Assuwa () was a region of Bronze Age Anatolia located west of the Kızılırmak River. It was mentioned in Aegean, Anatolian and Egyptian inscriptions but is best known from Hittite records describing a league of 22 towns or states that rebelled against Hittite authority. It disappears from history during the thirteenth century BC.
Etymology
The name appears in different scripts over the course of a few hundred years. The individual etymologies are unknown,
[Woudhuizen translated a-šu as a Luwic adverb meaning "good." See Bomhard, A. R. (1984). Toward proto-Nostratic : a new approach to the comparison of proto-Indo-European and proto-Afroasiatic, p. 112. Netherlands: North-Holland. Google Books]
but scholarship has come to accept that the is
cognate to the ).
[Cline, Eric H. (1996). Assuwa and the Achaeans: The Mycenaean Sword at Hattusas and Its Possible Implications. The Annual at the British School at Athens, Vol. 91, pp. 137–151. ResearchGate]
-
Luwic: a-šu-wi-ya
[Achterberg, W. (2004). The Phaistos Disc: A Luwian Letter to Nestor, p. 99. Netherlands: Dutch Archaeological and Historical Society. Academic.edu][Best, Jan and Woudhuizen, Fred. (1988). Ancient Scripts from Crete and Cyprus, p. 83. Germany: Brill. Google Books][Best Jan and Woudhuizen, Fred. (2023). Lost Languages from the Mediterranean, pp. 18, 69-70. Germany: Brill. Google Books]
-
Linear A: a-su-ja
[Packard, David W. (2023). Minoan Linear A, p. 4, 43, 95. Germany: University of California Press. Google Books][Emanuel, Jeffrey P.. Black Ships and Sea Raiders: The Late Bronze and Early Iron Age Context of Odysseus’ Second Cretan Lie, p. 53. United Kingdom: Lexington Books (2017). Google Books]
-
Egyptian hieroglyphs: i-s-yw
[Strange, John. (2023). Caphtor/Keftiu: A New Investigation, p. 19. Germany: Brill.
]
Google Books[Cline, E. H. (2015). 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed, p. 28–41. United Kingdom: Princeton University Press. Google Books]
-
Hittite cuneiform: aš-šu-wa
[Rose, C. B. (2014). The Archaeology of Greek and Roman Troy pp. 108-109. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. Google Books.][Cline, Eric H. (1997). Achilles in Anatolia: Myth, History, and the Assuwa Rebellion. Crossing Boundaries and Linking Horizons: Studies in Honor of Michael Astour on His 80th Birthday, pp. 189–210. Eds. Gordon D. Young, Mark W. Chavalas, and Richard E. Averbeck. (Bethesda, MD: CDL Press), Academia.edu]
-
Linear B: a-si-wi-ja/jo
[Collins, B. J., Bachvarova, M. R., Rutherford, I. (2010). Anatolian Interfaces: Hittites, Greeks and Their Neighbours. United Kingdom: Oxbow Books. Google Books][Latacz, J. (2004). Troy and Homer: towards a solution of an old mystery. United Kingdom: OUP Oxford. Google Books][Woudhuizen, Fred. (2023), The Luwians of Western Anatolia: Their Neighbours and Predecessors, pp. 23, 26, 34-66, 71-72, 119, 123, 134. United Kingdom: Archaeopress Publishing Limited. Academia.edu]
Geography
Assuwa was located somewhere in Anatolia. Linear B texts from
Mycenaean Greece identified it as a region within reach of Pylos associated with levies of rowers,
[Palima, Thomas G. (1991). Maritime Matters in the Linear B tablets, p. 279, 302-304. Austin: University of Texas. ( University of Texas Files)] suggesting a location separated by water from the
Peloponnese. While the extent of its geography is a matter of debate, recent scholarship has argued that much of its territory was located in the western part of classical
Phrygia.
