DOCSLIB.ORG

I Vicini Settentrionali Le Popolazioni Della Turchia Orientale E Del Caucaso Meridionale All’Epoca Delle Grandi Potenze Regionali

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
I Vicini Settentrionali Le Popolazioni Della Turchia Orientale E Del Caucaso Meridionale All’Epoca Delle Grandi Potenze Regionali Corso di Laurea Magistrale in Scienze dell’Antichità: letterature, storia e archeologia Tesi di Laurea I Vicini Settentrionali Le Popolazioni della Turchia Orientale e del Caucaso Meridionale all’epoca delle grandi potenze regionali Relatore Ch. Prof.ssa Elena Rova Correlatore Ch. Prof. Lucio Milano Correlatore Ch. Prof.ssa Alessandra Gilibert Laureando Francesco Bianchi Matricola 861101 Anno Accademico 2016 / 2017 Indice Introduzione ...................................................................................................................................................... 1 1. Introduzione geografica e status quaestionis ........................................................................................... 3 1.1. Il quadro geografico della regione ..................................................................................................... 3 1.1.1. Questioni terminologiche .......................................................................................................... 3 1.1.2. Il contesto geografico della Turchia Orientale .......................................................................... 5 1.1.3. Il contesto geografico del Caucaso Meridionale ....................................................................... 8 1.2. Status quaestionis.............................................................................................................................. 9 1.2.1. Premesse ................................................................................................................................... 9 1.2.2. Status quaestionis .................................................................................................................... 13 2. Le popolazioni della Turchia Orientale e del Caucaso Meridionale nel Tardo Bronzo: le fonti storiche 23 2.1. Le fonti principali e il quadro storico generale ................................................................................ 23 2.2. La Turchia Orientale ........................................................................................................................ 29 2.2.1. La regione di Malatya ed Elaziğ ............................................................................................... 29 2.2.2. L’alta valle del Tigri .................................................................................................................. 34 2.2.3. Le regioni Nord-Orientali ......................................................................................................... 40 2.2.4. La regione di Van ..................................................................................................................... 44 2.3. Il Caucaso Meridionale .................................................................................................................... 50 2.4. La Localizzazione dei Kaška .............................................................................................................. 53 3. Le popolazioni della Turchia Orientale e del Caucaso Meridionale nel Tardo Bronzo: le evidenze archeologiche .................................................................................................................................................. 55 3.1. La Turchia Orientale ........................................................................................................................ 55 3.1.1. L’alta valle dell’Eufrate ............................................................................................................ 55 3.1.2. L’alta valle del Tigri .................................................................................................................. 87 3.1.3. Le regioni Nord-Orientali ....................................................................................................... 104 3.1.4. La regione di Van ................................................................................................................... 113 3.2. Il Caucaso Meridionale .................................................................................................................. 127 3.2.1. L’Armenia ............................................................................................................................... 127 3.2.2. La Georgia Orientale .............................................................................................................. 159 3.2.3. L’Azerbaijan Occidentale e il Nakhichevan ............................................................................ 183 3.2.4. Evidenze archeologiche sui Kaška ......................................................................................... 191 4. Conclusioni ............................................................................................................................................ 193 Abbreviazioni ................................................................................................................................................. 204 Bibliografia ..................................................................................................................................................... 204 Indice delle Figure ......................................................................................................................................... 