Kizzuwatna (or Kizzuwadna; in

Ancient Egyptian Ancient Egypt () was a cradle of civilization concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in Northeast Africa. It emerged from prehistoric Egypt around 3150BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology), when Upper and Lower E ...

''Kode'' or ''Qode'') was an ancient

Anatolia Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...

n kingdom, attested in written sources from the end of the 16th century BC onwards, but though its origins are still obscure, the Middle Bronze Age in

Cilicia Cilicia () is a geographical region in southern Anatolia, extending inland from the northeastern coasts of the Mediterranean Sea. Cilicia has a population ranging over six million, concentrated mostly at the Cilician plain (). The region inclu ...

(ca. 2000–1550 BC) can be seen as its possible formative period. Kisuwatna was situated mostly in the

Cilician Plain Cilicia () is a geographical region in southern Anatolia, extending inland from the northeastern coasts of the Mediterranean Sea. Cilicia has a population ranging over six million, concentrated mostly at the Cilician plain (). The region inclu ...

of southeastern

, near the

Gulf of İskenderun The Gulf of Alexandretta or İskenderun () is a gulf of the eastern Mediterranean or Levantine Sea. It lies beside the southern Turkish provinces of Adana and Hatay. Names The gulf is named for the nearby Turkish city of İskenderun, the cl ...

, in modern-day

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

. The Central Taurus Mountains and the

Amanus Mountains The Nur Mountains (, "Mountains of Holy Light"), formerly known as Alma-Dağ, the ancient Mount Amanus (), medieval Black Mountain, or Jabal al-Lukkam in Arabic, is a mountain range in the Hatay Province of south-central Turkey. It begins sout ...

encircled it. The centre of the kingdom was the city of

Kummanni Kummanni was the name of the main center of the Anatolian kingdom of Kizzuwatna. Its location is uncertain, but it may have been near the classical settlement of Comana, Cappadocia, Comana in Cappadocia. Recent research also proposed as a location ...

, in the highlands.

Etymology

The name is said to be a

Luwic The Anatolian languages are an extinct branch of Indo-European languages that were spoken in Anatolia. The best known Anatolian language is Hittite, which is considered the earliest-attested Indo-European language. Undiscovered until the late ...

transliteration (''kez-watni'') of the nešili ''kez-udne'', meaning "a country on this side (of the mountains)."Yakubovich, Ilya. (2010). ''Sociolinguistics of the Luvian Language''. A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Division of the Humanities In Candidacy For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations and Department of Linguistics, University of Chicago
Academia.edu
/ref> Puhvel alternately translates it from the nešili ''kez wetenez'' with the stem meaning "sea." It has been suggested that ''kez'' was an

exonym An endonym (also known as autonym ) is a common, name for a group of people, individual person, geographical place, language, or dialect, meaning that it is used inside a particular group or linguistic community to identify or designate them ...

used by the

Hittites The Hittites () were an Anatolian peoples, Anatolian Proto-Indo-Europeans, Indo-European people who formed one of the first major civilizations of the Bronze Age in West Asia. Possibly originating from beyond the Black Sea, they settled in mo ...

for a yet to be determined ethnic group.Trameri, A. (2024). Kizzuwatna. History of Cilicia in the Middle and Late Bronze Age (ca. 2000-1200 BC). Netherlands: Brill.

Geography

Mid000017 Map 2011 09 Middle-Bronzse-Age-Anatolia

Kizzuwatna is associated with the Cilician plane in Hittite,

Mittani Mitanni (–1260 BC), earlier called Ḫabigalbat in old Babylonian texts, ; Hanigalbat or Hani-Rabbat in Assyrian records, or in Egyptian texts, was a Hurrian-speaking state in northern Syria and southeast Anatolia (modern-day Turkey) with In ...