[Forlanini, Massimo. (2008). The Historical Geography of Anatolia and the Transition From the Karum-Period to the Early Hittite Empire. Anatolia and the Jazira during the Old Assyrian Period, p. 58, 67 Academic.edu.][Schachner, Andreas. (2022). Hattusa and Its Environs: Archaeology, p. 37-49. Hittite Landscape and Geography. (2022). Eds. Lee Z. Ullmann and Mark Weeden. Netherlands: Leiden, Boston: Brill. Google Books] This same region was designated by the
Hittite laws as part of the land of
Luwians, according to modern researchers.
[Yukabovich, Ilya. (2011). Luwian and the Luwians. The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Anatolia: (10,000-323 BCE), p. 534-545. Spain: OUP USA. Google Books][Blasweiler, Joost. (2016). The kingdom of Purušhanda in the land Luwiya, pp. 31-38. Arnhem, Arnhem (NL) Bronze Age. Academia.edu] It was likewise mentioned in a contemporary Egyptian poetical stela along with
Crete as one of the lands to the west of
Ancient Egypt.
[Nederhof, Mark-Jan. (2006). Transliteration and translation for "The 'poetical' stela of Tuthmosis III, p. 4. Laurinburg, NC: St. Andrews University. St. Andrews University archives.]
History
The earliest mention of
a-šu-wi(ya) is from an Anatolian royal seal dating to the eighteenth/seventeenth centuries BC,
[Ambos, Clause and Krauskopf, Ingrid. (2008). The curved staff in the Ancient Near East as a predecessor of the Etruscan lituus, p. 132. Bouke van der Meer, L. (Hrsg.), Material Aspects of Etruscan Religion. Proceedings of the International Colloquium Leiden, May 29 and 30, 2008, Babesch Suppl. 16, 2010, S. 127-153. University of Heidelberg Archives.][Wouduizen characterizes the three hieroglyphs that comprise the name as (1)
man's head in profile, (2) a triangle and (3) and a vine tendril.] contemporary to the first and only mention of the land of Luwiya of the Hittite texts.
[Giusfredi, Federico., Pisaniello, Valerio, Matessi, Alvise. (2023). Contacts of Languages and Peoples in the Hittite and Post-Hittite World: Volume 1, The Bronze Age and Hatti, p. 288. Netherlands: Brill. Google Books] The name
a-su-ja in Minoan Linear A texts of the sixteenth century BC is also acknowledged to be a likely reference to Assuwa,
[Emanuel, Jeffrey, (2017). Ships and Sea Raiders: The Late Bronze and Early Iron Age Context of Odysseus’ Second Cretan Lie, p. 53. United Kingdom: Lexington Books. Google Books] though with no clear understanding of the context.
Egyptian records mention a region called isy
Assuwa is likewise mentioned in six surviving Hittite texts,[KUB xxiii 11 þ 12 (CTH 142), KUB xxiii 14 (CTH 211.5), KUB xxvi 91 (CTH 183), KUB xxxiv 43 (CTH 824), KUB xl 62 þ KUB xiii 9 (CTH 258)] with all texts either dated to or referring to events occurring during the reign of Tudhaliya I/II.[Rose, Charles Brian. (2014). The Archaeology of Greek and Roman Troy, pp. 108-109. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. Google Books]
Cline dates this rebellion to circa 1430 BC[''Nostoi: Indigenous Culture, Migration + Integration in the Aegean Islands + Western Anatolia During the Late Bronze + Early Iron Ages'', p. 134. Eds. Konstantinos Kopanias, Nikolaos Chr Stampolidēs, Çiğdem Maner. United Kingdom: Koç University Press, 2015.] The annals further detail the capture of an Assuwan king named Piyama-dKAL,[The name has been identified as Luwian in origin. Greenberg, Joseph H. (2000). ''Indo-European and Its Closest Relatives: The Eurasiatic Language Family'', Volume 1, p. 171. United States: Stanford University Press. [https://www.google.com/books/edition/Indo_European_and_Its_Closest_Relatives/-XmqRrrJvkQC?hl=en&gbpv=0 Google Books]] the establishment of a client state under his son Kukkuli[The name has been identified as Hurrian in origin. See Nyland. Ann. (2009) ''The Kikkuli Method of Horse Fitness Training'', Revised Edition, p. 9. Maryannu Press, Sydney."] and a second rebellion[Unal, Ahmet. (1991). ''Two Peoples on Both Sides of the Aegean Sea''. Officials and Administration in the Hittite World, pp. 16-44. Germany: O. Harrassowitz. [https://www.google.com/books/edition/Officials_and_Administration_in_the_Hitt/ghd-DwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0 Google Books]] after which "the coalition of Assuwa was destroyed".
