HITTITE DOCUMENTS REFERRING TO CONTEMPORARIES ABROAD AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS FOR DATING THE TROJANWAR

Описание: Official diplomatic documents, handed down from the Land-of-Ḫatti, describe the political developments in Anatolia between 17th-12th century BCE -used in correspondence with states adjacent to Ḫatti-, and reflect transnational relations (either peace-ful or fierce). The famous documents mentioning Aḫḫiyawa date to the 15th/14th-12th century BCE and yield a valuable Hittite perspective of international affairs. The contents of these documents are presented in relation to the archaeological evidence from Egypt, Cyprus, Levant and Greece. Aḫḫiyawa appears to reflect a state on the Greek mainland and some Aegean islands that is not recorded as such in later Greek literature and most likely reflects Mycenaean Greece. This state assumed an active role in diplomatic relations across the eastern-Mediterranean from the late-15th century BCE onwards, powerful enough to disturb the Hittite Kings. Under Ammuna’s reign, during 15th century BCE, the weakened Hittite kingdom was restricted to central Anatolia. Tu dḫaliya I/II expanded their realm westwards. Subsequently, times of weakness alternated with times of strength followed. Archaeological evidence suggests that during early-LH-1350/1320BCE period, Mycenaeans (i.e. Aḫḫiyawans) enjoyed their greatest prosperity and power, evidenced by the cutting-edge technological level of archaeological remnants. The ‘Great Pow-ers’, diachronically, use cutting-edge technology to ‘gather-riches’, by gaining military supremacy through their superior-quality weaponry. Mycenaeans exercised great influence in eastern-Mediterranean through overseas military raids against Anatolia and Egypt. By 1350/1320BCE, Mycenaean power progressively declined with evidence of increasing Palaces’ destructions and a “LHIIIA2-LHIIIB Palaces’ cardboard-collapse”.In this paper, a comparative analysis is presented, drawing from linguistics of personal-names and place-names in Linear B texts and Hittite and Egyptian records. The ultimate question to be addressed is, whether the recorded raids can be correlated with any destruction-layer(s) at Troy VI and, of course, whether one of these destruction-layer(s) might indeed reflect what became known as the Trojan War in ancient lore.


Author(s): Giannakos, Konstantinos (Association for the Research of Ancient-Greek and Byzantine Technology)