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Loading... Warriors of Anatolia: A Concise History of the Hittitesby Trevor Bryce
   Non-Fiction (16) No current Talk conversations about this book.   ) bookomaniac | Nov 6, 2023 |  The author is very familiar with Hittite history and has written extensively on the subject. This work is designed for the layman to get an idea of what the Hittites are all about. The author describes the rediscovery of the Hittites. He explores early Hittite history. As he begins to explore the age of the Hittite Empire, he also will discuss gender, marriage, family, the court, Hattusa itself, foreign policy, etc. The author ends abruptly just as the historical data for the Hittites ends abruptly. Very useful for understanding. (  ) deusvitae | Apr 29, 2023 |
Trevor Bryce has done more to present the history of the Hittites than any scholar. His present book is an effort to present a breezably readable version to the interested public. The I.B. Tauris editor … "said that he'd like a book that offers to students and general readers more than just core information on Hittite history and civilisation … ‘something more daring, less formulaic’ … something to make the book's readers think ‘in novel and exciting and unexpected ways about the topics addressed.’" The author succeeds. He says that his book is "a bit unconventional and quirky" but also "a reliable introduction to Hittite history and civilization" and "proposes a number of new ideas and approaches to longstanding problems."(p.3) So we are treated to imagined descriptions of an event or a scene, always historically informed, but of course with the details speculative. Ofttimes he will present a controversial theory and end with "what do you think?" But this is only a small part of the book. Most is an informed narration description. There is little new, other than the informed speculation, that cannot be found in Bryce's previous and more expensive books: The Kingdom of the Hittites (2nd ed. 2005) and Life and Society in the Hittite World (2002). Another good one volume study of Hittite history is Billie Jean Collins, The Hittites and Their World (2007). All of these update the standard O.R. Gurney, The Hittites (1952, 1981).
"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"-- No library descriptions found. |
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 Google Books — Loading...GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)939.3History & geography History of ancient world (to ca. 499) Other parts of ancient world Eastern Asia MinorLC ClassificationRatingAverage: (3.8)
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