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War in Arzawa? Overview of weapons in Western Anatolia in 2nd Millenium BC

Publication at Faculty of Arts |
2018

Abstract

Written hittite sources inform about strong hittite military activity in western Anatolia, interaction with Arzawa, Assuwa and Ahhijawa. This territory during that time period stands archeologically somewhere between Aegean with Minoan/Mycenaean cultures and Central Anatolia with Hittite state.

In this paper, to approach the question of war activity in Western Anatolia, the metal weapons and other equipment will be collected from Eastern Greek islands and coastal/inland western Anatolia. There will be typological comparison of the finds with their contemporary counterparts in Aegean and Near East to see differences or similarities.

In further analysing of those items we will try to assume what can weapons tell us about their presence, what is the meaning of context they were found in, does it correlate with written sources and who were their owners and users. Also, the territory of Eastern Greece and Western Anatolia region will be discussed here as a place that seems as "buffer zone" where multiple influences mingled with each other and some interesting shapes of weapons come from this area, not to be found anywhere else.