ABSTRACT
The center of the Hittites was in Anatolia, roughly equivalent to Asia Minor. In the documents of the Assyrian traders, the names of native princes are found, who evidently continued to rule in their several city-states. In a number of cases the names could be Indo-European, so these could have been Hittites in central Asia Minor before 1900. A consecutive account of unmistakably Hittite history first becomes possible at a point somewhat later than Anitta, on the basis of Hittite texts and monuments discovered at many places, most notably at Boghazkoy, which the texts establish as the main Hittite capital Hattusha. The history is commonly divided into three periods, with approximate dates as follows: Old Kingdom, 1700–1500; Middle Kingdom, 1500–1450; Empire, 1450–1200. Despite the valiant effort of Telepinush to strengthen the state, there ensued in the Middle Kingdom a time of relative obscurity and weakness, approximately the first half of the fifteenth century.
