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Kizzuwatna is the name of an ancient kingdom of the second millennium BC. It was situated in the highlands of Anatolia, Turkey. It encircled the Taurus Mountains and the Ceyhan river. Later the area was known as Cilicia.
The land
The country possessed valuable resources such as silver mines in the Taurus Mountains. The slopes of the mountain range is still partly covered by woods. Annual winter rains made agriculture possible in the area very early (see Çatal Hüyük). The plains at the lower course of the Ceyhan river provided rich cultivated fields.
The people
The population of Kizzuwatna was made up of Luwian people and Hurrians. The Luwian language was part of the Indo-European language group with close ties to the Hittite language. The Hurrian culture performed a strong influence on the people of Kizzuwatna. The center of the kingdom was the city of Kummanni situated in the highlands.
History of Kizzuwatna
King Sargon of Akkad claimed to have reached the Taurus mountains (the silver mountains) in about 2300 BC. However archaeology has yet not proven any Akkadian influence in the area. Trade routes from Assyria to the Anatolian highlands went through Kizzuwatna by the early second millennium BC (the karum trade).
The kings of Kizzuwatna of the second millennium BC made frequent contacts with the Hittites in the north. In the power struggle between the Hittites and the Hurrian kingdom of Mitanni Kizzuwatna became a strategic partner due to its location. Ishputashu made a treaty with the Hittite king Telipinu. Later Kizzuwatna shifted its allegiance, perhaps due to a new ruling dynasty. The city state of Alalakh to the south expanded under its new vigorous leader Idrimi, himself a subject of the Mitannian king Barattarna. King Pilliya of Kizzuwatna had to sign a treaty with Idrimi. Kizzuwatna became an ally of Mitanni from the reign of Shunashura I until the Hittite king Arnuwanda I overran the country and made it a vassal kingdom. Kizzuwatna rebelled during the reign of Suppiluliuma I but remained within the Hittite empire for two hundred years.
The culture and religion of the Luwians strongly influenced the Hittites. A corpus of religious texts called the Kizzuwatna rituals were discovered at Hattusa. Pudu-Hepa, queen of the Hittite king Hattusili III came from Kizzuwatna where she had been a priestess. After the fall of the Hittite empire several minor Neo-Hittite kingdoms emerged in the area, such as Tabal, Kummuhu and Que.
Kings of Kizzuwatna
- Pariyawatri
- Ishputahshu / Išputaššu - contemporary of Telipinu of Hatti (c.1500 BC)
- Paddatishu / Paddatišu
- Pilliya - contemporary of Idrimi of Alalakh (c.1460 BC)
- Shunashshura / Šunaššura I
- Talzu
- Shunashshura / Šunaššura II - contemporary of Tuthaliya II of Hatti (c.1400 BC)
conquest by Arnuwanda I of Hatti (c.1380 BC)
Bibliography
- Beckman, Garry M.: Hittite Diplomatic Texts, Scholars Press, Atlanta 1996.
- Götze, Albrecht: Kizzuwatna and the problem of Hittite geography, Yale university press, New Haven 1940.
- Haas, Volkert: Hurritische und luwische Riten aus Kizzuwatna, Butzon & Bercker, Kevelaer 1974.
"Kizzuwatna"