Analysis
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ImageSize = width:246 height:530
DateFormat = YYYY
Period = from:-2000 till:-1000
PlotArea = width:111 height:500 left:39 bottom:21
TimeAxis = orientation:vertical order:reverse
ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:100 start:-2000
ScaleMinor = unit:year increment:10 start:-1000
PlotData=
at:-2000 fontsize:S text: [[Luwian conquest of PurushandaPurushanda]]
at:-1950 fontsize:S text: Assyrian Karum at Kanesh
at:-1900 fontsize:S text: Proto-palatial period at Keftui
at:-1807 fontsize:S text: [[Amorites conquer Assyria | Assyria]]
at:-1740 fontsize:S text: Hittites conquer Kanesh
at:-1700 fontsize:S text: [[destruction of Purushanda | Purushanda]]
at:-1650 fontsize:S text: [[Hittites conquer Hattusa | Hattusa]]
at:-1600 fontsize:S text: [[Eruption of Thera | Minoan eruption]]
at:-1550 fontsize:S text: [[Rise of Mitanni | Mitanni]]
at:-1470 fontsize:S text: [[Mycenaeans enter Anatolia | Miletus]]
at:-1430 fontsize:S text: Tudḫaliya's westward incursion
at:-1370 fontsize:S text: Rise of the Ahhiyawa
at:-1274 fontsize:S text: Battle of Kadesh
at:-1220 fontsize:S text: [[Sea Peoples migration | Sea Peoples]]
at:-1190 fontsize:S text: [[Sack of Hattusa | Hattusa]]
at:-1100 fontsize:S text: [[Collapse of Mycenaeans | Mycenaean Greece]]
at:-1000 fontsize:S text: [[Start of Iron Age | Iron Age]]
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The Land of Luwiya
It is possible that Asuwiya was simply the native name for territory occupied by Luwic speakers.
[Rutherford, I. (2020). Hittite Texts and Greek Religion: Contact, Interaction, and Comparison, p. 113. United Kingdom: OUP Oxford. Google Books][Bomhard, A. R. (1984). Toward proto-Nostratic : a new approach to the comparison of proto-Indo-European and proto-Afroasiatic, p. 112. Netherlands: North-Holland. Google Books] Linguistic models suggest the existence of a common Luwian-speaking state circa 2000 BC, stretching from the central Anatolian plateau (modern
Konya Province) northward to the western bend of the Maraššantiya (where modern
Ankara Province, Kırıkkale and Kırşehir provinces meet).
[Yakubovich, Ilya. (2011). Luwian and the Luwians. The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Anatolia: (10,000-323 BCE), p. 364, 535. Spain: OUP USA. Google Books.][Yakubovich, Ilya. (2011). In Search of Luwiya, the Original Luwian-speaking Area. Journal of Ancient History, Vol. 4, p. 295. http://vdi.igh.ru] The region was dominated by the kingdom of
Purushanda,
the etymology of which suggests a takeover of
Hattians lands by Luwian elites
[Hecker, Karl. (1980). Zur Beurkundung V011 Kauf und Verkauf im Altassyrischen, Die Welt des Orients 11; RIA band 11, Purušhatum, 119.][ History of Humanity: From the third millennium to the seventh century B.C., p. 549. United Kingdom: Routledge, 1994.] and a kingdom made up of an eclectic mix of Luwian-speaking Luwians, Hattic-speaking Luwians, Luwian-speaking Hattians and Hattic-speaking Hattians.
