Hatti and Hurrian civilization
Hatti Civilization (2500-2000 B.C.)
The people known as Hattis are amongst the oldest settlers in Anatolian history. They ruled central Anatolia for about 500 years. Small city kingdoms were their favorite type of settlement units. They spoke a totally different language than the other influential Anatolian civilizations. There are signs of Mesopotamian influence on Hatti art and culture.
The main cities Mahmatlar, Horoztepe, Alacahoyuk and Hattus are inside the Kizilirmak (Red River, a large river in central Anatolia) bend.
They believed in a number of gods representing various acts of nature in the form of animals. Some statues of their most popular gods are on exhibition in some major museums of Turkey.
Hatti and the Hittite Principalities Period (2000-1750 B.C.)
By the end of the 3rd millennium B.C. a large scale migration took place mainly from North Europe to the mild weathered south. One of the strong elements of the Indo-European people, Hittites gravitated to Anatolia through Caucasia while Hatti principalities were ruling the land.
These newcomers did not invade the land suddenly. They settled along side the existing people and set their own settlement units in time. Only after a long time, as a lot of Hittite principalities emerged, they claimed the rule of the land, Anatolia. They never destroyed the existing people and their cities. But instead, they mixed with the Hattis and other people of Anatolia. They even shared their gods, goddesses, art, culture and a large amount of words from Hatti language.
By 1750 B.C. Hittites were the only rulers of Anatolia.
Hurri Civilization
The Hurri civilization was established toward the end of the 3rd millennium BC around eastern Anatolia and ruled by the Mitanni kingdom. The king had an Indian descendency. The Hurrians, descended from the mountains south of the Caspian Sea, occupied the land between the Hittites and Assyria, east of the Tigris River and in the Zagros mountain region. From there, they spread into the areas of northern Mesopotamia and Syria as well, even to the Mediterranean coast. All of these areas were known as the "Land of the Hurri". With their huge spread, the Hurrians became a rival and a threat to both Babylon and Egypt.
In the late 15th century B.C. the Hittite Empire's beginning is marked by an influx of Hurrian names into the royal family. All of the Hurrian lands between the Iranian mountains, Syria and Anatolia was united under the control of a military aristocracy called Mitanni. They had an important role in the history and culture of the Middle East during the 2nd millennium BC.
In the middle of the 14th century, the Hittite Empire lead by Suppiluliumas I defeated Mitanni and Assyria declared its independence. But the Hurrian ethnic and cultural presence in Syria and the Cilicia (ancient Kizzuwadna) strongly influenced the Hittites; Hittite queens had Hurrian names and Hurrian mythology was used in Hittite literature, many of the Hittite gods are suspected to have Hurrian origin.
The general idea is that this non-Semitic and also non-Indo-European ethnic group had come from the Armenian mountains. Their most important centers were Tell Feheriye, Tell Brak, Shagar, Nuzi (or Nuzu), Urkesh (or Urkish) and Bazar.
The Hurri language was a totally separate entity from the others. The culture and the language of Hurri civilization was used or at least utilized extensively by Urartus and Hittites during the following centuries. Hurrian texts were found in Urkish (Mardin area, 2300 BC), in Mari (around middle Euphrates, 1700 BC), in Amarna (Egypt, 1400 BC), in Hattusha (Bogazkoy, 1700-1200 BC), and in Ugarit (northern Syrian coast, 1300 BC). Today the Soviet scholars believe that the Eastern Caucasian languages are an offshoot of the Hurrian-Urartian group.