Anatolia was very rich in iron ore and the Hittites had become one of the first nations to make tools and weapons from it. Their techniques were fairly rudimentary, repeatedly heating the iron ore, pounding out impurities, and plunging it into cold water, but the result was much stronger than bronze, giving them a military advantage.

Hittite cuneiform tablet 1,275-1,220 BC
- source Museum of Anatolian
Civilisations, Ankara

In 15^th century BC the Hittites, Egyptians and Mitanni vied for control of the Levantine city-states. Fortunately three large collections of clay tablets using cuneiform have been found relating to this period. The first containing 10,000 tablets was found in the state archives at the capital Hattusas in Akkadian and Hittite, their Indo-European language, notably including some 70 treaties with several countries; the second in Akkadian from Alalakh in North Syria, had 250 texts, and another much larger collection from Ugarit on the North Syrian Coast written in Akkadian and Ugaritic, the West Semitic language (used from 1,425 to 1,190 BC). Such collections allow us greater understanding of the complex politics of these times.

The growth of the Hittites changed the balance of power in Northern Mesopotamia that was previously a standoff between the Mitanni and Assyria. In particular, after Suppiluliumas I (1,375-1,335 BC) had spent 10 years of pacifying an unruly Anatolia, he turned his armies on the Mitanni in Syria. As stated previously, Egypt did not come to the help of the Mitanni, as Akhenaten was preoccupied, so in 1,360 BC the Hittites overran the Mitanni absorbing much of their western lands.

Map of Hittite Empire 1300 BC - courtesy
Thomas Lessman

The eastern part allied temporarily with the Assyrians, but the latter eventually took over complete control, so confronting the Hittites in North Syria. In the meanwhile, the Hittites moved south along the Levantine coast. At first they avoided Egyptian influenced territory and a new agreement was made regarding boundaries. However the Hittites were attacked by the King of Qadesh giving them the excuse to disregard the treaty, and they moved south and started 100 years of war with Egypt in North Syria. This led to the previously mentioned battle of Qadesh with the Egyptians in 1,274 BC and the peace treaty in 1,260 BC. Hattusilis III (1,275-1,250 BC) also concluded an alliance with Babylon to counter the Assyrians. However, the Hittites were losing their momentum and around 1,250 to 1,240 BC a rebellion broke out in the small Western Anatolian kingdoms, indicating that the western periphery of the Hittite Empire was breaking up. In the 13^th Century BC the Aegean shores of Western Anatolia were occupied by Greeks, the Aeolians in the north, the Ionians in the centre (Ephesus) and the Dorians in the south. The powerful king whose capital was at Ephesus was conquered by the Hittites during the 13^th century, but insurrection was always close to the surface.

Some of the Indo-European tribes that moved south in waves from Western Asia/Eastern Europe over millennia migrated into Macedonia and Thrace and others into Northern Anatolia. Over centuries they settled and integrated with the indigenous inhabitants, sometimes to be driven on by later migrations. Around 1,250 BC the Illyrians migrated south from the Danube Valley pushing the Phrygians, one of the tribes making up the “Sea People” who spoke an Indo-European language akin to ancient Greek, from the Balkans into Anatolia via Thrace. There were also attacks from Assyria further east. The final straw was the outbreak of a civil war that caused the Hittite Empire to collapse. Although the Hittites had been reasonably successful in keeping the discovery of iron a secret, on their collapse the skilled smelters dissipated to neighbouring countries helping to spread the Iron Age technology. Other refugees made their way to pro-Hittite North Syrian states where they flourished.