittite art. Moreover, in the account of the conquest of Canaan, the Hittites are said to dwell "in the mountains" and "towards the north" of Canaan - a description that matches the general direction and geography of the Anatolian Hittite empire, if not the distance. +/
“Modern linguistic academics therefore propose, based on much onomastic and archaeological evidence, that Anatolian populations moved south into Canaan as part of the waves of Sea Peoples who were migrating along the Mediterranean coastline at the time in question. Many kings of local city-states are shown to have had Hittite and Luwian names in the Late Bronze - Early Iron transition period. Indeed, even the name of Mount Zion may be Hittite in origin. +/
“Other Views: Some people have conjectured that the Biblical Hittites could actually be Hurrian tribes living in Palestine, and that the Hebrew word for the Hurrians (HRY in consonant-only script) became the name of the Hittites (HTY) due to a scribal error. Others have proposed that the Biblical Hittites were a group of Kurushtameans. These hypotheses are not widely accepted, however. It is also possible that the Biblical HTY refers to two distinct people at different times; e.g. a local tribe before Exodus, and the Anatolian empire after Exodus.
Biblical References to the Hittites
The Hittites are mentioned more than 50 times in the Hebrew Bible under the names "children of Heth" and "native of Heth") as living in or near Canaan since the time of Abraham (estimated to be between 2000 BC and 1500 BC) to the time of Ezra after the return from the Babylonian exile (around 450 BC). Their ancestor Heth is said in Genesis to be a son of Canaan, son of Ham, son of Noah. [Source: Wikipedia, King James Bible, University of Virginia search service]
Biblical References to the Hittites: Genesis 10:1, Genesis 23:2, Genesis 15:18 on Abraham’s covenant (expressed similarly in Nehemiah 9:8) In Genesis 23:2, towards the end of Abraham's life, he was staying in Hebron, on lands belonging to the "children of Heth", and from them he obtained a plot of land with a cave to bury his wife Sarah. One of them (Ephron) is labeled "the Hittite", several times. This deal is mentioned three more times (with almost the same words), upon the deaths of Abraham, Jacob, and Joseph.Decades later, in Genesis 26:34, Abraham's grandson Esau is said to have taken two Hittite wives, and a Hivite one. This claim is repeated, with somewhat different names, in Genesis 36:2. In Genesis 27:46, Rebekah is worried that Jacob will do the same; Genesis 25:8 Then Abraham gave up the ghost, and died in a good old age, an old man, and full of years; and was gathered to his people. 9 And his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar the Hittite, which is before Mamre; 10 The field which Abraham purchased of the sons of Heth: there was Abraham buried, and Sarah his wife.
Esau and Jacob: Genesis 26:34; Genesis 27:46'; Genesis 36:2; Genesis 49:29. Joseph: Genesis 50:13; Joshua 24.32.Exodus and the conquest of Canaan: This period is conjectured to start sometime after 1800 BC and end sometime before 1000 BC. In this period the Hittites are mentioned about a dozen times as part of an almost fixed formula that lists the "seven nations greater and mightier than [the Hebrews]" whose lands will be eventually conquered. Among the five references to the Hittites that cannot be classified as a variant of that formula, two (Numbers 13:29 and Joshua 11:3) declare that the Hittites "dwell in the mountains", together with the Jebusites, Amorites, and Perizzites, whereas the Canaanites live "on the east and on the west", on the coast of Jordan, and the Amalekites live "in the south". In Joshua 1:4 the land of the Hittites is said to extend "from the wilderness and this Lebanon", from "the Euphrates unto the great sea". In Judges 1:18, the traitor from Bethel who led the Hebrews into the city is said to have gone to live among the Hittites where he built a city called Luz. Finally in Judges 3:5 it is said that the Hebrew lived and intermarried with the Hittites as well as with the other five "major nations".
Moses: Deuteronomy 20:17; Deuteronomy 7:1; Numbers 13:29. Joshua: Exodus 3:8; Exodus 13:5; Exodus 23:23; Exodus 33:2; Exodus 34:11; Joshua 1:4; Joshua 11:3;. Joshua 12:8; Joshua 24:11; Joshua 3:10; Joshua 9:1 Judges: Judges 1:18; Judges 3:1;
Kingdoms period: In this period the Hittites are mentioned as the ethnic label of two soldiers under king David (around 1000 BC), Ahimelech and Uriah;[7] the latter is murdered by David for the sake of his wife Bathsheba. In Solomon's reign (around 950 BC), the Hittites are listed as people whom the Hebrews had not been able "utterly to destroy" in their conquest of Canaan and who paid tribute to Israel. In the time of the prophet Elisha (around 850 BC) there is a passage in 2Kings 7:6 where the Syrians flee in the night after hearing a terrible noise of horses and chariots, believing that Israel had hired "the kings of the Hittites, and the kings of the Egyptians".
