Cristo, we know about the capital atusa. What does that tell us about the hidice? What did you find there? That was a huge find for archaeologis early on to strike at the heart of the matter. It seems, from from what i have read, it is a huge city. Ii meanhe the circuit the, the defensive wall of the circuit wall, is over eight kilometers in length. And i think what is remarkable about he tusa relly is its landscape,. Because it is built up onto a mountainand you almost get the impression that it is a castle t it is heavily defensive and very well fortified.
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the empire that flourished in the Late Bronze Age in what is now Turkey, and which, like others at that time, mysteriously collapsed. For the next three thousand years these people of the Land of Hatti, as they called themselves, were known only by small references to their Iron Age descendants in the Old Testament and by unexplained remains in their former territory. Discoveries in their capital of Hattusa just over a century ago brought them back to prominence, including cuneiform tablets such as one (pictured above) which relates to an agreement with their rivals, the Egyptians. This agreement has since become popularly known as the Treaty of Kadesh and described as the oldest recorded peace treaty that survives to this day, said to have followed a great chariot battle with Egypt in 1274 BC near the Orontes River in northern Syria.
With
Claudia Glatz
Professor of Archaeology at the University of Glasgow
Ilgi Gercek
Assistant Professor of Ancient Near Eastern Languages and History at Bilkent University
And
Christoph Bachhuber
Lecturer in Archaeology at St John’s College, University of Oxford
Producer: Simon Tillotson