Jump to content

Assuwa

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Assuwa
𒀸𒋗𒉿
aš-šu-wa
unknown-1430 BC
Common languagesLuwian[1]
GovernmentConfederation

Members

 
• legible
Kispuwa, Unaliya, Dura, Halluwa, Huwallusiya, Karakisa, Dunda, Adadura, Parista, Warsiya, Kuruppiya, Alatra, Pasuhalta, Mount Pahurina, Wilusiya, Taruisa

• obliterated
[—]lugga, [—], [—],
[—]waa, [—]luissa, [—]

Historical eraBronze Age


Assuwa (Hittite: 𒀸𒋗𒉿, romanized: aš-šu-wa) was a region of Bronze Age Anatolia located west of the Kızılırmak River. It was mentioned in Aegean, Anatolian and Egyptian inscriptions but is best known from Hittite records describing a league of 22 towns or states that rebelled against Hittite authority. It disappears from history during the thirteenth century BC.

Etymology

[edit]

The name appears in different scripts over the course of a few hundred years. The individual etymologies are unknown,[2] but scholarship has come to accept that the Ancient Greek: Ᾰ̓σῐ́ᾱ, romanized: Asia is cognate to the Mycenaean Greek: 𐀀𐀯𐀹𐀊, romanized: a-si-wi-ja).[3]

Geography

[edit]

Assuwa was located somewhere in western Anatolia. Linear B texts from Mycenaean Greece identified it as a region within reach of Pylos associated with levies of rowers,[16] suggesting a location separated by water from the Peloponnese. While the extent of its geography is a matter of debate, recent scholarship has argued that much of its territory was located in the western part of classical Phrygia.[17][18][19] This same region was designated by the Hittite laws as part of the land of Luwiya, according to modern researchers.[20][21][17] It was likewise mentioned in a contemporary Egyptian poetical stela along with Keftiu as one of the lands to the west of Egypt.[9][22]

History

[edit]

The earliest mention of a-šu-wi(ya)[15] is from an Anatolian royal seal dating to the eighteenth/seventeenth centuries BC,[23][24] contemporary to the first and only mention of the land of Luwiya of the Hittite texts.[25] The name a-su-ja[7] in Minoan Linear A texts of the sixteenth century BC is also acknowledged to be a likely reference to Assuwa,[3][26] though with no clear understanding of the context.

Egyptian records mention a region called isy[15] and an Assuwan "chief" and "prince" providing supplies to Tuthmose III from 1445-1439 BC during his military campaigns against Nuhašše in modern Syria, including copper, lead, lapis lazuli, ivory, wood and horses.[10] It has been suggested these references predate Egypt's direct contacts with the Hittites and refer to a trade relationship mediated by Alashiya[9] and initiated by an Assuwan power with access to the Mediterranean.[10]

Assuwa is likewise mentioned in six surviving Hittite documents,[27] with all texts either dated to or referring to events occurring during the reign of Tudhaliya I/II.[3] Most of our knowledge comes from the Annals of Tudḫaliya, which gives a detailed account of a rebellion by a league of towns in the aftermath of a Hittite campaign against Arzawan controlled territories west of the Maraššantiya.[10][28][12]

But when I turned back to Hattusa, then against me these lands declared war: [—]lugga, Kispuwa, Unaliya, [—], Dura, Halluwa, Huwallusiya, Karakisa, Dunda, Adadura, Parista, [—], [—]waa, Warsiya, Kuruppiya, [—]luissa, Alatra, Mount Pahurina, Pasuhalta, [—], Wilusiya, Taruisa. [These lands] with their warriors assembled themselves ......... and drew up their army opposite me.[29]

Cline dates this rebellion to circa 1430 BC[10] and Bryce describes it as "the first major [Hittite] venture to the west" which was "not carried out with the aim to impose authority on the western border, but just to secure it."[30] The annals detail the defeat of a substantial Assuwan military force consisting of 10,000 soldiers, 600 teams of horses and charioteers, the capture of an Assuwan king named Piyama-dKAL,[31] the establishment of a client state under his son Kukkuli[32] and a second rebellion after which "the coalition of Assuwa was destroyed".[3]

Scholarship

[edit]
1st Millenium BC
(Common Era years in astronomical year numbering)

Iron AgeMycenaean GreeceHattusaSea PeoplesBattle of KadeshAchaeans (Homer)Tudḫaliya IMiletusMitanniMinoan eruptionHattusaPurushandaKültepeAssyriaMinoan chronologyKarum (trade post)Purushanda

