This lecture discusses the Ahhiyawa question and its multifaceted implications for our understating of Aegean Late Bronze Age political trajectories. To do so, this talk uses a multidisciplinary approach that combines the analysis of textual and material evidence with archaeological theory concerning identity, cultural interaction, and social complexity. While discussing all different areas potentially linked to Ahhiyawa, emphasis is placed on the role played by the SASCAR (Southeast Aegean-Southwest Coastal Anatolian Region), with special attention to the information provided by recent research in the Dodecanese.
The current dataset suggests that during the 13th century B.C., at the highest point of Ahhiyawa’s power, political interconnections existed between one or more states located on the Greek mainland and a group of culturally Mycenaean communities in the SASCAR that were characterized by complex socio-political organizations. Although not necessarily seamless, these interconnections were overall mutually beneficial. On the one hand, they provided an ideal basis for trade operations, such as the acquisition of raw materials from Anatolia and the Near East, which were of prominent economic interest for the polities of the Greek mainland. On the other, they offered the communities in the SASCAR an opportunity to participate in and take advantage of the economic and political networks characterizing the Aegean at that time. The site of Mycenae remains the best candidate for a role of leadership within this intricate system of alliances. At the same time, the complex dynamics that regulated the relationships between different areas of the Mycenaean world are highlighted by the Tawagalawa Letter.
Wednesday, February 28, 12:00 pm ET (noon),7 pm in Greece, Zoom format
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