John Oldman Profile picture
Sep 12, 2021 7 tweets 3 min read Read on X
Hattusa was the capital of Hittites in the Bronze Age.

Discovered in 1834-35, it's ruins lie in the Boğazköy region of central Turkey.

Image of Lion gate at Hattusa.
At its peak, the city covered 1.8 sq km, surrounded by massive walls.

The city had a population of at least 40-50,000 people & inside the city there was the imperial residences, temples, people's quarters, etc.
At the centre of Hittite life was their religion.

The Hittites have been called ' People of a Thousand Gods', as they assimilated Gods of conquered people into their pantheon.

The most famous is the 'Storm God', who perhaps is the precursor to Zeus and Jupiter.
One of the great finds at Hattusa are the cuneiform clay tablets, popularly known as the 'Bogazköy Archive'.

The tablets contain information regarding diplomacy, contracts, correspondence, and the literature of the region.
The most important find among these tablets is the peace treaty between Hittites and the Egyptians, after the Battle of Kadesh in 1275 BCE.

The treaty signed in the year 1259 BCE, is the first recorded diplomatic treaty between two superpowers of the mediterranean.
A copy of this treaty is displayed prominently on the walls of UNO, NYC.
Hattusa was perhaps burnt down in the mayhem created in the aftermath of the Bronze Age collapse in c. 1200 BCE.

In 1986, the site was declared as UNESCO World Heritage Site.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with John Oldman

John Oldman Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @PrasunNagar

Mar 13
Holi Celebrations at Lahore Darbar

The following thread will give a vivid account of the Holi festivities which took place at Lahore Darbar during the tenure of Maharaja Ranjit Singh.

This account is taken from travellers, diplomats, court-chroniclers & from other sources.

🧵 Image
Maharaja Ranjit Singh used to celebrate Holi with great pomp & grandeur.

Huge quantities of coloured powder & syringes made of gold and silver were collected. Wine and gulal were given to nobles, generals & chiefs.

The Maharaja spent 1 lakh Rs. every year on Holi celebrations.
On each Holi, the daroga of Shalimar gardens at Lahore, used to send flower to twigs to the Maharja, who then gave it to his chiefs with sweets.

The Maharaja held a grand darbar on the occasion & received nazrana. He threw gulal on his guests & sprinkled rose water on them.
Read 14 tweets
Feb 27
#Chandragupta

1/5

The expansion of Mauryan empire towards south has been credited to two kings of the dynasty; Chandragupta or Bindusara.

Ashoka is ruled out because he only conquered Kalinga as per his own admission in RE-XIII, RE Kalsi, etc.

Let's look at Bindusara first.++ Image
2/5

Tārnātha, states that:

"Chanakya accomplished the destruction of the nobles & kings of 16 towns and made Bindusara master of all territory between the eastern and western sea”.

Apart from this, his title 'Amitraghata' = slayer of foes, indicates some forms of conquests. ++ Image
3/5

However, there is rather discouraging evidence against Bindusara's capacity as a conqueror due to following reasons:

a) He was a man of easy going nature & interests mainly in philosophy, wines & figs;

b) There were frequent rebellions in his empire, like Taxila (twice) ++
Read 5 tweets
Feb 9
Daily Routine of Maharaja Ranjit Singh

The thread details the daily routine of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, whose empire stretched from Peshawar to Satluj in the 19th century.

Parts of the thread have taken from accounts of soldiers & diplomats, who spent time with the Maharaja.

🧵 Image
W.G. Osborne- British Military Secretary, spent a month with the Maharaja in 1838 at Dinanagar in Gurdaspur district & noted the routine of the Maharaja.

The Maharaja woke up at 4.30 am during summers & 6 am in winters.

He would start the day with a "brisk gallop at 5 am". ++
On inquiring whether they had breakfast or not, and the reply being in negative, he ordered breakfast to be served at the spot.

The breakfast consisted of rice, curry, sweetmeats, fat cakes stuffed with spices, mango jam and milk. Image
Read 14 tweets
Jan 5
Moksha: A Charity Event in the Times of Harshavardhan.

The following thread would look at an event named 'Moksha', held every 5 years at Prayaga, under Harsha of Kannauj.

The details of the event have been taken from the writings of Xuanzang, who saw this event in c.639 AD.

🧵 Image
Harsha fixed the place of this event at Prayaga (Prayagraj), at the confluence of Ganga and Yamuna, where according to the traditions "it is more advantageous to give one mite in charity, than a thousand in other places." Image
This 'Arena of Charity’ was the great sandy plain, about 8 kms on the west of confluence, where even to this day is held the most important & numerously attended Hindu religious congregation of India, called the 'Mahakumbh.' Image
Read 13 tweets
Jan 1
#GuptaEra

1/5

The overall general administration under the Imperial Guptas is described as following:

1) Gupta emperors nominated their successors, Chandragupta -I nominated Samudragupta before his council.

2) Titles of emperors' were 'Maharajadhiraja', 'Prithvipala' etc + Image
2/5

3) Local kings were known as ' Mahasamanta', 'Nripati' or 'Maharaja'.

The king was assisted by a Chief Minister called 'Sachiva', who is described as a third eye of the king.

4) An imp officer of the Palace Staff was Superintendent of Royal Kitchen called ‘Khadyapakika’ + Image
3/5

5) The territory of the empire is called ‘ rajya’, ‘rashtra’, ‘desa’ or ‘mandala’.

6) The Empire was divided into provinces. A Province is called a ‘Bhukti’ like ‘Pundravardhana-Bhukti’, i.e Bengal.

7) A province is also called a ‘pradesa’ such as ‘Airikina – pradesa’. + Image
Read 5 tweets
Dec 3, 2024
Funeral Customs of India as observed by Xuanzang

In 7th century, a great Buddhist pilgrim and scholar from China, Xuanzang came to India.

The following thread would give a glimpse of what Xuanzang saw w.r.t funerary customs followed by the Indians.

Thread 🧵 Image
1) When a person died, his family members used to raise lamentable cries and weep.

The family members loosened their hair, and beat their chests repeatedly ( both men & women).

There was no fixed dress for mourning, neither any fixed hour. Image
2) Xuanzang mentions three ways of paying last tributes to the dead:

a) Via Cremation;

b) Via water, the body was immersed into a river...The way followed by ascetics;

c) Via desertion - the body was thrown into a forest, & was devoured by wild beasts. Image
Read 10 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

:(