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I've been thinking on how to keep the Hittites as a distinct, continuous cultural entity (sometimes political as well) for all the centuries necessary for them to be essentially indeleble from our standpoint (barring Byzantine-style mass displacements or moder day genocide). When I say "culture", by the way, I mean Luwian.

And I'm not saying, "like the Kurds", because the Kurds may be Hurrian or Gutian in origin, but they carry none of that in their traditions or cultural ethos. The Greeks are much more conscious of their past from Mycaenans to Classical Greeks to Byzantines, even if their identity was very much affected by Ottoman, Roman and Balkan Slavic influences (so were the 2nd Century BC Greeks in regards to Macedonian, Anatolian or Ionian customs).

The first ovious step would be to find a way to avert the Bronze Age Collapse, which would butterfly like crazy all over the place, so a better way would be to make them survive the collapse, like Egypt did. It's tricky because:
a) We don't really know jackpot about what happened.
b) If we're talking about a climate issue, the Hittites are screwed, their lands are very susceptible to drought.
c) If the final blow was the migration of displaced malcontents and mercenaries in the form of the Sea Peoples, then the Hittites are screwed once more, because they're in the way.

So first we need to assume that the Bronze Age Collapse is a very well-known phenomenon and, and pull the strings so that the Hittites survive.

If they survive, then either their state endures, which I see as problematic, or they break down for a while but their culture endures, like the Assyrians or Babylonians endured, even with the several changes in ruling class and ruling elite.

I see three main scenarios possible:

a) A bigger Hittite Empire to begin with, one that's more homogenous?
b) A smaller Hittite Empire, which has an easier time enduring and that can rise again in the Iron Age, ruled by a Kassite, Hurrian or Gutian conqueror dynasty, à la Babylon or Elam.
c) A simple overrule of the Bronze Age Collapse.

What do you think?
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