230 Introduzione L’Età del Bronzo Tardo nel Caucaso Meridionale rappresenta un periodo molto interessante, e per certi versi poco conosciuto, per la regione, che vede importanti cambiamenti testimoniati da mutamenti nelle forme e nei modelli d’insediamento, nell’architettura funebre e nell’orizzonte ceramico. La diffusione su gran parte del territorio della regione di fortezze localizzate sulla sommità di colline, l’abbandono della tradizione dei kurgan in favore di tombe di dimensioni più ridotte, “a fossa” o “a cista”, e la diffusione dell’orizzonte ceramico detto Lchashen-Tsitelgori sono elementi significativi che caratterizzano il Bronzo Tardo della regione e distinguono quest’epoca dalla precedente. Allo stesso tempo, il ritrovamento nel Caucaso Meridionale di alcuni elementi di chiara origine vicino- orientale, soprattutto sigilli mittanici del “Common Style”, ha portato ad ipotizzare che anche questa regione fosse inserita all’interno del circuito di scambi internazionali che coinvolgeva tutto il Vicino Oriente nella Tarda Età del Bronzo. Alcuni documenti epigrafici datati al Tardo Bronzo e prodotti in ambiente ittita e medio- assiro c’informano, inoltre, sull’esistenza di una serie di popolazioni che abitavano i territori della Turchia Orientale e forse anche le propaggini meridionali del Caucaso Meridionale. Partendo da questi tre elementi la mia ricerca, di cui questo testo è il frutto, si è concentrata su alcune aree della Turchia Orientale e del Caucaso Meridionale per identificare alcuni elementi che permettessero di far luce sull’esistenza o meno di rapporti tra queste regioni e le potenze regionali del Vicino Oriente, in particolare gli Ittiti, Mittani e il regno medio-assiro. Le aree prese in considerazione all’interno della ricerca sono: l’area di Malatya ed Elaziğ, la valle dell’Alto Tigri, le regioni Nord-Orientali della Turchia, l’area gravitante attorno alle sponde del lago di Van, la Georgia Orientale, l’Armenia e l’Azerbaijan Occidentale. Allo scopo d’indagare gli ipotetici rapporti che legavano queste regioni alle potenze regionali del Vicino Oriente, per prima cosa sono state considerate alcune fonti documentarie che menzionano queste regioni: le fonti ittite e le fonti medio-assire. Si tratta di due delle potenze regionali che ebbero relazioni, di natura diversa, con i territori della Turchia Orientale e, forse, del Caucaso Meridionale. Queste fonti menzionano i nomi di alcune popolazioni che, seguendo le più recenti ricerche sulla geografia storica del Bronzo Tardo nel Vicino Oriente, si è cercato di collocare all’interno del vasto territorio preso in considerazione. Una volta terminata questa prima parte, per ciascun territorio considerato sono state analizzate le evidenze archeologiche provenienti dai siti di queste aree, allo scopo di mettere in luce sia i tratti che potrebbero essere considerati locali che quelli di chiara derivazione “straniera”: sono stati quindi considerati gli insediamenti e gli elementi architettonici, di qualsiasi natura, individuabili al loro interno, i repertori ceramici propri di queste aree (per quanto pubblicati) e, infine, alcune classi di oggetti, secondo uno schema piuttosto ripetitivo il cui obiettivo principale è rendere più semplice il confronto. 1 Terminata questa seconda parte, si è cercato di esporre le conclusioni a cui questa ricerca mi ha portato, con particolare attenzione rispetto alla possibilità di chiarire meglio la natura delle relazioni tra i territori della Turchia Orientale e del Caucaso Meridionale e il Vicino Oriente e rispetto alla possibilità di ipotizzare alcune vie attraverso le quali questi contatti potevano verificarsi. 2 1. Introduzione geografica e status quaestionis 1.1. Il quadro geografico della regione 1.1.1. Questioni terminologiche La vasta area della quale si parlerà nel testo è compresa all’interno della macroregione dell’Asia Occidentale e si estende sui territori occupati dai moderni stati di Turchia, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan e Iran. La maggior parte della regione poggia sulla placca tettonica Eurasiatica, mentre la valle dell’Eufrate turco1 e l’alta valle del Tigri poggiano, rispettivamente, sulla placca Anatolica e su quella Arabica (fig. 1). Trovandosi in una posizione di confine tra
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Hanigalbat and the Land Hani
    Arnhem (nl) 2015 – 3 Anatolia in the bronze age. © Joost Blasweiler student Leiden University - [email protected] Hanigal9bat and the land Hana. From the annals of Hattusili I we know that in his 3rd year the Hurrian enemy attacked his kingdom. Thanks to the text of Hattusili I (“ruler of Kussara and (who) reign the city of Hattusa”) we can be certain that c. 60 years after the abandonment of the city of Kanesh, Hurrian armies extensively entered the kingdom of Hatti. Remarkable is that Hattusili mentioned that it was not a king or a kingdom who had attacked, but had used an expression “the Hurrian enemy”. Which might point that formerly attacks, raids or wars with Hurrians armies were known by Hattusili king of Kussara. And therefore the threatening expression had arisen in Hittite: “the Hurrian enemy”. Translation of Gary Beckman 2008, The Ancient Near East, editor Mark W. Chavalas, 220. The cuneiform texts of the annal are bilingual: Babylonian and Nesili (Hittite). Note: 16. Babylonian text: ‘the enemy from Ḫanikalbat entered my land’. The Babylonian text of the bilingual is more specific: “the enemy of Ḫanigal9 bat”. Therefore the scholar N.B. Jankowska1 thought that apparently the Hurrian kingdom Hanigalbat had existed probably from an earlier date before the reign of Hattusili i.e. before c. 1650 BC. Normally with the term Mittani one is pointing to the mighty Hurrian kingdom of the 15th century BC 2. Ignace J. Gelb reported 3 on “the dragomans of the Habigalbatian soldiers/workers” in an Old Babylonian tablet of Amisaduqa, who was a contemporary with Hattusili I.
