Madduwatta

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Madduwatta , also: Madduwattas or Madduwattaš , was a prince of Western Asia Minor at the time of the Hittite Empire . The events of his reign are recorded in a cuneiform text found in Boğazköy , which is known as the indictment against Madduwatta ( CTH 147) and is counted among the Achijawa texts , the Hittite texts in which the country Aḫḫijawa is mentioned. In the poorly preserved text, written as a letter to Madduwatta, the Hittite great king accuses Madduwatta of being faithless and oath-breaking in an unknown context.

Life of the Madduwatta

Anatolia at the time of the Hittites

The Madduwatta's life data are not available from the source. The Hittite king, referred to only as the sun (as a sumerogram ), is also not named. Madduwatta had been driven out of his country by Attariššija (also Attarišija) of Aḫḫija and had sought refuge at the Hittite court. The king made him his henchman and installed him as ruler of Zippasla , with the condition that he reside in the land of Hariyati and not wage war without the permission of the great king. Madduwatta, however, made it possible to live in the land of Zippasla. Contrary to his requirements, however, he began a war with Kupanta-Kurunta , the ruler of Arzawa , was defeated by him, expelled from Zippasla and fled again to the court of the Hittite great king.

The Hittite king began a war against Arzawa and reinstated Madduwatta as ruler in Zippasla, but refrained from proceeding against Arzawa. When Attariššija again proceeded against Madduwatta, this again rescued a Hittite armed force, which now remained stationed in the principality of Madduwatta. Madduwatta used a rebellion by the cities of Dalawa and Hinduwa against the Hittite king to engage in conspiratorial action with the rebels against the Hittite troops, which he got rid of in this way. Then he gave his daughter to King Kupanta-Kurunta of Arzawa as his wife and took military action against the country of Landapalla , which was part of the Hittite Empire, and conquered it. He then made conquests in the Lukka lands and stole the city of Pitassa from the Hittite king , and also conquered Ijalanti , Zumarri and Wallarimma. He only returned Ḫapalla at the reproach of the great king.

Finally, he still supported his original enemy Attarsiya in his action against Alašija , which the great king also counted among his subjects .

Chronological and historical classification

The indictment against Madduwatta contains neither a date nor the name of the Hittite kings (father and son) mentioned therein.

From the early explorers of Hittite history and the Achijawa question ( Emil Forrer and Albrecht Götze ) the events in the time of the late Hittite kings Tudḫaliya IV. And Arnuwanda III. and thus dated to the critical time of the late 13th century BC, immediately before the collapse of the Hittite Empire. Götze refers to another cuneiform document, which brings the king Kupanta-Kurunta of Arzawa in connection with a campaign of a king Tudḫaliya and his son Arnuwanda.

On the basis of philological investigations into the language of the Madduwattas text, Heinrich Otten comes to the conclusion that the text can be dated to the Middle Hittite period (1500 BC - 1375 BC) and the acting kings Tudḫaliya I and Arnuwanda I. are. This dating is also followed by the more recent accounts of Hittite history, for example by Trevor Bryce , Horst Klengel and Gary M. Beckman et. al. Inge Hoffmann, on the other hand, believes that he can identify the creator of the great empire Šuppiluliuma I because of the use of the term “sun” for the Hittite king as the author of the indictment .

The dating has profound consequences for the historical classification of the event. The dating in the older literature to the late period of the empire sees the great king's indulgence towards his unfaithful vassals recognizable in the Madduwatta text, a phenomenon that ultimately leads to the fall of the empire. After the name Mukšuš appears in a largely corrupted part of the text, the Greek equivalent of which is Mopsos , speculations were opened about the identity of the Mopsos known from Greek mythology with this Mukšuš as the successor to the Madduwatta.

The advocates of an earlier dating, on the other hand, see this flexibility as an expression of a period of weakness in the middle Hittite empire before the rise to a great empire under Šuppiluliuma I. Trevor Bryce, on the other hand, sees it as a deliberate maxim of the policy of the Hittite kings, which focuses on their south-eastern border and access Syria concentrated and therefore strived to ensure that there was peace on its western border and did not want to get involved in major conflicts there.

