[Teaser] Units of History: Hittite Warriors

Intro

From the city of Hattusa, in what is today Turkey, emerged one of the largest empires of the Late Bronze Age: the Kingdom of the Hittites. Its warriors were well equipped professionals, hardened by a life in the highlands and supplied by some of the finest armories of its age. Thus equipped, the Kings of Hattusa would have a formidable force with which to challenge the reigning powers of Egypt and Assyria. Today let us review the origins, equipment, organization, tactics, and service history of these formidable Hittite Warriors.

Origins

Let us begin with a quick review of the society from which these Hittite soldiers emerged.

Their civilization had originally begun as a group of polities located along the Halys river in central Anatolia. These would slowly coalesce over the years of the Middle Bronze Age, forming the poorly understood Kingdom of Kussara in the 18th century BC. The branches of its reigning dynasty would reportedly compete with one another on a regular basis for control of these lands. Eventually, in a particularly tumultuous cycle of unrest, a leading nobleman by the name of Hattusili the first would consolidate a base of power around the city of Hatussa. From here his descendants would form what became known as the Hittite Kingdom.

As with many of its contemporaries it was led by a supreme leader who acted as the top military commander, judicial authority, and high priest. Yet unlike in Egypt, the Hittite kings were never considered to be gods themselves, merely powerful figures who were blessed by them. Perhaps because of this, their powers were regulated by the earliest known constitutional monarchy. It established the king as the head of state, followed by the heir apparent, and several other government officials that included the Chief of the Scribes and the Chief of the Bodyguards.

Beneath these, the royal family occupied the highest echelons of Hittite society followed closely by other influential families who formed an aristocracy. Both upper class groups derived their wealth from land ownership. The king himself owned the largest amount of land and could award land to nobles as reward for their loyalty and to ensure that they stayed loyal. The rest of the population consisted mostly of farmers, including smallholders. A much smaller group of specialist craftsmen made objects and tools, and the state ran specialist workshops such as those that produced chariots.

It was from across these various tiers of society that the Hittite army would be drawn. In this respect, they were highly militarized given the geo-political disposition of the capital city of Hattusa. It was landlocked and surrounded by enemies. For this reason the capital was well fortified by its Kings who also sought to field a well-trained and well-equipped army to keep itself safe, expand its borders, and control its territory.

Of course, given the huge expense involved in raising and maintaining an army, the Hittite kings preferred to resolve their crises through diplomatic means. Sometimes, merely the threat of attack was enough to cow their enemies. Still, if bloodshed could not be avoided, the Hittites were able to field one of the most impressive armies of the ancient world.

The core consisted of a professional standing army. These soldiers lived together, mostly in Hattusa, in military barracks. When not training or preparing for war, they were engaged in other activities for the state, including farming. Such professional warriors consisted of people from Hattusa itself, but likely also contained troops from other parts of the empire, including, perhaps, former prisoners-of-war. Such a practice backfired at least once: in the early 14th century BC, 10,000 infantry and 600 chariots were taken from subjugated land in western Anatolia and put under the command of one of their own at Hattusa. They rebelled, but the Hittites were quick to squash this uprising.

As for the size of this standing army, numbers are hard to come by for the ancient world, but it may have consisted of as many as ten thousand professional soldiers at the height of the Hittite Kingdom’s power. Nevertheless, the campaigns that the Hittites engaged in often meant that there was a chronic shortage of manpower. Hattusa itself could also not be left undefended. Thus the Hittites often levied the population at large, which included farmers who could, as a result, not be engaged in the production of food. Hence, a general levy was often called only outside the sowing and harvesting seasons. To avoid having to trudge through winter snows, this meant that the Hittites preferred to fight from spring to autumn, but a crisis could always disrupt this schedule.

These levies were usually left in the hands of local authorities. The ruler in Hattusa forbade them from selecting slaves for military duty. Likewise, they were also not allowed to accept substitutes for any of the men who had been selected for duty. Some of them could try to bribe someone else to take their place, but this was not allowed – how strictly this rule was applied in practice is something we might never know for sure.

Once mustered, the conscripts were headquartered in Hattusa. Here their units resided in the same barracks which were usually named after the province or district from which they came. With this context in mind, let us take a closer look at these Hittites as they made ready for war.