Anatolian peoples

[2][1] Together with the Proto-Tocharians, who migrated eastward, the Anatolian peoples constituted the first known waves of Indo-European emigrants out of the Eurasian Steppe.

[2] Once they entered the region, the cultures of the local populations, in particular the Hattians, significantly influenced them linguistically, politically and religiously.

[5] Christopher I. Beckwith suggests that the Anatolian peoples initially gained a foothold in Anatolia after being hired by the Hattians to fight other invading Indo-European groups.

[7] The earliest linguistic and historical attestation of the Anatolian peoples are names mentioned in Assyrian mercantile texts from the 19th Century BC at Kanesh.

[7][9] Kanesh was at the time the center of a network of Assyrian merchants overseeing trade between Assyria and the warring states of Anatolia.

[1] Uniting several independent Hattic kingdoms in Anatolia the Hittites began establishing a Middle Eastern empire in the 17th-century BC.

Indo-European migrations as described in The Horse, the Wheel, and Language by David W. Anthony
Map 1: Anatolian peoples in 2nd millennium BC; Blue: Luwians , Yellow: Hittites , Red: Palaics .
Map 2: Late Bronze Age regions of Anatolia / Asia Minor (circa 1200 BC) with main settlements.
Sphinx Gate entrance at Hattusa , capital of the Hittite Empire .
Relief of Yariri and Kamani , 8th-century BC Luwian rulers of Carchemish , a Neo-Hittite State (despite the name, Neo-Hittites were overwhelmingly Luwians and not Hittites ).
Map 3: Anatolia / Asia Minor in the Greco-Roman period. The classical regions and their main settlements (circa 200 BC).