Arzawa was a region and a political entity (a "
kingdom" or a
federation
A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government ( federalism). In a federation, the self-gover ...
of local powers) in Western
Anatolia
Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...
in the second half of the 2nd millennium BC (roughly from the late 15th century BC until the beginning of the 12th century BC). The core of Arzawa is believed to be along the
Kaystros River (now known as
Küçük Menderes River
Küçük Menderes ("Little Meander"), Cayster River or Kaystros River ( grc, Κάϋστρος, French: Caÿstre) or Caystrus River is a river south of İzmir, Turkey. It generally flows westward and arrives at the Aegean Sea at Pamucak beach, ne ...
), with its capital at Apasa, later known as
Ephesus
Ephesus (; grc-gre, Ἔφεσος, Éphesos; tr, Efes; may ultimately derive from hit, 𒀀𒉺𒊭, Apaša) was a city in ancient Greece on the coast of Ionia, southwest of present-day Selçuk in İzmir Province, Turkey. It was built i ...
. When the
Hittites
The Hittites () were an Anatolian people who played an important role in establishing first a kingdom in Kussara (before 1750 BC), then the Kanesh or Nesha kingdom (c. 1750–1650 BC), and next an empire centered on Hattusa in north-cent ...
conquered Arzawa, it was divided into three Hittite provinces: a southern province called
Mira along the
Maeander River, which would later become known as
Caria
Caria (; from Greek: Καρία, ''Karia''; tr, Karya) was a region of western Anatolia extending along the coast from mid- Ionia (Mycale) south to Lycia and east to Phrygia. The Ionian and Dorian Greeks colonized the west of it and joine ...
; a northern province called the
Seha River Land, along the
Gediz River
The Gediz River ( tr, Gediz Nehri, ) is the second-longest river in Anatolia flowing into the Aegean Sea. From its source of Mount Murat in Kütahya Province, it flows generally west for to the Gediz River Delta in the Gulf of İzmir.
Name
T ...
, which would later become known as
Lydia
Lydia ( Lydian: 𐤮𐤱𐤠𐤭𐤣𐤠, ''Śfarda''; Aramaic: ''Lydia''; el, Λυδία, ''Lȳdíā''; tr, Lidya) was an Iron Age kingdom of western Asia Minor located generally east of ancient Ionia in the modern western Turkish pro ...
; and an eastern province called
Hapalla.
[J. David Hawkins (1998). ‘Tarkasnawa King of Mira: Tarkendemos, Boğazköy Sealings, and Karabel.’ ''Anatolian Studies'' 48:1–31.]
It succeeded the
Assuwa Assuwa ( hit, 𒀸𒋗𒉿, translit=aš-šu-wa, link=yes; gmy, 𐀀𐀯𐀹𐀊, translit=a-si-wi-ja, link=yes) was a confederation of 22 states in western Anatolia around 1400 BC. The confederation formed to oppose the Hittite Empire, but was de ...
league, which also included parts of western Anatolia, but was conquered by the Hittites c. 1400 BC. Arzawa was the western neighbour and rival of the
Middle and New Hittite Kingdoms. On the other hand, it was in close contact with the
Ahhiyawa
The Achaeans (; grc, Ἀχαιοί ''Akhaioí,'' "the Achaeans" or "of Achaea") is one of the names in Homer which is used to refer to the Greeks collectively.
The term "Achaean" is believed to be related to the Hittite term Ahhiyawa and t ...
of the Hittite texts, which corresponds to the
Achaeans of
Mycenaean Greece
Mycenaean Greece (or the Mycenaean civilization) was the last phase of the Bronze Age in Ancient Greece, spanning the period from approximately 1750 to 1050 BC.. It represents the first advanced and distinctively Greek civilization in mainland ...
.
[Kelder, 2003–2004: p. 66.] Moreover, Achaeans and Arzawa formed a coalition against the Hittites in various periods.
[Kelder, 2003–2004: p. 54.]
