# Alashiya
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{{Short description|Bronze Age polity of the Eastern Mediterranean}}
[[File:Ancient_Near_East_1400BC.svg|thumb|right|300px|Map of the [Ancient Near East](/source/Ancient_Near_East) around 1400 BC]]
'''Alashiya''' ({{langx|akk|𒀀𒆷𒅆𒅀}} ''Alašiya'' [a-la-ši-ia]; {{langx|uga|𐎀𐎍𐎘𐎊}} ''ẢLṮY''; [Linear B](/source/Linear_B): 𐀀𐀨𐀯𐀍 ''Alasios'' [a-ra-si-jo]; [Hieratic](/source/Hieratic) "'irs3"), also spelled '''Alasiya''' and known as the '''Kingdom of Alashiya''',[{{cite journal |last1=Knapp |first1=A. Bernard. |title=J Article Alashiya, Caphtor/Keftiu, and Eastern Mediterranean Trade: Recent Studies in Cypriote Archaeology and History |journal=Journal of Field Archaeology |date=1985 |volume=12 |issue=2 |pages=231–250 |doi=10.2307/530294 |jstor=530294}}] was a [polity](/source/polity) on [Cyprus](/source/Cyprus) during the Middle and Late [Bronze Age](/source/Bronze_Age)s. Alashiya was a major source of [copper](/source/copper) for states in the [Ancient Near East](/source/Ancient_Near_East), including [Egypt](/source/Ancient_Egypt).
==History==
thumb|One of the Amarna letters. Correspondence between a king of Alashiya and Amenhotep III of Egypt. Circa 1380 BC. From Tell el-Amarna, Egypt. Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin
The name ''Alashiya'' is found on texts written in [Egyptian](/source/Egyptian_language), [Hittite](/source/Hittite_language), [Akkadian](/source/Akkadian_language), [Mycenean](/source/Mycenaean_Greek) ([Linear B](/source/Linear_B)) and [Ugaritic](/source/Ugaritic). The name may be the origin of the later [Biblical](/source/Bible) term [Elishah](/source/Elishah).[[https://books.google.com/books?id=0qAoqP4g1fEC&dq=%22Elisha+Alashiya%22&pg=PA3 The expansion of the Greek world, eighth to sixth centuries B.C.], John Boardman, Volume 3 Cambridge Ancient History, Cambridge University Press, 1982, {{ISBN|0-521-23447-6}}, {{ISBN|978-0-521-23447-4}}]["Now, this Elishah is often identified with Alashiya in the scholarly literature, an ancient name often associated with Cyprus or a part of the island." {{cite book|author=Gard Granerød|title=Abraham and Melchizedek: Scribal Activity of Second Temple Times in Genesis 14 and Psalm 110|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m5mlvNPexSEC&pg=PA116|date=26 March 2010|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|isbn=978-3-11-022346-0|page=116}}]
===Hittites===
Around 1400 BC, the Hittite king [Arnuwanda I](/source/Arnuwanda_I) chastised his vassal [Madduwatta](/source/Madduwatta) for raiding Alashiya, asserting that it was Hittite territory. Madduwatta replied that he had been unaware of the Hittite claim:[{{cite book |last1=Beckman|first1=Gary|last2=Bryce|first2=Trevor|last3=Cline|first3=Eric|year=2012 |title=The Ahhiyawa Texts|publisher=Brill|pages=69, 99|isbn=978-1589832688}}]
{{Blockquote
|text=The father of his Majesty [had never informed] me, [nor] had his Majesty ever informed [me] (thus): ʻThe land of Alasiya is mine— recognize it as such!ʼ[{{cite book |last1=Beckman |first1=Gary|last2=Bryce|first2=Trevor|last3=Cline|first3=Eric|year=2012 |title=The Ahhiyawa Texts|publisher=Brill|page=95|isbn=978-1589832688}}]}}
Although Madduwatta's statement can be interpreted as prevarication, no surviving texts from this period refer to Hittite involvement in Alashiya and the empire's military situation would have made direct control unlikely. Thus, the political reality behind this statement remains unclear.[{{cite book |last1=Beckman |first1=Gary|last2=Bryce|first2=Trevor|last3=Cline|first3=Eric|year=2012 |title=The Ahhiyawa Texts|publisher=Brill|page=99|isbn=978-1589832688}}]
Around 1200 BC, the Hittite kings [Tudḫaliya IV](/source/Tud%E1%B8%ABaliya_IV) and [Šuppiluliuma II](/source/%C5%A0uppiluliuma_II) waged military campaigns in Alashiya and forced its king to sign a treaty of submission.[{{cite encyclopedia |last=Beal |first=Richard |year=2011 |editor-last1= Steadman |editor-first1=Sharon | editor-last2=McMahon | editor-first2= Gregory |encyclopedia=The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Anatolia |title=Hittite Anatolia: A Political History |publisher=Oxford University Press |doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195376142.013.0026|page=594}}]
===Egypt===
thumb|Amarna letter. "Message from the king of Alashiya, your brother" to the Pharaoh of Egypt, possibly Akhenaten. Circa 1350 BC. From Tell el-Amarna, Egypt. British Museum
The [Amarna letters](/source/Amarna_letters) ({{Circa|1350 BC}}) include communications with the king of Alashiya. These mainly concern copper from Alashiya and requests for [silver](/source/silver) or [ivory](/source/ivory) in return. One letter refers to 500 talents of copper (probably about 12.5 tons) and makes excuses as to why so little copper has been sent. The [Pharaoh](/source/Pharaoh) is also referred to by the King of Alashiya as his "brother", indicating that the king regarded himself as an equal, probably because of the economic power of his kingdom. [Papyrus Anastasi IV](/source/Papyrus_Anastasi_IV), written several centuries later, also refers to copper (as well as cows) sent from Alashiya to Egypt.[Knapp 1996]
The extant ending of the [Story of Wenamun](/source/Story_of_Wenamun) records how Wenamun, a priest of Egypt, had been blown off course on the sea journey from [Byblos](/source/Byblos) to Egypt and ended up on Alashiya. Wenamun reports that he was almost killed by an angry mob, but was rescued by Hatbi, the "princess of the town".
