Assuwa

The Assuwa league was a confederation of states in western Anatolia, defeated by the Hittites under Tudhaliya IV around 1250 BC. The league had been formed to oppose the failing Hittite empire. The list of its members contains 22 names, including Luqqa, Warsiya, Taruisa, Wilusiya and Karkija (Caria).

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Some of the identifications of these names are disputed. Wilusiya is commonly identified with Ilion, and Taruisa with the surrounding Troas, and Warsiya may be associated with Lukka (Lycia). However, identification of Luqqa with Lukka (Lycia) is problematic, because that would put the Assuwa league both north and south of Arzawa in southwestern Anatolia. Assuwa appears to lie north of Arzawa, covering the northwestern corner of Anatolia. Homer in the Iliad seems to refer to two Lycias (in 2.876-77, 5.479; Sarpedon is a leader of "distant Lycia" while in 2.824ff. 5.105 Pandarus is another leader of Lycians from around Mount Ida near Troy, so that Lukka vs. Luqqa may find its explanation in these terms.

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Assuwa has been suggested as the origin for the name of the continent Asia (Bossert, 1946).

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Anatolia: Anatolia (Greek: ανατολή anatolē or anatol?) is a region of Southwest Asia which corresponds today to the Asian portion of Turkey. It means "rising of the sun" or "East", is also called by the Latin name of Asia Minor, and is sometimes falsely associated w...

Hittites: "Hittites" is the conventional English-language term for an ancient people who spoke an Indo-European language and established a kingdom centered in Hattusa (the modern village of Boğazk?y in north-central Turkey), through most of the second millennium BC....

Tudhaliya IV: Tudhaliya IV was a king of the Hittite empire (New kingdom). He reigned ca. 1245 BC–1215 BC (middle chronology)....