Kingdom of Arzawa
According to Hittite sources, the capital of the Kingdom of Arzawa was Apasa (or ''Abasa''), corresponding with later Greek
Ephesus
Ephesus (; grc-gre, Ἔφεσος, Éphesos; tr, Efes; may ultimately derive from hit, 𒀀𒉺𒊭, Apaša) was a city in ancient Greece on the coast of Ionia, southwest of present-day Selçuk in İzmir Province, Turkey. It was built i ...
.
The languages spoken in Arzawa during the
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...
and early
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly ...
cannot be directly determined due to the paucity of indigenous written sources. It was previously believed that the linguistic identity of Arzawa was predominantly
Luwian, based, ''inter alia'', on the replacement of the designation
Luwiya with Arzawa in a corrupt passage of a New Hittite copy of the Laws. However, it was recently argued that Luwiya and Arzawa were two separate entities, because Luwiya is mentioned in the Hittite Laws as a part of the Hittite Old Kingdom, whereas Arzawa was independent from the Hittites during this period. The geographic identity between Luwiya and Arzawa was rejected or doubted in a variety of recent publications, although the ethnolinguistic implications of this analysis remain to be assessed. One scholar suggested that there was no significant Luwian population in Arzawa, but instead that it was predominantly inhabited by speakers of Proto-
Lydian and Proto-
Carian
The Carian language is an extinct language of the Luwic subgroup of the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family. The Carian language was spoken in Caria, a region of western Anatolia between the ancient regions of Lycia and Lydia, ...
. The difference between the two approaches need not be exaggerated since the Carian language belongs to the
Luwic branch of the Anatolian languages. Thus, the Luwic presence in Arzawa is universally acknowledged, but whether the elites of Arzawa were Luwian in the narrow sense remains a matter of debate.
The zenith of the kingdom was during the 15th and 14th centuries BC. The Hittites were then weakened, and Arzawa was an ally of Egypt.
Arzawa letters
Alliance with
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning the North Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via a land bridg ...
is recorded in the correspondence between the Arzawan ruler
Tarhundaradu and the
Pharaoh
Pharaoh (, ; Egyptian: '' pr ꜥꜣ''; cop, , Pǝrro; Biblical Hebrew: ''Parʿō'') is the vernacular term often used by modern authors for the kings of ancient Egypt who ruled as monarchs from the First Dynasty (c. 3150 BC) until th ...
Amenophis III, which is part of the
Amarna letters
The Amarna letters (; sometimes referred to as the Amarna correspondence or Amarna tablets, and cited with the abbreviation EA, for "El Amarna") are an archive, written on clay tablets, primarily consisting of diplomatic correspondence between ...
archive found in Egypt. Two of these letters (Nr. 31 and 32) are known as the
Arzawa letters, and they played a substantial role in the decipherment of the
Hittite language
Hittite (natively / "the language of Neša", or ''nešumnili'' / "the language of the people of Neša"), also known as Nesite (''Nešite'' / Neshite, Nessite), is an extinct Indo-European language that was spoken by the Hittites, a peopl ...
in which they were written.
Jorgen A. Knudtzon, a Norwegian linguist and historian, played a big role in this decipherment. In 1902, he recognized the Hittite language as
Indo-European
The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the overwhelming majority of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Some European languages of this family, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Du ...
based on their study. He published further two volumes on Amarna letters in 1907 and 1915.
Max Gander (2014) analysed the clay from which the Amarna Letter EA 32
tablet
Tablet may refer to:
Medicine
* Tablet (pharmacy), a mixture of pharmacological substances pressed into a small cake or bar, colloquially called a "pill"
Computing
* Tablet computer, a mobile computer that is primarily operated by touching the ...
was made based on the
petrographical analyses that had been conducted. Three different analytical methods were used in these analyses.
