134 Trevor R. Bryce
Tarhuntassa and Kizzuwatna
By the mid-second millennium, Luwian groups had occupied much of southern Ana-
tolia from Pamphylia in the west to Cilicia in the east. In these regions, two kingdoms
with apparently substantial Luwian populations emerged during the Hittite period. The
more westerly was Tarhuntassa, probably created as a political entity by the Hittite king
Muwatalli II early in the thirteenth century. For a time under Muwattalli, Tarhuntassa
became the royal seat of the Hittite Empire, and after the capital was re-established at
Hattusa by Muwattalli’s successor Urhi-Teshub, its continuing importance is indicated
by its status as an appanage kingdom of the empire, under the rule of a collateral member
of the royal family. It covered the region of Pamphylia and western Cilicia, the latter called
Cilicia Tracheia/Aspera (“Rough Cilicia”) in Classical texts, and may have extended as far
north as the Konya Plain. In the Iron Age, one of the Neo-Hittite kingdoms, Hilakku,
lay in Rough Cilicia. In this period too, Luwian elements were probably predominant
in the kingdom’s population. Such elements persisted well into the Hellenistic period
(fourth–first centuryBC)—to judge from the many Luwian names in Greek inscriptions
of the period found in this region. Similar epigraphic evidence indicates the persistence of
Luwian elements further to the west in Lycia during the Hellenistic period. (See Houwink
ten Cate 1965.) We cannot, however, tell whether the preservation of Luwian names in
Cilicia reflects an actual continuing Luwian presence there, or merely the continuation of
an onomastic tradition that lasted long after the Luwian elements that had given rise to
it had disappeared. The survival of the Luwian-related native language in Lycia until at
least the late fourth century provides more substantive evidence for a continuing Luwian
presence there in the Hellenistic period.
East of Tarhuntassa lay the country Kizzuwatna, probably established as a kingdom
independent of Hatti during the turbulent reign of the Hittite Old Kingdom ruler
Ammuna (sixteenth century). Later, Kizzuwatna fluctuated between Hatti and the Hur-
rian kingdom Mitanni until it was annexed by a Hittite king, probably Tudhaliya II in
the early fourteenth century, remaining part of the Hittite Empire until the empire’s fall.
In the Iron Age, much of its former territory was occupied by the Neo-Hittite kingdom
called Que in Assyrian texts and Adanawa and Hiyawa in Luwian texts. In Classical
sources, the region in which the kingdom lay was called Cilicia Pedias/Campestris
(“Smooth Cilicia”). Neo-Babylonian sources refer to the kingdom as “Hume.”
Like its western neighbor Tarhuntassa, Kizzuwatna appears to have had a substantial
Luwian population, with a strong admixture of Hurrian elements. Indeed, it seems that
its culture was predominantly a Hurrian one, as reflected in the fact that its most impor-
tant cities, including its capital Kummanni and the cult center Lawazantiya, were major
centers of Hurrian religion. The Hurrians were a large group of peoples, of uncertain
origin (perhaps from the Kura-Araxes region in Transcaucasia), who spread through
northern Mesopotamia, northern Syria, and eastern Anatolia from the late third mil-
lennium onward. During the Hittite Old Kingdom, Hittites and Hurrians fiercely con-
tested control over the territories of northern Syria and eastern Anatolia. The contest
persisted, and indeed intensified, when by the end of the sixteenth century a num-
ber of the Hurrian states of Upper Mesopotamia coalesced to form the kingdom of
Mitanni. Both sides sought control over Kizzuwatna because of its considerable strategic