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Kaskians
The Kaska (also Kaška, later Tabalian Kasku and Gasga,) were a loosely affiliated Bronze Age non-Indo-European tribal people, who spoke the unclassified Kaskian language and lived in mountainous East Pontic Anatolia, known from Hittite sources. They lived in the mountainous region between the core Hittite region in eastern Anatolia and the Black Sea, and are cited as the reason that the later Hittite Empire never extended northward to that area. They are sometimes identified with the Caucones known from Greek records. Early history The Kaska, probably originating from the eastern shore of the Propontis,Toumanoff, Cyril (1967). ''Studies in Christian Caucasian History'', pp. 55–56. Georgetown University Press. may have displaced the speakers of the Palaic language from their home in Pala. The Kaska first appear in the Hittite prayer inscriptions that date from the reign of Hantili II, c. 1450 BC, and make references to their movement into the ruins of the holy city of Neri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kaskian Language
Kaskian (Kaskean) was the language of the Kaskians (Kaska) of northeastern Bronze Age Anatolia in the mountains along the Black Sea coast. The ''Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture'' lists the Kaskians as non–Indo-European. There are a number of theories regarding to which language family the Kaskian language belonged. It is sometimes suspected that Kaskian was related to the pre-Hittite Hattic language, based on toponyms and personal names; the Hattic moon god was named Kasku. Conversely, the Kaskian language may have been an Indo-European language, perhaps related to Thraco-Phrygian. There may also be connections to the Northwest Caucasian languages; the name ''Kaskian'' may be cognate with an old name for Circassia, and the name of one of the tribes in the Kaskian confederation, the Abešla, may be cognate with the endonym of the Abkhaz people and some Circassian people, suggesting the Kaskians proper and Abešla might have been the ancestors of the Circassians and oth ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hittites
The Hittites () were an Anatolian people who played an important role in establishing first a kingdom in Kussara (before 1750 BC), then the Kanesh or Nesha kingdom (c. 1750–1650 BC), and next an empire centered on Hattusa in north-central Anatolia (around 1650 BC). This empire reached its height during the mid-14th century BC under Šuppiluliuma I, when it encompassed an area that included most of Anatolia as well as parts of the northern Levant and Upper Mesopotamia. Between the 15th and 13th centuries BC, the Empire of Hattusa—in modern times conventionally called the Hittite Empire—came into conflict with the New Kingdom of Egypt, the Middle Assyrian Empire and the empire of Mitanni for control of the Near East. The Middle Assyrian Empire eventually emerged as the dominant power and annexed much of the Hittite Empire, while the remainder was sacked by Phrygian newcomers to the region. After BC, during the Late Bronze Age collapse, the Hittites splintered in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zalpuwa
Zalpuwa, also Zalpa, was a still-undiscovered Bronze Age city in Anatolia of around the 18th century BC. Its history is largely known from the Proclamation of Anitta, CTH 1. But the Zalpa mentioned in the Annals of Hattusili I, CTH 4, is now convincingly identified as Tilmen Höyük, in the Karasu River Valley south of the Taurus Mountains by Tubingen and Chicago Universities recent excavations. Earlier identification of Zalpa near the Black Sea Zalpuwa was by a "Sea of Zalpa". It was the setting for an ancient legend about the Queen of Kanesh, which was either composed in or translated into the Hurrian language: " he Queenof Kanesh once bore thirty sons in a single year. She said: 'What a horde is this which I have born ' She caulked(?) baskets with fat, put her sons in them, and launched them in the river. The river carried them down to the sea at the land of Zalpuwa. Then the gods took them up out of the sea and reared them. When some years had passed, the queen again gave ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hayasa-Azzi
