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Neo-Hittite

Neo-Hittite:The Neo-Assyrian Empire in the 9th to 7th centuries BC
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The Neo-Assyrian Empire in the 9th to 7th centuries BC

The so-called Neo-Hittite or post-Hittite states were Luwian-speaking political entities of Iron Age Syria that arose after the collapse of the Hittite Empire around 1180 BC and lasted until roughly 700 BC, the time of the Cimmerian invasion. The term "Neo-Hittite" is generally reserved for these Syrian principalities, although in a wider sense, it might conceivably also be applied to any of the entities that arose in Asia Minor following the Hittites, including Mushki, Tabal, and Lydia.

The collapse of the Hittite Empire, a result of civil war and external pressures from the "Sea Peoples", ushered in a "Dark Age" in Anatolia, paralleled by the Greek Dark Ages of the Dorian Invasion. The Phrygians likely were one of these "Sea Peoples", appearing to have immigrated from the Balkans and established their kingdom in Phrygia around that time. For the 12th and 11th centuries, we are left almost entirely without historical records. Luwian strongholds such as Carchemish and Milid re-emerge in 10th century BC, but these were referred to in Assyrian records by the name "Hatti"; hence the term "Neo-Hittites". From the 9th century, the Neo-Assyrian Empire began to expand intermittently into eastern Anatolia, but independent Anatolian kingdoms prevailed in the West (Lydia, Lycia) and were only conquered by the Achaemenids.

While the Lydian language seems to derive from the old Hittite language, the Luwian dialects of the late Hittite Empire diversified into Lycian, Carian and other languages. Luwian monumental inscriptions in Anatolian hieroglyphs, discontinued in the 12th and 11th centuries, re-appear in the 10th century, lasting vestigially until the 7th century when Luwian disappears as a written language under Persian rule. From the 7th or 8th century, various alphabets, influenced by or derived from the Greek alphabet, replaced both cuneiform and hieroglyphic writing.

Categories


Hittite Empire | Luwians | History of Anatolia | Assyria | Iron Age

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