The Kingdom of Ahhiyawa: A Hittite Perspective

Trevor Bryce

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While Ahhiyawa in Hittite texts can be roughly equated with the Late Bronze Age Greek or ‘Mycenaean’ world, it was most likely a generic term used by the Hittites for all lands lying beyond the western Anatolian coast, without clear political, cultural, or ethnic connotations. It probably originated from a tribal name in this region, which the Hittites applied to the ‘western lands’ as a whole. But some texts make reference to an Ahhiyawan king, ruler of a specific kingdom within this world, and accorded by the Hittite king a status equivalent to that of the Great Kings of the Near Eastern world. The article proposes that the kingdom is Pylos, and discusses the relevant information supporting this identification. It deals with the significant role the kingdom played in the western Anatolian region, militarily and politically, and the possibility that for a time its ruler held sway over a substantial part of the region, where his sovereignty was acknowledged in what may have been a treaty drawn up with the current Hittite king.

Reaction to Bryce Article, by Eric Cline
The Kingdom of Ahhiyawa: Facts, Factoids and Probabilities, by Jorrit M. Kelder
An Aegean Archaeologist’s Response to “The Kingdom of Ahhiyawa: A Hittite Perspective”, by Jeremy B. Rutter
Response to “The Kingdom of Ahhiyawa: A Hittite Perspective”, by Robert Schon
Hittite-Ahhiyawan Politics as Seen from the Tablets: A Reaction to Trevor Bryce’s Article from a Hittitological Perspective, by Mark Weeden
Postscript, by Anna Lucia D’Agata

Trevor Bryce is Honorary Professor in Classics and Ancient History at the University of Queensland (Australia).
Full Bibliographic Reference

Bryce T. 2018, The Kingdom of Ahhiyawa: A Hittite Perspective, SMEA NS 4, 191-196.

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KEYWORDS

Anatolia; Hittites; Mycenaeans; Ahhiyawa; Pylos; Millawanda (Milawata)

FIGURES

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