The Luwian Homeland

[edit]
Main article: Luwians

It is possible that Asuwiya ("our good land") was simply the native name for the land occupied by Luwic speakers.[33][34][4] Linguistic models suggest the existence of a common Luwian-speaking state circa 2000 BC, stretching from the central Anatolian plateau (modern Konya) northward to the western bend of the Maraššantiya (where modern Ankara, Kırıkkale and Kırşehir provinces meet).[35][36] The region was dominated by the kingdom of Purushanda,[21][35] the etymology of which suggests a takeover of Hattic lands by Luwian elites.[37] Archaeology at Acemhöyük (the presumed situs) has confirmed the remains of central Anatolian, Mesopotamian and north Syrian pottery - as well as traces of monumental structures - dated 2659 to 2157 BC, providing a plausible terminus a quo for the Luwian takeover of the region.[38]

Purushanda has been posited as lying astride “the Great Caravan Route”,[21] an inland Anatolian passage facilitating trade between Cilicia and the Troad[39] that ran through the Eskisehir plain in classical Phrygia.[40] The Luwian kingdom controlled the south end of this passage at Cilician Gates, the only pass through the Taurus mountains suitable for trade beyond.[21] This made it one of the wealthiest in Anatolia for nearly 500 years,[41] made up of an eclectic mix of Luwian-speaking Luwians, Hattic-speaking Luwians, Luwian-speaking Hattians and Hattic-speaking Hattians.[42]

Then in the eighteenth century BC the Hittites conquered the Assyrian karum at Kanesh[29] and ultimately moved south to Purushanda,[43] establishing Hittite rule over ikkuwaniya - the Lower land.[29][44] By 1650 BC everything west of Purushanda was thereafter likely regarded as the unconquered (and not worth conquering)[45][46] land of Luwiya, "an Old Hittite ethno-linguistic term referring to the area where Luwian was spoken."[47] While it is still an open question whether the border between the Hittites and the Luwians ever extended as far west as the Sangarious, in the 1600s BC that border was clearly the Maraššantiya.[48][47]

Arzawa

[edit]
Main article: Arzawa

In progress

Assuwan towns

[edit]

Some scholarship has been devoted to identifying the towns of the Assuwa league listed in the Annals of Tudḫaliya, though consensus has yet been reached.

  • Assuwa

‣"The group of states making up this confederacy probably lay in the far west of Anatolia, covering at least part of the Aegean coast."[29]
‣"...the province of Assuwa...is located in the Hermos valley, as much as four toponyms featuring in the list with bearing on the blanket term Assuwian League can positively be situated in the realm of Arzawa."[15]
‣"Starke...connects...the Land of Assuwa...with classical Assos.[46]

  • Kispuwa

‣"...not attested anywhere else."[49]

  • Unaliya

‣...not attested anywhere else."[49][50]

  • Dura

‣"For the identification of Dura with classical Tyrrha and modern Tire(h) along the southern bank of the river late called Kaystros, see Freu (208)b...[15]

  • Halluwa

‣...not attested anywhere else."[49]

  • Huwallusiya

‣"...it can hardly be separated from the town of Huwalusa, which is mentioned in another small fragment probably dating from the reign of Mursillis II."[51]
‣"Many of the towns mentioned alongside [it] have convincingly been localized in western Phrygia by M. Forlanini."[49]
‣Woudhuizen associated it with the town of Honaz near the ancient Lycus river in Phrygia.[15]

  • Karakisa

‣"...can only be the well attested country of Karkisa..."[51]
‣"...was apparently situated close to the Seha River Land..."[52]

  • Dunda

‣"is to be localized in Kizzuwatna..."[49]

  • Adadura

‣'...not attested anywhere else."[49]

  • Parista

‣...not attested anywhere else."[49][53]

  • Warsiya

‣"[S]uggests some close connection with the country of Warsiyalla mentioned in §14 of the Alaksandus treaty together with the Lukka lands, Masa and Karkisa, in a context which...probably serves only to locate these countries somewhere in the west of Asia Minor". [51]

  • Kuruppiya

‣The name is identified with Karatepe on the Cilician plain,[54] far removed from traditional locations of Assuwa.
‣Woudhuizen associated it with a mountain near Izmir.[15]

  • Alatra

‣...not attested anywhere else."[49]
‣"...only mentioned in a fragmentary ritual text without determinative and lacking any geographical context."[49][55]
‣Woudhuizen noted the correspondence with the Luwian name for Kaunos, Kwalatarna (“army camp”).[56]

  • Mount Pahurina

‣The Luwic root pāḫūr means "fire,"[57] which may indicate a volcano.

