Lukka lands

Last updated
The states formed by the Lukka (lower left) were located in south-west Anatolia/Asia Minor. Hethiter.svg
The states formed by the Lukka (lower left) were located in south-west Anatolia/Asia Minor.

The Lukka lands (sometimes Luqqa lands), were a historical region in southwestern Anatolia during the Late Bronze Age. They are known from Hittite and Egyptian texts, who viewed them as hostile. It is commonly accepted that the Bronze Age toponym Lukka is cognate with the Lycia of classical antiquity.

Contents

Location

Lukka was located in southwestern Anatolia. However, its exact extent is a matter of debate. Trevor Bryce has argued that the Lukka lands covered a large area including the regions later known as Lycaonia, Pisidia and Lycia. [1] Other researchers such as Ilya Yakubovich have argued that Lukka was limited to Lycia. [2]

History

Soldiers from the Lukka lands fought on the Hittite side in the famous Battle of Kadesh (c. 1274 BC) against the Egyptian Pharaoh Ramesses II. A century later, the Lukka had turned against the Hittites. The Hittite king Suppiluliuma II tried in vain to defeat the Lukka. They contributed to the collapse of the Hittite Empire.[ citation needed ]

The Lukka are also known from texts in Ancient Egypt as one of the tribes of the Sea Peoples, who invaded Egypt and the Eastern Mediterranean in the 12th century BC. [3]

See also

Notes

  1. Trevor Bryce (2005) The Kingdom of the Hittites, p. 54
  2. Ilya Yakubovich (2010) Sociolinguistics of the Luvian Language, Leiden: Brill, p. 134
  3. Bryce 2005, p. 336; Yakubovich 2010, p. 134

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hittites</span> Ancient Anatolian people of Kussara

The Hittites were an Anatolian Indo-European people who formed one of the first major civilizations of Bronze Age West Asia. Possibly originating from beyond the Black Sea, they settled in modern day Turkey in the early 2nd millennium BC. The Hittites formed a series of polities in north-central Anatolia, including the kingdom of Kussara, the Kanesh or Nesha kingdom, and an empire centered on Hattusa. Known in modern times as the Hittite Empire, it reached its height during the mid-14th century BC under Šuppiluliuma I, when it encompassed most of Anatolia and parts of the northern Levant and Upper Mesopotamia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lycia</span> Ancient geopolitical region of Anatolia (Turkey)

Lycia was a state or nationality that flourished in Anatolia from 15–14th centuries BC to 546 BC. It bordered the Mediterranean Sea in what is today the provinces of Antalya and Muğla in Turkey as well some inland parts of Burdur Province. The state was known to history from the Late Bronze Age records of ancient Egypt and the Hittite Empire. Lycia was populated by speakers of the Luwian language group. Written records began to be inscribed in stone in the Lycian language after Lycia's involuntary incorporation into the Achaemenid Empire in the Iron Age. At that time (546 BC) the Luwian speakers were displaced as Lycia received an influx of Persian speakers. Ancient sources seem to indicate that an older name of the region was Alope.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Perga</span> Ancient Greek city

Perga or Perge was originally an ancient Lycian settlement that later became a Greek city in Pamphylia. It was the capital of the Roman province of Pamphylia Secunda, now located in Antalya Province on the southwestern Mediterranean coast of Turkey. Today its ruins lie 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) east of Antalya.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anatolian languages</span> Extinct branch of Indo-European languages

The Anatolian languages are an extinct branch of Indo-European languages that were spoken in Anatolia, part of present-day Turkey. The best known Anatolian language is Hittite, which is considered the earliest-attested Indo-European language.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Luwian language</span> Ancient Indo-European language of the Hittite Empire

Luwian, sometimes known as Luvian or Luish, is an ancient language, or group of languages, within the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family. The ethnonym Luwian comes from Luwiya – the name of the region in which the Luwians lived. Luwiya is attested, for example, in the Hittite laws.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sea Peoples</span> Purported ancient seafaring confederation of invaders

The Sea Peoples are a hypothesized seafaring confederation that attacked ancient Egypt and other regions in the East Mediterranean before and during the Late Bronze Age collapse. Following the creation of the concept in the 19th century, the Sea Peoples' incursions became one of the most famous chapters of Egyptian history, given its connection with, in the words of Wilhelm Max Müller, "the most important questions of ethnography and the primitive history of classic nations".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arzawa</span> Ancient Anatolian kingdom

Arzawa was a region and a political entity in Western Anatolia during the Late Bronze Age. This name was used in contemporary Hittite records to refer either to a single "kingdom" or a federation of local powers. The core of Arzawa is believed to be along the Kaystros River, with its capital at Apasa, later known as Ephesus. When the Hittites conquered Arzawa, it was divided into three Hittite provinces: a southern province called Mira along the Maeander River; a northern province called the Seha River Land, along the Gediz River; and an eastern province called Hapalla.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hittite language</span> Extinct Bronze Age Indo-European language