Trivia

In his historical novel Troy , Gisbert Haefs allows a Madduwatta to appear among the minor characters with historically traditional names, whose origin and career correspond to the historical Madduwatta, as shown by the older, now abandoned dating and interpretation. He is described in the novel as an ancient, cannibalist monster.

swell

  • Gary M. Beckman, Trevor R. Bryce, Eric H. Cline : The Ahhiyawa Texts (= Writings from the Ancient World 28). Society of Biblical Literature, Atlanta 2011, ISBN 978-1-58983-268-8 , pp. 69-100. (ATH 3).
  • Trevor Bryce: The Kingdom of the Hittites. 2nd Edition. Oxford University Press, New York 2005, ISBN 0-19-928132-7 , pp. 129-137.
  • Trevor M. Bryce: Madduwatta and Hittite Policy in Western Anatolia. In: Historia: magazine for ancient history. 35, No. 1, 1986, pp. 1-12.
  • Friedrich Cornelius : History of the Hittites. With special consideration of geographical conditions and legal history. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1990, ISBN 3-534-06190-X , pp. 265-268 and 271-273.
  • Robert Fischer: The Aḫḫijawa question With an annotated bibliography. 1st edition. Otto Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2008, ISBN 978-3-447-05749-3 , pp. 57-59.
  • Albrecht Götze: Madduwattaš. Hinrichs, Leipzig 1928.
  • Inge Hoffmann: Some thoughts on the author of the Madduwatta text. In: Orientalia, NOVA SERIES. Vol 53, No. 1, 1984, pp. 34-51.
  • Horst Klengel: History of the Hittite Empire Brill, Leiden / Boston / Cologne 1999, ISBN 90-04-10201-9 , pp. 115-122.
  • Heinrich Otten: Linguistic position and dating of the Madduwatta text. (= StBoT . 11). Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1969.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Transcription and translation of the text by Albrecht Götze: Madduwattaš. Hinrichs, Leipzig 1928, pp. 2-39; Gary Beckman, Trevor Bryce , Eric Cline : The Ahhiyawa Texts. (= Writings from the Ancient World 28). Society of Biblical Literature, Atlanta 2011, pp. 69-100.
  2. ^ Albrecht Götze: Madduwattaš. Hinrichs, Leipzig 1928, p. 157 ff.
  3. ^ Heinrich Otten: Linguistic position and dating of the Madduwatta text Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1969, p. 30.
  4. ^ Heinrich Otten: Linguistic position and dating of the Madduwatta text Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1969, p. 31.
  5. ^ Inge Hoffmann: Some thoughts on the author of the Madduwatta text. In: Orientalia, NOVA SERIES. Vol 53, No. 1 1984, pp. 34-51, 42 ff.
  6. ^ Albrecht Götze: Madduwattaš. Hinrichs, Leipzig 1928, p. 159.
  7. ^ Friedrich Cornelius: History of the Hittites. With special consideration of geographical conditions and legal history. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1990, ISBN 3-534-06190-X , pp. 272 ​​f .; August Strobel : The Late Bronze Age Sea Peoples Storm. A research overview with conclusions on the biblical Exodus topic. Walter de Gruyter & Co, Berlin / New York 2015, ISBN 978-3-11-006761-3 , pp. 32–37 - both authors, however, still prefer Madduwatta's late dating.
  8. ^ Trevor M. Bryce: Madduwatta and Hittite Policy in Western Anatolia. In: Historia: magazine for ancient history. 35, No. 1, 1986, pp. 1-12.
personal data
SURNAME Madduwatta
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Madduwattas; Madduwattaš
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Prince of Western Asia Minor at the time of the Hittite Empire
DATE OF BIRTH between 15th century BC BC and 12th century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH between 15th century BC BC and 12th century BC Chr.