Atpa

Atpa is the name of a governor or a high representative of Aḫḫijawa in the city of Millawanda in Hittite cuneiform spelling. Atpa, who lived for the first half of the 13th century BC. Is attested, was also a son-in-law of Pijamaradu , whose activities against the Hittite Empire he at least covered, possibly even partially actively supported.

Atpa is mentioned in a letter ( KUB 19.5; CTH 191) from Manapa-Tarḫunta to the Hittite great king Muwatalli II. (Approx. 1295–1272 BC) and in the so-called Tawagalawa letter (KUB 14.3; CTH 181), the very likely from the time of Ḫattušilis III. (approx. 1266–1236 BC).

In the first letter, Manapa-Tarḫunta, King of Šeḫa , a vassal state of the Hittites, complains that Pijamaradu, a possibly Arzavian nobleman who may have attacked Wilusa before and temporarily occupied Wilusa , put the Atpa in front of him (Manapa-Tarḫunta). The interpretation of this passage is difficult and contentious. It is believed that Pijamaradu placed him under the supervision of the Atpa or even temporarily deposed him as ruler in favor of Atpa. Furthermore, Atpa seems to have participated in the attack by Pijamaradu on the island of Lazpa ( Lesbos ), which was then part of the Šeḫa sphere of influence. Some Sarapitu , probably priests or craftsmen, after Itamar Singer purple dyers who were in the service of the great king, were deported to Millawanda. Millawanda then belonged to Aḫḫijawa , which according to the prevailing opinion is a Mycenaean empire. Millawanda itself, which must have been on the coast of western Asia Minor , is most likely to be equated with Miletus , which at that time was a strongly Mycenaean city and a bridgehead in Asia Minor.

The Tawagalawa letter, a letter from a Hittite great king to the king of Aḫḫijawa, whose name has not survived, dates much later. According to the prevailing opinion, the author is Ḫattušili III. (approx. 1266–1236 BC), but also his predecessor Muršili III. (approx. 1272–1266 BC) is being considered as the sender. The letter shows, among other things, that Atpa was a son-in-law of Pijamaradu. After Pijamaradu had invaded the Lukka countries in southwest Asia Minor and had ambushed the Hittite great king, who had come to negotiations, at Ijalanda , he fled to Millawanda. The king of Aḫḫijawa thereupon instructed Atpa to hand Pijamaradu over to the great king when he arrived in the city of Millawanda - at least that is how the Hittite great king understood a letter that had not been preserved but was mentioned in the Tawagalawa letter. Before the arrival of the great king, however, Pijamaradu managed to escape across the Aegean islands. It is not clear whether Atpa actively helped his father-in-law to escape. In any case, he and another person called Awajana, also a son-in-law of Pijamaradu, had to listen to serious allegations from Hittite rulers because the surrender had failed and because they apparently did not report Pijamaradu's actions to the great king Aḫḫijawa. From the letter it emerges that Atpa was a representative of the ruler of Aḫḫijawa, a kind of governor, but clearly subordinate to the ruler of Aḫḫijawa. It is not clear from the sources whether Apta's power was limited to the actual city of Millawanda or whether it consisted of the entire area controlled by Aḫḫijawa in Southwest Asia Minor.

