region at this time. But although both archaeological and written
sources seem to support an identification of Milawata as the Bronze
Age forerunner of Miletos, they don’t actually prove it. Once again,
hard evidence, in the form of tablets from the site itself identifying
it, has yet to be found.
GREEKS INHITTITE TEXTS?
Speaking of the Greeks–in the 1920s, a Swiss scholar called Emil
Forrer who made a study of the recently deciphered Hittite texts
became particularly interested in ones that indicated direct Hittite
contacts with a number of countries in western Anatolia, all the
way to the Aegean Sea. Now, archaeological excavations had
pointed to evidence of aGreekpresence, particularly in the form of
artefacts, at various places along the Aegean coast and its
hinterland. The Greeks of this era are commonly known as
Mycenaeans. This is a modern name for them, arising from the fact
that the citadel of Mycenae in southern Greece is today considered
the most important of the Late Bronze Age Greek sites; and indeed,
Mycenae in Greek tradition was the city of Agamemnon,
Map 6.2 Late Bronze Age Greece and western Anatolia.
52 WARRIORS OF ANATOLIA