Kalašma or Kalasma (occasionally KalašpaWeeden and Ullmann 2022 p. 232; Garstang 1960 p. 41) was a late Bronze Age polity in Northern Anatolia on the border of the Hittite Empire.
Geography
Kalašma was located somewhere in northwestern Anatolia. Though its precise location is uncertain, its location relative to other places can be deduced from geographical references in contemporary documents. For instance, it is known to have been south of Arawanna and west of Pala.Weeden and Ullmann 2022 pp. 234, 261 Current research suggests that it was located near modern day Bolu. (here pp. 15–16).
A city called Harranassi may have been located in Kalašma. When Hittite was first deciphered, Bedřich Hrozný took the placename "Kalašmitta" to be a variant of "Kalašma", but current research suggests that they were in fact separate places.
History Forlanini says that Kalašma was not a tribal name but a city-state, the eponymous city having been fortified by the Hittite king Hantili I (died c. 1560 BCE).Forlanini 2010 p. 158 Hantili failed to reinstate Kalašma's local weather god, and on returning to Ḫattuša, the Hittite capital, he had to perform expiatory rituals to the Sun goddess of the Earth.
Arnuwanda I (ruled 1380s BCE) installed oathbound military commanders in regions including Kalašma.Weeden and Ullmann 2022 p. 256 Civil administration was by a council of elders. In the reign of Arnuwanda's son Tudhaliya II, troops from Kalašma and elsewhere rebelled and fled through Išuwa to an unnamed enemy country; Tudhaliya's son Suppiluliuma I subdued the rebel regions. There were several revolts in the reign of Suppiluliuma's son Muršili II (ended 1295 BCE). One triggered a punitive raid by Hittite general Nuwanzas.Garstang 1960 p. 46Carnevale 2018 p. 342 n. 1361 Muršili replaced the elders with a single administrator named Aparru, who rebelled, seized royal power, and invaded neighbouring Sappa.Garstang 1960 p. 45Carnevale 2018 p. 131 Aparru was soon defeated but Kalašma was in civil war until pacified the next year by Hutupiyanza, governor of Pala.Weeden and Ullmann 2022 p. 233
Kalašmans were later to be found further east, at Pahhuwa on the upper Euphrates, possibly having been deported there by Muršili, or as mercenary soldiers.Forlanini 2010 pp. 161–162 Kalašmans fought alongside the Hittites at the Battle of Kadesh against the Egyptian Empire in 1274 BCE.
Kalašma is one of the places mentioned in a Luwian hieroglyphic tablet from the reign of Arnuwanda III (ended c. 1210 BCE) as conquered by Mukšuš.
Language In 2023 a tablet written in "the language of Kalašma" was discovered in the Bogazköy Archive excavated at Ḫattuša. It is in the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European languages, probably the Luwic sub-branch.
In 1958 had noted that a Hittite-language oath taken by officials from Kalašma represented a different dialect of Hittite from the oath of other regions' officials.
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