There is no direct information about the further fate of ATP. In the so-called Milawata letter (KUB 19.55 + 48.90 + KBo 18.117; CTH 182) probably written under Tudhalija IV (approx. 1236–1215 BC ) Atpa is no longer (by name) mentioned, at least not in the surviving parts of the highly fragmented document. As can be deduced from the content of the letter, in particular the redefinition of the borders of Milawata (or even the division of the Milawata area) mentioned therein, Aḫḫijawa had meanwhile lost control of Millawanda. The recipient was probably either Tarkasnawa von Mira , or a high-ranking person in Milawata, possibly a son and successor of Atpa, who had meanwhile sworn the oath of allegiance to the Hittite great king and had become his vassal. In the latter case, Atpa would not have been alive at the time of the letter (provided that his son was the recipient), since the death of the recipient's father is mentioned in the letter (§ 5, line 37).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Klaus Tausend: Comments on the identification of the Ahhijawa. In: Gustav Adolf Lehmann , Dorit Engster, Alexander Nuss (eds.): From the Bronze Age story to the modern reception of antiquities , Syngramma vol. 1, Universitätsverlag Göttingen 2012, p. 148; see. also Susanne Heinhold-Krahmer : Arzawa. Investigations into its history based on the Hittitschen sources. Winter, Heidelberg 1977, p. 148: "But you probably do not go wrong if you see in him a governor, minor prince or at least a subject of the Aḫḫiyawa king."
2. ^ Trevor Bryce , The Trojans & Their Neighbors. Routledge, London - New York 2006, p. 184 warns, among other things, because of the poor preservation of the site, to be careful with this interpretation, which is predominant in research.
3. ^ Harry A. Hoffner : Letters from the Hittite Kingdom. Society of Biblical Literature, Houston 2009, p. 293 (" who installed Atpā of Millawanda over him in a supervisory capacity ").
4. ^ Carol G. Thomas - Craig Conant: The Trojan War. University of Oklahoma Press, 2007, p. 139.
5. ↑ cf., following this: Harry A. Hoffner: Letters from the Hittite Kingdom. Society of Biblical Literature, Houston 2009, p. 294.
6. ^ Gary M. Beckman, Trevor Bryce, Eric H. Cline: The Ahhiyawa Texts. Society of Biblical Literature, Atlanta 2011, p. 3 f .; thereafter only the ancient orientalist Gerd Steiner resists this equation
7. ↑ in detail on this Wolf-Dietrich Niemeier : Greece and Asia Minor in the late Bronze Age. The historical background of the Homeric epics. 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 (= treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen. New series volume 21). De Gruyter, 2012, pp. 141-180.
8. ↑ s. on the dating question of Jared L. Miller : A king from Ḫatti to a king from Aḫḫijawa (the so-called Tawagalawa letter). In: TUAT New Series Volume 3, Gütersloher Verlagshaus, Gütersloh 2006, p. 241. online as PDF , with further references.
9. ↑ as described by Klaus Tausend: Comments on the identification of the Ahhijawa. In: Gustav Adolf Lehmann , Dorit Engster, Alexander Nuss (eds.): From the Bronze Age history to the modern reception of antiquities , Syngramma vol. 1, Universitätsverlag Göttingen 2012, p. 148
10. ↑ S. on this z. B. Gary M. Beckman, Trevor R. Bryce , Eric H. Cline : The Ahhiyawa Texts (= Writings from the Ancient World 28). Society of Biblical Literature, Atlanta 2011, p. 132.
11. ↑ First represented by John David Hawkins : Tarkasnawa, King of Mira: 'Tarkondemos', Boğazköy sealings and Karabel. Anatolian Studies 48, 1998, pp. 1-31. Many experts then joined his theory.
12. ^ Trevor R. Bryce: A Reinterpretation of the Milawata Letter in the Light of the New Join Piece. Anatolian Studies 35, 1985, pp. 13-23 (Bryce later followed Hawkins' theory); see. also Wolf-Dietrich Niemeier : Ḫattusa's relations with western Asia Minor and Mycenaean Greece (Aḫḫijawa). In: Gernot Wilhelm (Ed.): Ḫattuša-Boğazköy. The Hittite Empire in the field of tension of the ancient Orient. 6th International Colloquium of the German Orient Society 22. – 24. March 2006, Würzburg. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2008, pp. 291–350, here especially p. 323 note 231. Lately: Klaus Tausend: Comments on the identification of the Ahhijawa. In: Gustav Adolf Lehmann , Dorit Engster, Alexander Nuss (eds.): From the Bronze Age history to the modern reception of antiquities , Syngramma vol. 1, Universitätsverlag Göttingen 2012, p. 152 f .; Eberhard Zangger , Fred Woudhuizen : Rediscovered Hieroglyphic Luwian Inscriptions from Western Asia Minoer. Talanta 50, 2018, p. 29.