countries and cities located somewhere in the western half of the
Anatolian peninsula, but no precise information, either archae-
ological or written, as to where the great majority of them actually
lay. What we do know is that a large part of the region was occupied
by a territorial conglomerate called the Arzawa lands in Hittite
texts. It probably covered much of the region between the Salt Lake
and the Aegean Sea. We’ve already met Arzawa as the object of a
plundering expedition by the Hittite king Hattusili I. The focus of
this conglomerate seems to have been a specific kingdom called
Arzawa. (We often refer to it as Arzawa Proper or Arzawa Minor to
distinguish it from the rest of the lands to which the Arzawan label
is applied.)
We can be pretty sure that it extended inland from Anatolia’s
Aegean coast. And its chief city Apasa, known from the texts,may
have been located close to the site of Classical Ephesus (which
presumably derived its name from the Hittite city). Fairly recently,
Late Bronze Age pottery and what is probably part of a Late Bronze
Age fortification wall were discovered on a hill near Ephesus. Just
possibly these are remnants of the Arzawan city of Apasa. Perhaps
more substantial Bronze Age remains lie beneath Classical
Ephesus. If so, or even if not, this exemplifies one of the main
problems with attempting tofind Bronze Age material in the west.
There has been so much reoccupation of the region in later times,
beginning with Greek settlements in many parts of it from the late
second millennium onwards, that any remnants of the Bronze Age
may have been destroyed for all time by later settlements or buried
irretrievably beneath them. As one frustrated Bronze Age
archaeologist commented:‘We can’t get at the really interesting
stuff because of all this Classical junk sitting on top of it!’
Even if more Bronze Age remains of the Hittite period do come
to light, the chances of written records being found among them is
extremely slight. Unbaked clay tablets would have long since
crumbled to dust. It’s purely a matter of good fortune that such
large quantities of clay tabletshavesurvived in other parts of the
Bronze Age world, by being accidentally baked in the conflagra-
tions which destroyed the cities where they were located. We know
that a number of western Anatolian countries, especially the
THE SETTING FOR AN EMPIRE 49