Hayasa-Azzi or Azzi-Hayasa ( hit, URUḪaiaša-, hy, Հայասա) was a Late Bronze Age confederation in the Armenian Highlands and/or Pontic region of Asia Minor. The Hayasa-Azzi confederation was in conflict with the Hittite Empire in the 14th century BC, leading up to the collapse of Hatti around 1190 BC. It has long been thought that Hayasa-Azzi may have played a significant role in the ethnogenesis of Armenians. Location Hittite inscriptions deciphered in the 1920s by the Swiss scholar Emil Forrer testify to the existence of the mountainous country, Hayasa-Azzi, lying to the east of Hatti in the Upper Euphrates region. Its western border seems to have alternated between Samuha (probably just west of modern Sivas) and Kummaha (likely modern Kemah, Erzincan). These areas later geographically overlapped, at least partially, with the Upper Armenia province of the Kingdom of Armenia and the neighboring region of Lesser Armenia. Hayasa-Azzi seems to have been bordered ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sapinuwa
Sapinuwa (sometimes Shapinuwa; Hittite: ''Šapinuwa'') was a Bronze Age Hittite city at the location of modern Ortaköy in the province Çorum in Turkey. It was one of the major Hittite religious and administrative centres, a military base and an occasional residence of several Hittite kings. The palace at Sapinuwa is discussed in several texts from Hattusa. Digs Ortaköy was identified as the site of ancient Sapinuwa after a local farmer contacted Çorum Museum; he found two clay cuneiform tablets in his field. This led to a survey conducted in 1989, and more discoveries. Ankara University quickly obtained permission from the Ministry of Culture to begin excavation. This commenced in the following year, in 1990, under the leadership of Aygül and Mustafa Süel, and have continued since. Building A was excavated first, and then Building B in 1995. The building with the Yazılıkaya-style orthostate and 14th century BC charcoal was excavated after 2000. Aygül Süel has been ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Caucones
The Caucones ( grc-gre, Καύκωνες ''Kaukônes'') were an autochthonous tribe of Anatolia (modern-day Turkey), who later migrated to parts of the Greek mainland (Arcadia, Triphylian Pylos and Elis). The phonology of the name Caucones may be evidence that they originated in the Caucasus Mountains. Hittite tablets mention a '' kaz-kaz'' people who lived along the southern shore of the Black Sea – where Homer's ''Iliad'' placed the ''Kaukônes''. According to Herodotus and other classical writers, the Caucones were displaced or absorbed by the Bithynians, who had migrated from Thrace. This suggests that the Bithynians spoke an Indo-European language, such as Thracian, while the Caucones did not. (The Bithynians also expelled or absorbed other autochthonous tribes, such as the Mysians, although one – the Mariandyni – maintained their cultural independence, in an area that became north-east Bithynia. Strabo 2.3.3states that in earlier times the Bithynians were known as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anatolia
Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The region is bounded by the Turkish Straits to the northwest, the Black Sea to the north, the Armenian Highlands to the east, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and the Aegean Sea to the west. The Sea of Marmara forms a connection between the Black and Aegean seas through the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits and separates Anatolia from Thrace on the Balkan peninsula of Southeast Europe. The eastern border of Anatolia has been held to be a line between the Gulf of Alexandretta and the Black Sea, bounded by the Armenian Highlands to the east and Mesopotamia to the southeast. By this definition Anatolia comprises approximately the western two-thirds of the Asian part of Turkey. Today, Anatolia is sometimes considered to be synonymous with Asian ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pala (Anatolia)
Pala (cuneiform ''pa-la-a'') was a Bronze Age country in Northern Anatolia. Little is known of Pala except its native Palaic language and its native religion. The only known person of Palaic origin was the ritual priestess Anna. Their language shared common innovations with Luwian not present in the Hittite language suggesting a prior Luwian-Palaic linguistic complex. Location Pala is said to have been bordered by Tummana to the east, Kalasma to the west and Kaissiya to Mount Asharpaya toward the south. The country named *Bla leading to Blaene in cuneiform script was written as ''pa-la-a''. The country of Pala may have been located along the Black Sea coast, either in the region known as Paphlagonia in classical antiquity or the much smaller territory of Blaene located within, though it has been alternately located near modern-day Sivas as well. History In the Old Hittite period Pala was mentioned as an administrative area under Hittite jurisdiction in the Hittite laws. A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pontus (region)
