The Much-Fabled End of the Hittite Empire. Tracing the History of a Crucial Topic

The nature, circumstances and sequence of the events associated with the end of the Hittite Empire are still little known. Since the second half of the nineteenth century, there has been much speculation among historians about what caused the end of the Hittite Empire, with alternating cycles of interpretation. This article offers a general overview on this topic, showing how the end of the Hittite Empire has been approached by archaeologists, philologists and historians, and introduce some of the theories, issues and problems that have emerged over time, with some remarkable examples of overlap and feedback.