Alašija

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Alašija in hieroglyphics
M17 O35 M17 M17 N25

Asija
Jsjj / Jsy
Cyprus
M17 A2 r
Z1 		Aa18 Z1 N25

Alasiya
Jrs3
Cyprus

Alašija (also Alašia, Alaschia, Alasia, Alasya, Asija ; Mycenaean probably a-ra-si ) was the Akkadian name for Cyprus or a city kingdom in Cyprus in the late Bronze Age . It is only from texts from the Levant ( Ugarit , Alalach ), from the Amarna archive , the victory hymn of Thutmose III. , the list of place names of Ramses II and the travelogue of Wenamun and the Hittite Empire.

location

The exact location of Alašija and its capital is controversial. H. R. Hall and R. S. Merrilees wanted to locate Alašija in Cilicia , Wainright in northern Syria, or Karkemish . It was also often equated with enkomi . Although it was a wealthy city of around 15,000 people, there is no archaeological evidence for the existence of a major state in the Enkomi region. For this location, however, speak the seaside location, a proven long trade tradition with cities in the Levant, Egypt, Greece and the existence of a copper smelter, near which a statue of a horned bar god was found.

In a project on the petrography of the Amarna letters at Tel Aviv University by Yuval Goren , Israel Finkelstein and Nadav Na'aman , the tone of some “Alašija letters” ( EA  33, 34, 37, 38, RS L.1, RS 20.18) examined petrographically and chemically, identified the enclosed foraminifera and compared them with clay tablets and fragments from known sites. Ophiolite remains suggest that the clay originates from the Moni Formation on the southeastern edge of the Troodos Mountains in Cyprus. Goren and others consider Kalavasos-Ayios Dhimitrios in the Vasiliskos Valley or Alassa (Palaiotaverna) in the southwest to be the most likely places of origin of the tablets. In the vicinity of Kalavasos there are rich copper deposits , which supports this localization.

history

The first mentions of Alašija can be found in Syrian and Babylonian texts of the late 19th century BC. Chr. The under the Hittite Great King I. Arnuwanda written indictment of the Western Anatolian vassal Madduwatta ( CTH 147) reports of predatory raids Madduwatas in league with Attariššia of Aḫḫija on Alashiya in the late 15th century BC. The Lukka also plundered the coast of Alašija and took hostages, which gave rise to complaints from the king to the Hittite great king.

In the letters from the Amarna archives , the king of Alašija calls the Pharaoh “brother”, which indicates that he considered himself to be on an equal footing. He reports that his country is in the hands of the Nergal , which is affecting copper production ("... she killed all the men in my country, not a single copper smelter is left ..."). This points to a plague that may also have fallen victim to the king's son.

Trade relations

The kingdom of Alašija had at least from the 15th to the 13th centuries BC. BC ( Cypriot Late Bronze Age IIB and IIC) lively trade contacts with Syria and Egypt . The Amarna letters come from the kings of Alašija, a letter from the prefect of Alašija. Alašija mainly exported copper and wood, which were exchanged for silver and "sweet oil" (EA 35).

Friendly relations existed with Ugarit. During the reign of Niqmaddu III. A letter from Ugarit is attested, which was sent by Kušmešuša , the king of Alašija, and documents the delivery of 33 bars (~ 950  kilograms ) of copper . Shortly before the fall of Ugarit, Ešuwara , the prefect of Alašija, sent a letter to the king of Ugarit warning him of enemy ships that had landed in Alašija shortly before and then moved on (RS 20.18).

Towards the end of the 12th century, the decline of copper mining in Cyprus began, as a result of which Alašija's long-distance trade relations suffered. Perhaps this decline was due to a lack of demand.

In the second half of the 13th century BC Today's Enkomi - if it can be identified with Alašija - was conquered and destroyed twice. The first destruction may coincide with the historically documented conquest Alašijas by the Hittite king Tudhaliya IV. Together, the second in 1220 took place - recognize the leave archaeological sources - apparently by members of the Mycenaean culture ( Achaeans , so-called. Sea Peoples ), the town chessboard form built up. Around 1050 BC Enkomi was destroyed again by an earthquake.

Ruler

Kušmešuša , Mycenaean perhaps Ko-sa-ma-to , ruled at the same time as Niqmaddu III. by Ugarit . However, there is no evidence of a pronounced power center of the late 13th century BC. Chr. Small-scale divided island, so that Peltenburg Alašija rather considers a union of territories under a relatively weak king. In the so-called travel report of Wenamun (around 1060 BC?) An Egyptian traveler reports that he was driven from the Levant to Alašija by adverse winds. There Hatiba, the princess of the city, spared those who feared for his life. This name is , according to Stanley Casson , of Phoenician origin; Phoenicians settled since the 11th century BC. In Cyprus.

Other residents

The Amarna letters also convey the names of the messengers from Alašija, these are Paštummē, Kunea, Etilluna, Usbarra and Belšamma. The prefect of Alašija was called Ešuwara .

