Anatolia · Bronze Age
Hittite Empire
Anatolia's iron-working rival to Egypt
1,600 BCE – 1,178 BCE · 422 years
An Anatolian empire that fought Egypt to a standstill at Kadesh and pioneered early iron production.
Where it sits on the calendar
Government
Centralized empire
Writing system
Cuneiform and Hieroglyphic Luwian
Estimated peak population
1,000,000
How it ended
Trade network collapse
Traits
Monumental architecture Bronze metallurgy Iron metallurgy Standing army Long-distance trade Codified law Urban planning Irrigation agriculture Astronomical record-keeping Seafaring
How Hittite Empire ended
Capital Hattusa was abandoned amid the Late Bronze Age Collapse and associated invasions.
See other civilizations that fell the same way →Notable for
- Among the earliest large-scale iron smelting
- Peace treaty with Egypt after Kadesh
- Law code emphasizing restitution over harsh punishment
Who else was alive at the same time
8 other civilizations in this dataset overlap with Hittite Empire's 422-year span.
See every overlap involving Hittite Empire →