Forgotten Victims. Remarks on Hittite Behavior towards Prisoners in the Empire’s Northern Central Frontier Zone

Abstract

During the second half of the II millennium B.C., the military expansion developed by the Hittites involved the taking of captives, both warriors and civil population. Documents from Hittite archives in a number of frontier territories (such as the site at Maşat Höyük, Hittite Tapikka) reveal a considerable amount of information on the techniques deployed in the treatment of these captives (e.g., in the northern regions of Anatolia). One such custom consists in the blinding of these captives, which is a welldocumented practice in other cultures at different periods all across the Ancient Near Eastern region.