According to him, the results are rather surprising. What would be expected from them, based on general opinion, is that the clay should have come somewhere from the vicinity of
Ephesos, which is widely considered as core territory of the Arzawan state. But instead, they point to northern
Ionia
Ionia () was an ancient region on the western coast of Anatolia, to the south of present-day Izmir. It consisted of the northernmost territories of the Ionian League of Greek settlements. Never a unified state, it was named after the Ionia ...
, and even into
Aeolis
Aeolis (; grc, Αἰολίς, Aiolís), or Aeolia (; grc, Αἰολία, Aiolía, link=no), was an area that comprised the west and northwestern region of Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey), mostly along the coast, and also several offshore islan ...
. Specifically mentioned are the areas around the cities of
Kyme (Aeolis) and/or
Larissa
Larissa (; el, Λάρισα, , ) is the capital and largest city of the Thessaly region in Greece. It is the fifth-most populous city in Greece with a population of 144,651 according to the 2011 census. It is also capital of the Larissa regiona ...
. But this location is very close to, or even inside of the conventional location of the
Seha River Land
The Seha River Land was a kingdom in Western Anatolia in the Late Bronze Age known from Hittite texts. Part of Arzawa, it was located north of Mira and south of Wilusa, and at one point controlled the island of Lazpa.
History
The Seha Riv ...
.
Accordingly, Gander suggests that Seha should be located further to the south. Thus it could be located south of Ephesus, and closer to the valley of
Meander River. Such a location was generally considered in older scholarship.
As to Arzawa, Gander suggests that it could have been located closer to what was later called
Lydia
Lydia ( Lydian: 𐤮𐤱𐤠𐤭𐤣𐤠, ''Śfarda''; Aramaic: ''Lydia''; el, Λυδία, ''Lȳdíā''; tr, Lidya) was an Iron Age kingdom of western Asia Minor located generally east of ancient Ionia in the modern western Turkish pro ...
.
Relations with the Hittite kingdom
According to Hittite records, in c. 1320 BC Arzawa joined an anti-Hittite alliance together with the region of Millawanta (
Miletus
Miletus (; gr, Μῑ́λητος, Mī́lētos; Hittite transcription ''Millawanda'' or ''Milawata'' ( exonyms); la, Mīlētus; tr, Milet) was an ancient Greek city on the western coast of Anatolia, near the mouth of the Maeander River in ...
) under the king of the
Ahhiyawa
The Achaeans (; grc, Ἀχαιοί ''Akhaioí,'' "the Achaeans" or "of Achaea") is one of the names in Homer which is used to refer to the Greeks collectively.
The term "Achaean" is believed to be related to the Hittite term Ahhiyawa and t ...
(the latter widely accepted as
Mycenaean Greece
Mycenaean Greece (or the Mycenaean civilization) was the last phase of the Bronze Age in Ancient Greece, spanning the period from approximately 1750 to 1050 BC.. It represents the first advanced and distinctively Greek civilization in mainland ...
or part of it).
As a response to this initiative, the Hittite kings
Suppiluliuma I and
Mursili II finally managed to defeat Arzawa around 1300 BC. The king of Arzawa managed to escape to Mycenaean-controlled territory.
[ Arzawa was then split by the Hittites into vassal kingdoms. These were called:
* Kingdom of Mira,
* Hapalla (''transcriptions vary''),
* "Seha river land".
"Seha river" is now believed to be the present-day ]Gediz River
The Gediz River ( tr, Gediz Nehri, ) is the second-longest river in Anatolia flowing into the Aegean Sea. From its source of Mount Murat in Kütahya Province, it flows generally west for to the Gediz River Delta in the Gulf of İzmir.
Name
T ...
, although some scholars said it was the Bakırçay
Bakırçay ( la, Caicus, ) is a river in Turkey. It rises in the Gölcük Dağları mountains and debouches into the Gulf of Çandarlı.
In antiquity, the Bakırçay was or formed part of the ''Kaikos'' or ''Caicus'' River which flowed near the ...
river.