[Giusfredi, F., Pisaniello, V., Matessi, A. (2023). Contacts of Languages and Peoples in the Hittite and Post-Hittite World: Volume 1, The Bronze Age and Hatti. Netherlands: Brill. Google Books] Archaeology at Acemhöyük has confirmed the remains of central Anatolian, Mesopotamian and north Syrian pottery - as well as traces of monumental structures - dated 2659 to 2157 BC,
[Yakar, Jak. (2003). Towards an absolute chronology for middle and late bronze age Anatolia, Studies. Presented A.M. Mansel, 562. Academia.edu] providing a plausible
terminus a quo for the Luwian takeover of the region.
[Boutet, Michel Gérald, (2000). Time Line of Indo-European Peoples and Cultures (after Cyril Babaev with modifications by
MichelGérald Boutet and David Frawley), p. 5. Academia.edu.]
In the eighteenth century BC the Hittites conquered the Assyrian karum at Kanesh[Kuhrt, A. (1995). The Ancient Near East, C. 3000-330 BC, p. 227. United Kingdom: Routledge. Google Books] establishing Hittite rule over ikkuwaniya - the Lower land.[Burney, C. (2018). Historical Dictionary of the Hittites p. 262. United States: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. Google Books][Melchert, Craig. (2003). The Luwians, pp. 1-2, 7, 11 54-70. Netherlands: Brill. Google Books] "an Old Hittite ethno-linguistic term referring to the area where Luwian was spoken."[Hawkins, David J. (2013). Luwians vs. Hittites. Luwian Identities: Culture, Language and Religion Between Anatolia and the Aegean, p. 31-35. Netherlands: Brill.] While it is still an open question whether the border between the Hittites and the Luwians ever extended as far west as the Sakarya River,[Seeher, Jurgen. (2011). The Plateau: The Hittites. The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Anatolia: (10,000-323 BCE), p. 376-392. (2011). Spain: OUP USA.]
Arzawa
Within a generation "Arzawiya" is first mentioned in the Hittite records, located somewhere beyond the Hittite sphere of influence in the Lower land.
This suggests an extensive colonization of the land of Luwiya by a non-Luwian peoples by the turn of the sixteenth century BC - Gander focuses on
Hurrian Yakubovich says
Carians[Yakubovich, Ilya (2013). Anatolian Names in -wiya and the Structure of Empire Luwian Omnastics. Luwian Identities: Culture, Language and Religion Between Anatolia and the Aegean, p. 31-35. Netherlands: Brill.] and Cline implies Ahhiyawan
- in the wake of prior Luwian westward migration.
[Bryce, T. (2018). Warriors of Anatolia: A Concise History of the Hittites. United Kingdom: Bloomsbury Publishing. Google Books] There are historical traces of this migration - the
Leleges[Herda, Alexander. (2013). Greek (and our) Views on the Karians, pp. Aegean. Netherlands: Brill. Google Books] and the
Lukka lands - but it is clear the Luwians came into contact with the Mycenaeans,
[Feuer, B. (2004). Mycenaean civilization : an annotated bibliography through 2002, p. 138. United Kingdom: McFarland, Incorporated, Publishers. Google Books][Eds. Joseph, Brian, Klein, Jared, Wenthe, Mark and Fritz, Matthias. (2018). Graeco-Anatolian Contacts in the Mycenaean Period. Handbook of Comparative and Historical Indo-European Linguistics, p. 2039. Germany: De Gruyter. Ancient Ports Antiques][Greaves, A. M. (2005). Miletos: Archaeology and History. United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis Google Books] whose strongholds in the
Argolis[Castleden, R. (2005). The Mycenaeans
]
Google Books] lay directly across the
Aegean Sea from modern İzmir and who seem to have at first called the Luwian territory
ru-wa-ni-jo ("land where Luwian is spoken").
