On September 20th the Turkish website Türkiye Today, “Türkiye’s leading English newsroom,” reported the discovery of over 50 Hittite seal impressions, all from the reign of Hattusili III (ca. 1267–1237 BC), at Kayalıpınar, ancient Samuha, in central Turkey (Türkiye).1 Located 142 miles east of the Hittite capital of Hattusa and 252 miles east of Ankara, the modern capital, Samuha “was likely the capital of the ‘Upper Country,’ a key administrative region of the Hittite Empire.”2 These seal impressions are from the same collection as others found in the previous year’s excavation at the site,3 and probably there will be more as excavations continue.
The Hittites are mentioned numerous times in the Old Testament. In most instances, however, the translation “Hittite” is incorrect and should be “Hethite,” denoting the descendants of Heth (Gn 10:15 [= 1 Chr 1:13]), who were indigenous to Canaan.4 There are a total of six references to actual Hittites. One recent translation, the Christian Standard Bible (Holman Bible Publishers, 2017), adopted my interpretation of the various terms referring to the Hethites/Hittites. In addition, there are references to four individual Hittite cities.
The Hittites were Indo-Europeans, meaning that they originated in western Europe. They established a large empire in Anatolia (modern-day Turkey) and beyond that lasted 500 years, from ca. 1670 to 1177 BC. In 1177 BC, the empire disintegrated into a number of city-states, referred to as the “Neo-Hittite” states, located in the southeast section of the empire. These lasted until the late eighth century BC when they were absorbed by the Assyrian Empire.
In the Old Testament, the empire is designated by the singular term “land of the Hittites.” The first reference is in Joshua 1:4, where the Lord promises Joshua that Israel’s territory would include “all the land of the Hittites”—that is, all of Anatolia. At that time in 1406 BC, the Hittite Empire was in a transition from a decline in the 16th and 15th centuries to a resurgence in the early 14th century. The second reference is in the story of the Bethelite who helped Israel defeat Bethel: “And the man went to the land of the Hittites and built a city” (Jgs 1:26a). This occurred in the mid-14th century BC, about a century before the time of the seal impressions. The remaining four biblical references to the Hittites pertain to the Neo-Hittite states, which are indicated by the plural term “kings of the Hittites”:
- Solomon (970–930 BC) purchased horses and chariots from Egypt and sold them to the “kings of the [Neo-]Hittites” (1 Kgs 10:29).
- Second Chronicles 1:17, which parallels the above verse, uses the same phrase.
- Solomon also made political alliances by marrying (Neo-)Hittite women (1 Kgs 11:1).
- The Lord rescued Samaria from a siege by the Arameans during the reign of Jehoram (852–841 BC) by causing the invaders to believe that the Neo-Hittites were attacking them: “They said to one another, ‘Behold, the king of Israel has hired against us the kings of the [Neo-]Hittites and the kings of Egypt to come against us.’ So they fled away in the twilight . . .” (2 Kgs 7:6b–7a).
In addition to these collective references to the Neo-Hittite states, there are references to four individual Neo-Hittite cities. The king of Hamath, the southernmost of the Neo-Hittite cities, paid tribute to David (1010–970 BC) (2 Sm 8:9–10; 1 Chr 18:9–10). Solomon purchased horses from Kue (Que), a Neo-Hittite city in Cilicia in southern Turkey (1 Kgs 10:28). The Lord warned Jerusalem of coming judgment at the hands of the Assyrians, just as He had judged foreign cities, including Calno (Kunulua), capital of the Neo-Hittite kingdom of Patina in the Plain of Antioch in southern Turkey, and Carchemish, the most important of the Neo-Hittite cities (Is 10:5–12; ca. 700 BC). Carchemish was located just inside the southern border of Turkey, four miles from the border with Syria, and is well known from texts and excavation. Kunulua was captured by the Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser III in 738 BC, and Charchemish fell to Sargon II in 717 BC. The prophet Amos also used Calneh (= Calno) as an example of a defeated city (6:1–3; ca. 760–750 BC).