  • Wilusiya

‣"...[it] can be equated Ilios by way of a hypothetical form Wiluwa."[51]
‣...an alternative location of Wilusa in the neighbourhood of present-day Beycesultan was proposed by Vangelis Pantazis...[15]

  • Taruisa

‣"The possibility that [it] might be identified with Greek Troia, i.e. the city of Troy, was observed in 1924 by E. Forrer, and after much controversy philologists have agreed that the equation is possible by way of the hypothetical form Tauriya."[51]
‣"A silver bowl whose hieroglyphic inscription mentions the name of Taruisa (ta-r-wi-za) might be evidence of the same Tudhaliya's campaign against Assuwa."[58][59]

Ahhiyawa

[edit]

In progress

Sea Peoples

[edit]
Main article: Sea Peoples

In progress

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Singers of Lapza: Reconstructing Identities on Bronze Age Lesbos. Teffeeller, Annette. (2013). Luwian Identities: Culture, Language and Religion Between Anatolia and the Aegean. Netherlands: Brill. Google Books
  2. ^ Woudhuizen translated a-šu as a Luwic adverb meaning "good." See Bomhard, A. R. (1984). Toward proto-Nostratic : a new approach to the comparison of proto-Indo-European and proto-Afroasiatic, p. 112. Netherlands: North-Holland. Google Books
  3. ^ a b c d e f Cline, Eric H. (1996). Assuwa and the Achaeans: The Mycenaean Sword at Hattusas and Its Possible Implications. The Annual at the British School at Athens, Vol. 91, pp. 137–151. ResearchGate
  4. ^ a b Achterberg, W. (2004). The Phaistos Disc: A Luwian Letter to Nestor, p. 99. Netherlands: Dutch Archaeological and Historical Society. Academic.edu
  5. ^ Best, Jan and Woudhuizen, Fred. (1988). Ancient Scripts from Crete and Cyprus, p. 83. Germany: Brill. Google Books
  6. ^ Best Jan and Woudhuizen, Fred. (2023). Lost Languages from the Mediterranean, pp. 18, 69-70. Germany: Brill. Google Books
  7. ^ a b Packard, David W. (2023). Minoan Linear A, p. 4, 43, 95. Germany: University of California Press. Google Books
  8. ^ Emanuel, Jeffrey P.. Black Ships and Sea Raiders: The Late Bronze and Early Iron Age Context of Odysseus’ Second Cretan Lie, p. 53. United Kingdom: Lexington Books (2017). Google Books
  9. ^ a b c Strange, John. (2023). Caphtor/Keftiu: A New Investigation, p. 19. Germany: Brill. Google Books
  10. ^ a b c d e f Cline, E. H. (2015). 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed, p. 28–41. United Kingdom: Princeton University Press. Google Books
  11. ^ Rose, C. B. (2014). The Archaeology of Greek and Roman Troy pp. 108-109. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. Google Books.
  12. ^ a b Cline, Eric H. (1997). Achilles in Anatolia: Myth, History, and the Assuwa Rebellion. Crossing Boundaries and Linking Horizons: Studies in Honor of Michael Astour on His 80th Birthday, pp. 189–210. Eds. Gordon D. Young, Mark W. Chavalas, and Richard E. Averbeck. (Bethesda, MD: CDL Press), Academia.edu
  13. ^ Collins, Billie Jean; Bachvarova, Mary R.; Rutherford, Ian (28 March 2010). Anatolian Interfaces: Hittites, Greeks and their Neighbours. Oxbow Books. p. 120. ISBN 978-1-78297-475-8. assuwa pylos "aswia" = Linear B A-si-wi-ja
  14. ^ Latacz, J. (2004). Troy and Homer: towards a solution of an old mystery. United Kingdom: OUP Oxford. Google Books
  15. ^ a b c d e f g h Woudhuizen, Fred. (2023), The Luwians of Western Anatolia: Their Neighbours and Predecessors, pp. 23, 26, 34-66, 71-72, 119, 123, 134. United Kingdom: Archaeopress Publishing Limited. Academia.edu
  16. ^ Palima, Thomas G. (1991). Maritime Matters in the Linear B tablets, p. 279, 302-304. Austin: University of Texas. (University of Texas Files)
  17. ^ a b Forlanini, Massimo. (2008). The Historical Geography of Anatolia and the Transition From the Karum-Period to the Early Hittite Empire. Anatolia and the Jazira during the Old Assyrian Period, p. 58, 67 Academic.edu.
