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.
Name Assuwa has been identified in Egyptian records as isy and a-si-ja and in the contemporary Greek Linear B script with the demonym a-si-ja.
History Late Bronze Hittite Middle Kingdom Assuwa appears in the historical record around 1400 BC. It is mentioned in six surviving Hittite documents including the Annals of Tudhaliya I/II, which gives a detailed account of the Assuwans' rebellion and its aftermath.Cline, Eric H. “Achilles in Anatolia: Myth, History, and the Assuwa Rebellion,” in Crossing Boundaries and Linking Horizons: Studies in Honor of Michael Astour on His 80th Birthday, Gordon D. Young, Mark W. Chavalas, and Richard E. Averbeck, eds. (Bethesda, MD: CDL Press, 1997), pp. 189–210.
Eric Cline has argued that certain circumstantial evidence suggests that Ahhiyawans may have supported the rebellion. For instance, sword with a potentially Mycenaean style found at Hattusa bears an inscription suggesting that it was taken from an Assuwan soldier and left as an offering to the Hittite storm god. Some scholars have speculated that certain details in the Iliad could reflect a memory of this conflict, including the seemingly anachronistic character of Ajax as well as references to pre-Trojan War escapades of Bellerophon and Heracles in Anatolia.
See also
Arzawa Ancient regions of Anatolia Seha River Land Wilusa
References