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Arzawa was the name of a region or kingdom in Western Anatolia
Anatolia

Anatolia or Asia Minor is a region of Western Asia, comprising most of the modern Republic of Turkey. It is a geographic region bounded by the Black Sea to the north, the Caucasus to the northeast, the Aegean Sea to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and the Iranian plateau to the east and southeast....
, which later to be known as Lydia
Lydia

Lydia was an Iron Age kingdom of western Asia Minor located generally east of ancient Ionia in the modern Turkey provinces of Manisa Province and inland Izmir Province....
 (Assyrian Luddu, Greek ??d?a) in the post-Hittite
Hittite

Hittite may refer to:*Hittites, ancient Anatolian people*Neo-Hittite states, Iron Age successors to the Hittite people located in modern Turkey and Syria...
 era. It was the western neighbour and sometimes vassal of the Hittites
Hittites

The Hittites were an ancient Anatolian people who spoke a Hittite language of the Anatolian languages of the Indo-European languages family, and established a kingdom centered at Hattusa in north-central Anatolia ca....
, and probably bordered on the Assuwa
Assuwa

The Assuwa league was a confederation of states in western Anatolia, defeated by the Hittites under an earlier Tudhaliya I around 1400 BC. The league formed to oppose the Hittite empire....
 league to the north. Its capital was Apasa (or Abasa), according to Hittite sources, which may correspond to the later Lydian capital, Ephesus
Ephesus

Ephesus was an ancient Greek city on the west coast of Anatolia, in the region known as Ionia during the period known as Classical Greece. It was one of the twelve cities of the Ionian League....
.

The language spoken in Arzawa during the Bronze Age
Bronze Age

The Bronze Age is, with respect to a given prehistory, the period in that society when the most advanced metalworking included smelting copper and tin from naturally-occurring outcroppings of copper and tin ores, creating a bronze alloy by melting those metals together, and casting them into bronze artifact s....
 and early Iron Age
Iron Age

In archaeology, the Iron Age was the stage in the development of any people in which tools and weapons whose main ingredient was iron were prominent....
 was Luwian
Luwian language

Luwian is an extinct language of the Anatolian languages of the Indo-European languages language family. Luwian is closely related to Hittite language, and was among the languages spoken by population groups in Arzawa, to the west or southwest of the core Hittites area....
, a member of the Anatolian
Anatolian languages

The Anatolian languages are a group of extinct Indo-European languages languages, which were spoken in Asia Minor, the best attested of them being the Hittite language....
 branch of the Indo-European
Indo-European languages

The Indo-European languages are a Language family of several hundred related languages and dialects, including most major languages of Europe, the Iranian plateau , Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent ....
 family.






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Arzawa was the name of a region or kingdom in Western Anatolia
Anatolia

Anatolia or Asia Minor is a region of Western Asia, comprising most of the modern Republic of Turkey. It is a geographic region bounded by the Black Sea to the north, the Caucasus to the northeast, the Aegean Sea to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and the Iranian plateau to the east and southeast....
, which later to be known as Lydia
Lydia

Lydia was an Iron Age kingdom of western Asia Minor located generally east of ancient Ionia in the modern Turkey provinces of Manisa Province and inland Izmir Province....
 (Assyrian Luddu, Greek ??d?a) in the post-Hittite
Hittite

Hittite may refer to:*Hittites, ancient Anatolian people*Neo-Hittite states, Iron Age successors to the Hittite people located in modern Turkey and Syria...
 era. It was the western neighbour and sometimes vassal of the Hittites
Hittites

The Hittites were an ancient Anatolian people who spoke a Hittite language of the Anatolian languages of the Indo-European languages family, and established a kingdom centered at Hattusa in north-central Anatolia ca....
, and probably bordered on the Assuwa
Assuwa

The Assuwa league was a confederation of states in western Anatolia, defeated by the Hittites under an earlier Tudhaliya I around 1400 BC. The league formed to oppose the Hittite empire....
 league to the north. Its capital was Apasa (or Abasa), according to Hittite sources, which may correspond to the later Lydian capital, Ephesus
Ephesus

Ephesus was an ancient Greek city on the west coast of Anatolia, in the region known as Ionia during the period known as Classical Greece. It was one of the twelve cities of the Ionian League....
.

