Zalpa (also called Zalba, Zalpah, Zalpuwa) were ancient regions mentioned in Assyrian, Mari and Hittite records. The toponyms appear in a variety of forms and contexts and likely refer to multiple similarly named regions. They have been located on the Pontic coast of the Black Sea, along the

Euphrates The Euphrates ( ; see #Etymology, below) is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of West Asia. Tigris–Euphrates river system, Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia (). Originati ...

in northern Mesopotamia and along the

Balikh river The Balikh River () is a perennial river that originates in the spring of Ain al-Arous near Tell Abyad in the Eastern Mediterranean conifer-sclerophyllous-broadleaf forests ecoregion. It flows due south and joins the Euphrates at the modern cit ...

in northern Syria.

Etymology

The etymology is uncertain but the toponyms may have been Sumerian formulaic theophoric names derived from ''KA.ZAL''. The same

syllabary In the Linguistics, linguistic study of Written language, written languages, a syllabary is a set of grapheme, written symbols that represent the syllables or (more frequently) mora (linguistics), morae which make up words. A symbol in a syllaba ...

is found in the Akkadian toponym ''ka-zal-lu''^''ki'' in records of the twenty-second through sixteenth centuries BC,Douglas Frayne, "Akkad", in Sargonic and Gutian Periods (2234-2113 BC), Toronto: University of Toronto Press, pp. 5-218, 1993 which could explain the presence of multiple forms and uses of the toponyms in the historical record.Holland, Gary B. and Zorman, Marina. (2007). The Tale of Zalpa: Myth, Morality and Coherence in Hittite Narrative. Italian University. Press.

Earlier identification of Zalpa near the Black Sea

Seeming indirect evidence from Ancient legends

Zalpuwa is the setting for an ancient legend about the Queen of Kanesh, which was either composed in or translated into the

Hittite language Hittite (, or ), also known as Nesite (Nešite/Neshite, Nessite), is an extinct Indo-European language that was spoken by the Hittites, a people of Bronze Age Anatolia who created an empire centred on Hattusa, as well as parts of the northern ...

: " he Queenof Kanesh once bore thirty sons in a single year. She said: 'What a horde is this which I have born ' She caulked(?) baskets with fat, put her sons in them, and launched them in the river. The river carried them down to the sea at the land of Zalpuwa. Then the gods took them up out of the sea and reared them. When some years had passed, the queen again gave birth, this time to thirty daughters. This time she herself reared them." The river at Kanesh (Sarımsaklı Çayı) drains into the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal sea, marginal Mediterranean sea (oceanography), mediterranean sea lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bound ...

, which seemingly supported the argument that the city was located near the Black Sea.

Hittite connection and Arnuwanda prayer

"Zalpuwa" is further mentioned alongside Nerik in Arnuwanda I's prayer. Nerik was a

Hattic language Hattic, or Hattian, was a non-Indo-European agglutinative language spoken by the Hattians in Asia Minor in the 2nd millennium BC. Scholars call the language "Hattic" to distinguish it from Hittite, the Indo-European language of the Hittite Emp ...

speaking city which had fallen to the

Kaskians The Kaska (also Kaška, later Tabal (state), Tabalian Kasku and Gasga) were a loosely affiliated Bronze Age non-Indo-European tribal people, who spoke the unclassified Kaskian language and lived in mountainous East Pontus (region), Pontic Anatolia ...

by Arnuwanda's time. This portion of the prayer also mentioned Kammama, which was Kaskian as of the reign of Arnuwanda II. The conclusion until recently, was to locate Zalpuwa in a region of Hattian cities of northern central Anatolia: as were Nerik,

Hattusa Hattusa, also Hattuşa, Ḫattuša, Hattusas, or Hattusha, was the capital of the Hittites, Hittite Empire in the late Bronze Age during two distinct periods. Its ruins lie near modern Boğazkale, Turkey (originally Boğazköy) within the great ...

, and probably

Sapinuwa Sapinuwa (sometimes Shapinuwa; Hittite language, Hittite: ''Šapinuwa'') was a Bronze Age Hittites, Hittite city at the location of modern Ortaköy, Çorum, Ortaköy in the province Çorum in Turkey about 70 kilometers east of the Hittite capital ...

, and Zalpuwa was thought to have been founded by Hattians, like its neighbours. Around the 18th century BC, Uḫna the king of Zalpuwa invaded Neša, after which the Zalpuwans carried off the city's "Sius" idol. Under Huzziya's reign, the king of Neša, Anitta, invaded Zalpuwa. Anitta took Huzziya captive, and recovered the ''Sius'' idol for Neša. Soon after that, Zalpuwa seems to have become culturally and linguistically Hittite. Arnuwanda's prayer implies that Zalpuwa was laid waste by Kaskians, at the same time that Nerik fell to them, in the early 14th century BC. İkiztepe on the

Kızılırmak Delta The River delta, delta of the Kızılırmak River in Turkey's Black Sea region is the third largest in the country. Formed where the river flows into the Black Sea the delta has the biggest wetland in the region, with many lagoons. The wetland ...

near the

coast was suggested as a possible location for Zalpuwa.

Identification of Zalpa on the Balikh river

In 1990, J. M. Córdoba identified Zalpa with Tell Hammam et-Turkman, on the

, and this proposal was commented as possible by French scholars Nele Ziegler and Anne-Isabelle Langlois in 2016, as well as Eva von Dassow in her (2022) essay.von Dassow, Eva, (2022)
"Mittani and Its Empire"
in Karen Radner, Nadine Moeller, D. T. Potts (eds.), The Oxford History of the Ancient Near East, Volume III: From the Hyksos to the Late Second Millennium BC, Oxford University Press, p. 462.

New identification of Zalpa

The city of Zalpa was formerly equated by scholars with Zalpuwa in Anatolia, located to the north of Ḫattuša near the Black Sea. But the Zalpa mentioned in the Annals of

Hattusili I Ḫattušili (''Ḫattušiliš'' in the inflected nominative case) was the regnal name of three Hittite kings: * Hattusili I (Labarna II) * Hattusili II *Hattusili III Ḫattušili (''Ḫattušiliš'' in the inflected nominative case) was the regnal ...

has now been proposed as being at the site of Tilmen Höyük, in the Karasu River Valley south of the

Taurus Mountains The Taurus Mountains (Turkish language, Turkish: ''Toros Dağları'' or ''Toroslar,'' Greek language, Greek'':'' Ταύρος) are a mountain range, mountain complex in southern Turkey, separating the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean coastal reg ...

, which had a palace and temple that were violently destroyed near the end of the Middle Bronze Age II. This North Syrian Zalpa was called Zalwar in Old Babylonian texts. The military exploits of

, a Hittite king who reigned in the latter part of the seventeenth century BC, are described both in Hittite and Akkadian in clay tablets, now in the Catalogue of Hittite Texts, excavated in Hattusa, the Hittite capital, and mention that he destroyed the city of Zalpa (written Za-al-pa in Hittite and Za-al-ba-ar in Akkadian).Chicago-Tubingen Expedition to Zincirli
"Annals of Ḫattušili I (mid- to late 17th cent. BCE)"
Retrieved: 18 November 2020.

References

{{Authority control Former populated places in Turkey Lost ancient cities and towns Former kingdoms