The Annals and Lost Golden Statue of the Hittite King Hattusili I

Abstract

In the second half of the 17 th century BC, Hatti, kingdom of the Hittites, began emerging as a major international power during the reign and as a result of the aggressive military operations of the Hittite king Hattusili I (c. 1650-1620). 1 Our main source of information about these is a document which records the king's campaigns, supposedly over a period of five consecutive years and thus designated as the king's Annals. 2 Following on from the campaigns of his predecessor (and grandfather?), the first Hittite king called Labarna, who had extended his sway over much of the eastern half of the Anatolian peninsula, Hattusili conducted campaigns in the northern parts of his kingdom, against the cities of Sanahuitta and Zalpa. Located to the northeast of the Hittite capital Hattusa, Sanahuitta had rebelled against Labarna, and its inhabitants had set up an independent regime in the city. 3 Hattusili subsequently led his troops against the city, but failed to capture it on his first attempt and had to content himself with plundering and ravaging the countryside around it. He did, however, succeed in capturing and sacking the city of Zalpa, which probably lay on the Marassantiya river (mod. Kızıl Irmak, Classical Halys) not far from its entrance into the Black Sea. These ventures occupied the 'first year' of the king's Annals. The 'second year' saw the beginning of Hatti's rise to international status when Hattusili led his troops across the Taurus on what was supposedly the first of probably many expeditions into northern Syria. At this time, much of the region was subject to the kingdom of Yamhad, sometimes referred to by the name of its capital Aleppo (Hittite Halab/p). But no mention is made of Yamhad/Aleppo in Hattusili's campaign, and to judge from the Annals, the king seems to have confined himself to plundering and destroying the city of Alalah on the Orontes river, and several other cities west of the Euphrates and north of Carchemish. Almost certainly, all the conquered territories were allied or subject to Yamhad.