    [Show full text]
  • IMPACT of a MILITARISTIC SOCIETY: a STUDY on the HITTITES by Amber N. Hawley Submitted to the Faculty of the Archaeological Stud
    IMPACT OF A MILITARISTIC SOCIETY: A STUDY ON THE HITTITES By Amber N. Hawley Submitted to the Faculty of The Archaeological Studies Program Department of Sociology and Archaeology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Science University of Wisconsin – La Crosse 2012 Copyright © 2012 by Amber N. Hawley All rights reserved ii THE ECONOMIC IMPACT OF A MILITARISTIC SOCIETY: A STUDY ON THE HITTITES Amber N. Hawley, B.S. University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, 2012 The purpose of this study is to better understand the relationship between the military, the economy, and the societal collapse of the Hittites, a militaristic society. The Hittite empire suffered from many problems near the end of its existence, but this research supports the idea that the military‟s demand for subsistence goods was too great for the economy to provide. By analyzing historical documentation, many aspects of the Hittite culture can be examined, such as trade networks as well as military campaign reports. The study also looks at the archaeological excavations of Hattusa, the Hittite capital, and Kaman-Kalehöyük, a supply city that would restock the campaigning military. By examining these cities and historical documentation, better understanding of the economy and military will be attained for militaristic societies; and in the case of the Hittites, their relationship to the societal collapse is determined to be strong. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to thank my advisors, Dr. David Anderson and Dr. Mark Chavalas for providing me with feedback throughout my research. I would also like to thank my reading group, which consisted of Mitchell Johnson and Maximilian Pschorr for giving me great advice.
    [Show full text]
  • Following a False Trail — the Search for the Hittites
    CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk AL-RA¯ FIDA¯ N Vol. XXVII 2006 101 FOLLOWING A FALSE TRAIL — THE SEARCH FOR THE HITTITES Spencer M. ROBINSON* The attempt to answer the question of cultural continuity and discontinuity has been, and continues to be, the principal driving force in the archaeology of Anatolia. On a wider scale, the concern with defining cultural boundaries has been no less a central issue in the archaeology of the Ancient Near East. The question of cultural boundaries goes to the very heart of understanding and interpreting Anatolian and other Ancient Near East sites from a historical view. This, however, begs two essential questions: 1) is the historical view the proper view for archaeology? and 2) is the historical view credible, even to the objectives of historical scholarship? While these questions may seem ridiculous and completely unwarranted, or heretical, I will endeavor to demonstrate that a reassessment of these basic issues is critical. The basic problem is the concept of culture. ‘Culture,’ like many of the terms that we are fond of casually tossing about in common speech, is simply a hypothetical construct whose definition is slippery and elusive. Consequently, it is quite meaningless to talk about cultural continuity and discontinuity when we cannot definitively state what it is that is or is not continued. Let us critically examine the use of the term ‘culture’ in historical and archaeological contexts. We often use such expressions as the ‘Hittite culture,’ the ‘Hattian culture,’ the ‘Phrygian culture,’ the ‘Urartian culture,’ the ‘Hurrian culture,’ etc., but what do we really mean by these expressions? Basically such labels are defined by language, i.e., the language in which the surviving texts of a group of people were written, and/or that of place names or personal names recorded in the surviving texts of one or more coterminous groups.
