Celestial Hittites

According to the Bible in (Joshua 1:4) the land of the Hittites is said to extend "from the wilderness and this Lebanon", from "the Euphrates unto the great sea". In (Judges 1:18) the traitor from Bethel who led the Hebrews into the city is said to have gone to live among the Hittites, where, he built a city called Luz. In (Genesis 23) Abraham negotiates with the Hittites to purchase a burial plot for his wife, Sarah.

Regular celestial events assumed remarkable significance for the cultic rituals of the Hittite civilization (c. 1600-1180 B.C.) in central Asia Minor. Where numerous texts found at the capital Hattu?a relate to solar deities and celestial divination reminiscent of Old Babylonian astronomical and astrological practices.

The rock sanctuary of Yazilikaya, which, was considered one of the holiest places in the Hittite Kingdom, had a calendrical function. It contains more than 90 rock-cut reliefs, dating to the second half of the thirteenth century B.C., of deities, humans, animals and mythical figures.

The reliefs in (Chamber A) are arranged in groups to mark the days, synodic months and solar years. Using this system, the Hittite priests were able to determine when additional months were required to keep lunar and solar years aligned. The astronomical and astrological interpretation of Yazilikaya serves as a point of departure for a brief re-examination of celestial aspects in Hittite religion.

The Hittite sun Goddess, is the principal deity and patron of the Hittite Empire and monarchy. Her consort, the weather God Taru, was second to Arinnitti in importance, indicating that she probably originated in matriarchal times.

The Hittites had Gods for mountains, forests and animals. Kings became Gods upon death, and foreign Gods - especially Babylonian deities - were absorbed into the pantheon. By merging the Gods of subjugated people with the Hittites own, the rulers were able to control those populations.

Although the Hittites apparently believed in an afterlife, at least for Kings and Queens, there is no evidence that prayers or sacrifices were made in order to obtain life after death or a better quality of existence in that afterlife.

The Bronze Age civilization of Central Anatolia (Turkey), which, we today call Hittites, completely disappeared sometime around 1200 B.C. We still do not know exactly what happened, though there is no lack of modern theories.

Who are the modern day descendants of the Hittites? One might ask. In classical times, ethnic Hittite dynasties survived in small Kingdoms scattered around the Levant region along the eastern Mediterranean shores, roughly corresponding to modern-day Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey and certain adjacent areas. Lacking a unifying continuity of sort, present family remnants excepted, descendants scattered and ultimately merged into modern populations of the Levant and Mesopotamia...

Food for thought!