Arzawa

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Location of Arzawa and neighboring states

Arzawa is the Hittite name of an empire and region in western Asia Minor that was probably inhabited by Luwians . In the 15th and first half of the 14th century BC During a period of weakness in the Hittite Empire, Arzawa had its climax in power politics and was at times the leading power in Asia Minor. At that time it was in contact with Egypt , as shown by letters in the Amarna archives (EA 31, EA 32). From the middle of the 14th century, Arzawa was gradually conquered by the Hittites. Even Suppiluliuma I probably undertook a campaign against Arzawan what but no direct, contemporary sources have survived. His son and successor Muršili II managed to take Arzawa and its capital Apaša in a two-year campaign. The area of ​​Arzawa was then probably divided among the vassal princes of the "Arzawa lands", ie Mira , Šeḫa and Ḫapalla , with Mira apparently taking precedence, since its king Mašḫuiluwa was the only one who supported the Hittites in the Arzawa war.

The core area of ​​Arzawa was in the region around and north of the valley of Maiandros . The capital Apaša was according to strong research opinion at Ephesus ; the palace is believed to be on the citadel of Selçuk (Ayasoluk hill), where test excavations on the slopes discovered wall remains from the late Bronze Age and ceramics, including Minoan and Mycenaean imports. In the south it bordered the Lukka countries, which roughly encompassed the ancient landscape of Lycia , the extent of which to the north and northeast is uncertain.

Luwish was spoken in Arzawa , which can be proven by the traditional personal names.

Perhaps the Troas (possibly Hittite : Tarwiša, see also Wiluša ) belonged to the area of ​​influence of Arzawa and thus at least culturally also to the zone of influence of the Hittite empire. James Mellaart counts the sanctuary of Eflatun Pınar in the area of ​​Arzawa.

The famous rulers of Arzawa

literature

  • H. Craig Melchert (Ed.): The Luwians. Handbook of Oriental Studies. Vol. 68. Brill, Leiden 2003. ISSN  0169-9423
  • Susanne Heinhold-Krahmer : Arzawa, investigations into its history according to the Hittite sources texts of the Hittites. Vol. 8. Carl Winter Universitätsverlag, Heidelberg 1977.
  • Susanne Heinhold-Krahmer: Arzawa. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 2, Metzler, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-476-01472-X , Sp. 71.
  • John David Hawkins : Tarkasnawa, King of Mira, Boğazköy sealings and Karabel . in: Anatolian Studies 48.1998, pp. 1-31.
  • Peter W. Haider: The historical geography of western Asia Minor in the 13th century BC Chr. In: H. Friesinger (Ed.) U. a .: Hundred years of Austrian research in Ephesus. Files of the symposium Vienna 1995. Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1999, pp. 665–675. ISBN 3-7001-2732-4
  • Albrecht Goetze : The Annals of Muršiliš. JC Hinrichs'sche Buchhandlung, Leipzig 1933.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ In summary: Michael Kerschner: The Ionian Migration in the Light of New Archaeological Research in Ephesus. In: Eckart Olshausen, Holger Sonnabend (ed.): "We were Troians" - migrations in the ancient world. Stuttgart Colloquium on the Historical Geography of Antiquity, 8, 2002. Franz Steiner, Stuttgart 2006, pp. 367–369.