  18. ^ Schachner, Andreas. (2022). Hattusa and Its Environs: Archaeology, p. 37-49. Hittite Landscape and Geography. (2022). Eds. Lee Z. Ullmann and Mark Weeden. Netherlands: Leiden, Boston: Brill. Google Books
  19. ^ Wouduizen, Fred (2021). "Arzawa, Assuwa and Mira: Three Names For the Same Country in Western Anatolia" (video). European Association of Archaeologists.
  20. ^ Yukabovich, Ilya. (2011). Luwian and the Luwians. The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Anatolia: (10,000-323 BCE), p. 534-545. Spain: OUP USA. Google Books
  21. ^ a b c d Blasweiler, Joost. (2016). The kingdom of Purušhanda in the land Luwiya, pp. 31-38. Arnhem, Arnhem (NL) Bronze Age. Academia.edu
  22. ^ Nederhof, Mark-Jan. (2006). Transliteration and translation for "The 'poetical' stela of Tuthmosis III, p. 4. Laurinburg, NC: St. Andrews University. St. Andrews University archives.
  23. ^ Ambos, Clause and Krauskopf, Ingrid. (2008). The curved staff in the Ancient Near East as a predecessor of the Etruscan lituus, p. 132. Bouke van der Meer, L. (Hrsg.), Material Aspects of Etruscan Religion. Proceedings of the International Colloquium Leiden, May 29 and 30, 2008, Babesch Suppl. 16, 2010, S. 127-153. University of Heidelberg Archives.
  24. ^ Wouduizen characterizes the three hieroglyphs that comprise the name as (1) man's head in profile, (2) a triangle and (3) and a vine tendril.
  25. ^ Giusfredi, Federico., Pisaniello, Valerio, Matessi,  Alvise. (2023). Contacts of Languages and Peoples in the Hittite and Post-Hittite World: Volume 1, The Bronze Age and Hatti, p. 288. Netherlands: Brill. Google Books
  26. ^ Emanuel, Jeffrey, (2017). Ships and Sea Raiders: The Late Bronze and Early Iron Age Context of Odysseus’ Second Cretan Lie, p. 53. United Kingdom: Lexington Books. Google Books
  27. ^ KUB xxiii 11 þ 12 (CTH 142), KUB xxiii 14 (CTH 211.5), KUB xxvi 91 (CTH 183), KUB xxxiv 43 (CTH 824), KUB xl 62 þ KUB xiii 9 (CTH 258)
  28. ^ Rose, Charles Brian. (2014). The Archaeology of Greek and Roman Troy, pp. 108-109. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. Google Books
  29. ^ a b c d Bryce, Trevor. (1999). The Kingdom of the Hittites, p. 35-40, 54-55, 125. 136. United Kingdom, Oxford University Press. Google Books.
  30. ^ Nostoi: Indigenous Culture, Migration + Integration in the Aegean Islands + Western Anatolia During the Late Bronze + Early Iron Ages, p. 134. Eds. Konstantinos Kopanias, Nikolaos Chr Stampolidēs, Çiğdem Maner. United Kingdom: Koç University Press, 2015.
  31. ^ The name has been identified as Luwian in origin. Greenberg, Joseph H. (2000). Indo-European and Its Closest Relatives: The Eurasiatic Language Family, Volume 1, p. 171. United States: Stanford University Press. Google Books
  32. ^ The name has been identified as Hurrian in origin. See Nyland. Ann. (2009) The Kikkuli Method of Horse Fitness Training, Revised Edition, p. 9. Maryannu Press, Sydney."
  33. ^ Rutherford, I. (2020). Hittite Texts and Greek Religion: Contact, Interaction, and Comparison, p. 113. United Kingdom: OUP Oxford. Google Books
  34. ^ Bomhard, A. R. (1984). Toward proto-Nostratic : a new approach to the comparison of proto-Indo-European and proto-Afroasiatic, p. 112. Netherlands: North-Holland. Google Books
  35. ^ a b Yakubovich, Ilya. (2011). Luwian and the Luwians. The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Anatolia: (10,000-323 BCE), p. 364, 535. Spain: OUP USA. Google Books.
  36. ^ Yakubovich, Ilya. (2011). In Search of Luwiya, the Original Luwian-speaking Area. Journal of Ancient History, Vol. 4, p. 295. http://vdi.igh.ru
  37. ^ History of Humanity: From the third millennium to the seventh century B.C., p. 549. United Kingdom: Routledge, 1994.
  38. ^ Yakar, Jak. (2003). Towards an absolute chronology for middle and late bronze age Anatolia, Studies. Presented A.M. Mansel, 562. Academia.edu