    [Show full text]
  • A Hittite Tablet from Büklükale
    AAS XVIII 2013 A Hittite Tablet fom Büklükale 19 A Hittite Tablet from Büklükale Mark WEEDEN London, UK ABSTRACT 2001, 2008) by the Japanese Institute of Anatolian Archaeology, led by S. Omura (id. 1993: 368, Tis article presents the philological publication of a fragment of Büyükkaletepe; 2007: 50). Since 2009 the JIAA a Hittite cuneiform tablet found during excavations conducted by has conducted four years of excavation at Büklükale the Japanese Institute of Anatolian Archaeology under the direc- under the directorship of K. Matsumura (id. 2010; tion of K. Matsumura at the site of Büklükale in 2010. Te frag- 2011). Using the evidence collected from these inves- ment contains part of a letter. Despite its being broken it is possible tigations it has not yet proven possible to arrive at a to suggest on the basis of some of the phraseology that this letter conclusive interpretation of the historical or archaeo- was probably written by a royal personage. Afer a summary con- logical context of the tablet at the site of Büklükale. sideration of the possible geographical implications of the fnd and of potential identifcations of the site with ancient place-names, the fragment is presented in hand-copy (Fig. 1) and photograph (Figs. 2. BÜKLÜKALE AND HITTITE 2-3), transliteration and translation. A detailed philological com- GEOGRAPHY: SOME mentary and palaeographic analysis is appended. PRELIMINARY REMARKS The site of Büklükale, otherwise referred to in some literature as Kapalıkaya, Büyükkale, or 1. INTRODUCTION Büyukkaletepe, is located on the western bend of the Kızılırmak on its western bank, opposite the The tablet fragment under consideration (BKT village of Köprüköy, about 100km southeast of 1) was found in secondary layering at the site of Ankara (coordinates 39° 35’ 0” N by 33° 25’ 42” Büklükale during excavations of the Japanese E, 785m above sea-level).
    [Show full text]
  • Anatolia Between the 13 and the 12 Century
    Collana di studi sulle civiltà dell’Oriente antico fondata da Fiorella Imparati e Giovanni Pugliese Carratelli diretta da Stefano de Martino Stefano de Martino – Elena Devecchi ANATOLIA BETWEEN THE 13th AND THE 12th CENTURY BCE LoGisma editore 3 Collana di studi sulle civiltà dell’Oriente antico fondata da Fiorella Imparati e Giovanni Pugliese Carratelli editor Stefano de Martino scientific board Mauro Giorgieri, Jared L. Miller, Mark Weeden, Gernot Wilhelm Questa pubblicazione è stata realizzata con il contributo della Università degli Studi di Torino - Dipartimento di Studi Storici Progetto DEMS_PRIN_2015_16_01 “L’Anatolia antica: politiche imperiali e culture locali tra XV e VII secolo a.C. Problemi di etnicità, assetti urbani e territoriali, tradizione e innovazione”. Stefano de Martino – Elena Devecchi (a cura di), Anatolia between the 13th and the 12th century BCE. (Eothen; 23) Copyright © 2020 LoGisma editore www.logisma.it - [email protected] ISBN 978-88-94926-25-5 Printed in January 2020 4 ARE THERE SIGNS OF THE DECLINE OF THE LATE HITTITE STATE IN THE TEXTUAL DOCUMENTATION FROM HATTUŠA? Jared L. Miller While working recently on a general history of the Hittites, I was forced to deal with the question posed in the title of this paper. And my conclusion was, in short: No, there are no signs, or at least no clear signs, of the decline and impending collapse of the Hittite state in the documentation from Hattuša. It should be emphasized at this point that only the question as it pertains to the textual documentation from Hattuša will be discussed in this paper, not the archaeological data and not the textual material from Ugarit, Emar, Amarna or other sites, which, taken all together, result in a somewhat more informative, though still very incomplete, picture.1 Further, as this paper attempts to address a very extensive and complex topic in only a few short pages, it will necessarily be the case that myriad aspects of very many issues raised will remain untouched as I lay out the argument in broad strokes.
