= Klinger J., Hittite Economics, in: HHE 605-647. [Ch. 12; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110661781-013. Abstract: Following a brief overview of general theoretical concepts of economic
history from different traditions and their reception in Hittitology, such as the interpretation
of Hittite society as a feudal state based primarily on the work of I.
Diakonoff, the chapter addresses a variety of aspects that are of importance in
the interpretation of the Hittite economy in general and in its aspects. An examination
of the general socio-political structure and the specifics of natural conditions
of the Hittite heartland as well as the reconstruction of the paleoclimatic
conditions, including an overview of natural resources such as water, arable
land, the availability of fauna and flora and food stuffs of economic significance
as well as other natural resources, serves as a point of departure.
Drawing upon information from the so-called land donation tablets as well
as other sources, the household is identified as the basic unit of Hittite agropastoral
economic society, and exemplary quantitative calculations are used in an
attempt at reconstructing its organisation and relative productivity. The evidence
of extensive, decentralised storage facilities is understood as an important part
of the organisation and administration of economic resources at the hands of the
state and used to illustrate the involvement of institutions such as palace and
temple in economic activity.
This is supplemented by an outline of the varied sources of revenue that underpinned
and funded the Hittite state, and that, although tangible only with difficulty,
included trade on a regional as well as supra-regional level, next to the
levy of taxes and services, tributes raised by the Hittite kingship or booty taken
during the course of military campaigns.] Neue Abfrage | New Search
