# Kizzuwatna

Kizzuwatna (or Kizzuwadna; in Ancient Egyptian Kode or Qode) was an ancient Anatolian kingdom, attested in written sources from the end of the 16th century BC onwards, but though its origins are still obscure, the Middle Bronze Age in Cilicia (ca. 2000–1550 BC) can be seen as its possible formative period. Kisuwatna was situated mostly in the Cilician Plain of southeastern Anatolia, near the Gulf of İskenderun, in modern-day Turkey. The Central Taurus Mountains and the Amanus Mountains encircled it. The centre of the kingdom was the city of Kummanni, in the highlands.

## Etymology

The name is said to be a Luwic transliteration (kez-watni) of the nešili kez-udne, meaning "a country on this side (of the mountains)." Puhvel alternately translates it from the nešili kez wetenez with the stem meaning "sea." It has been suggested that kez was an exonym used by the Hittites for a yet to be determined ethnic group.

## Geography

Kizzuwatna is associated with the Cilician plane in Hittite, Mittani, Egyptian and Alalakh sources, the borders of which were "defined by the Taurus Mountains to the northwest and north, the Amanus Range to the East and the Mediterranean Sea with the Gulf of Iskenderun and the Gulf of Mersin to the South." It westward extent remains the subject of debate.

## Land

The country possessed valuable resources, such as silver mines in the Taurus Mountains. The slopes of the mountain range are still partly covered by woods. Annual winter rains made agriculture possible in the area at a very early date (see Çatalhöyük). The plains at the lower course of the Ceyhan River provided rich cultivated fields.

## People

Several ethnic groups coexisted in Kizzuwatna and their culture represents a fusion of Hurrian, Luwian, and Hittite elements. The pre-Indo-European Hurrians predate the Luwians in the area, Hittites probably arrived as part of the imperial expansion under Hattusili I and Mursili I. During the era of the Kingdom of Kizzuwatna, the primary local language was a distinctive Hurrian-influenced dialect of Luwian. However, its first king Išputahšu had a Hittite-derived name and the toponym "Kizzuwatna" itself has been suggested to be a Luwianization of Hittite *kez-udne meaning "land on this side" in relation to the mountains. Though Kizzuwatna Luwian differs from Empire Luwian spoken in the Hittite heartland, incantations written in Kizzuwatna Luwian appear untranslated in Hittite ritual texts. Hurrian culture became more prominent in Kizzuwatna once it entered the sphere of influence of the Hurrian kingdom of Mitanni.
Puduhepa, queen of the Hittite king Hattusili III, came from Kizzuwatna, where she had been a priestess. Their pantheon was also integrated into the Hittite one, and the goddess Hebat of Kizzuwatna became very important in Hittite religion towards the end of the 13th century BC.

## History

Excavations of Sirkeli Höyük establish occupation as early as 2420 BC, with an extensive settlement of both a central mound and a lower town existing from at least the 1600s BC, abandoned in the 1400s BC and not resettled until after the Late Bronze Age collapse. This suggests the existence of a polity located at the southern end of both a "Great Caravan Route” that connected the Ciician plain with the Troad during the Early Bronze Age and an overland trade route from the Hittite Lower Land to Ebla, Alalakh and Carchemish during the Middle Bronze Age.
King Sargon of Akkad claimed to have reached the Taurus Mountains (the silver mountains) in the 23rd century BC. However, archaeology has yet to confirm any Akkadian influence in the area. The trade routes from Assyria to the karum in the Anatolian Highlands went through Kizzuwatna by the early 2nd millennium BC.
First mentions of the kingdom of Kizzuwatna with the name Adaniya appear at the end of 16th century BC in diplomatic documents of the Hittite kingdom, in the Edict of Telipinu, regarding to political problems in the region. One of the earliest direct sources mentioning the name Kizzuwatna is a cretula from Tarsus, stamped with the seal of king Išpudaḫšu. "The seal’s short inscription also mentions the name of his father, Pariyawatri, which raises the question of whether Pariyawatri was king or not."
The kings of Kizzuwatna at the end of 16th century BC onwards had frequent contact with the Hittites to the north. The earliest Hittite records seem to refer to Kizzuwatna (as Adaniya) along with Arzawa in Western Anatolia, as Luwia.
In the power struggle that arose between the Anatolian Hittite kingdom and the northern Mesopotamian Hurrian kingdom of Mitanni, in the 15th and early 14th centuries BC, Kizzuwatna became a strategic partner because of its location. Isputahsu made a treaty with Hittite King Telepinu. Later, Kizzuwatna shifted its allegiance, perhaps because of a new ruling dynasty. The city-state of Alalakh, to the south, expanded under its new vigorous leader, Idrimi, himself a subject of the Mitannian king Barattarna. King Pilliya of Kizzuwatna had to sign a treaty with Idrimi. The treaty was for fugitives exchanges between Idrimi and Pilliya.
Pilliya also made peace with the Hittite king Zidanta II, signing a parity treaty between the two.
On Kizzuwatna's north-eastern border, there also existed the state of Ishuwa during this period, that played a political role in the rivalry between Hittites and the Mitanni.
At the time of Kizzuwatna king Shunashura I (Sunassura), the Hittite king Tudhaliya I became more powerful. He concluded a treaty with Sunassura, and took it away from the domination of Mitanni.
His adopted son king Arnuwanda I likely continued the policy of his father. The exceedingly rough and unfavourable terrain of the Tarsus Mountains made it likely that to remain in a position of prominence among their Hurrian- and Luwian- speaking neighbours, the Kizzuwatna requested favourable terms for the treaties, and that they were subsequently granted.
Kizzuwatna rebelled during the reign of Suppiluliuma I but remained in the Hittite Empire for 200 years. In the famous Battle of Kadesh (c. 1274 BC), Kizzuwatna supplied troops to the Hittite king. As master equestrians, some of the first in the areas south of the Caucasus region, they provided the horses, which were later favoured by King Solomon and allowed the more aggressive use of the Hittite chariot than their Egyptian and Assyrian rivals were able.
The Kizzuwatna were master craftsman, mining experts and blacksmiths. Being the first to work "black iron", which is understood to have been iron of meteoric origin, into weapons such as maces, swords and warheads for spears. Their location in the mineral-rich Tarsus Range gave them ample materials from which to work.
Around 1200 BC, an invasion by the Sea Peoples is believed to have temporarily displaced the people of the Cilician plain, but many among the entourage of the Sea peoples were likely to have been composed of Luwian and Hurrians, possibly to ensure that they had a stake in how the invasions ended for their people, rather than being simple victims of them.
After the fall of the Hittite Empire, the Neo-Hittite kingdom Quwe, or Hiyawa, emerged in the area of former Kizzuwatna.

## Kings and kingdoms

Chronology of kings and kigdoms as per Trameri (2020).
| Hatti | Kizzuwatna | Alalah | Mittani | Egypt |
| | (Pariyawatri) | | | |
| Telipinu | Išpudaḫšu | | | |
| Taḫurwaili | Eḫeya | | Šuttarna/Saitarna | |
| ? | Paddatiššu | | | Thutmosis III |
| Zidanza II | Pilliya | Idrimi | Parsatatar/ Baratarna | |
| Tudḫaliya I | Sunaššura | Niqmepa | Sauštatar | Thutmosis III |
| | | Ilimilimma | Artadama I | Amenhotep II |
| | Kantuzili (the priest) | | Šuttarna II | Thutmosis IV |
| Suppiluliuma I | Telipinu (the priest) | | Tušratta | Amenhotep III/IV |