The language spoken in Arzawa during the Bronze Age
Bronze Age

The Bronze Age is, with respect to a given prehistory, the period in that society when the most advanced metalworking included smelting copper and tin from naturally-occurring outcroppings of copper and tin ores, creating a bronze alloy by melting those metals together, and casting them into bronze artifact s....
 and early Iron Age
Iron Age

In archaeology, the Iron Age was the stage in the development of any people in which tools and weapons whose main ingredient was iron were prominent....
 was Luwian
Luwian language

Luwian is an extinct language of the Anatolian languages of the Indo-European languages language family. Luwian is closely related to Hittite language, and was among the languages spoken by population groups in Arzawa, to the west or southwest of the core Hittites area....
, a member of the Anatolian
Anatolian languages

The Anatolian languages are a group of extinct Indo-European languages languages, which were spoken in Asia Minor, the best attested of them being the Hittite language....
 branch of the Indo-European
Indo-European languages

The Indo-European languages are a Language family of several hundred related languages and dialects, including most major languages of Europe, the Iranian plateau , Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent ....
 family. In the oldest texts, eg. the Hittite Code
Hittite laws

The Hittite laws have been preserved on a number of Hittite language cuneiform script tablets found at Hattusa . Copies have been found written in Old Hittite as well as in Middle and Late Hittite, indicating that they had validity throughout the duration of the Hittite Empire ....
, the area of Arzawa, together with Kizzuwatna
Kizzuwatna

Kizzuwatna is the name of an ancient Anatolian kingdom in the second millennium BC. It was situated in the highlands of southeastern Anatolia, near the Gulf of Iskenderun in modern-day Turkey....
, was named Luwia.

The height of the kingdom was in the 15th and 14th century BC. The Hittites were then weakened, and Arzawa was an ally of Egypt, as recorded in the Amarna letters
Amarna letters

The Amarna letters are an archive of correspondence on clay tablets, mostly diplomatic, between the Ancient Egypt administration and its representatives in Canaan and Amurru during the New Kingdom....
. The Hittite kings Suppiluliuma I
Suppiluliuma I

Suppiluliuma I was king of the Hittites . He achieved fame as a great warrior and statesman, successfully challenging the then-dominant New Kingdom for control of the lands between the Mediterranean and the Euphrates....
 and Mursili II
Mursili II

Mursili II was a king of the Hittite Empire ca. 1321 ? 1295 BC . He was the younger son of Suppiluliuma I, one of the most powerful rulers of the Hittite Empire....
, however, finally managed to defeat Arzawa, which was split into vassal kingdoms called Mira, Seha, and Hanballa. Independent "Neo-Hittite
Neo-Hittite

The states that are called Neo-Hittite, or more recently Syro-Hittite, were Luwian language, Aramaic and Phoenician languages-speaking political entities of Iron Age northern Syria and southern Anatolia that arose following the collapse of the Hittite Empire around 1180 BC and lasted until roughly 700 BC....
" states re-emerged in the region after the collapse of the Hittite Empire from the 12th century.

Kings of Arzawa in the 14th century


  • Kupanta-Kurunta
    Kupanta-Kurunta

    Kupanta-Kurunta was the first recorded king of Arzawa, in the late 15th century BC. He was defeated by an earlier Tudhaliya and his son, the future Arnuwanda I....
  • Madduwatta
    Madduwatta

    Madduwatta was a king of Arzawa, in Anatolia, about 14th or 13th century BC....
     of Zippasla (conquered Arzawa, may or may not have been king of Arzawa)
  • Tarhundaradu
  • Anzapahhadu
  • Uhhazidi or Uhha-Ziti
    Uhha-Ziti

    Uhha-Ziti was the last independent king of Arzawa, a Bronze Age kingdom of western Anatolia.Uhha-Ziti had two recorded children, Piyama-Kurunta and Tapalazunauli, who were of fighting age as of 1322 BC....
     - defeated by Mursili II
    Mursili II

    Mursili II was a king of the Hittite Empire ca. 1321 ? 1295 BC . He was the younger son of Suppiluliuma I, one of the most powerful rulers of the Hittite Empire....
     around 1320 BCE


See also

  • Lukka
    Lukka

    The Lukka lands are often mentioned in Hittites texts from the second millennium BC. It denotes a region in the southwestern part of Anatolia. The Lukka lands were never put under permanent Hittite control and were viewed as hostile by the Hittites....
  • History of the Hittites
    History of the Hittites

    Hittites is the conventional English-language term for an ancient people who spoke an Indo-European language and established a kingdom centered in Hattusa in northern Turkey from the 18th century BC....


External links