Hittites
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For the people of the Hebrew Bible, see Biblical Hittites.

Relief of Suppiluliuma II, last known king of the Hittite Empire
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Relief of Suppiluliuma II, last known king of the Hittite Empire

The Hittites were an ancient people who spoke Hittite, an Indo-European language, and established a kingdom centered in Hattusa (Hittite URUḪattuša) in north-central Anatolia from the 18th century BC. In the 14th century BC, the Hittite empire was at its height, encompassing central Anatolia, north-western Syria as far as Ugarit, and upper Mesopotamia. After 1180 BC, the empire disintegrated into several independent "Neo-Hittite" city-states, some of which survived until as late as the 8th century BC.

The term "Hittites" is taken from the KJV translation of the Hebrew bible, translating חתי HTY, or בני-חת BNY-HT "Children of Heth". The archaeologists who discovered the Anatolian Hittites in the 19th century initially identified them with these Biblical Hittites. Today, their identification with either the Hittite Empire proper[citation needed] or the Neo-Hittite kingdoms is a matter of dispute.

The Hittite kingdom, or at least its core region, was apparently called Hatti by the Hittites themselves. However, the Hittites should be distinguished from the Hattians, an earlier people who inhabited the same region until the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC, and spoke a non-Indo-European language conventionally called Hattic. The native term of the Hittite language was Nesili, the language of Nesa, the seat of the Hittite kings before the conquest of Hattusa. Many of the modern city names in Turkey are derived from their original Hittite names, such as Sinop and Adana, showing the impact of Hittite culture in Anatolia.

The Hittites were also famous for their skill in building and using chariots. The Hittites were pioneers of the Iron Age, manufacturing iron artifacts from as early as the 14th century BC, making them possibly even the first to do so