, Egyptian and

Alalakh Alalakh (''Tell Atchana''; Hittite: Alalaḫ) is an ancient archaeological site approximately northeast of Antakya (historic Antioch) in what is now Turkey's Hatay Province. It flourished as an urban settlement in the Middle and Late Bronze Age ...

sources, the borders of which were "defined by 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 ...

to the northwest and north, the Amanus Range to the East and the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Eur ...

with the

Gulf of Iskenderun The Gulf of Alexandretta or İskenderun () is a gulf of the eastern Mediterranean or Levantine Sea. It lies beside the southern Turkish provinces of Adana and Hatay. Names The gulf is named for the nearby Turkish city of İskenderun, the cl ...

and the

Gulf of Mersin Gulf of Mersin () is one of the widest gulfs in Turkey. It is in the northeast of the Mediterranean Sea between the gulfs of İskenderun and Antalya. Location The gulf of Mersin is between Taşucu in the west and Karataş in the east.''Tür ...

to the South." It westward extent remains the subject of debate.

Land

The country possessed valuable resources, such as silver mines in the

. The slopes of the mountain range are still partly covered by woods. Annual winter rains made agriculture possible in the area at a very early date (see

Çatalhöyük Çatalhöyük (English: Chatalhoyuk ; ; also ''Çatal Höyük'' and ''Çatal Hüyük''; from Turkish language, Turkish ''çatal'' "fork" + ''höyük'' "tumulus") is a Tell (archaeology), tell (a mounded accretion resulting from long-term huma ...

). The plains at the lower course of the

Ceyhan River The Ceyhan River (historically Pyramos or Pyramus (), Leucosyrus () or Jihun) is a river in Anatolia in the south of Turkey. Course of the river The Ceyhan River (Pyramus) has its source (known as ''Söğütlü Dere'') at a location called '' ...

provided rich cultivated fields.

People

Several ethnic groups coexisted in Kizzuwatna and their culture represents a fusion of

Hurrian The Hurrians (; ; also called Hari, Khurrites, Hourri, Churri, Hurri) were a people who inhabited the Ancient Near East during the Bronze Age. They spoke the Hurro-Urartian language, Hurrian language, and lived throughout northern Syria (region) ...

Luwian Luwian (), sometimes known as Luvian or Luish, is an ancient language, or group of languages, within the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family. The ethnonym Luwian comes from ''Luwiya'' (also spelled ''Luwia'' or ''Luvia'') – ...

, and Hittite elements. The pre-Indo-European Hurrians predate the Luwians in the area, Hittites probably arrived as part of the imperial expansion under

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 ...

and

Mursili I Mursili I (also known as Mursilis; sometimes transcribed as Murshili) was a king of the Hittites 1620-1590 BC, as per the middle chronology, the most accepted chronology in our times (or alternatively c. 1556–1526 BC, short chronology), and was ...

. During the era of the Kingdom of Kizzuwatna, the primary local language was a distinctive

-influenced dialect of

. However, its first king

Išputahšu Isputahsu (also transliterated as Išputaḫšu) was a king of Kizzuwatna, probably during the late 16th century BC (middle chronology). He signed a treaty of alliance with the Hittite king Telepinu. Family His father was Pariyawatri, who mayb ...

had a Hittite-derived name and the toponym "Kizzuwatna" itself has been suggested to be a Luwianization of Hittite *''kez-udne'' meaning "land on this side" in relation to the mountains. Though Kizzuwatna Luwian differs from Empire Luwian spoken in the Hittite heartland, incantations written in Kizzuwatna Luwian appear untranslated in Hittite ritual texts. Hurrian culture became more prominent in Kizzuwatna once it entered the sphere of influence of the Hurrian kingdom of

Mitanni Mitanni (–1260 BC), earlier called Ḫabigalbat in old Babylonian texts, ; Hanigalbat or Hani-Rabbat in Assyrian records, or in Ancient Egypt, Egyptian texts, was a Hurrian language, Hurrian-speaking state in northern Syria (region), Syria an ...

. Puduhepa, queen of the Hittite king

Hattusili III Ḫattušili (''Ḫattušiliš'' in the inflected nominative case) was the regnal name of three Hittite kings: * Hattusili I (Labarna II) * Hattusili II * Hattusili III It was also the name of two Neo-Hittite kings: * Hattusili I (Kummuh) * Hattus ...