    [Show full text]
  • THE KINGDOM of the HITTITES This Page Intentionally Left Blank the Kingdom of the Hittites
    THE KINGDOM OF THE HITTITES This page intentionally left blank The Kingdom of the Hittites New Edition TREVOR BRYCE 1 3 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford ox2 6dp Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With oYces in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York ß Trevor Bryce 2005 The moral rights of the author have been asserted Database right Oxford University Press (maker) First published 2005 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose the same
    [Show full text]
  • The 'Cruciform Seal' from Bogazköy-Hattusa
    ALi M. DIN<;OL - BELK IS DiN<;OL - J. DAVID HA WKI S - GERNOT WILHELM The 'Cruciform Seal' from Bogazköy-Hattusa Tafel6 l TRODUCTION Thc four authors of this contribution have been friends and colleagues of Peter Neve for many years, and have collaborated with the Bogazköy Expedition in the work on epigraphic material. Peter Neve opened the extraordinarily productive excavations of the Upper City at Hattusa, and has conducted thcm with the most gratifying resu!ts. It thus scemed to us that a joint presentation of our combined efforts on one of the most important finds of these excavations would be an appropriate means of affering to him, on the occasion of his65th birthday, our high regards and gratitude for his achievements. In 1986 Peter Neve reexcavating Temple 3 at Bogazköy found among other epigraphic 1 material some !arge clay lumps bearing remarkable seal impressions • These he deduced from impressions on their reverse sides to be sealings for containers or possibly for door fastenings. They almost all came from the lang ro"om 8 on the north-east side of Temple 3, and were found in a Ievel bclow that of the original floor immediatcly above a layer of yellow filling ! . Neve idcntified this as secondarily deposited building detritus and considered that the sealings would Apart from the usual abbreviations uscd by thc Arcbäologische Bibliographie and the Arcbäologrscher Anzeiger, we note thc following: ChS Corpus der hurririschen Sprachdenkmäler CTH E. Laroche, Catalogue des textes hittites ( 1970) HH E. Laroche, Lcs hicroglrphes hirrircs ( 1960) Kammenhuber, A. Kammenbuber, Orakelpraxis, Träume und Vorzeichenschau bei den Hethitern, THcth 7 (1976) Orakelpraxis KBo Keilschrifttexte aus ßoghazköi KUB Keilschrifturkunden aus ßoghazköi Orten, H .
    [Show full text]
  • A Hatalomgyakorlás Lehetőségei És Korlátai a Hettita Birodalomban
    PÉCSI TUDOMÁNYEGYETEM BÖLCSÉSZETTUDOMÁNYI KAR INTERDISZCIPLINÁRIS DOKTORI ISKOLA ÓKORTÖRTÉNETI DOKTORI PROGRAM: A KÁRPÁT-MEDENCE ÉS AZ ANTIK VILÁG NÉPEINEK TÖRTÉNETE, KULTÚRÁJA ÉS KAPCSOLATAIK AZ ÓKORBAN STIPICH BÉLA TAMÁS: A HATALOMGYAKORLÁS LEHETŐSÉGEI ÉS KORLÁTAI A HETTITA BIRODALOMBAN DOKTORI DISSZERTÁCIÓ TÉMAVEZETŐ: †DR. VARGYAS PÉTER DSC DR. CSABAI ZOLTÁN PHD EGYETEMI TANÁR EGYETEMI ADJUNKTUS (2004-2009) PÉCS 2018 TARTALOMJEGYZÉK I. Bevezetés .............................................................................................................. 4 I.1. A téma indoklása és kutatástörténeti kitekintés ............................................. 4 I.2. Módszertani megjegyzések ............................................................................ 8 I.3. Köszönetnyilvánítás ....................................................................................... 9 II. A Hettita Birodalom formatív időszaka .............................................................. 12 II.1. Forráshelyzet ................................................................................................ 12 II.2. Közép-Anatólia politikai berendezkedése az óasszír kereskedelmi hálózat működése idején .............................................................................. 14 II.3. Anum-Hirwe birodalma ............................................................................... 19 II.4. Az óasszír kor kereskedelmi hálózatának emlékezete a hettita szövegekben ................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Forms of Historical Consciousness in Hittite Anatolia1
    Anadolu / Anatolia 44, 2018 A. Gilan IN SEARCH OF A DISTANT PAST: FORMS OF HISTORICAL CONSCIOUSNESS IN HITTITE ANATOLIA1 Amir GILAN* Keywords: Hittites • Forms of Historical Consciousness • Anatolia Abstract: The Hittites of the Old Hittite kingdom could only look back on a relatively short past. With time, however, the kingdom ‘without a past’ could finally look back and relate to a distant past of its own. The following paper will survey some of ways the Hittites came into contact, imagined, and represented their distant past. Hittite historiography, one of the most elaborate and highly developed traditions of its kind in the ancient Near East, was mainly concerned with contemporary history and only marginally engaged with the distant past. The more distant past was the subject of literature rather than of historiography. Both in the form of translated Mesopotamian literature or in local compositions. But it was in ritual action, as documented in the ‘Offering Lists’, that long sequences of past names were preserved and performed, constituting a historical scaffold spanning from the earliest phases of the Old Kingdom to the Empire period. The Old Hittite Kingdom began as a ‘Kingdom without a past’, but with time, the Hittites began to relate and to utilize a distant, sometimes even glorious past of, of their own. UZAK BİR GEÇMİŞİN ARAŞTIRILMASI: HİTİT ANADOLU’SUNDA TARİHSEL BİLİNCİN BİÇİMLERİ Anahtar Kelimeler: Hititler • Tarihsel Bilincin Biçimleri • Anadolu Özet: Eski Hitit krallığının Hititleri, göreceli yakın bir geçmişi hatırlayabiliyorlardı. Ancak zamanla, “geçmişi olmayan” krallık geriye bakıp kendine ait uzun bir geçmişi hikaye etmeye başladı. Bu makale, Hititlerin kendi geçmişleriyle kurdukları bağları ve gözlerinde canlandırdıkları uzak geçmişlerini nasıl ele alıp tasvir ettikleri hakkında çeşitli örnekler sunmaktadır.
