The term Lukka lands (sometimes Luqqa lands), in Hittite language texts from the 2nd millennium BC, is a collective term for states formed by the Lukka people in south-west Anatolia (modern-day Turkey). The Lukka were never subjugated long-term by the Hittites, who generally viewed them as hostile. It is commonly accepted that the Bronze Age toponym Lukka is cognate with the Lycia of classical antiquity (8th century BC to 5th century AD).
There are two somewhat different hypotheses with regard to the extent of the Lukka lands. The maximalist hypothesis is upheld by Trevor Bryce, who discusses the occurrences of Lukka in Bronze Age texts.[1] "From these texts we can conclude the Lukka, or Lukka lands, referred to regions extending from the western end of Pamphylia, through Lycaonia, Pisidia and Lycia". The minimalist hypothesis is upheld by Ilya Yakubovich, who concludes based on the analysis of textual evidence:[2] "[W]e have positive philological arguments for the presence of Bronze Age Lukka settlements in classical Lycia, but not anywhere else in Asia Minor or beyond it." Properly, this region may refer to the more southern and open area of the Teke Peninsula bound by a small chain of mountains running from Babadağ to Tahtalı Dağı as described by Strabo; confer the plains of Lycaonia for the semantics related to open territory (especially when juxtaposed or bound by mountains). Etymologically then the Lukka lands could be derived ultimately from the reconstructed term in Proto-Indo-European language 'lowk-ó-s' (“open space”).[citation needed]
Soldiers from the Lukka lands fought on the Hittite side in the famous Battle of Kadesh (c. 1274 BC) against the Egyptian Pharaoh Ramesses II. A century later, the Lukka had turned against the Hittites. The Hittite king Suppiluliuma II tried in vain to defeat the Lukka. They contributed to the collapse of the Hittite Empire.[citation needed]
The Lukka are also known from texts in Ancient Egypt as one of the tribes of the Sea Peoples, who invaded Egypt and the Eastern Mediterranean in the 12th century BC.[3]
See also
Notes
- ^ Trevor Bryce (2005) The Kingdom of the Hittites, p. 54
- ^ Ilya Yakubovich (2010) Sociolinguistics of the Luvian Language, Leiden: Brill, p. 134
- ^ Bryce 2005, p. 336; Yakubovich 2010, p. 134