Hittites, Kassites, & Mitanni

Hittites

• Anatolian people – 1600 B.C.• Asia Minor• Present day Turkey

Key Military advantages

• 1st people to master iron working (strong tools and weapons

• Chariot – wheeled, horse-drawn cart used in battle

-allowed them to move more quickly- fired arrows at the enemy

smelting

• Heating iron ore, hammer out the impurities, cool quickly

• Passed on to other military empires…Assyrians

Conquests

• 1595 B.C. – conquered Babylon• 1282 B.C. – reached height

Decline

• After conquest of Babylon, rule did not last long

• Hittite king killed by an assassin

Kassites

• 1531 B.C. – 1155 B.C.• Allies to Hittites

Geography

• 1800 B.C. – settled in western Iran• Captured the city of Babylon• Capital - Dur-Kurigalzu• Ruled southern Mesopotamia (Hittites –

Northern)• Middle Babylonian period• Ruled 400 years

Kassites

• Not as literate as those in Mesopotamia• Mesopotamia entered a Dark Age• Used language that was not written (Unlike

others)• polytheistic

Decline

• Foreign attacks• “sea people”

Contributions

• Kudurru – boundary stones• Used for marking boundaries and making

proclamations

Mitanni

• Founded in 1550• 1475-1275 B.C.• Indo-Iranians• Conquered by Assyrians