Genesis Vol 3.pdf - College Press

12:l-20 GENESIS
20,000 cuneiform tablets from the second millenium,
brought to light at Nuzi, constitute a primary source of
information concerning life in northern Mesopotamia, the
district (Haran) where the Biblical patriarchs lived for a
time and to which they sent to find suitable wives for
their sons.
By 2000 B.C. various groups of Indo-European origin
had infiltrated Asia Minor, These were organized into a
complex of city-states. The most influential of these
groups became known as the Hittites. The capital of the
ancient Hittite Empire was Hattusas (modern Boghazkoy) ,
ninety miles east of modern Ankara, on the great bend
of the Halys River. Excavations began at this site in
1906, and have brought to light the story of a once power-
ful empire, as evidenced by the fact that one of their
kings, Mursilis, captured Aleppo in 15 3 0, then thrust across
Hurrian territories, raided northern Mesopotamia, and
sacked Babylon. A peace treaty between the Hittite king,
Hattusilis I11 (c. 1275-1250) and the Egyptian Pharaoh
Rameses I1 is the oldest such treaty known to students of
ancient history, and indicates that the Hittites were power-
ful.enough to stop the Egyptian army in its tracks in a
battle at Kadesh (c. 1296 B.C,) Beleaguered, however, by
Hurrian aggressiveness and inner political conflicts, the
Hittites finally withdrew into Asia Minor where their in-
fluences are felt even down to our own time. The Hittite
kingdom came to an end when overrun by the so-called
“Sea peoples” from the eastern Mediterranean, many of
whom seem to have been of Cretan origin (e+, the Phil-
istines). The Hittites flourished at about the dawn of the
Iron Age. (Iron was discovered about 1jOO B.C. some-
where in the area around the Black Sea.) The Hittite
monopoly on iron.gave them formidable power for a time,
but this power-. declined as other peoples began to make
use of iron weapons. Outposts of Hittite culture survived
in northern Syria: these Hittite principalities were those to
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