, came from Kizzuwatna, where she had been a priestess. Their pantheon was also integrated into the Hittite one, and the goddess Hebat of Kizzuwatna became very important in

Hittite religion Hittite mythology and Hittite religion were the religion, religious beliefs and practices of the Hittites, who created an empire centered in Anatolia from . Most of the narratives embodying Hittite mythology are lost, and the elements that w ...

towards the end of the 13th century BC.

History

Excavations of

Sirkeli Höyük Sirkeli Höyük is one of the largest tells (settlement mounds) of Cilicia with an area of approximately 80 ha.Late Bronze Age collapse The Late Bronze Age collapse was a period of societal collapse in the Mediterranean basin during the 12th century BC. It is thought to have affected much of the Eastern Mediterranean and Near East, in particular Egypt, Anatolia, the Aegea ...

. This suggests the existence of a polity located at the southern end of both a "Great Caravan Route” that connected the Ciician plain with the Troad during the Early Bronze Age and an overland trade route from the Hittite Lower Land to

Ebla Ebla (Sumerian language, Sumerian: ''eb₂-la'', , modern: , Tell Mardikh) was one of the earliest kingdoms in Syria. Its remains constitute a Tell (archaeology), tell located about southwest of Aleppo near the village of Mardikh. Ebla was ...

and

Carchemish Carchemish ( or ), also spelled Karkemish (), was an important ancient capital in the northern part of the region of Syria. At times during its history the city was independent, but it was also part of the Mitanni, Hittite and Neo-Assyrian ...

during the Middle Bronze Age. King

Sargon of Akkad Sargon of Akkad (; ; died 2279 BC), also known as Sargon the Great, was the first ruler of the Akkadian Empire, known for his conquests of the Sumerian city-states in the 24th to 23rd centuries BC.The date of the reign of Sargon is highly unc ...

claimed to have reached the Taurus Mountains (the silver mountains) in the 23rd century BC. However, archaeology has yet to confirm any Akkadian influence in the area. The trade routes from

Assyria Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , ''māt Aššur'') was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization that existed as a city-state from the 21st century BC to the 14th century BC and eventually expanded into an empire from the 14th century BC t ...

to the '' karum'' in the Anatolian Highlands went through Kizzuwatna by the early 2nd millennium BC. First mentions of the kingdom of Kizzuwatna with the name Adaniya appear at the end of 16th century BC in diplomatic documents of the Hittite kingdom, in the Edict of

Telipinu Telipinu was the last king of the Hittites Old Kingdom, reigning in middle chronology. At the beginning of his reign, the Hittite Empire had contracted to its core territories, having long since lost all of its conquests, made in the former era ...

, regarding to political problems in the region.Trameri, Andrea, (15 October 2024)
Kizzuwatna. History of Cilicia in the Middle and Late Bronze Age (ca. 2000-1200 BC)
Brill, p. 205: "As one of the few mentions of historical events among the scanty information on the origins of this kingdom, historians often quote the content of the Edict of Telipinu, namely the passage referring to the upheavals in Adaniya at the time of Ammuna (late 16th c.) .. One of the earliest direct sources mentioning the name Kizzuwatna is a cretula from Tarsus, stamped with the seal of king Išpudaḫšu. "The seal’s short inscription also mentions the name of his father, Pariyawatri, which raises the question of whether Pariyawatri was king or not." The kings of Kizzuwatna at the end of 16th century BC onwards had frequent contact with the

to the north. The earliest Hittite records seem to refer to Kizzuwatna (as Adaniya) along with

Arzawa Arzawa was a region and political entity in Western Anatolia during the Late Bronze Age. In Hittite texts, the term is used to refer both to a particular kingdom and to a loose confederation of states. The chief Arzawan state, whose capital wa ...

in Western Anatolia, as Luwia. In the power struggle that arose between the Anatolian Hittite kingdom and the northern Mesopotamian Hurrian kingdom of

, in the 15th and early 14th centuries BC, Kizzuwatna became a strategic partner because of its location.

