Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1909-02-05
New Light on Ancient History.


10 students of the Bible it is very
interesting to see how greatly the
archaeological research work carried OH
by investigators of the present day CO.
operates with scripture records i'll re-
Vealing the history of the ages far back
of the beginning of the Christian era.
The latest revelations from this source
relate to the important part played by
the Hittites. Heretofore there has been
little known of the Hittites except what
is recorded in sacred writ. They were
nation descended from Cheth or Heth,
the second son of Canaan. Abraham
bought from the children of Heth' The
cave of Machpelah, belonging to Ephron
the Hittite They were then settled at
the town afterward known as Hebron.
When the Israelites entered the Prom
Used Land the Hittites took part against
them with the other Canaanite tribes.
There is mention of Abimelech the Hit
tite in the first book of Samuel. Uriah
the Hittite was one of the thirty Of
King David's body-guard. DIR. Hogarth
put forward reasons for beheVlng
erful nation, holding Assyria and
Egypt in subsection. Now come the
discoveries of DR.. Winckler, expounded
by w. st. Chad Boscawen, which af-
ford evidence that the Hittites were ut
one time so strong that they treated on
rulers of the eighteenth and nineteenth
Egyptian dynasties and Influenced the
affairs of Assyria, while pushing their
armies as far south as Babylon, and
holding sway there about $500 Is. =.
Mr. BOscaWen writes of them as a con-
federation of tribes whose seat OF gov
eminent was the. province of Cappadocia,
their capital being the city of Khattu,
the ruins of which are found at Boghaz
Keui, near the upper Hays. He says:
That they were a race of the great politi-
cal power that the records now discovered
show them to have been was never for a
moment suspected The main features Of
this new chapter of ancient Oriental his
tory have been furnished by the important
discoveries made by Hugo Winckler at
upon a number of clay tablets of large
size written in cuneiform character. The
inscriptions were in two languages-the ma
jority in the Assyrio-Babylonia tongue,
similar to the letters and dispatches from
Telel-Amarna, but others were in an I'M
known tongue, probably the native Hittite
language, to which the cuneifOrm sylla barry
had been adapted. The date of the tablets
was beyond doubt, for we find letters from
Babylonian and Assyrian rulers of the thir-
teenth century B. c., and, more important
still a duplicate version of the treaty be-
tween Rameses II. and the Hlttlte ruler
Khittu Sila-drawn up after the battle OF
Kadesh. The Egyptian version is inscribed
on the walls of the Southern pylon OF kar-
max The text of these various inscriptions
has not as yet been published in full, but
sufficient has been made known to show
the astonishing development of diplomacy
existing at the period, about 120O B. {,
The treaty is an offensive and defensive
alliance: it contains eXtrad1tlon clauses as
TO fugitiyeS from justice. The correspond
ence found reveals another important fact,
that the drawing up of this treaty was TO
a great extent the result OF an lnternatlonal
congress, for both Babylonian and Assyr1an
rulers were consulted, and the negotiations
taok three months When thoroughly pub
lished these documents VIII restore TO US
q most important lost chapter of Oriental
history In art we also have new
chapter. There are many features IN HUI
ite art that can be traced TO Bapyionia
and Assyria. The winged or colossal mons
and sphinxes the double-headed eagle,
and the eagle-headed human hsures.
There are, however, clear lndl .,, s. o ol
an indigenous art, which in turn exef-
cised an influence on early Greek art; the
placing of the gods on the backs OF sacred
animals the mural crown as an embiem OF
double-winged or butterfly seal found IN
Mvcenean art Again. certain elements OF
the Asia Minor syllabary of Lyeia ana
Phrygia may be traced to defayeqqh as t., eve
nIorations have given us the materlal IoI
peYy chapters in Oriental history. anu
also in art and religion, Tor .ne Woisnl ., or
goddess shows undoubted traces of Hltute
influence.
The Hittites were the civilizers of
Asia Minor. Quite possibly they We're
on par with the Assyrlans ana the
Egyptians as organizing ana upiItins
forces If their records can be de-
a;nherad a new and valuable contrlbu-
lion will be made to human knowledge
The wielder of the spade and decipherer
IF monumental inscriptions are shedding
now light on the distant past. Ancient
history presents an ampler page than II
did in the time of Rollln.