Neo-Hittite
|
The Neo-Assyrian Empire in the 9th to 7th centuries BC |
The so-called
Neo-Hittite or
post-Hittite states were
Luwian-speaking political entities of
Iron Age Syria that arose after the collapse of the
Hittite Empire around
1180 BC and lasted until roughly
700 BC, the time of the
Cimmerian invasion. The term "Neo-Hittite" is generally reserved for these Syrian principalities, although in a wider sense, it might conceivably also be applied to any of the entities that arose in Asia Minor following the Hittites, including
Mushki,
Tabal, and
Lydia.
The collapse of the Hittite Empire, a result of civil war and external pressures from the "
Sea Peoples", ushered in a "
Dark Age" in Anatolia, paralleled by the
Greek Dark Ages of the
Dorian Invasion. The
Phrygians likely were one of these "Sea Peoples", appearing to have immigrated from the Balkans and established their kingdom in
Phrygia around that time. For the 12th and 11th centuries, we are left almost entirely without historical records.
Luwian strongholds such as
Carchemish and
Milid re-emerge in
10th century BC, but these were referred to in Assyrian records by the name "
Hatti"; hence the term "Neo-Hittites". From the 9th century, the
Neo-Assyrian Empire began to expand intermittently into easter Anatolia, but independent Anatolian kingdoms prevailed in the West (
Lydia,
Lycia) and were only conquered by the
Achaemenids.
While the
Lydian language seems to derive from the old
Hittite language, the Luwian dialects of the late Hittite Empire diversified into
Lycian,
Carian and other languages.
Luwian monumental inscriptions in
Anatolian hieroglyphs, discontinued in the 12th and 11th centuries, re-appear in the 10th century, lasting vestigially until the 7th century when Luwian disappears as a written language under Persian rule. From the 7th or 8th century,
various alphabets, influenced by or derived from the
Greek alphabet, replaced both cuneiform and hieroglyphic writing.
*http://www.hp.uab.edu/image_archive/uf/ufg.html
*http://oi.uchicago.edu/OI/MUS/GALLERY/EAST/Neo-Hittite-sphinx.html
*http://www.bible-history.com/ancient_art/orthostat_relief_hunting_scene.html
*http://www.pbase.com/andrys/image/38738758