Also, Mursili's son Muwatalli added Wilusa
Wilusa ( hit, ) or Wilusiya was a Late Bronze Age city in western Anatolia known from references in fragmentary Hittite records. The city is notable for its identification with the archaeological site of Troy, and thus its potential connection ...
(Troy
Troy ( el, Τροία and Latin: Troia, Hittite: 𒋫𒊒𒄿𒊭 ''Truwiša'') or Ilion ( el, Ίλιον and Latin: Ilium, Hittite: 𒃾𒇻𒊭 ''Wiluša'') was an ancient city located at Hisarlik in present-day Turkey, south-west of Ç ...
) as a vassal.
In 1998, J. David Hawkins succeeded in reading the Karabel relief
The Hittite / Luwian Karabel relief is a rock relief in the pass of the same name, between Torbalı and Kemalpaşa, about 20 km from Izmir in Turkey. Rock reliefs are a prominent aspect of Hittite art.
Description
The monument o ...
inscription, located at the Karabel pass, about 20 km from Izmir. This has provided evidence that the kingdom of Mira was actually south of the 'Seha river land', thus locating the latter along the Gediz River.
These kingdoms, usually termed simply as "lands" in Hittite registers, could have formed part of the Arzawa complex already during the existence of the Arzawa kingdom.
Known western Anatolian late-Bronze Age regions and/or political entities which, to date, have not been cited as having been part of the Arzawa complex are:
* Land of Masa/Masha (associable with Iron Age "Mysia
Mysia (UK , US or ; el, Μυσία; lat, Mysia; tr, Misya) was a region in the northwest of ancient Asia Minor (Anatolia, Asian part of modern Turkey). It was located on the south coast of the Sea of Marmara. It was bounded by Bithynia on th ...
")
* Karkisa/Karkiya (associable with Iron Age "Caria
Caria (; from Greek: Καρία, ''Karia''; tr, Karya) was a region of western Anatolia extending along the coast from mid- Ionia (Mycale) south to Lycia and east to Phrygia. The Ionian and Dorian Greeks colonized the west of it and joine ...
")
* Lukka lands (associable with Iron Age "Lycia
Lycia ( Lycian: 𐊗𐊕𐊐𐊎𐊆𐊖 ''Trm̃mis''; el, Λυκία, ; tr, Likya) was a state or nationality that flourished in Anatolia from 15–14th centuries BC (as Lukka) to 546 BC. It bordered the Mediterranean Sea in what is ...
")
After the collapse of the Hittite Empire
The Hittites () were an Anatolian people who played an important role in establishing first a kingdom in Kussara (before 1750 BC), then the Kanesh or Nesha kingdom (c. 1750–1650 BC), and next an empire centered on Hattusa in north-centr ...
from the 12th century, while Neo-Hittite
The states that are called Syro-Hittite, Neo-Hittite (in older literature), or Luwian-Aramean (in modern scholarly works), were Luwian and Aramean regional polities of the Iron Age, situated in southeastern parts of modern Turkey and northwester ...
states partially pursued Hittite history in southern Anatolia and Syria, the chain seems to have broken as far as the Arzawa lands in western Anatolia
Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...
were concerned and these could have pursued their own cultural path until unification came with the emergence of Lydia as a state under the Mermnad dynasty in the 7th century BC.
There has been evidence from a British expedition in 1954 to Beycesultan in inner western Anatolia which suggests that the local king had central heating in his home. Nothing more was heard from this invention until Gaius Sergius Orata reinvented it in Ancient Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus ( legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
around 80 BC.[Camp, L. Sprague De. The Ancient Engineers. Pages 171-172. Garden City: Doubleday & Company, Inc, 1963.]
Kings of Arzawa in the 15th to 13th century BC
*Kupanta-Kurunta
Kupanta-Kurunta was the first recorded king of Arzawa, in the late 15th century BC. He was defeated by Tudhaliya I and Arnuwanda I. He then attacked Arnuwanda's restive vassal Madduwatta at Zippasla. He had a daughter, who married Madduwatta.
