Page 199 - Four Thousand Years Ago by Geoffrey Bibby

160 The ^gosies [1650-1580 b.c.]

but far to the south in the coastal lands. Some said that their peo­
ple had stretched to the frontiers of Egypt (and certainly there
was a tradition current in far-off Canaan that Abraham himself,
the forefather of the sons of Israel and of Ishmael, had bought
land there from the men of the Hatti when he first came to
Canaan two hundred fifty years ago). Their legends told how
they had fought against Naram-Sin of Akkad during the days, six
hundred and more years ago, when the Mesopotamian empire of
Sargon had stretched to the Mediterranean.
But now the glory of the Hatti was departed, and another
king of another race had conquered their ancient capital.
The kings of Kussara, to the south of Hattusas beyond
the Halys, were of the new race, with the new language, which
had pushed into Asia Minor a century ago, more or less, from
the northwest. Tribal chieftains of the newcomers, each with his
small striking force of horse chariots and tomahawk-armed in­
fantry, had captured many of the old Asianic cities and estab­
lished themselves as rulers of the farming communities in the
valleys around the cities.
It was a rich territory they had conquered. For though the
upland plateau of Asia Minor was bleak and treeless, covered
deep in snow every winter and parched every rainless summer,
the valleys were deep and sheltered and fertile. Here grew millet
for bread, and barley for beer, and here grew the vines which
provided a different, and some thought a better, intoxicating
drink. Here was ample grazing for sheep and cattle, and for the
newcomers, the horses. And in the mountains there was an
abundance of metal, silver and lead, and a bare sufficiency of cop­
per. Silver was so abundant that it was used as a means of pay­
ment even for small items that elsewhere in the world would
be paid for in barley. It was carried in rings and ingots and
weighed out to buy the necessities and luxuries of life. The people
of Anatolia were world-famous smiths, forging ornaments and
tools and weapons of the metals which their mines produced.
Their bronze was well wrought and hard (though they had to im­
port the tin to alloy with the copper), and some among the
smiths even had the secret of smelting a grey-black metal out of
a red ore. But iron needed a very hot furnace, and the finished