Saul: 1 Samuel 26:5. David: 2 Samuel 23:8; 1 Chronicles 11:10; 2 Samuel 11:3; 2 Samuel 12:9; 1 Kings 15:5; Solomon: 1 Kings 9:20; 2 Chronicles 8:7; 1 Kings 10:28; 2 Chronicles 1:16; 1 Kings 11:1; Elisha: 2 Kings 7:6. Babylonian exile and return: Ezekiel 16:1; Ezekiel 16:1. Ezra: 1 Esdras 8:3 (Apocrypha); Ezra 9:1
Uriah the Hittite
Medallion Death of Uriah by Michelangelo
Uriah the Hittite was a soldier in King David’s army mentioned in the biblical Second Book of Samuel. He was the husband of Bathsheba and was sent to the front lines of battle by order of King David. Uriah's wife had become pregnant by King David in Uriah's absence. Although the king had ordered him to return home and see his wife, Uriah repeatedly refused to leave his post or leave the King's presence to see her. Contact between the couple would have hidden the source of her pregnancy. Eventually, David had Uriah killed. As a result of this murder, David was rebuked by the prophet Nathan; furthermore, later turmoil in David's household and throughout the kingdom of Israel, including the death of Bathsheba's baby and the insurrection of prince Absalom, was believed to be the result of David's sins of adultery and murder. [Source: Wikipedia +]
Based on the Biblical account, Uriah was probably of the ethnic Hittite minority resident in Israel that had lived in and around the region, "the Land of Canaan", since before the time of Abraham. The Hebrews, upon their entry into Canaan, had been commanded (Deuteronomy 20:16–17) to kill "anything that breathes ... in the cities of the nations the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance," with the explanation that "otherwise, they will teach you to follow all the detestable things they do in worshiping their gods, and you will sin against the Lord your God" (Deuteronomy 20:18). Even so, some of the earlier inhabitants were spared, in some cases for cooperating with the Hebrews (Joshua 2:12–14, 6:23, Judges 1:24–25) in other cases from failure to carry out the extermination order (Joshua 15:63, 16:10, Judges 1:19, 21, 27–36). +
According to Second Samuel, King David was tempted upon seeing Bathsheba bathe in her courtyard from the roof of his palace. He had her brought to his chambers and had sex with her, resulting in a pregnancy. Informed that her husband was Uriah, David summoned Uriah from battle to meet him, suggesting that he go home and "wash his feet," meaning to spend time at home and attend to his wife. Uriah refused, claiming a code of honor with his fellow warriors while they were in battle. It was common for warriors in preparation for battle to abstain from sex, as a practice of discipline. After Uriah repeatedly refused to see his wife Bathsheba, David sent him to his commanding officer Joab with a letter that ordered Joab to put Uriah on the front lines of the battle and have the other soldiers move away from him so that he would be killed by enemy soldiers. +
Arrival of the Indo-Europeans and Hittites in Asia Minor
Indo-European (Aryan) intrusions into Iran and Asia Minor (Anatolia, Turkey) began about 3000 B.C.. The Indo-European tribes originated in the great central Eurasian Plains and spread into the Danube River valley possibly as early as 4500 B.C., where they may have been the destroyers of the Vinca Culture. Iranian tribes entered the plateau which now bears their name in the middle around 2500 B.C. and reached the Zagros Mountains which border Mesopotamia to the east by about 2250 B.C.. The Guti may have been Indo-European.
Hittites and related tribes began entering Anatolia [modern Turkey] from both the northwest (the European Balkans) and the northeast (Russian Georgia) after 3000 B.C.. They conquered and partially absorbed the former residents [the Hatti, from whom the Hittites drew their name]. Small kingdoms were formed and there was some trade with Old Assyria. At some time after 2000 B.C. the separate Hittite kingdoms confederated under the leadership of a king called King, Great King, King of Kings.
