You are on page 1of 17
LOCATING AHHIYAWA* ‘The nature and location of the land known to the Hittes as Ahhiyawa and the site ofits ruler are questions of great curret as wel as long,standng interest and debate, Recent study of Hittite interiptons, of Linear B tablets from Thebes, and of results of excavations both in Greece and along what P. Mountjoy has termed the “East Aegean-West Anatolian Inter. face” have shed new ight on the isues. Whether Akiva refered intl or subsequently to a place, a people, or both is unclear, and the relation of Ahiyawa to the Achtiol of Homer and to Achaea is somewhat uncertain. Indeed, confidence in the association might be abseat were it not for the near certainty (establisied through recent research on Hit. tite/Lawian inscriptions and texts, shove all the work of D. Hawkins on the rock insription from the Karabel Pass southeast of Izmir that the map of westem Anatolia is secure, It now seems clear thatthe Millawanda/Milawate, Apasa and Lazpe of the Hittite/Lawian teas ere the Miletus, Ephesus and Lesbos known to Greek history, and that the Wilusa of the texts is the Wiliowlion known to Homer, the Troy of Schliemann and of legend? I is also clear ‘iuisen honor and pleasure wor his paperto Pro, Spos leks, hla par exlens, maior su der fend, The contin of ro abode {othe ldo Aegean prebirory, hogh i meio. lows excavation, magtsalpubication and ddd ‘eachig, ht been enormocs. His comment t is fe as evidenced by hi wings to undertake te urdemome tak of publeton of excvaions con chad ong oo so te cae ofthe eitade! of Gl is {ola it many contibutoas to Mensean srchoe log lear steroid, «1 am most grt to Jere Warner, Ein Hayes ‘nd Cations MeDonalé fr inate aiance in ‘ning publication, fcthecting and protest. {ng am further indebted to Prot Cratfls Mag ‘is, cutandng pop and wocosoeat Myon of Prot. SpjceInkvid, for bis mamerovr tough femments on a drt of this paper AN exelent ‘verve of hese, orescence and fl of he Myce sue pall per ing eltions with Ane tolm ie provided in C. Magy, Myenae Avon Myctascen Foreign Poli, te Anatolian Froat, and te Theory of Overenension = Recor at Inverted Causal Nema forthe Decline and Fall of the Mycenaean Worl in P. Kowouis- Kalen (CA), Moving rss Borden Poin Relations, Rl si ond Cull Interactions i he Ancient Medi ‘mean, Oiewale Lavonia Anes 15) (Leen 2007) 718.1 thank as well Dr. Hector Caing Prot ‘Richard Jake, Prot Peter Rub, Prot, Sut Man ing sd Dr. Penelope Mountjoy Sor many bei 1LP- Mountjoy, The Fast Aegean - West Astin Interface i the Laie Bronze Age: Mycenscnoxsathe Kingdom ct Abhi, An $8 198, 35.67, With e ‘pect © the propored linguistic nage of Ackao fo Aliana, see MC Fnkeber, rom Abtiewe to ‘Aymol, Ginna 66 1985, 127234 (Cam rate Singer fort referene), On te sinicance of the ABLpews question in ‘Tioja War scolmp and Homeric mutes, ee Bt Wiener, Hamer and Hinton? Ol Quests, New Ev ence, in BPOS: Recontdrg the Gch Epc and Aegan Broce Age Crnoly. Proce of ie th “ntematona Aegean Coferens, Lot Arges, Ue 1 of Calf Lo Angeles, 2123 dp 205, Aceon 25 (Lidge 207) 322 MALCOLM H. WIENER ‘rom the approximately twenty-five Hittite texts! referring to Ahhiyawa that it included, at least at some points in time, the site of Miletus, shown by the excavation of the Niemeiers ‘0 be heavily Late Helladic in character after an earlier Minoan oceupstion. The texts make plain that Ahkiyawa also covered additional parts ofthe southern Anatolian coast and that its capital probably lay abroad. It is apparent that Ahhiyawa was an entity of some impor. tance to the Hittites from atleast the early 14th tothe Iate 13th century. In one text (KUB XXIILI) the ruler of Abhiyawa is listed as great king equal to those of Egypt, Asta end Kassite Babylonis, but the reference to Ahhiyawa is then erased Furthermore, the rer of Abihiyawa is sometimes addressed as “brother.” It should be noted, however, thatthe texn does not necessary connote rulers of states approximately equal in power, fori is often ‘sed, atleast in Eayptin diplomatic correspondence, to addres a ruler of a much les sig. nifcant state rather, the tem is seemingly employed whenever the pharaoh wants some. thing, particularly gifts. The Ahbiyawan rulers with whom the Hitite rulers correspond ere ‘out of reach of Hitite power, control land forees on the Anatolian coest (including 100 cha ‘ots, assuming that Atarsiya, the man of Ahhiyawa, is under the Ahhiyawan rulers contol), and a brother of a ruler of Abhiyswa rides with a charioteer who has marred into the fam, fly of a Hittite queen and driven the Hittite king.” Mursili It on one occasion requests a Statue oF token of cn Abhiyawan deity putatively capable of curing the Hittite rulers ness 3. Mos of which heehee pablo eth in the Keichriftet aos Bophask (KBo) serie or inthe edsciturkunden os Bghask (RUB) seis, Al Inve bee ctalgued i the Cate der Tes Hi tte (CTH, now ava the interact. Keli, Grease Daig the Late Bronze Age, JEOL 39,208, 139; B. Calin, Catalog of Hie Tex (C72, “

You might also like