Stone relief from the 13th century BC at Firaktin, ca. 175 miles south-southeast of Hattusa. The left scene depicts Hattusili III, at right, making an offering to the weather god. In the scene to the right, Queen Puduhepa is shown (at right) making a libation offering to the sun goddess Hebat. Credit: Krähenstein - own work, Wikimedia Commons, August 19, 2013, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Before the advent of archaeological exploration, historians scoffed at the name “Hittites” in the Old Testament, since the name was not known outside the Bible. Discoveries in the early 19th century, however, quickly put an end to those doubts. The Hittite capital Hattusa was discovered in 1833 where a royal archive of some 30,000 clay tablets has been recovered over the years. Thanks to the abundance of written records, we know more about the Hittites than any other ancient culture. The recent seal impressions from Kayalıpınar were discovered in a building that had burned, which the excavators designated “the Imperial Archive” last year.5 It had contained important economic and administrative documents written on wooden tablets that were wrapped with string and then sealed with a lump of clay impressed with an official seal to authenticate the document. The tablets and strings perished in the fire, but the clay seal impressions were baked, thus preserving them. The archive is especially important since all the seal impressions pertain to the family of King Hattusili III, from the mid-13th century BC, the time of the Judges. In addition to those of Hattusili III himself, there are seal impressions from his wife Puduhepa; his eldest son, Crown Prince Nerikaili; a prince named HattusaRuntiya, meaning “Protector of Hattusa”; a scribe named Pihaya, who likely served under Queen Puduhepa; and ArmaTarupasani, a servant of the Moon God.6 The seal impressions from ancient Samuha “have shed new light on the Hittite royal lineage and the city’s significant role in the empire’s administration.”7
The Bible writers were amazingly precise in their allusions to the Hittites. The Hittites were a distant foreign people with a capital located ca. 750 miles north of Jerusalem and who spoke an Indo-European language much different from the Semitic Hebrew of the Israelites. Yet, the Israelites had close ties with the Hittites and were intimately familiar with their history. The work of seven Bible writers over a period of seven centuries not only documented the existence of the Hittites, but also distinguished between the empire and Neo-Hittite periods, placing them in their correct chronological-historical contexts, and accurately recorded the names of four Neo-Hittite cities.
The mysterious Hittites of the Bible, who were once considered to be illusory and nonexistent by scholars, turned out to be a major ancient empire that produced tens of thousands of written documents. Today, we have an entire field of study devoted to the Hittites, called “Hittitology,” with dedicated Hittitologists translating and publishing the Hittite records and researching the people who “never were.” To God be the glory!
Endnotes
1 Koray Erdogan, “Hittite Royal Seals Unearthed in Türkiye, Reshaping History,” Türkiye Today, September 20, 2024, https://www.turkiyetoday.com/culture/hittite-royal-seals-uncovered-55481/.
2 Erdogan, “Hittite Royal Seals.”
3 For announcements of last year’s finds, see Administration of Arkeonews, “Archaeologists Found Seal Impressions That Could Change Hittite History in Kayalıpınar,” Arkeonews, September 15, 2023, https://arkeonews.net/archaeologists-found-seal-impressions-that-could-change-hittite-history-in-kayalipinar/; Mark Milligan, “Archaeologists Uncover Imperial Hittite Archive,” Heritage Daily, September 14, 2023, https://www.heritagedaily.com/2023/09/archaeologists-uncover-imperial-hittite-archive/148583.
4 See my article at https://www.biblearchaeology.org/research/topics/ancient-manuscripts/2796.
5 Administration of Arkeonews, “Archaeologists Found Seal Impressions.”
6 Erdogan, “Hittite Royal Seals”; Administration of Arkeonews, “Archaeologists Found Seal Impressions.”
7 Erdogan, “Hittite Royal Seals.”
Bibliography
Administration of Arkeonews. “Archaeologists Found Seal Impressions That Could Change Hittite History in Kayalıpınar.” Arkeonews. September 15, 2023. https://arkeonews.net/archaeologists-found-seal-impressions-that-could-change-hittite-history-in-kayalipinar/.
Erdogan, Koray. “Hittite Royal Seals Unearthed in Türkiye, Reshaping History.” Türkiye Today. September 20, 2024. https://www.turkiyetoday.com/culture/hittite-royal-seals-uncovered-55481/.
Milligan, Mark. “Archaeologists Uncover Imperial Hittite Archive.” Heritage Daily. September 14, 2023. https://www.heritagedaily.com/2023/09/archaeologists-uncover-imperial-hittite-archive/148583.
Wood, Bryant G. “Hittites and Hethites: A Proposed Solution to an Etymological Conundrum.” Associates for Biblical Research. November 8, 2011. https://www.biblearchaeology.org/research/topics/ancient-manuscripts/2796.