Isputahsu Isputahsu (also transliterated as Išputaḫšu) was a king of Kizzuwatna, probably during the late 16th century BC (middle chronology). He signed a treaty of alliance with the Hittite king Telepinu. Family His father was Pariyawatri, who ma ...

made a treaty with Hittite King

Telepinu Telipinu was the last king of the Hittites Old Kingdom, reigning in middle chronology. At the beginning of his reign, the Hittite Empire had contracted to its core territories, having long since lost all of its conquests, made in the former era ...

. Later, Kizzuwatna shifted its allegiance, perhaps because of a new ruling dynasty. The city-state of

, to the south, expanded under its new vigorous leader,

Idrimi Idrimi (meaning "It is my help") was the king of Alalakh c. 1490–1465 BC, or around 1450 BC. He is known, mainly, from an inscription on his statue found at Alalakh by Leonard Woolley in 1939.Longman III, Tremper, (1991)Fictional Akkadian Aut ...

, himself a subject of the Mitannian king

Barattarna Barattarna, Parattarna, Paršatar, or Parshatatar is the first known King of Mitanni and is considered to have reigned, as per middle chronology between c. 1510 and 1490 BC by J. A. Belmonte-Marin quoting H. Klengel. Reign Very few records of hi ...

. King Pilliya of Kizzuwatna had to sign a treaty with Idrimi. The treaty was for fugitives exchanges between Idrimi and Pilliya. Pilliya also made peace with the Hittite king

Zidanta II Zidanta II was a king of the Hittites The Hittites () were an Anatolian peoples, Anatolian Proto-Indo-Europeans, Indo-European people who formed one of the first major civilizations of the Bronze Age in West Asia. Possibly originating from ...

, signing a parity treaty between the two. On Kizzuwatna's north-eastern border, there also existed the state of

Ishuwa Isuwa (transcribed Išuwa and sometimes rendered Ishuwa), was a kingdom founded by the Hurrians, which came under Hittite sovereignty towards 1600 BC as a result of their struggle with the Hittites. Location Isuwa was located on the eastern ...

during this period, that played a political role in the rivalry between Hittites and the Mitanni. At the time of Kizzuwatna king Shunashura I (Sunassura), the Hittite king

Tudhaliya I Tudḫaliya is the name of several Hittite kings or royals. It is not clear how many kings bore that name, and numbering schemes vary from source to source. *Tudḫaliya (sometimes called Tudḫaliya I) is deduced from his early placement in a lat ...

became more powerful. He concluded a treaty with Sunassura, and took it away from the domination of Mitanni. His adopted son king

Arnuwanda I Arnuwanda I was a Hittite great king during the early 14th century BC, ruling in c. 1390–1380/1370 BC. Origins Arnuwanda's parents are unknown. Because both Arnuwanda and his wife, Queen Ašmu-Nikkal, are described on their respective seals a ...

likely continued the policy of his father. The exceedingly rough and unfavourable terrain of the Tarsus Mountains made it likely that to remain in a position of prominence among their Hurrian- and Luwian- speaking neighbours, the Kizzuwatna requested favourable terms for the treaties, and that they were subsequently granted. Kizzuwatna rebelled during the reign of Suppiluliuma I but remained in the

Hittite Empire The Hittites () were an Anatolian peoples, Anatolian Proto-Indo-Europeans, Indo-European people who formed one of the first major civilizations of the Bronze Age in West Asia. Possibly originating from beyond the Black Sea, they settled in mo ...

for 200 years. In the famous

Battle of Kadesh The Battle of Kadesh took place in the 13th century BC between the New Kingdom of Egypt, Egyptian Empire led by pharaoh Ramesses II and the Hittites, Hittite Empire led by king Muwatalli II. Their armies engaged each other at the Orontes River, ...

