Assuwa

	Email		Print
	Bookmark		Link

Assuwa

The Assuwa league was a confederation of states 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....
, defeated by 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....
under an earlier Tudhaliya I

Tudhaliya I

Tudhaliya I was a king of the Hittite empire ca. the early 14th century BC .Proper numbering of the Hittite rulers who bore the name Tudhaliya is problematical....
around 1400 BC. The league formed to oppose the Hittite empire. The list of its members contains 22 names, including [...]uqqa, Warsiya, Taruisa, Wilusiya and Karkija (Caria

Caria

Caria was a region of western Anatolia extending along the coast from mid-Ionia south to Lycia and east to Phrygia. The Ionians and Dorians Greeks colonized the west of it and joined the Carian population in forming Greek-dominated states there....
).

Some of the identifications of these names are disputed. Wilusiya is commonly identified with Ilion, and Taruisa with the surrounding Troad, and Warsiya may be associated with 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....
(Lycia

Lycia

Discussion

Ask a question about 'Assuwa'

Start a new discussion about 'Assuwa'

Answer questions from other users

Full Discussion Forum

Encyclopedia

The Assuwa league was a confederation of states in western Anatolia

Anatolia

Hittites

Tudhaliya I

Caria

Lycia

Lycia was a region in Anatolia in what are now the Provinces of Turkey of Antalya Province and Mugla Province on the southern coast of Turkey. It was a federation of ancient cities in the region and later a Roman province of the Roman Empire....
). However, identification of [..]uqqa with later-attested Lukka (Lycia) is problematic, because that would put the Assuwa league both north and south of Arzawa

Arzawa

Arzawa was the name of a region or kingdom in Western Anatolia, which later to be known as Lydia in the post-Hittite era. It was the western neighbour and sometimes vassal of the Hittites, and probably bordered on the Assuwa league to the north....
in southwestern Anatolia. Assuwa appears to lie north of Arzawa, covering the northwestern corner of Anatolia. Homer

Homer

Homer is traditionally held to be the author of the ancient Greek language epic poems the Iliad and the Odyssey, as well as of the Homeric Hymns....
in the Iliad

ILiad

The iLiad is an electronic handheld device, or e-book device, which can be used for document reading and editing. Like the Sony Reader or Amazon Kindle, the iLiad makes use of an electronic paper display....
seems to refer to two Lycias (in 2.876-77, 5.479; Sarpedon

Sarpedon

In Greek mythology, Sarpedon referred to at least three different people....
is a leader of "distant Lycia" while in 2.824ff. 5.105 Pandarus

Pandarus

In Homer's Iliad, Pandarus or Pandaros is a famous archer and the son of Lycaon . Pandarus, who fights on the side of Troy in the Trojan War, first appears in Book Two of the Iliad....
is another leader of Lycians from around Mount Ida

Mount Ida

In Greek mythology, two sacred mountains are called Mount Ida, the "Mountain of the Goddess": Mount Ida, Crete, and Mount Ida, Turkey, known as Mount Ida, Turkey in Classical times....
near Troy, so that Lukka vs. [...]uqqa may find its explanation in these terms. However, the Assuwa Leage included Karkija (Caria), in southwest Anatolia, south of even the proposed Lukka (Lycia). So, since also Assuwa was only a confederate league, it could easily have included a wide-ranging array of anti-Hittite minor powers, across the region.

This confederacy is mentioned only in the fragmentary tablets making up Laroche's CTH 142/85. Since the later Tudhaliya IV

Tudhaliya IV

Tudhaliya IV was a king of the Hittite empire , and the younger son of Hattusili III. He reigned ca. 1237 BCE–1209 BCE.Tudhaliya was likely born in his father's court in Hattusa, after his brother and crown prince Nerikkaili but still while their father was governing on his brother Muwatalli II's behalf....
was known to have had frontier trouble between 1250 and 1200 BC, and since the text lists rebel nations in much the way Ramesses II

Ramesses II

Ramesses II was the third Egyptian pharaoh of the Nineteenth dynasty of Egypt. He is often regarded as Ancient Egypt's greatest, most celebrated, and most powerful pharaoh....
does, the first consensus dated this text - and so Assuwa - to Tudhaliyas IV. This dating appears in all older literature on the fall of the Hatti

Hatti

Hatti in Bronze Age Anatolia refers to:*the area of Hattusa, roughly delimited by the Halys bend*the Hattians of the 3rd millennium BC and 2nd millennium BC millennia BC...
, and crops up every now and then to this day. However the consensus has since then come around to dating Assuwa to an earlier Tudhaliyas, which means prior to Suppiluliumas and so prior to 1350 BC.

Assuwa has been suggested as the origin for the name of the continent Asia
Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent. It covers 8.6% of the Earth's total surface area and, with over 4 billion people, it contains more than 60% of the world's current human population....
(Bossert, 1946).

Assuwa

See also