ON THE ROLE OF BORDER REGIONS IN THE ADMINISTRATION SYSTEM OF THE HITTITES

Abstract

The represented work discusses the administration system of one of the state institutions of the Hitiiti Empire  - namely, the system of governing  of the border regions and the importance of the regions for the State itself. Along the whole border line of the Hittite Empire, there were established the so called “border regions;” there are no special terminology found in the Hittite texts denoting such regions. Such border regions or border settlements are denoted in the Hittite texts under their own  names. The fact that the settlements belonged to the border regions is known from the old texts in which the settlements (towns) of the whole region are denoted according the names or the official status of their governors. Establishing border regions began from the period known as “Old Kingdom” but they are represented in all their fully developed forms in the period of the New Kingdom. The Hittiti Kingdom (known also as Hatti Kingdom) took the image of the empire in the sense of its governing system. In the XIV-XIII centuries BC, the Hittite Kingdom became one of the strongest States in the world of those times. Unlike Egypt and Mesopotamia, where the main role in developing of the statehood belonged to the landownership, based on the irrigation systems, the main role in establishing the Hittiti Kingdom was associated with the outer factors, due to which, the mighty of the state depended on the military success. The Hittite (Hatti) Empire, alongside with the expansionistic policies, often was impelled to struggle against their enemies. Their territories and especially the border regions were under the military threat from their neighbors. Due to such conditions, those territories were often attacked and destroyed by the foreign forces. In such circumstances defending the military borders were especially important, necessary and correspondingly, the special attention was paid to the defense of the borders. Each such region included the territories near the border lines which supposedly could coincide with the historically established administrative unit borders. In the border line regions, the basic duty of the governors of such regions, appointed by the King’s power -  B[L MADGALTI - along with their civil duties, were also to defend and strengthen the state borders. Their general duties can be compared with the markgraphs of the middle centuries Europe and the Georgian noblemen called Eristavi, living at the border lines, in the period of the Georgian united monarchy, though the forms of the governing of the mentioned regions were radically different.

Keywords: Assyriology, B[L MADGALTI, border region, Hittite kingdom, markgraph, border, Noble Eristavi