Western Anatolia in the Thirteenth Century B.C. according to the Hittite Sources

Abstract

The redating of certain Hittite texts – notably the Indictment of Madduwatta and the annals of Tudhaliya and Arnuwanda – from the end of the thirteenth century to the turn of the fifteenth has been one of the most discussed Hittitological subjects in recent years. The sudden availability of sources covering a previously poorly known period in Hittite history has naturally brought about an intense preoccupation with the Early Hittite Empire, largely overshadowing the less “fortunate” side of the redating, the “deprivation” of the main body of sources relating to western Anatolia in the second half of the thirteenth century. The situation is aptly demonstrated in the most recent comprehensive study on Arzawa, where the chapter dealing with the period after Muwatalli to the end of the Hittite Empire barely covers 16 pages, in contrast to the far more abundant documentation on the fourteenth century.