AHHIYAWA

also called Ahhiya ancient kingdom lying to the west of the Hittite empire. The exact location of Ahhiyawa is not definitely known but may have been western Anatolia or one of the islands in the Aegean Sea. The most commonly held theory is that the people of Ahhiyaw a were the Achaeans of Homer, early Mycenaean Greeks. Another theory represents them as ancestors of the Trojans. In any case, it seems quite certain that the Ahhiyawans were a powerful seafaring people. Much of what is known about Ahhiyawa has been derived from Hittite texts. The earliest references to the kingdom occur in documents prepared during the reign of Suppiluliumas (c. 138046 BC). It seems that Ahhiyawa was a large and formidable kingdom with which the Hittites had good relations. Later documents indicate that members of the Ahhiyawan royal family traveled to the Hittite capital of Hattusa to study the charioteer's art and that a statue of the god of Ahhiyawa was brought to the Hittite king Mursilis II (reigned c. 13401300 BC) to cure his illness. The Ahhiyawans apparently became a threat to the Hittite empire during the reign of Tudhaliyas IV (c. 125020 BC). During this period a certain Attarissiyas led several attacks on Hittite vassals and cities, and some have thought this might be Atreus, the father of Agamemnon.