Hittites

Hittites, Indo-European people of the Middle East in the 2nd millennium B.C. Of unknown origin, they appear to have first settled in southern Turkey (c.1900 B.C.); they conquered central Turkey and became a dominant power. The downfall of the Hittite empire came about 1200 B.C. when it was overrun and fragmented by a vast migration of uncertain origin, called by the Egyptians “peoples of the sea.”