In the previous class we were divided into groups and were assigned different places to research about. My group, consisting of 6 members, were assigned ‘hittite’. All the places that the faculty gave was something I had heard for the first time and thus I was very curious to know about them.
We were given some aspects (architecture, religion, trade, and kingship & military) and asked to find out objects that would help us trace the developments related to these aspects in the region.
For the PPT, we took up two aspects:
1.religion
2.kingship and law
We did some of the work individually, but Some as a group. We were initially a bit misleaded and thus ended up completing it last minute.
In today’s class we had to present our research to the class. Since I was’nt aware of an oral presentation, I had’nt prepared for it and was hence a bit nervous.
The Hittites were an ancient group of Indo-Europeans who formed an empire at Hattusa in Anatolia (modern Turkey) around 1600 BCE. The Hittite Empire reached great heights during the mid-1300s BCE, when it spread across Asia Minor, into the northern Levant and Upper Mesopotamia.
There is not much information discovered about the hittite empire as much as there is about Mesopotamia or ancient Egypt, however, it is a significant empire. They were among the first peoples to master ironworking. Iron tools, weapons, and chariots gave the Hittites a decisive advantage in combat, and it enabled them to conquer and hold territory.
The spread of technologies like the wheel and wagon, which were also used in ancient Mesopotamia and other early civilizations in the region, also assisted pastoralists and agrarian civilizations.
Individually, I focused my research on kingship and law. I was quite fascinated by the fact that hittite monarchy was turned constitutional in order to prevent the king from controlling all facets of the people lives and was probably the first constitutional monarchy in history. Apart from the king, there were many other positions of authority so that the power was divided. The codes of law were very specific, detailed and organised. They were found mentioned in two clay tablets with 186 articles and a monument in anatolia. The punishments also reflected lack of equality, the divinity of the king, polygamy among royalties, hierarchical rule, etc .The hittites believed that the king was adopted by the gods, and when he died he became one.This was a concept we had discussed before, and thus i could relate to it.
The faculty’s review for our presentation was quite positive, she said she liked how all of the information we collected was supported and explain through an object.
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