ABSTRACT
By Hittites we mean the people who dominate the history of Asia Minor in the 2nd millennium BC, according to their documentary evidence, clay tablets with cuneiform characters, discovered in many thousands near the modern Turkish village of Boghazkoy. There, German excavations began in 1906 and are in progress even today. The documents testify that the site was once the great capital city Hattusas, from King Hattusilis I in the seventeenth century, until its destruction at the end of the thirteenth century BC. The overwhelming majority of these texts are concerned with religious belief and observance, reflecting the predominance of interest of the Hittite scribes under royal direction, rather than the chances of archaeological discovery.
