hatti

Hatti is the name used in ancient Near Eastern sources for the central Anatolian plateau and the core homeland of the historical Hittite state. The term Ḫatti appears in cuneiform inscriptions to designate the land of the Hatti, as well as the broader heartland from which the Hittites governed their empire. The region corresponds roughly to the central and northern Anatolian highlands near the modern Turkish plateau.

Geographically, Hatti centered on the area around Hattusa, the Hittite capital located near today’s Boğazkale. The area was originally inhabited by the Hattians, a pre-Indo-European population. In the second millennium BCE, an Indo-European-speaking group known as the Hittites settled the region and formed a unified state that became one of the major powers of the Bronze Age. The rulers referred to themselves as part of the Nesili, and their kingdom expanded to exert influence over eastern Anatolia and northern Syria at various times.

The Hittite Empire rose to prominence in the 14th century BCE, achieving its peak under kings such as Suppiluliuma I and Muwatalli II. The state combined local Hattian and Hurrian elements with Hittite administration and law. After a period of decline in the late 13th and 12th centuries BCE, the empire collapsed around 1180 BCE, contributing to the broader Bronze Age upheavals. The geographic term Hatti continued to be used in scholarship to denote the core Anatolian homeland of the Hittite state, even as political power dissolved.

In language and culture, Hatti reflects the transition from the earlier Hattian linguistic layer to the Hittite (an early Indo-European language) administrative and literary traditions. The legacy of Hatti, as a concept of a central Anatolian homeland, remains central to studies of the Hittite civilization and Bronze Age Anatolia.