Hittite, also known as Nesite, is an extinct Indo-European language that was spoken by the Hittites, a people of Bronze Age Anatolia who created an empire centred on Hattusa, as well as parts of the northern Levant and Upper Mesopotamia. The language, now long extinct, is attested in cuneiform, in records dating from the 17th to the 13th centuries BC, with isolated Hittite loanwords and numerous personal names appearing in an Old Assyrian context from as early as the 20th century BC, making it the earliest attested use of the Indo-European languages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hattians</span> Ancient people of central Anatolia

The Hattians were an ancient Bronze Age people that inhabited the land of Hatti, in central Anatolia. They spoke a distinctive Hattian language, which was neither Semitic nor Indo-European. Hattians are attested by archeological records from the Early Bronze Age and by historical references in later Hittite and other sources. Their main centre was the city of Hattush. Faced with Hittite expansion, Hattians were gradually absorbed into the new political and social order, imposed by the Hittites, who were one of the Indo-European-speaking Anatolian peoples. The Hittites kept the country name unchanged, which also became the main designation for the Hittite state.

Assuwa was a confederation of 22 states in western Anatolia around 1400 BC. The confederation formed to oppose the Hittite Empire, but was defeated under Tudhaliya I/II. The name was recorded in various centres in Mycenaean Greece as Asiwia, which later acquired the form Asia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Madduwatta</span>

Madduwatta was a Late Bronze Age warlord who conquered a portion of southwest Anatolia. He is known from the Hittite text known as the Indictment of Madduwatta.

Kizzuwatna was an ancient Anatolian kingdom in the 2nd millennium BC. It was situated in the highlands of southeastern Anatolia, near the Gulf of İskenderun, in modern-day Turkey. It encircled the Taurus Mountains and the Ceyhan River. The centre of the kingdom was the city of Kummanni, in the highlands. In a later era, the same region was known as Cilicia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Quwê</span>

Quwê – also spelled Que, Kue, Qeve, Coa, Kuê and Keveh – was a Syro-Hittite Assyrian vassal state or province at various times from the 9th century BC to shortly after the death of Ashurbanipal around 627 BC in the lowlands of eastern Cilicia, and the name of its capital city, tentatively identified with Adana, in modern Turkey. The name Que reflects the Assyrian transmission of the indigenous name Hiyawa, the same state is known as Hume from Babylonian sources.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tawagalawa letter</span> Letter written by a Hittite king

The Tawagalawa letter is a fragmentary Hittite text from the mid 13th century BC. It is notable for providing a window into relations between Hittites and Greeks during the Late Bronze Age and for its mention of a prior disagreement concerning a city called Wilusa, generally identified with the archaeological site of Troy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nuhašše</span>

Nuhašše, also Nuhašša, was a region in northwestern Syria that flourished in the 2nd millennium BC. It was a federacy ruled by different kings who collaborated and probably had a high king. Nuhašše changed hands between different powers in the region such as Egypt, Mitanni and the Hittites. It rebelled against the latter which led Šuppiluliuma I to attack and annex the region.

The Luwians were an ancient people in Anatolia who spoke the Luwian language. During the Bronze Age, Luwians formed part of the population of the Hittite Empire and adjoining states such as Kizzuwatna. During the Hittite New Kingdom, Luwian replaced Hittite as the empire's dominant language. In the early Iron Age, a number of Luwian-speaking Neo-Hittite states arose in northern Syria. The Luwians are known largely from their language, and it is unclear to what extent they formed a unified cultural or political group.

The following is a list of regions of Ancient Anatolia, also known as "Asia Minor," in the present day Anatolia region of Turkey in Western Asia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prehistory of Anatolia</span> Prehistorical period in Western Asia

The prehistory of Anatolia stretches from the Paleolithic era through to the appearance of classical civilisation in the middle of the 1st millennium BC. It is generally regarded as being divided into three ages reflecting the dominant materials used for the making of domestic implements and weapons: Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age. The term Copper Age (Chalcolithic) is used to denote the period straddling the stone and Bronze Ages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Palistin</span> Early Syro-Hittite kingdom

Palistin, was an early Syro-Hittite kingdom located in what is now northwestern Syria and the southeastern Turkish province of Hatay. Its existence was confirmed by the discovery of several inscriptions mentioning Taita, king of Palistin.

Karkiya or Karkisa was a Late Bronze Age region in western Anatolia known from references in Hittite and Egyptian records. It is believed to refer to the classical era region of Caria or to a region where ancestors of the Carians lived at the time, though this identification has not been firmly established.