The Hittite kingdom to the Mycenean

The Mycenaean, named after a palace is the most ancient attested form of the Greek language, spoken on the Greek mainland and on Crete in the 16th to 11th centuries BC, before the Dorian invasion. The Mycenaean period at the eve of the so-called Greek Dark Ages. Statue of Athena in Delphi. Is it possible that the Athena of the greek classic world has been in mycenaean times the Atanapotnia of the tablets in Linear B. Only the system of notation of numbers (decimal) is known,and is similar to that one of the Linear B writing and the language of Linear A would have many similarities with Hurrian, attesting on this way the use in Crete, in Greece and also in the Middle East. The Mycenaean language is preserved in Linear B writing, which consists of about 200 syllabic signs and logograms. Since Linear B was derived from Linear A, the script of an undeciphered Minoan language probably unrelated to Greek, it does not reflect fully the phonetics of Mycenaean. A possible relationship with Minoan (Eteocretan) to Etruscan, written in the Linear A script. But the Mycenaean form of Greek preserves a number of archaic features of its Indo-European language heritage.

The earliest known Hittite king, Pithana, was based at Kussara. Anitta in the 18th century B.C. conquered Nesa, where the Hittite kings had their capital for about a century until Labarna II conquered Hattusa and took the throne name of Hattusili "man of Hattusa". 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. The earliest known Hittite king, Pithana, was based at Kussara. Anitta in the 18th century B.C. conquered Nesa, where the Hittite kings had their capital for about a century until Labarna II conquered Hattusa and took the throne name of Hattusili "man of Hattusa". The Hittite kingdom is conventionally divided into three periods, the Old Hittite Kingdom (ca. 1750–1500 BC), the Middle Hittite Kingdom (ca. 1500–1430 BC) and the New Hittite Kingdom (the Hittite Empire proper, ca. 1430–1180 BC).

The Mycenaean period flourished between the arrival of the proto-Greeks in the Aegean around 1600 B.C. and the collapse of their Bronze-Age civilization around 1100 BC. The collapse is commonly attributed to the Dorian invasion, although some archaeologists and historians doubt that any such invasion took place. The major Mycenaean city-sites were Mycenae and Tiryns in the Argolid, Pylos in Messenia, Athens in Attica, Thebes and Orchomenos in Boeotia, and Iolkos in Thessaly. In Crete, Mycenaeans occupied the ruins of Knossos. Mycenaean civilization was dominated by a warrior aristocracy. Around 1400 BC, the Mycenaeans extended their control to Crete, center of the Minoan civilization, and adopted a form of the Minoan script called Linear A to write their early form of Greek.

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. The Hittite language was called by them "Nesili", and is recorded fragmentarily from about the 19th century B.C. (in the Kultepe texts, see Ishara). It remained in use until about 1100 BC. "Hittites" is an exonym, taken from the Hebrew Bible Heth who is a son of Canaan, son of Ham. The exodus and the conquest of Canaan was due to a period conjectured to start sometime after 1800 B.C. and end sometime before 1000 BC. The kings of the Hittites are mentioned in two smilar passages, together with Egypt and the kings of Syria, as senders of lavish tribute to Solomon.

The Hittites were also famous for their skill in building and using chariots. The corpus of the Hebrew Bible was probably compiled in its near-final form between the 7th and 5th centuries BC, during or after the Babylonian exile, as related in the Book of Ezra, with a further revision in the Masoretic text occurring some time between ca. 200 B.C. and 100 AD, as inferred from textual analysis of the Septuagint, Dead Sea Scrolls, and other sources. The current Hebrew script was adopted at this time, replacing the very different Israelite script. This use of letters as numbers is used in Kabbalah in a practice known as gematria.

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