The Hittites : $b The story of a forgotten empireSayce, A. H. (Archibald Henry)
History
The Hittites : $b The story of a forgotten empire
Sayce, A. H. (Archibald Henry)
Hittites
In the so-called 'treasure of Priam,' disinterred among the calcined
ruins of Hissarlik or Troy, are six blade-like ingots of silver, about
seven or eight inches in length and two in breadth. Mr. Barclay Head has
pointed out that each of these ingots weighs the third part of a
Babylonian maneh or mina, and further that this particular maneh of 8656
grains Troy, was once employed throughout Asia Minor for weighing
bullion silver. It differed from the standard of weight and value used
in Phoenicia, Assyria, and Asia Minor itself in the later Greek age. But
it corresponded with 'the maneh of Carchemish' mentioned in the Assyrian
contract tablets, which continued to hold its own even after the
conquest of Carchemish by Sargon. The maneh of Carchemish had, it is
true, been originally derived from Babylonia, like most of the elements
of Hittite culture, but it had made itself so thoroughly at home in the
Hittite capital as to be called after its name. Nothing can show more
clearly than this the leading position held by the Hittites in general,
and the city of Carchemish in particular, in regard to commerce and
industry.
Carchemish was, in fact, the centre of the overland trade in Western
Asia. It commanded the high-road which brought the products of Phoenicia
and the West to the civilised populations of Assyria and Babylon. It was
this which made its possession so greatly coveted by the Assyrian kings.
Its capture assured to Sargon the command of the Mediterranean coast,
and the transference to Assyrian hands of the commerce and wealth which
had flowed in to the merchant-princes of the Hittite city.
The sumptuous furniture in which they indulged is mentioned by
Assur-natsir-pal. Like the luxurious monarchs of Israel, they reclined
on couches inlaid with ivory, of which it is possible that they were the
inventors. At all events, elephants were still hunted by Tiglath-pileser
I., in the neighbourhood of Carchemish, as they had been by Thothmes
III. four centuries earlier, and elephants' tusks were among the tribute
paid by the Hittites to the Assyrian kings. It may be that the
extinction of the elephant in this part of Asia was due to Hittite
huntsmen.
The ivory couches of Carchemish, however, were not employed at meals, as
they would have been in Assyria or among the Greeks and Romans of a
later day. Like the Egyptians, the Hittites sat when eating, and their
chairs were provided with backs as well as with curiously-formed
footstools. The food was placed on low cross-legged tables, which
resembled a camp-stool in shape.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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