Note 131 — III MONUMENTS OF THE HITTITES

(a) A Hittite invasion preceded the overthrow of the First Babylonian Dynasty. The date in the eighteenth century B.C. assigned by King (Chronicles, etc., i. p. 137) is accepted by Meyer, but thought by Sayce and others to be too late. (b) The Egyptian annals, diplomatic letters, mural decorations, etc., make frequent mention of the Kheta from the 33rd year of Thothmes III. (about B.C. 1471) until the time of Rameses III., early in the twelfth century B.C. There is an early appearance of the group of signs reading ‘Kheta’ on a stela of the Twelfth Dynasty (Louvre, CI.); some philologists are disposed to regard the group in this instance as forming part of a longer word—a unique instance which implies at any rate familiarity with the word Kheta in the Twelfth Dynasty. It is more probable, Mr. Griffith tells us, that the group is really to be translated ‘Kheta’ though written (under circumstances that can be explained philologically) with a false determinative. The Babylonian evidence now prepares us for this early appearance of the name. (c) In the Assyrian records the earliest reference to the Hatti seems to be in the reign of Shalmaneser I., about 1320 B.C., but the name is not found recurring until the time of Tiglath Pileser I., about 1120 B.C.: Sargon (B.C. 721-704) seems finally to have subjected and disunited their principalities in N. Syria.