Kizzuwatna

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Kizzuwatna

Kizzuwatna (or Kizzuwadna) is the name of an ancient 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....
n kingdom in the second millennium BC. It was situated in the highlands of southeastern Anatolia

Anatolia

Gulf of Iskenderun

The Gulf of Iskenderun is a Headlands and bays or inlet of the eastern Mediterranean Sea, on the southern coast of Turkey near its border with Syria....
in modern-day Turkey

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in southwest Asia and Thrace in the Balkans region of Southern Europe....
. It encircled the Taurus Mountains

Taurus Mountains

Taurus Mountains are a mountain range in southern Turkey, from which the Euphrates and Tigris descend into Syria and Iraq. It divides the Mediterranean Region, Turkey of southern Turkey from the central Anatolia#Anatolian plateau....
and the Ceyhan river. The center of the kingdom was the city of Kummanni, situated in the highlands. In a later era, the same region was known as Cilicia

Cilicia

In antiquity, Cilicia now known as ?ukurova, was a commonly used name of the south coastal region of the Anatolian peninsula, and a political entity in Roman times....
.

country possessed valuable resources, such as silver mines in the Taurus Mountains

Taurus Mountains

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Encyclopedia

Kizzuwatna (or Kizzuwadna) is the name of an ancient Anatolia

Anatolia

Gulf of Iskenderun

The Gulf of Iskenderun is a Headlands and bays or inlet of the eastern Mediterranean Sea, on the southern coast of Turkey near its border with Syria....
in modern-day Turkey

Turkey

Taurus Mountains

Cilicia

In antiquity, Cilicia now known as ?ukurova, was a commonly used name of the south coastal region of the Anatolian peninsula, and a political entity in Roman times....
.

The land

The country possessed valuable resources, such as silver mines in the Taurus Mountains

Taurus Mountains

Taurus Mountains are a mountain range in southern Turkey, from which the Euphrates and Tigris descend into Syria and Iraq. It divides the Mediterranean Region, Turkey of southern Turkey from the central Anatolia#Anatolian plateau....
. The slopes of the mountain range are still partly covered by woods. Annual winter rains made agriculture possible in the area at a very early date (see Çatal Hüyük). The plains at the lower course of the Ceyhan river provided rich cultivated fields.

The people

The population of Kizzuwatna was made up of both Luwian and Hurrian peoples. The Luwian language

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....
was part of the Indo-European language group, with close ties to the Hittite language

Hittite language

Hittite or Nesili is the extinct language once spoken by the Hittites, a people who created an empire centered on ancient Hattusas in north-central Anatolia ....
. Hurrian culture had a strong influence on the people of Kizzuwatna. Although Kizzuwadna later became a vassal

Vassal

A vassal in the terminology that both preceded and accompanied the feudal of medieval Europe, is one who enters into mutual obligations with a monarch, usually of military support and mutual protection, in exchange for certain guarantees, which came to include the terrain held as a fiefdom....
of the 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...
Empire, both the Luwian and Hurrian cultures were to have a profound influence on the Hittites as well.

Pudu-Hepa, queen of the Hittite king Hattusili III

Hattusili III

Hattusili III was a king of the Hittite empire ca. 1267 ? 1237 BC . He was the fourth and last son of Mursili II. Mursili appointed Hattusili as priest of Sausga of Samuha, and Hattusili remained loyal to the "Ishtar of Samuha" to the end of his days....
, came from Kizzuwatna, where she had been a priestess. Their pantheon

Pantheon (gods)

A pantheon is a set of all the gods of a particular polytheistic religion or mythology.Max Weber's 1922 opus, Economy and Society discusses the link between a pantheon of gods and the development of monotheism....
was also integrated into the Hittite one, and the goddess Hebat

Hebat

Hebat also transcribed a Kheba or Khepat, was the mother goddess of the Hurrians, known as "the mother of all living". She was the consort of Teshub and the mother of Sarruma....
of Kizzuwatna became very important in Hittite religion

Religion

A religion is an organized approach to human spirituality which usually encompasses a set of myth, symbols, beliefs and practices, often with a supernatural or transcendence quality, that give meaning to the practitioner's experiences of life through reference to a higher power or truth....
towards the end of the 13th century BC. A corpus of religious texts called the Kizzuwatna rituals was discovered at Hattusa

Hattusa

Hattusa was the capital of the Hittite Empire in the late Bronze Age. The region is set in a loop of the Kizil River in central Anatolia.Hattusa was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1986....
.

History of Kizzuwatna

King Sargon of Akkad

Sargon of Akkad

Sargon of Akkad, also known as Sargon the Great , was an Akkadian Empire emperor famous for his conquest of the Sumerian city-states in the 24th and 23rd centuries BC....
claimed to have reached the Taurus mountains (the silver mountains) in the 23rd century BC. However, archaeology has yet not confirmed any Akkad

Akkad

The Akkadian Empire was an empire centered in the city of Akkad Sumerian language: Agade KUR A.GA.D?KI "land of Akkad". ; Biblical Accad) and its surrounding region Akkadian URU Akkad KI in central Mesopotamia....
ian influence in the area. The trade routes from Assyria

Assyria

Assyria was a political state centered on the Upper Tigris river, in Mesopotamia , that came to rule regional empires a number of times in history....
to the karum in the Anatolian highlands went through Kizzuwatna by the early second millennium BC.

The kings of Kizzuwatna of the second millennium BC had frequent contact with 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....
to the north. The earliest Hittite records seem to refer to Kizzuwatna and 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....
(Western Anatolia) collectively as Luwia.