[Widmer, P. (2006). Mykenisch ru-wa-ni-jo, Luwierı. Kadmos 45, pp. 82-84. Zurich Open Repository and Archive)] With time bred by familiarity the Luwian name
a-šu-wi-ya was transliterated into Mycenaean as
a-si-wi-ja.
As a result of this contact the Luwian language and culture went through a profound metamorphosis,[Billigmeier, J. C. (1970). An Inquiry into the Non-Greek Names on the Linear B Tablets from Knossos and their Relationship to Languages of Asia Minor. Minos 10, 177–83.][Waelkens, Marc. (2000). Sagalassos and Pisidia During the Late Bronze Age. Sagalassos V: Report on the Survey and Excavation Campaigns of 1996 and 1997, p. 473-508. Eds. Marc Waelkens and L. Loots. Belgium: Leuven University Press. Google Books][Price, S., Thonemann, P. (2011). The Birth of Classical Europe: A History from Troy to Augustine. United States: Penguin Publishing Group.] "Extension of the Lower land further to the southwest would have brought Hittite territory in close proximity to the region which came to be called Arzawa, thus creating the potential for border disputes and cross border raids of the kind allied to in a number of treaties which Hittite kings subsequently drew up with their immediate neighbors."
By the 1430s BC the Hittites perceived a threat from this unfamiliar mixture of different political, social, cultural and linguistic groups amongst the small entities and independent polities[Mac Sweeney, Naoíse. (2016). Anatolian-Aegean Interactions in the Early Iron Age: Migration, Mobility, and the Movement of People. Of Odysseys and Oddities: Scales and Modes of Interaction between Prehistoric Aegean Societies and Their Neighbors, pp. 411-433. Ed. B. Molloym. Oxford. Philadelphia.][Bryce, Trevor. (2003). History. Vol. I/68, in Handbuch der Orientalistik, by The Luwians, p. 35-40. Eds. H. C. Melchert. Boston: Brill, Leyde.][Meriç, Recep. (2020). The Arzawa lands. The historical geography of İzmir and its environs during late bronze age in the light of new archaeological research. TÜBA-AR Türkiye Bilimler Akademisi Arkeoloji Dergisi, no. 27 : 151-177.] in the land of Luwiya and launched a preemptive strike.[Houwink ten Cate, Philo H. J. (1970). The Records of the Early Hittite Empire (c. 1450-1380 B.C.), p. 58. Archive.org] south of Lake Beyşehir.[Gurney, O. R. (2016). The Hittites. (Fig. 1): Hauraki Publishing. Google Books]
Towns of the Assuwa League
The confederacy appears to have been a rather short-lived affair, and there is thus far no consensus as to identification of the towns of the Assuwa league listed in the
Annals of Tudḫaliya:
‣"Now, the Assuwan League consisted of a coalition of forces running from Lukka in the southwest to Wilusiya in the northwest, and hence comprised western Anatolia in its entirety."
‣"The group of states making up this confederacy probably lay in the far west of Anatolia, covering at least part of the Aegean coast."
‣"...the province of Assuwa...is located in the Hermos valley, as much as four toponyms featuring in the list with bearing on the blanket term Assuwian League can positively be situated in the realm of Arzawa."
‣"Starke...connects...the Land of Assuwa...with classical Assos."
‣"Assuwa" was merely a city or town "somewhere in the region of the upper stretches of the Sakarya River and the Porsuk River" and "located in the immediate proximity of the region in which the coalition was apparently active, just to the (south)east of Huwalusiya and Masa."[Oreshko, Rostislav. (2013). Geography of the Western Fringes: Gar(a)giša/Gargiya and the Lands of the Late Bronze Age Caria, p. 153. Centre for Hellenic Studies (Harvard University). Academic.edu.]
