Hittites: A History From Beginning to End (Mesopotamia History Book 5) by Hourly History

Author:Hourly History [History, Hourly]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hourly History
Published: 2016-07-10T00:00:00+00:00

Their Style

Based on studies conducted by the well-respected Sayce that look at rock wall carvings of musicians, artists, warriors, farmers, kings and everyday people, and on analysis of their written record, scholars have determined what early Hittite men and women dressed and looked like. They were Indo-European and generally had yellow skin and black hair and eyes, with a protrusive nose and square, prominent cheekbones. They wore two different types of head coverings. One was a close-fitted skull-cap; the other, a lofty tiara that was generally pointed, but sometimes rounded at the top or ornamented. They wore snow-shoes or moccasins. The tiaras often featured some embroidery. Women's robes descended to their feet as did the long-sleeved garments of the priests. Men wore tunics, which left their knees bare, but were fastened around the waist by a girdle. They threw a cloak over these items.

They were usually armed and carried a dirk (a long thrusting dagger) in their girdle and a spear and a bow slung over their backs. Their weapons were either bronze or iron and may also have included the battle ax in areas of the Aegean Sea. Their clothing was dyed with various colors and ornamented with fringes and rich designs. Based on observations made by Hripsime Haroutunian in his essay "Bearded or Beardless? Some Speculation on the Function of the Beard among the Hittites" in "Recent Developments in Hittite Archaeology and History: Papers in Memory of Hans G. Guterbock," it is possible to conclude that the Hittites and most of the images of their deities were beardless, except for the supreme god of the Hittite religious pantheon, the weather-god, who wore a beard. In that case, facial hair would have represented manliness, virility, and power for the supreme god.

They were of mixed ethnic origin: Indo-European, native Hattian, Hurrian, Luwian and other ethnicities. Some scholars claim that their mixed population, augmented by repeated arrivals of deportees and prisoners of war, made it so that the government could no longer rely on its subjects’ loyalty in the face of enemy incursions. Their official language was called Nesite since they originated in the city of Nesa when it was part of the Assyrian Colony period, and the leaders of this Indo-European group gained control over large parts of the eastern half of Anatolia a century or so before the emergence of the Hittite kingdom.

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