  39. ^ Efe, Turan. (2007). The theories of the ‘Great Caravan Route’ between Cilicia and Troy: the Early Bronze Age III period in inland western Anatolia. Anatolian Studies 57, pp. 47−64. Academia.edu
  40. ^ Demand, N. H. (2011). The Mediterranean Context of Early Greek History, p. 91. United Kingdom: Wiley Google Books.
  41. ^ Blasweiler, Joost. (2019). The kingdom of Purušhanda and its relations with the kings of Mari and Kanesh in the 18th century BCE: Part 2 The location of the city Purušḫanda. Arnhem (NL) Bronze Age. Academic.edu
  42. ^ Giusfredi, F., Pisaniello, V., Matessi, A. (2023). Contacts of Languages and Peoples in the Hittite and Post-Hittite World: Volume 1, The Bronze Age and Hatti. Netherlands: Brill. Google Books
  43. ^ Kuhrt, A. (1995). The Ancient Near East, C. 3000-330 BC, p. 227. United Kingdom: Routledge. Google Books
  44. ^ Forlanini, Massimo (2017). "South Central: The Lower Land and Tarḫuntašša". In Weeden, Mark; Ullmann, Lee (eds.). Hittite Landscape and Geography. Brill. p. 244. doi:10.1163/9789004349391_022. ISBN 978-90-04-34939-1.
  45. ^ Burney, C. (2018). Historical Dictionary of the Hittites p. 262. United States: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. Google Books
  46. ^ a b Melchert, Craig. (2003). The Luwians, p. 1-2, 7, 11. Netherlands: Brill. Google Books
  47. ^ a b Hawkins, David J. (2013). Luwians vs. Hittites. Luwian Identities: Culture, Language and Religion Between Anatolia and the Aegean, p. 31-35. Netherlands: Brill.
  48. ^ Seeher, Jurgen. (2011). The Plateau: The Hittites. The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Anatolia: (10,000-323 BCE), p. 376-392. (2011). Spain: OUP USA.
  49. ^ a b c d e f g h i Gander, Max. (2022). The West: Philology, p. 264-266. Hittite Landscape and Geography, Netherlands: Brill.
  50. ^ Villages of the same name were found in modern Sri Lanka until the early 20th century. See Modder, F. H. (1908). Gazetteer of the Puttalam District of the North-western Province of Ceylon. Sri Lanka: H. C. Cottle. Google Books
  51. ^ a b c d e Garstang, J. (2017). The Geography of the Hittite Empire, 105-106. United Kingdom: British Institute at Ankara. Google Books
  52. ^ Unwin, Naomi Carless. (2017). Caria and Crete in Antiquity: Cultural Interaction Between Anatolia and the Aegean, pp. 115-118. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. Google Books.
  53. ^ Woudhuizen noted the correspondence with Mycenaean ku-pa-ri-so.
  54. ^ Hawkins, J. D., Weeden, M. (2024). Corpus of Hieroglyphic Luwian Inscriptions: Volume III, p. 187: Inscriptions of the Hettite Empire and New Inscriptions of the Iron Age. Germany: De Gruyter. Google Books
  55. ^ The root pasu is associated with livestock in ancient Indo-Iranian languages. See Mayrhofer, Manfred. (1996). Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Altindoarischen, volume 2, p. 108. Heidelberg: Carl Winter Universitätsverlag Archive.org
  56. ^ Etruscan as a Colonial Luwian Language, Linguistica Tyrrhenica III. Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Kulturwissenschaft, Sonderheft 128. Innsbruck: Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Kulturwissenschaft. Talanta
  57. ^ Katicic, R. (2012). Ancient Languages of the Balkans, p. 59. Germany: Mouton & Company N.V., Publishers. Internet Archive
  58. ^ Taracha, Piotr. (2003). Is Tuthaliya's Sword really Aegean? Hittite Studies in Honor of Harry A. Hoffner, Jr: On the Occasion of His 65th Birthday, p. 367. Eds. Gary Beckman, Richard Beal and Gregory MaMahon. United States: Eisenbrauns. Google Books
  59. ^ Bryce, T. (2006). The Trojans and Their Neighbours, pp. 33-35, 81. Kiribati: Routledge. Google Books
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Assuwa&oldid=1259624425"