In the power struggle that arose between the Hittites and the Hurrian kingdom of Mitanni

Mitanni

Mitanni or Hanigalbat was a loosely organized Hurrian-speaking Hittite vassal state in northern Syria from ca. 1500 BC-1300 BC."The Assyrians called the lands of Mitanni Hanigalbat while to the Hittites it was the land of the Hurrians....
, Kizzuwatna became a strategic partner due to its location. Ishputashu made a treaty with the Hittite king Telepinu

Telepinu

Telepinu or was the name of a king of the Hittites ca. 1460 BC . At the beginning of his reign, the Hittite Empire had contracted to its core territories, having long since lost all of its conquests, made in the former era under Hattusili I and Mursili I -- to Arzawa in the West, Mitanni in the East, the Kaskas in the North, and Kizzuwatna...
. Later, Kizzuwatna shifted its allegiance, perhaps due to a new ruling dynasty. The city state of Alalakh

Alalakh

Alalakh , is the name of an ancient Amorite city and its associated city-state of the Amuq River, located in the Hatay Province region of southern Turkey, now represented by an extensive city-mound....
to the south expanded under its new vigorous leader Idrimi

Idrimi

Idrimi was the king of Alalakh in the 15th century BC.Idrimi was a Hurrianised Semitic son of the king of Aleppo who had been deposed by the new regional master, Barattarna, king of the Mitanni....
, himself a subject of the Mitannian king Barattarna. King Pilliya

Pilliya

Pilliya was king of Kizzuwatna ca. the 15th century BC . He signed a treaty with Idrimi of Alalakh, allying with the Mitanni empire....
of Kizzuwatna had to sign a treaty with Idrimi. Kizzuwatna became an ally of Mitanni from the reign of Shunashura I, until the Hittite king Arnuwanda I

Arnuwanda I

Arnuwanda I was a king of the Hittite empire , ca. the early 14th century BC .See also* History of the HittitesExternal links...
overran the country and made it a vassal kingdom.

Kizzuwatna rebelled during the reign of 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....
, but remained within the Hittite empire for two hundred years. In the famous Battle of Kadesh

Battle of Kadesh

The Battle of Kadesh took place between the forces of the Egyptian Empire under Ramesses II and the Hittite Empire under Muwatalli II at the city of Kadesh on the Orontes River, in what is now the Syrian Arab Republic....
(ca. 1274 BC), Kizzuwadna supplied troops to the Hittite king.

After the fall of the Hittite empire, several minor 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....
kingdoms emerged in the area, such as Tabal

Tabal

Tabal was a Luwian language speaking Neo-Hittite kingdom of South Central Anatolia, forming after the collapse of the Hittite Empire and surviving into Roman times....
, Kammanu

Kammanu

Kammanu was a Luwian speaking Neo-Hittite state in South Central Anatolia in the late 2nd millennium BC, formed from part of Kizzuwatna after the collapse of the Hittite Empire. Its principal city was Melid....
and Quwe

Quwê

Quw? – also spelled Que, Kue, Qeve, Coa, Ku? and Keveh – was a "Neo-Hittite" Neo-Assyrian Empiren vassal state or province at various times from the 9th century BC to shortly after the death of Ashurbanipal around 627 BCE in the lowlands of eastern Cilicia, and the name of its capital city, tent...
.

Kings of Kizzuwatna

Pariyawatri
Isputahsu
Isputahsu

Isputahsu was king of Kizzuwatna ca. the mid 15th century BC . He signed a treaty of alliance with the Hittite Empire king Telepinu....
/ Išputahšu† - contemporary of Hittite king Telepinu
Telepinu

Telepinu or was the name of a king of the Hittites ca. 1460 BC . At the beginning of his reign, the Hittite Empire had contracted to its core territories, having long since lost all of its conquests, made in the former era under Hattusili I and Mursili I -- to Arzawa in the West, Mitanni in the East, the Kaskas in the North, and Kizzuwatna...
(ca. mid 15th century BC (short chronology))
Paddatisu / Paddatišu
Pilliya
Pilliya

Pilliya was king of Kizzuwatna ca. the 15th century BC . He signed a treaty with Idrimi of Alalakh, allying with the Mitanni empire....
- contemporary of Idrimi
Idrimi

Idrimi was the king of Alalakh in the 15th century BC.Idrimi was a Hurrianised Semitic son of the king of Aleppo who had been deposed by the new regional master, Barattarna, king of the Mitanni....
of Alalakh
Alalakh

Alalakh , is the name of an ancient Amorite city and its associated city-state of the Amuq River, located in the Hatay Province region of southern Turkey, now represented by an extensive city-mound....
(ca. 15th century BC (short chronology))
Sunassura I / Šunaššura I
Talzu
Sunassura II / Šunaššura II - contemporary of Hittite king Tuthaliya II (c.1400 BC)

conquest by Arnuwanda I of Hatti (c.1380 BC)

† š represents a "s" sound (as in "sun") in Hittite and Luwian transliteration, despite the fact that š usually represents "sh" (as in shun) in other languages.

Bibliography

Beckman, Garry M.: Hittite Diplomatic Texts, Scholars Press, Atlanta 1996.
Götze, Albrecht: Kizzuwatna and the problem of Hittite geography, Yale university press, New Haven 1940.
Haas, Volkert: Hurritische und luwische Riten aus Kizzuwatna, Butzon & Bercker, Kevelaer 1974.