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Welcome to the history extra

podcast fascinating Welcome to the History Extra Podcast, Fascinating Historical Conversations from the

makers of BBC History magazine. The Hittites were one of the most powerful civilizations in the near east,

building a vast empire that encompassed much of modern day Turkey.

But aside from a few vague references in the ancient texts, proof of their

existence wasn't established until the early 20th century. When the discovery of more than

10,000 clay tablets lay bare the story of the Hittite

kingdom and its rulers.

In this episode, Professor Mark Weden talks to John Borkham about the rise and fall of this elusive society.

And what else we can glean about them from the surviving physical evidence?

So firstly, Mark, a warm welcome to the History Extra podcast today. Thank you very much.

So as ever with all of these episodes we've got a ton of questions to get through but for the benefit

of listeners who have never heard of the Hittites before,

I thought it would be really interesting and helpful if you could kick things off with a short summary.

Who were the Hittites and where in the world did they live?

Sure. Well, the people we call the Hittites, they didn't call themselves that.

They lived in what's now central Turkey, so quite a mountainous area, Anatolia it's referred to as as well, and they

ruled a state from their capital city which was called Hatusa.

...