Pontus or Pontos (; el, Πόντος, translit=Póntos, "Sea") is a region on the southern coast of the Black Sea, located in the modern-day eastern Black Sea Region of Turkey. The name was applied to the coastal region and its mountainous hinterland (rising to the Pontic Alps in the east) by the Greeks who colonized the area in the Archaic period and derived from the Greek name of the Black Sea: ''(')'', "Hospitable Sea", or simply ''Pontos'' () as early as the Aeschylean ''Persians'' (472 BC) and Herodotus' ''Histories'' (circa 440 BC). Having originally no specific name, the region east of the river Halys was spoken of as the country ''()'', lit. "on the uxinosPontos", and hence it acquired the name of Pontus, which is first found in Xenophon's ''Anabasis (Xenophon), Anabasis'' (). The extent of the region varied through the ages but generally extended from the borders of Colchis (modern western Georgia (country), Georgia) until well into Paphlagonia in the west, with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maşat Höyük
Maşat Höyük is a Bronze Age Hittite archaeological site 100 km nearly east of Boğazkale/ Hattusa, about 20 km south of Zile, Tokat Province, north-central Turkey, not far from the Çekerek River. The site is under agricultural use and is plowed. It was first excavated in the 1970s. During the Hittite period, it is believed to have been named Tappika (Tabigga, Tabikka). History The site dates back to at least the Early Bronze Age. Most of the EBA remains on the upper city were destroyed in the construction of the Hittite palace. Some remain in the lower town. The enigmatic marauding Kaskas burned this site during Tudhaliya II's reign. The Hittites rebuilt it under the next king Suppiluliuma I. Cuneiform tablets from the site form a new archive of Hittite texts. The letters found at Masat Höyük were edited by Sedat Alp in a two-volume edition in Turkish and German in 1991. Most tablets here are correspondence between the site and the Hittite king, a "Tudha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nerik
Nerik ( Hittite: ''Nerik(ka)''"Nerik(ka)." ''Reallexikon der Assyriologie.'') was a Bronze Age settlement to the north of the Hittite capitals Hattusa and Sapinuwa, probably in the Pontic region. Since 2005–2009, the site of Nerik has been identified as Oymaağaç Höyük, on the eastern side of the Kızılırmak River, northwest of Vezirköprü. The Hittites held it as sacred to a Storm-god who was the son of Wurušemu, Sun-goddess of Arinna. The weather god is associated or identified with Mount Zaliyanu near Nerik, responsible for bestowing rain on the city. Nerik was founded by Hattic language speakers as Narak; in the Hattusa archive, tablet CTH 737 records a Hattic incantation for a festival there. Under Hattusili I, the Nesite-speaking Hittites took over Nerik. They maintained a spring festival called "Puruli" in honor of the Storm-god of Nerik. In it, the celebrants recited the myth of the slaying of Illuyanka. Under Hantili, Nerik was ruined and the Hittites h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Isuwa
Isuwa (transcribed Išuwa and sometimes rendered Ishuwa) was the ancient Hittite name for one of its neighboring Anatolian kingdoms to the east, in an area which later became the Luwian Neo-Hittite state of Kammanu. The land The land of Isuwa was situated in the upper Euphrates river region. The river valley was here surrounded by the Anti-Taurus Mountains. To the northeast of the river lay a vast plain stretching up to the Black Sea mountain range. The plain had favourable climatic conditions due to the abundance of water from springs and rainfall. Irrigation of fields was possible without the need to build complex canals. The river valley was well suited for intensive agriculture, while livestock could be kept at the higher altitudes. The mountains possessed rich deposits of copper which were mined in antiquity. The people The Isuwans left no written record of their own, and it is not clear which of the Anatolian peoples inhabited the land of Isuwa prior to the Luwians. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
