Dead men with Ideas
Name in Stone
Muwatalli II — a name carved into stone but stuck in a memory glitch. Son of Mursili II, grandson of Suppiluliuma I, a king who took the Hittite world in his hands and decided to drag it south — to Tarhuntassa. Not for the love of stonework, but because the north was burning with Kaska raids, and the south was blazing with war against Egypt. His life was a chariot harnessed to the clash of two superpowers of the Bronze Age. He fought Ramesses II, launched the loudest “multiplayer” of antiquity on the fields of Kadesh, where both sides declared themselves winners and history froze on an endless loading screen.
Dust of Biography
In an alternate reality, Muwatalli II wouldn’t have been a king but a startup founder. Instead of an army — a dev team. Instead of chariots — server racks. He would have moved the capital not to Tarhuntassa but into the cloud, explaining it with regional investment appeal. His battle at Kadesh would look like a hackathon with Egyptian participation: who could crack the diplomacy protocol faster. But in truth, then and now, he was doing the same thing: trying to buy time, selling the idea that a draw can also be a strategy.
Ideas That Haunt Us
Muwatalli’s core idea was that an empire is a server, and the capital is a data center. If the data center is under threat, you migrate. He moved the empire’s heart as if copying a folder of life. He understood that wars aren’t won by victories, but by properly packaging defeats: Kadesh remained in memory not as a rout but as mutual respect between two civilizations that could have destroyed each other but chose to hang instead. His philosophy was survival through reboot — through admitting that glitches aren’t errors but ways of updating.
Shadows on the Edge of Mind
The modern world lives in Kadesh mode. Everyone keeps pressing “victory,” but in truth it’s a draw. Muwatalli would have recognized this pattern instantly: corporations, states, brands — all drive their chariots to the center of the field, then declare they held the city. His idea of a movable capital reads like an early version of decentralization: never trust a single hub, always keep a backup server. And yes, his cult of the storm god could be read as a proto–startup cult: worship of raw energy that comes suddenly and smashes old models.
How Did We Get Here?
You can find Muwatalli II in Turkish museums and in school textbooks, usually bundled as “Battle of Kadesh + Ramesses II.” His traces linger in the ruins of Hattusa and in the riddles of Tarhuntassa, the city to which he moved everything except his own immortality. Statues of him are almost nonexistent: he dissolved into a draw, into a rewrite of history. But if you look at the map and see how states keep moving their “capitals” — virtual, economic, technological — it is he who quietly smiles in the dust.
#VoiceOfRuins #DeadWithIdeas #MuwatalliII #Hittites #Kadesh #Tarhuntassa #History #Empires #DustOfTime
Our Telegram-channel: Voice Of Ruins https://t.me/Voice_Of_Ruins
Instagram: Voice Of Ruins https://www.instagram.com/voiceofruins/
Our group on Facebook: Voice Of Ruins https://www.facebook.com/share/g/16aitn9utM/
Our site: Voice Of Ruins https://www.voiceofruins.org
Leave a Reply