Ever have the problem where you've been linking to something for ages, and only after several nodes realize the node doesn't exist?
General name for a later bronze age civilization of indo-european people, thriving roughly from 1700-1200 B.C. in Anatolia. As a source of metals and other raw materials, they developed a lucrative trade with Assyria; many texts mention the black donkey caravans of Mesopotamia travelling north to trade carpets, cloth, cedar, turquoise, and other things for more useful military goods.
Their language is indo-european (in fact, it is the oldest written/attested indo-european language, and therefore loved by linguists), but is written using the cuneiform script developed by the Sumerians, though in a much simpler form.
They are mentioned several times by cultures other than the Assyrian. The Bible mentions a certain Uriah the Hittite, and Mycenaean texts seem to indicate a certain amount of trade. A popular theory, though not definitive, holds that the Iliad of Homer is a vague memory of Greek piracy against the much wealthier Hittite cities. There was definitely some contact; the Greek word for bright blue, describing lapis lazuli from the Orient, is a Hittite derivative.
There is still very much unkown about them; obviously, it's not a very popular field (I think there are only two or three schools in America which teach the language, the University of Chicago and Harvard, possibly also Berkeley). Anyone want to join a field where nobody knows anything?