Caesar Miniatures H008 Hittite Warriors (The Battle of Qadesz c.1300 BC)

The Hittites are a people of Indo-European origin, who around the 17th century BC created a vast and very strong state in, inter alia, today's Turkey, Syria and Lebanon. The capital of this empire at that time was Hattusas in Anatolia. The basis of the power of the Hittite state were its armed forces, which allowed their state to make extensive conquests in the Middle East. The Hittite army was composed of two main elements: war chariots and infantry. According to some German researchers, infantry could account for up to 90% of the total armed forces of the Hittite empire. Basing primarily on archaeological sources, it can be assumed that the Hittite infantry was armed primarily with swords made of bronze, spears, but also bows and arrows. It can be assumed that the archer units were a separate military formation of foot troops, but this is only a hypothesis. Some iconographic sources also show soldiers armed with battle axes, but it is assumed that in the Hittite army it was a ceremonial weapon, rather than used on the battlefield. It is worth adding that the inscriptions of the kings of the "land of Hatti" provide information about a military unit that could be described as the royal guard. Its soldiers were armed primarily with spears, and used swords as a side weapon.