apital was at
Boghaz-Koei, the site of Pteria, which was destroyed, according to the
Greeks, by Croesus, the last King of Lydia, in the sixth century B.C.
It was strongly situated in an excellent pastoral district on the
high, breezy plateau of Cappadocia, surrounded by high mountains, and
approached through narrow river gorges, which in winter were blocked
with snow.

Hittite civilization was of great antiquity. Excavations which have
been conducted at an undisturbed artificial mound at Sakje-Geuzi have
revealed evidences of a continuous culture which began to flourish
before 3000 B.C.[282] In one of the lower layers occurred that
particular type of Neolithic yellow-painted pottery, with black
geometric designs, which resembles other specimens of painted fabrics
found in Turkestan by the Pumpelly expedition; in Susa, the capital of
Elam, and its vicinity, by De Morgan; in the Balkan peninsula by
Schliemann; in a First Dynasty tomb at Abydos in Egypt by Petrie; and
in the late Neolithic and early Bronze Age (Minoan) strata of Crete by
Evans. It may be that these interesting relics were connected with the
prehistoric drift westward of the broad-headed pastoral peoples who
ultimately formed the Hittite military aristocracy.

According to Professor Elliot Smith, broad-headed aliens from Asia
Minor first reached Egypt at the dawn of history. There they blended
with the indigenous tribes of the Mediterranean or Brown Race. A
mesocephalic skull then became common. It is referred to as the Giza
type, and has been traced by Professor Elliot Smith from Egypt to the
Punjab, but not farther into India.[283]

During the early dynasties this skull with alien traits was confined
chiefly to the Delta region and the vicinity of Memphis, the city of
the pyramid builders. It is not improbable that the Memphite god Ptah
may have been introduced into Egypt by the invading broad heads. This
deity is a world artisan like Indra, and is similarly associated with
dwarfish artisans; he hammers out the copper sky, and therefore links
with the various thunder gods--Tarku, Teshup, Adad, Ramman, &c, of the
Asian mountaineers. Thunderstorms were of too rare occurrence in Egypt
to be connected with the food supply, which has always depended on the
river Nile. Ptah's purely Egyptian characteristics appear to have been
acquired after fusion with Osiris-Seb, the Nilotic gods of inundation,
earth, and vegetation. The ancient god Set (Sutekh), who becam