See also

literature

  • Y. Lynn Holmes: The Location of Alashiya . In: Journal of the American Oriental Society. Volume 91, 1971, pp. 426-429.
  • Sibylle von Reden: The island of Aphrodite. Cyprus past and present . DuMont Schauberg, Cologne 1969; Title of the 2nd edition: Cyprus: Past u. Present; 8,000 years of history at the intersection of three continents . DuMont Schauberg, Cologne 1974, ISBN 3-7701-0797-7 .
  • Lennart Hellbing: Alasia Problems . In: Studies in Mediterranean Archeology. Volume LVII. Paul Aström, Gothenburg 1979.
  • A. Bernard Knapp: Alashiya, Caphtor / Keftiu, and Eastern Mediterranean Trade - Recent Studies in Cypriote Archeology and History . In: Journal of Field Archeology. Volume 12, Boston 1985, pp. 231-250, ISSN  0093-4690 .
  • Robert S. Merrillees: Alashiya revisited . In: Cahiers de la Revue Biblique . Volume 22, Gabalda, Paris 1987, ISSN  0575-0741 .
  • Kristopher Mark Armstrong: Settlement Hierarchy and the Location of Alashiya on Cyprus. thesis, University of Ottawa 2000 ( online ).
  • Yuval Goren et al. a .: The location of Alashiya - new evidence from petrographic investigations of Alashiyan tablets from El-Amarna and Ugarit . In: American Journal of Archeology . Volume 107, No. 2, Boston 2003, pp. 233-256, ISSN  0002-9114 .
  • Trevor Bryce : The Routledge Handbook of The People and Places of Ancient Western Asia: The Near East from the Early Bronze Age to the Fall of the Persian Empire . Routledge, London / New York 2009, ISBN 978-1-134-15908-6 , pp. 24 f., Sv Alasiya .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ This writing is in the victory hymn of Thutmose III. and the list of place names of Ramses II.
  2. ↑ Eric H. Cline : From Minoan Farmers to Roman Traders. Sidelights on the Economy of Ancient Crete. Franz Steiner, Stuttgart 1999, p. 126.
  3. ↑ RS Merrilees: revisited Alashiya. In: Cahiers de la Revue Biblique. Volume 22, 1987.
  4. ^ A. Bernard Knapp: Archeology of Late Bronze Age Cypriot Society: The Study of Settlement, Survey and Landscape. University of Glasgow, Glasgow 1997, ISBN 0-85261-573-6 .
  5. ↑ Edgar Peltenburg, Maria Iacovou: Crete and Cyprus: contrasting political configurations. In: G. Cadogan, M. Iacovou, K. Kopaka, J. Whitley (Eds.): Parallel Lives. Ancient Island Societies in Crete and Cyprus (= British School at Athens Studies. Volume 20) British School at Athens, London 2012, ISBN 978-0-90488-766-2 , pp. 345-363 ( full text as PDF ).
  6. ^ Tel Aviv University Institute of Archeology: Highlights of the Institute of Archeology.
  7. ↑ Yuval Goren, S. Bunimovitz, I. Finkelstein, N. Na'aman: The Location of Alashiya: Petrographic analysis of the tablets . In: American Journal of Archeology. 2003, Volume 107, No. 2, pp. 233-255.
  8. ↑ on this in detail Gary M. Beckman, Trevor R. Bryce , Eric H. Cline : The Ahhiyawa Texts (= Writings from the Ancient World 28). Society of Biblical Literature, Atlanta 2011, pp. 69-100.
  9. ↑ see also Wolf-Dietrich Niemeier : Greece and Asia Minor in the late Bronze Age. in: Michael Meier-Brügger (Ed.): Homer, interpreted by a large lexicon. Files from the Hamburg Colloquium from 6.-8. October 2010 at the end of the Lexicon of the Early Greek Epic. de Gruyter, Berlin / Boston 2012, p. 161 - with further literature on the Madduwatta letter
  10. ↑ It is RS 94.2475 from the Urtenu archive in Ugarit, see Itamar Singer : Ships Bound for Lukka: A New Interpretation of the Companion Letters RS 94.2530 and RS 94.2523. In: Ancient Near Eastern Research . Volume 33, 2006, p. 255.
  11. ↑ Thomas Stöllner: Man and Mining - Mensch und Bergbau: Studies in honor of Gerd Weisgerber on the occasion of his 65th birthday. DBM, Bochum 2003, p. 438.
  12. ↑ Edgar Peltenburg, Maria Iacovou: Crete and Cyprus: contrasting political configurations. London 2012, p. 355.
  13. ↑ Enkomi Alasia in Cyprus on turkish.co.uk
  14. ↑ Edgar Peltenburg, Maria Iacovou: Crete and Cyprus: contrasting political configurations. London 2012, p. 350.
  15. ↑ Patricia Maynor Bikai: Cyprus and the Phoenicians. In: Biblical Archaeologist. 1989, Vol. 52, No. 4, p. 204.
  16. ^ Y. Lynn Holmes: The Messengers of the Amarna Letters . In: Journal of the American Oriental Society. Volume 95, No. 3, 1975, p. 376.