THE KINGDOM OF AHHIYAWA: A HITTITE PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

While Ahhiyawa in Hittite texts can be roughly equated with the Late Bronze Age Greek or ‘Mycenaean’ world, it was most
likely a generic term used by the Hittites for all lands lying beyond the western Anatolian coast, without clear political, cultural,
or ethnic connotations. It probably originated from a tribal name in this region, which the Hittites applied to the ‘western
lands’ as a whole. But some texts make reference to an Ahhiyawan king, ruler of a speci!c kingdom within this world, and
accorded by the Hittite king a status equivalent to that of the Great Kings of the Near Eastern world. "e article proposes that
the kingdom is Pylos, and discusses the relevant information supporting this identi!cation. It deals wth the signi!cant role
the kingdom played in the western Anatolian region, militarily and politically, and the possibility that for a time its ruler held
sway over a substantial part of the region, where his sovereignty was acknowledged in what may have been a treaty drawn up
with the current Hittite king.