A complete tool for understanding this oldest collection (about 1650 BC) of laws made by an Indo-European people. Incorporating many tablets published since the 1959 edition, and utilizing the latest lexical and grammatical insights, the author presents the text in the "score" format with translation, commentary, glossary, indexes, plates and bibliography.

Offering fascinating insights into the people and politics of the ancient near Eastern kingdoms, Trevor Bryce uses the letters of the five Great Kings as the focus of a fresh look at this turbulent and volatile region in the late Bronze Age.

It will also prove useful for those investigating the relationship between Biblical covenant theology and its possible antecedents in older Near Eastern treaty patterns."--BOOK JACKET.

This book provides translations of most of the letters that have survived reasonably intact from the Old Kingdom through the Twenty-first Dynasty of ancient Egypt. An introduction provides information relating to ancient Egyptian epistolography and discussion regarding the transmission of letters. The organization of the book is basically chronological, with separate sections devoted to royal letters and letters sent by and to the vizier. Also included are several model letters that were used in the education of the Egyptian scribe.--Publisher description.

Translations from the original texts are a particular feature of the book. Thus on many issues the Hittites and their contemporaries are allowed to speak to the modern reader for themselves."--BOOK JACKET.

This volume offers, for the first time in a single source, English translations of all twenty-six fifteenth–thirteenth centuries B.C.E. Ahhiyawa texts, a commentary and brief exposition on each text’s historical implications, an introductory essay, and a longer essay on Mycenaean-Hittite interconnections.

The Hittites in the Late Bronze Age became the mightiest military power in the Ancient Near East. Yet their empire was always vulnerable to destruction by enemy forces; their Anatolian homeland occupied a remote region, with no navigable rivers; and they were cut off from the sea. Perhaps most seriously, they suffered chronic under-population and sometimes devastating plague. How, then, can the rise and triumph of this ancient imperium be explained, against seemingly insuperable odds? In his lively and unconventional treatment of one of antiquity's most mysterious civilizations, whose history disappeared from the records over three thousand years ago, Trevor Bryce sheds fresh light on Hittite warriors as well as on the Hittites' social, religious and political culture and offers new solutions to many unsolved questions. Revealing them to have been masters of chariot warfare, who almost inflicted disastrous defeat on Rameses II at the Battle of Qadesh (1274 BCE), he shows the Hittites also to have been devout worshippers of a pantheon of storm-gods and many other gods, and masters of a new diplomatic system which bolstered their authority for centuries. Drawing authoritatively both on texts and on ongoing archaeological discoveries, while at the same time offering imaginative reconstructions of the Hittite world, the author argues that while the development of a warrior culture was essential, not only for the Empire's expansion but for its very survival, this by itself was not enough. The range of skills demanded of the Hittite ruling class went way beyond mere military prowess, while there was much more to the Hittites themselves than just skill in warfare. This engaging volume reveals the Hittites in their full complexity, including the festivals they celebrated; the temples and palaces they built; their customs and superstitions; the crimes they committed; their social hierarchy, from king to slave; and the marriages and pre-nuptial agreements they contracted. It takes the reader on a journey which combines epic grandeur, spectacle and pageantry with an understanding of the intimacies and idiosyncrasies of Hittite daily life.

This gripping biography documents the life and reign of Hattusili, one of the most famous and well-documented Hittite rulers. Hattusili ruled over the ancient kingdom of Anatolia (modern Turkey) during the 2nd millennium BC and was a political rival and, at the same time, treaty-partner of the Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses the Great. Trevor Bryce offers a chronological account of Hattusili, charting the rise of the Bronze Age Hittite prince from a sickly childhood to become – by ruthless ambition, an illegal coup and a civil war – the most powerful ruler of the ancient Near East. Incorporating the most up-to-date archaeological material, including the archive of clay tablets and new information about the astonishingly small size of the Hittite capital Hattusa, Bryce provides the reader with a detailed examination of Hattusili's policies and military strategies. Alongside these historical accounts, Bryce weaves in imaginative reconstructions of pivotal moments in the ruler's life, giving you a complete picture of Hattusili's remarkable military skills and impressive political prowess.