(c. 1274 BC), Kizzuwatna supplied troops to the Hittite king. As master equestrians, some of the first in the areas south of the Caucasus region, they provided the horses, which were later favoured by King Solomon and allowed the more aggressive use of the Hittite chariot than their Egyptian and Assyrian rivals were able. The Kizzuwatna were master craftsman, mining experts and blacksmiths. Being the first to work "black iron", which is understood to have been iron of meteoric origin, into weapons such as maces, swords and warheads for spears. Their location in the mineral-rich Tarsus Range gave them ample materials from which to work. Around 1200 BC, an invasion by the

Sea Peoples The Sea Peoples were a group of tribes hypothesized to have attacked Ancient Egypt, Egypt and other Eastern Mediterranean regions around 1200 BC during the Late Bronze Age. The hypothesis was proposed by the 19th-century Egyptology, Egyptologis ...

is believed to have temporarily displaced the people of the Cilician plain, but many among the entourage of the Sea peoples were likely to have been composed of Luwian and Hurrians, possibly to ensure that they had a stake in how the invasions ended for their people, rather than being simple victims of them. After the fall of the Hittite Empire, the

Neo-Hittite The states called Neo-Hittite, Syro-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 northwestern parts o ...

kingdom Quwe, or Hiyawa, emerged in the area of former Kizzuwatna.

Kings and kingdoms

Chronology of kings and kigdoms as per Trameri (2020).Trameri, Andrea, (May 2020)
The Land of Kizzuwatna. History of Cilicia in the Second Millennium BCE until the Hittite Conquest (ca. 2000-1350)
in: NYU, Faculty Digital Archive, p. 22.

Notes

Sources

* Beckman, Garry M.: ''Hittite Diplomatic Texts'', Scholars Press, Atlanta 1996. * Götze, Albrecht: ''Kizzuwatna and the problem of Hittite geography'', Yale university press, New Haven 1940. * Haas, Volkert: ''Hurritische und luwische Riten aus Kizzuwatna'', Butzon & Bercker, Kevelaer 1974. * Yakubovich, Ilya: ''Sociolinguistics of the Luvian Language'', Brill, Leiden 2010. * Novák, Mirko: Kizzuwatna, Ḥiyawa, Quwe – Ein Abriss der Kulturgeschichte des Ebenen Kilikien, in J. Becker, R. Hempelmann, E. Rehm (ed.), ''Kulturlandschaft Syrien – Zentrum und Peripherie.Festschrift für Jan-Waalke Meyer'', Alter Orient und Altes Testament 371, Ugarit-Verlag, Münster 2010, pp. 397–425 * Forlanini, Massimo: How to infer Ancient Roads and Intineraries from heterogenous Hittite Texts: The Case of the Cilician (Kizzuwatnean) Road System, ''KASKAL 10'', 2013, pp. 1–34. * Novák, Mirko and Rutishauser, Susanne: Tutḫaliya, Šunaššura und die Grenze zwischen Ḫatti und Kizzuwatna, in: C. Mittermayer, S. Ecklin (eds.), ''Altorientalische Studien zu Ehren von Pascal Attinger, Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis 256'', Academic Press, Fribourg/Göttingen 2012, pp. 259–269. * Kozal, Ekin and Novák, Mirko: Facing Muwattalli. Some Thoughts on the Visibility and Function of the Rock Reliefs at Sirkeli Höyük, Cilicia, in: E. Kozal, M. Akar, Y. Heffron, Ç. Çilingiroğlu, T.E. Şerifoğlu, C. Çakırlar, S. Ünlüsoy and E. Jean (eds.), ''Questions, Approaches, and Dialoguesin the Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology Studies in Honor of Marie-Henriette and Charles Gates, Alter Orient und Altes Testament 445'', Ugarit-Verlag, Münster 2017, pp. 371–388. * Novák, Mirko and Rutishauser, Susanne: Kizzuwatna: Archaeology. In: M. Weeden und L.Z. Ullmann (ed.), ''Hittite Landscape and Geography. Handbuch der Orientalistik I,121'', Brill, Leiden 2017, pp. 134–145. * Kozal, Ekin and Novák, Mirko: Alalakh and Kizzuwatna. Some Thoughts on the Synchronization, in: Ç. Maner, A. Gilbert, M. Horowitz (ed.), ''Overturning Certainties in Near Eastern Archaeology, A Festschrift in Honor of K. Aslıhan Yener for her 40 years of Field Archaeology in the Eastern Mediterranean'', Brill, Leiden 2017, pp. 296–317.