page_title: Hittites
section_title: Government
hierarchical_section_title: Hittites / Government
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Standarte aus Alaca Höyük mit Darstellung eines Hirsches und zweier Stiere im Museum für anatolische Zivilisationen in Ankara
context_page_description: The Hittites were an Anatolian people who played an important role in establishing an empire centered on Hattusa in north-central Anatolia around 1600 BCE. This empire reached its height during the mid-14th century BCE under Šuppiluliuma I, when it encompassed an area that included most of Anatolia as well as parts of the northern Levant and Upper Mesopotamia.
  Between the 15th and 13th centuries BCE, the Empire of Hattusa, conventionally called the Hittite Empire, came into conflict with the New Kingdom of Egypt, the Middle Assyrian Empire and the empire of the Mitanni for control of the Near East. The Middle Assyrian Empire eventually emerged as the dominant power and annexed much of the Hittite Empire, while the remainder was sacked by Phrygian newcomers to the region. After c. 1180 BCE, during the Late Bronze Age collapse, the Hittites splintered into several independent Syro-Hittite states, some of which survived until the eighth century BCE before succumbing to the Neo-Assyrian Empire.
context_section_description: The head of the Hittite state was the king, followed by the heir-apparent. The king was the supreme ruler of the land, in charge of being a military commander, judicial authority, as well as a high priest. However, some officials exercised independent authority over various branches of the government. One of the most important of these posts in the Hittite society was that of the gal mesedi (Chief of the Royal Bodyguards). It was superseded by the rank of the gal gestin (Chief of the Wine Stewards), who, like the gal mesedi, was generally a member of the royal family. The kingdom's bureaucracy was headed by the gal dubsar (Chief of the Scribes), whose authority didn't extend over the Lugal Dubsar, the king's personal scribe.
  In Egyptian inscriptions dating back before the days of the Exodus, Egyptian monarchs were engaged with two chief seats, located at Kadesh (a Hittite city located on the Orontes River) and Carchemish (located on the Euphrates river in Southern Anatolia).
caption: Bronze Hittite figures of animals in the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations.
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