New light on relations between the Mycenaean world and Hittite Anatolia

Piotr Taracha Archeologia LX (2009): 19-26.

Abstract

This paper refers to the hotly debated issue of mutual relations between the Mycenaean world and the Hittites in western Anatolia. An archaeological history of Miletus (Millawanda of Hittite texts) is outlined, with an emphasis put on its exceptional position as the main Mycenaean colony in western Anatolia, maintaining contanct with the interior along the trade route leading eastwards through the valleys of Cine (Marsyas) stream and the Buyuk Menderes (Meander) river. The finds of a Hittite seal impression and Mycenaean-type, LH IIIB – IIIC, pottery from Cine-Tepecik shed new light on emulation processes to be observed in the local (material) culture and the stronger Hittite impact on both, Miletus and the Cine plain in the second half of the 13th century B.C.