    [Show full text]
  • Letters of the Great Kings of the Ancient Near East
    LETTERS OF THE GREAT KINGS OF THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST The Royal Correspondence of the Late Bronze Age Trevor Bryce LONDON AND NEW YORK First published 2003 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” © 2003 Trevor Bryce All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data (Data to follow) ISBN 0-203-50498-4 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-56985-7 (Adobe eReader Format) ISBN 041525857X (Print Edition) CONTENTS List of illustrations v List of abbreviations vi Comparative chronology of the Great Kings ix Introduction 1 Part I Setting the scene 7 1 The main players: the five Great Kingdoms 8 2 The interaction of the players: imperial administration and 38 international relationships Part II The letters and their themes 50 3 Letters and messengers
    [Show full text]
  • Chapter 21 Kizzuwatna and the Euphrates States: Kummaha, Elbistan, Malatya Philology J. David Hawkins and Mark Weeden SOAS
    Chapter 21 Kizzuwatna and the Euphrates States: Kummaha, Elbistan, Malatya Philology J. David Hawkins and Mark Weeden SOAS, University of London 1. Introduction Kizzuwatna is defined in a Middle Hittite letter from Maşathöyük as a “primary watchpost”, a border region, which the writer of the letter explains is just as exposed as Zikkasta in the area of Maşat itself.1 Kizzuwatna itself had only been annexed to the Hittite power-sphere since the reign of Tudhaliya I in the mid 15th century BC as outlined in the treaty with Sunassura.2 Prior to this it had been subject to Hurrian overlordship, with a basically Syrian geo-political orientation.3 Hittite access to Syria is one of the key themes associated with the area of Kizzuwatna. One traditional assumption has been that this passed through the Cilician Gates into Plain Cilicia and then over one of the Amanus passes into Syria. Cogent objections have been made to this view, especially when it involves the passage of armies through difficult terrain involving precarious passes.4 Where exactly its borders lay and where its main cities are to be located have remained problematic issues, although considerable advances have been made in the last 15 years. The identity of the city/land of Kummanni and the city/land of Kizzuwatna was observed early on, as they alternate as readings in duplicate manuscripts of the same texts as well as in the titles of identical people or gods.5 This, along with an alleged textual association of Kizzuwatna with iron on the one hand and the coast on the other, led to an early identification of Kizzuwatna with Comana Pontica on the Black Sea coast.
    [Show full text]
  • The Last Days of Hattusa -- the Mysterious Collapse of the Hittite Empire Trevor Bryce
    The Last Days of Hattusa -- The mysterious collapse of the Hittite empire Trevor Bryce From his capital, Hattusa, in central Anatolia, the last-known Hittite king, Suppiluliuma II (1207 B.C.-?), ruled over a people who had once built a great empire—one of the superpowers (along with Egypt, Mittani, Babylon and Assyria) of the Late Bronze Age. The Kingdom of the Hittites, called Hatti, had stretched across the face of Anatolia and northern Syria, from the Aegean in the west to the Euphrates in the east. But now those days were gone, and the royal capital was about to be destroyed forever by invasion and fire. Did Suppiluliuma die defending his city, like the last king of Constantinople 2,600 years later? Or did he spend his final moments in his palace, impassively contemplating mankind’s flickering mortality? Neither, according A helmeted god stands guard over one of the to recent principal entrances to ancient Hattusa. From archaeological the 17th to the early 12th century B.C., evidence, which Hattusa served as the capital of the Hittite paints a somewhat empire. Credit: Gianni Dagli Orti/Corbis. less dramatic, though still mysterious, picture of Hattusa’s last days. Excavations at the site, directed by the German archaeologist Jürgen Seeher, have indeed determined that the city was invaded and burned early in the 12th century B.C. But this destruction appears to have taken place after many of Hattusa’s residents had abandoned the city, carrying off the valuable (and portable) objects as well as the city’s important official records.
    [Show full text]