Hittite king Hattusilis concludes a peace treaty…

Chinese texts of the early thirteenth century BCE record quadrants of the moon.

The Damascus region, as well as the rest of Syria, becomes a battleground circa 1260 BCE, between the Hittites from the north and the Egyptians from the south, ending with a signed treaty between Hattusili and Ramesses III where the former hands over control of the Damascus area to Egypt in 1259 BCE.

An archive of over two hundred letters, found in the royal palace at Hattusa, show that Hattusili exchanged with letters with numerous Near Eastern kings including Ramesses II of Egypt.

They are an important primary source for this period.

Hattusili and the Egyptian pharaoh seal a written peace treaty based upon Hittite models which, due to Egyptian monumental copies of it, has become the earliest well known treaty in history, establishing a long-lasting peace between the two rival empires.

Ramesses marries Hattusili's daughter, known the by the Egyptian name of Maathorneferure.

Years later, he will marry another Hittite princess.

Hittite king Mursili II had appointed his fourth and last son, Hattusili, as priest of Sausga of Samuha, and Hattusili will remain loyal to the "Ishtar of Samuha" to the end of his days.

His older brother Muwatalli II had moved his seat in Tarhuntassa and appointed him governor of Hattusa.

Hattusili had been the commander of Hittite forces that defeated the Egyptian campaign into Syria in the famous 1274 BCE Battle of Kadesh.

As governor, Hattusili has also reconquered Nerik and become the High Priest of its storm god.

Hattusili names his eldest son and crown prince "Nerikkaili" in honor of this achievement.

His nephew, Mursili III (or Urhi-Teshub) had moved the capitol back to Hattusa, rendering Hattusili's governorship redundant.

Mursili had then deposed him from Nerik, triggering a civil war.

Hattusili defeats and exiles his nephew, renames Urhi-Teshup's sibling Ulmi-Teshup "Kurunta" (or: marries her off to Kurunta), and appoints Kurunta over Tarhuntassa in his place.

After this, Hattusili elevates a junior son, Tudhaliya IV, as crown prince instead.

The fourth and last son of Mursili II ascends the Hittite throne in 1267 as Hattusili III.

An archive of over 200 letters have been found from the royal palace at Hattusa which show that Hattusili exchanged letters with numerous Near Eastern kings including the Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses II.

Hattusili and Ramesses seal a written peace treaty based upon Hittite models which, due to Egyptian monumental copies of it, has become the earliest well known treaty in history, establishing a long-lasting peace between the two rival empires.

The first known diplomatic agreement from the Near East and the oldest written treaty that still survives today (though not the oldest known treaty), it was recorded both in Egypt, inscribed on the walls of temples in hieroglyphics, and in the former Hittite empire, now in Turkey, where it was preserved on baked clay tablets.

The treaty is thought to have been negotiated by intermediaries without the two monarchs ever meeting in person.

Both sides have common interests in making peace; Egypt faces a growing threat from the "Sea Peoples", while the Hittites are concerned about the rising power of Assyria to the east.

Ratified in the twenty-first year of Ramesses II's reign (1258 BCE) the treaty will continue in force until the Hittite Empire collapses eighty years later.

Ramesses marries Hattusili's daughter, known by the Egyptian name of Maathorneferure.

Years later he will marry another Hittite princess.

Muwatalli's son, Urhi-Teshub, takes the throne and rules as king for seven years as Mursili III before being ousted by his uncle, Hattusili III after a brief civil war.

In response to increasing Assyrian encroachments along the frontier, he concludes a peace and alliance with Ramesses II, presenting his daughter's hand in marriage to the Pharaoh.

The "Treaty of Kadesh", one of the oldest completely surviving treaties in history, fixes their mutual boundaries in Canaan, and is signed in the twenty-first year of Ramesses (about 1258 BCE).

Terms of this treaty include the marriage of one of the Hittite princesses to the Pharaoh Ramesses.

Hattusili III's son, Tudhaliya IV, is the last strong Hittite king able to keep the Assyrians out of Syria and even temporarily annex the island of Cyprus.

Eighteenth-dynasty Egypt, now at its most powerful, maintains extensive diplomatic contacts with other Near Eastern states, especially Mitanni and Babylonia.

King Shattuara of Mitanni, a son or nephew of Wasahatta, rebels against the Assyrian yoke with the help of the Hittites and the nomadic Ahlamu around 1250 BCE in the reign of Shalmaneser I (1270s-1240s).

His army is well prepared; they have occupied all the mountain passes and water holes, so that the Assyrian army suffers from thirst during their advance.

Nevertheless, Shalmaneser wins a crushing victory.

He claims to have slain fourteen thousand four hundred men; the rest are blinded and carried away.

His inscriptions mention the conquest of nine fortified temples; one hundred and eighty Hurrian cities are "turned into rubble mounds", and Shalmaneser "…slaughtered like sheep the armies of the Hittites and the Ahlamu his allies…".

The cities from Taidu to Irridu are captured, as well as all of Mount Kashiar to Eluhat and the fortresses of Sudu and Harranu to Carchemish on the Euphrates.

Another inscription mentions the construction of a temple to Adad in Kahat, a city of Mitanni that must have been occupied as well.

A part of the population is deported and serves as cheap labor.

Administrative documents mention barley allotted to "uprooted men", deportees from Mitanni.

For example, the governor of the city Nahur, Meli-Sah receives barley to be distributed to deported persons from Shuduhu "as seed, food for their oxen and for themselves".

The Assyrians build a line of frontier fortifications against the Hittites on the Balikh River.

Mitanni is now ruled by the Assyrian grand-vizier Ili-ippada, a member of the Royal family, who takes the title of king (sharru) of Hanilgalbat.

He resides in the newly built Assyrian administrative center at Tell Sabi Abyad, governed by the Assyrian steward Tammitte.

Assyrians maintain not only military and political control, but seem to have dominated trade as well, as no Hurrian names appear in private records of Shalmaneser's time.

Ramesses claimed a great victory at Kadesh but the result was probably indecisive, and sixteen years later the Hittites under Hattusilis III conclude with the Egyptians a peace treaty, mutual defense pact, and dynastic marriage.

One of the best-preserved ziggurats, and one of the few existent ziggurats outside of Mesopotamia, is Chogha Zanbil in western Iran, built about 1250 BCE by the Elamite king Untash-Napirisha, mainly to honor the great god Inshushinak.