This title was common in the ancient world and is frequently translated as emperor. Like many other early Indo-European kingships, the top position was not passed by way of primogeniture; the successor could be any male member of the ruling family. As a result, civil wars frequently determined the succession; and the "Empire" of the Hittites could not maintain a consistent strength because of quarrels over succession. The same is true of related peoples like the Hurrians and the Mitanni. In 1600 B.C. the Hittite Empire was very powerful, but after the successful raid on Babylon in 1590, the Hittites entered a period of weakness.
Indo-European Chaioteers
Around 1500 BC, Aryan (Indo-European) charioteers from the steppes of northern Iran conquered India. Aryan tribes also gave birth to early civilizations in Greece, Europe and India and were master charioteers. The Aryans were a loosely federated, semi-nomadic herdsmen people who spread both east and west from Central Asia, taking their sky gods with them. The Aryans first settled in the Punjab and later moved on to the Ganges Valley. They are also ancestors of Persians, pre-Homeric Greeks, Teutons and Celts.
.jpg "20120209-Lion-hunt_relief_(Aslantepe).jpg")
Hittite Lion-hunt relief
at Aslantepe Between 2000 and 1000 B.C. successive waves of Aryans migrated to India from Central Asia (as well as eastern Europe, western Russia and Persia) . The Aryans invaded India between 1500 and 1200 B.C., around the same time they moved into the Mediterranean and western Europe. At this time the Indus civilization had already been destroyed or was moribund.
The Aryans had advanced bronze weapons, later iron weapons and horse drawn chariots with light spoked wheels. The native people the conquered at best had oxcarts and often only stone-age weapons. "Charioteers were the first great aggressors in human history," the historian Jack Keegan wrote. About 1700 BC, Semitic tribes known as the Hykos, invaded the Nile Valley, and mountain people infiltrated Mesopotamia. Both invaders had chariots. Around 1500 BC, Aryan charioteers from the steppes of northern Iran conquered India and the founders of the Shang Dynasty (the first Chinese ruling authority) arrived in China on chariots and set up the world's first state. [Source: "History of Warfare" by John Keegan, Vintage Books]
Earliest Evidence of Chariots
John Noble Wilford wrote in the New York Times, “In ancient graves on the steppes of Russia and Kazakhstan, archeologists have uncovered skulls and bones of sacrificed horses and, perhaps most significantly, traces of spoked wheels. These appear to be the wheels of chariots, the earliest direct evidence for the existence of the two-wheeled high-performance vehicles that transformed the technology of transport and warfare.[Source: John Noble Wilford, New York Times, February 22, 1994]
“The discovery sheds new light on the contributions to world history by the vigorous pastoral people who lived in the broad northern grasslands, dismissed as barbarians by their southern neighbors. From these burial customs, archeologists surmise that this culture bore a remarkable resemblance to the people who a few hundred years later called themselves Aryans and would spread their power, religion and language, with everlasting consequence, into the region of present-day Afghanistan, Pakistan and northern India. The discovery could also lead to some revision in the history of the wheel, the quintessential invention, and shake the confidence of scholars in their assumption that the chariot, like so many other cultural and mechanical innovations, had its origin among the more advanced urban societies of the ancient Middle East.
Analysis of material from the graves shows that these chariots were built more than 4,000 years ago, strengthening the case for their origin in the steppes rather than in the Middle East. If the ages of the burial sites are correct, said Dr. David W. Anthony, who directed the dating research, chariots from the steppes were at least contemporary with and perhaps even earlier than the earliest Middle East chariots. The first hint of them in the Middle East is on clay seals, dated a century or two later. The seal impressions, from Anatolia, depict a light, two-wheel vehicle pulled by two animals, carrying a single figure brandishing an ax or hammer.
See Separate Article ANCIENT HORSEMEN AND THE FIRST WHEELS, CHARIOTS AND MOUNTED RIDERS factsanddetails.com
Yazilikaya Group
Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons, The Louvre, The British Museum, Anatolian Civilizations Museum in Ankara
Text Sources: Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Mesopotamia sourcebooks.fordham.edu , National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, especially Merle Severy, National Geographic, May 1991 and Marion Steinmann, Smithsonian, December 1988, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Discover magazine, Times of London, Natural History magazine, Archaeology magazine, The New Yorker, BBC, Encyclopædia Britannica, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Time, Newsweek, Wikipedia, Reuters, Associated Press, The Guardian, AFP, Lonely Planet Guides, “World Religions” edited by Geoffrey Parrinder (Facts on File Publications, New York); “History of Warfare” by John Keegan (Vintage Books); “History of Art” by H.W. Janson Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.), Compton’s Encyclopedia and various books and other publications.
Last updated September 2018