Culture · Late Bronze Age

Hittite

1650–1180 BCE, Near East & Mesopotamia

The Hittite kingdom ruled central Anatolia from its capital Hattusa from about 1650 BCE and became a great power that fought Egypt at Kadesh and fell around 1180 BCE at the end of the Bronze Age. Its archives of cuneiform tablets in the Indo-European Hittite language, its stamp and signet seals with hieroglyphic Luwian, and its rock reliefs at Yazılıkaya and monumental gate sculptures are its main legacy. Small finds include bronze figurines of gods with pointed caps, gold pendant figures, lead figurines, bull-shaped rhyta and the beak-spouted pottery of the period. The Neo-Hittite states of Syria continued the tradition into the Iron Age.

Dates	1650–1180 BCE
Period	Late Bronze Age
Region	Near East & Mesopotamia
Areas	Central Anatolia (Hattusa, Alaca Höyük), Cilicia, Northern Syria (Carchemish, Aleppo)
Typical objects	Tablet, Seal, Figurine, Vessel, Spearhead, Axe head
Typical materials	Bronze, Terracotta, Gold, Silver

Identification

Hittite seals are stamp seals with a hieroglyphic centre and cuneiform ring, or biconvex 'tudittum' seals, unlike Mesopotamian cylinders; standing gods in short kilts with tall pointed conical caps are the standard figurine. Red burnished beak-spouted jugs and libation arms are the Old Hittite pottery. Alaca Höyük standards and sun discs are earlier (Early Bronze Age Hattian).

Legality

Turkey's Law 2863 (1983) on the Protection of Cultural and Natural Property declares all antiquities state property, prohibits their export and criminalises unauthorised excavation; Turkey has had a US CPIA agreement since 2021 covering archaeological material through the Ottoman period. Syria's Antiquities Law of 1963 and US emergency restrictions on Syrian material (since 2016) cover Neo-Hittite objects. Hittite material lacking pre-1970 documentation is effectively unsaleable in the reputable trade.

Reproductions and fakes

Hittite bronze and gold figurines are copied in Turkey with cast reproductions of museum pieces; genuine bronzes show heavy layered corrosion and casting flaws, and gold pendants are tiny and finely worked. Seals with invented hieroglyphs are a recurring forgery.

Photographs

Hittite — Seated goddess with a child — Hittite, ca. 14th–13th century BCE — Seated goddess with a child — Hittite, ca. 14th–13th century BCE — The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of Norbert Schimmel Trust, 1989, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Open Access, CC0

Hittite — Vessel terminating in the forepart of a stag — Hittite, ca. 14th–13th century BCE — Vessel terminating in the forepart of a stag — Hittite, ca. 14th–13th century BCE — The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of Norbert Schimmel Trust, 1989, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Open Access, CC0

Elsewhere

met: 327401
Wikidata: Q5406
Wikipedia: Hittites

Cite this article

Stratum Strata. "Hittite" (Culture). Stratum Strata pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-21. https://stratum.black/strata/cultures/hittite. Accessed 2026-09-21.

BibTeX · CSL-JSON

@misc{stratum-hittite,
  title        = {Hittite},
  author       = {{Stratum Strata}},
  howpublished = {\url{https://stratum.black/strata/cultures/hittite}},
  year         = {2026},
  note         = {Culture article, Stratum Strata pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-21; sources: stratum, wikidata, commons, met. Accessed 2026-09-21.}
}

Citations carry the pack version and the article's as-of date so they resolve to the same text later. The facts themselves belong to the sources listed below; cite those for the science.

Identification

Legality

Reproductions and fakes

Photographs

Age

Materials

Collecting rules

Sites

Typical types

Elsewhere