Ahhiyawa and the World of the Great Kings: A Re-evaluation of Mycenaean Political Structures

Jorrit Kelder in Papadopoulos, A. (ed), Recent research and perspectives on the Late Bronze Age eastern Mediterranean, Talanta XLIV (2012) [2013]: 41-52.

Abstract

It can no longer be realistically doubted that ‘Ahhiyawa’ in Hittite texts must refer to one or several of the Greek Mycenaean palatial states. Recent evaluations of the available textual and archaeological evidence, and especially an improved understanding of the geography of western Anatolia during the Late Bronze Age, rule out the erstwhile popular hypothesis that Ahhiyawa was an Anatolian entity. Whilst the identification of Ahhiyawa with (parts of) Mycenaean Greece is no longer seriously challenged, debate continues to rage over the territorial extent and the political status of Ahhiyawa. This article seeks to explore some possible models of Ahhiyawan political organisation and the place of Ahhiyawa in the world of the Late Bronze Age Great Kings.