Kup ...
c.1440s BC
*Madduwatta
Madduwatta (or Madduwattas) was a Late Bronze Age warlord who conquered a portion of southwest Anatolia. He is known from the Hittite text known as the ''Indictment of Madduwatta''.
Textual background
The fragmentary ''Indictment of Madduwatt ...
of Zippasla (conquered Arzawa, may or may not have been king of Arzawa) c.1420s BC
* Tarhundaradu c.1370s BC
*Anzapahhadu c. 1350s
*Piyama-Kurunda c. 1343 BC
*Tapalazunaulis c.1342 BC
*Muwa-Malwis
*Manappa-Tarhunta c.1340 BC
*Ura-Tarhunta c.1330 BC
* Tarksnawa c.1320s BC
*Uhha-Ziti
Uhha-Ziti was the last independent king of Arzawa, a Bronze Age kingdom of western Anatolia.
Uhha-Ziti had two recorded children, Piyama-Kurunta and Tapalazunauli, who were of fighting age as of 1322 BC.
The Hittite king Mursili II in his seco ...
- defeated by Mursili II around 1320 BC
See also
* Ancient regions of Anatolia
*History of the Hittites
The Hittites () were an Anatolian people who played an important role in establishing first a kingdom in Kussara (before 1750 BC), then the Kanesh or Nesha kingdom (c. 1750–1650 BC), and next an empire centered on Hattusa in north-cent ...
*Assuwa Assuwa ( hit, 𒀸𒋗𒉿, translit=aš-šu-wa, link=yes; gmy, 𐀀𐀯𐀹𐀊, translit=a-si-wi-ja, link=yes) was a confederation of 22 states in western Anatolia around 1400 BC. The confederation formed to oppose the Hittite Empire, but was de ...
*Lukka
The term Lukka lands (sometimes Luqqa lands), in Hittite language texts from the 2nd millennium BC, is a collective term for states formed by the Lukka people in south-west Anatolia (modern-day Turkey). The Lukka were never subjugated long-term by ...
*Lydia
Lydia ( Lydian: 𐤮𐤱𐤠𐤭𐤣𐤠, ''Śfarda''; Aramaic: ''Lydia''; el, Λυδία, ''Lȳdíā''; tr, Lidya) was an Iron Age kingdom of western Asia Minor located generally east of ancient Ionia in the modern western Turkish pro ...
References
Sources
*Gander, M. 2017. "The West: Philology". ''Hittite Landscape and Geography'', M. Weeden and L. Z. Ullmann (eds.). Leiden: Brill. pp. 262–280.
*Hawkins, J. D. 1998. ‘Tarkasnawa King of Mira: Tarkendemos, Boğazköy Sealings, and Karabel.’ ''Anatolian Studies'' 48:1–31.
*Hawkins, J. D. 2009
The Arzawa letters in recent perspective
British Museum Studies in Ancient Egypt and Sudan 14:73–83.
*Hawkins, J. D. 2013. ‘A New Look at the Luwian Language.’ ''Kadmos'' 52/1: 1-18.
*
*Matessi, A. 2017. "The Making of Hittite Imperial Landscapes: Territoriality and Balance of Power in South-Central Anatolia during the Late Bronze Age". ''Journal of Ancient Near Eastern History'', AoP.
*Melchert, H. Craig (ed) (2003). ''The Luwians''. Leiden: Brill.
*Singer, I. 2005. ‘On Luwians and Hittites.’ Bibliotheca Orientalis 62:430–51. (Review article of Melchert 2003).
*Yakubovich, Ilya. (2010). ''Sociolinguistics of the Luwian Language''. Leiden: Brill.
External links
{{coord missing, Turkey
States and territories established in the 15th century BC
States and territories disestablished in the 12th century BC
Hittites
Lydia
Amarna letters locations
Historical regions of Anatolia
Former kingdoms