‣"...not attested anywhere else."
‣"...not attested anywhere else."
‣"For the identification of Dura with classical Tyrrha and modern Tire(h) along the southern bank of the river late called Kaystros, see Freu (208)b...''
‣For the
Kassites custom of appending "dura" to the name of cities, see Beaulieu.
[Beaulieu, P. (2018). A History of Babylon, 2200 BC - AD 75. United Kingdom: ve beenWiley.]
‣"...not attested anywhere else."
‣"..it can hardly be separated from the town of Huwalusa, which is mentioned in another small fragment probably dating from the reign of Mursillis II."
[Garstang, J. (2017). The Geography of the Hittite Empire, 105-106. United Kingdom: British Institute at Ankara. Google Books]‣"Many of the towns mentioned alongside it have convincingly been localized in western Phrygia by M. Forlanini."
[Gander, Max. (2022). The West: Philology, p. 264-266. Hittite Landscape and Geography, Netherlands: Brill. Academia.edu]
‣Woudhuizen associated it with the town of
Honaz near the ancient Lycus river in Phrygia.
‣"...can only be the well attested country of
Karkiya..."
‣"...was apparently situated close to the Seha River Land..."
[Unwin, Naomi Carless. (2017). Caria and Crete in Antiquity: Cultural Interaction Between Anatolia and the Aegean, pp. 57, 115-118. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. Google Books.]
‣"is to be localized in
Kizzuwatna..."
‣"...not attested anywhere else."
‣"...not attested anywhere else."
‣"Suggests some close connection with the country of Warsiyalla mentioned in §14 of the
Alaksandu together with the
Lukka lands, Masa and Karkisa, in a context which...probably serves only to locate these countries somewhere in the west of Asia Minor."
‣The name is identified with
Karatepe on the
Cilicia,
[Hawkins, J. D., Weeden, M. (2024). Corpus of Hieroglyphic Luwian Inscriptions: Volume III, p. 187: Inscriptions of the Hettite Empire and New Inscriptions of the Iron Age. Germany: De Gruyter. Google Books] far removed from traditional locations of Assuwa.
‣Woudhuizen associated it with a mountain near İzmir.
‣"...not attested anywhere else."
‣"...only mentioned in a fragmentary ritual text without determinative and lacking any geographical context."
‣Woudhuizen noted the correspondence with the Luwian name for
Kaunos,
Kwalatarna (“army camp”).
[ Etruscan as a Colonial Luwian Language, Linguistica Tyrrhenica III. Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Kulturwissenschaft, Sonderheft 128. Innsbruck: Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Kulturwissenschaft. Talanta]
‣"...not attested anywhere else."
‣"...not attested anywhere else."
‣"..it can be equated Ilios by way of a hypothetical form Wiluwa."
‣"...an alternative location at the Byzantine site of
Beycesultan was proposed by Vangelis Pantazis..."
[Pantazis (Nikaea), "Wilusa: Reconsidering the Evidence", KLIO, 91 (2009), σ. 305-307.
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> Web Archive]
‣"The possibility that it might be identified with Greek Troia, i.e. the city of
Troy, was observed in 1924 by E. Forrer, and after much controversy philologists have agreed that the equation is possible by way of the hypothetical form Tauriya."
‣"A silver bowl whose hieroglyphic inscription mentions the name of Taruisa (ta-r-wi-za) might be evidence of the same Tudhaliya's campaign against Assuwa."
[Taracha, Piotr. (2003). Is Tuthaliya's Sword really Aegean? Hittite Studies in Honor of Harry A. Hoffner, Jr: On the Occasion of His 65th Birthday, p. 367. Eds. Gary Beckman, Richard Beal and Gregory MaMahon. United States: Eisenbrauns. Google Books][Bryce, T. (2006). The Trojans and Their Neighbours, pp. 33-35, 81. Kiribati: Routledge. Google Books]
See also
