Category:Hittite

Hit"tite, n. [From Heb. Khittim Hittites.]

Defn: A member of an ancient people (or perhaps group of peoples) whose settlements extended from Armenia westward into Asia Minor and southward into Palestine. They are known to have been met along the Orontes as early as 1500 b. c., and were often at war with the Egyptians and Assyrians. Especially in the north they developed a considerable civilization, of which numerous monuments and inscriptions are extant. Authorities are not agreed as to their race. While several attempts have been made to decipher the Hittite characters, little progress has yet been made.

--- ---excerpt from the Illustrated Bible Dictionary.

Hittites - Palestine and Syria appear to have been originally inhabited by three different tribes. (1.) The Semites, living on the east of the isthmus of Suez. They were nomadic and pastoral tribes. (2.) The Phoenicians, who were merchants and traders; and (3.) the Hittites, who were the warlike element of this confederation of tribes. They inhabited the whole region between the Euphrates and Damascus, their chief cities being Carchemish on the Euphrates, and Kadesh, now Tell Neby Mendeh, in the Orontes valley, about six miles south of the Lake of Homs.