====List of Amarna letters from Alashiya====
*[EA 33](/source/Amarna_letter_EA_33); Title: ''An Alliance in the Making''
*[EA 34](/source/Amarna_letter_EA_34); Title: ''The Pharaoh's reproach answered''
*[EA 35](/source/Amarna_letter_EA_35); Title: ''[The hand of Nergal](/source/Alashiya-King%2C_to_Pharaoh%3A_The_Hand_of_(god)-Nergal)''
*[EA 36](/source/Amarna_letter_EA_36); Title: ''More about copper''
*[EA 37](/source/Amarna_letter_EA_37); Title: ''More about silver''
*[EA 38](/source/Amarna_letter_EA_38); Title: ''[A brotherly quarrel](/source/A_brotherly_quarrel)''
*[EA 39](/source/Amarna_letter_EA_39); Title: ''[Duty-Free](/source/Duty-Free)''
*[EA 40](/source/Amarna_letter_EA_40); Title: ''Duty-Free, Governor to Governor''
===Ugarit===
In other correspondence, the King of [Ugarit](/source/Ugarit) pleads for military assistance from the King of Alashiya. Another document from Ugarit records the banishment of two princes to "the land of Alashiya". One further text found at Ugarit may contain a further clue to the location of the capital city of Alashiya, as it could imply that the city was located on a mountain. However, this word has more usually been translated as shore.[Goren 2003] The first recorded name of a Cypriot king is ''Kushmeshusha'', on letters sent to Ugarit in the 13th century BC.[{{cite book|author=Eric H. Cline|title=1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_M1bCgAAQBAJ|date=22 September 2015|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-1-4008-7449-1}}]
==Identification ==
Alashiya is known to have been located on Cyprus, though it is currently unclear whether the kingdom comprised the whole of Cyprus, with the capital city moving location (perhaps starting with Enkomi), or was always sited at Kalavasos, or whether Alashiya comprised only one region of Cyprus (if any part of the island at all).[Goren et al. 2003; Armstrong 2003] The political structure of the kingdom remains unclear, as the material culture of the island shows considerable variation and no evidence for a centralized political authority during the Late Bronze Age.[Armstrong, 2003]
Alashiya was located in part by textual evidence showing that it was a major source of copper for other East Mediterranean states, which it traded along maritime routes. Alashiya therefore needs to be situated somewhere where there was sizable Bronze Age copper production, on the coast, and in the East Mediterranean. Additional clues in the text include references to cultural and military links to Southwestern Anatolian groups such as the [Lukka](/source/Lukka).[Armstrong 2003]
The identification of Cyprus with Alashiya was supported by the 2003 publication by Yuval Goren et al. of an article in the ''[American Journal of Archaeology](/source/American_Journal_of_Archaeology)'' detailing the [petrographic](/source/petrographic) and chemical analysis of a number of the Amarna and Ugaritic letters sent from Alashiya. These examinations of the provenance of the clay indicates a source in southern Cyprus, near [Kalavasos](/source/Tenta%2C_Cyprus) and [Alassa](/source/Alassa), where remains of Late Bronze Age settlements have been found.{{cn|date=May 2026}}
Alternative hypotheses have included areas of [Syria](/source/Syria) or [Turkey](/source/Turkey), but it is now generally (although not universally) agreed that Alashiya refers to at least part of Cyprus.[Wachsmann 1986]
==References==
{{reflist}}
==Sources==
*Armstrong, K. M. 2003. [http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1070632393 ''Settlement Hierarchy and The Location of Alashiya on Cyprus'']. MA dissertation preprint, [University of Cincinnati](/source/University_of_Cincinnati).
* Goren, Y., Bunimovitz, S., Finkelstein, I. and Na'aman, N. 1993. [https://www.academia.edu/246371/The_Location_of_Alashiya_New_Evidence_From_Petrographic_Investigation_of_Alashiyan_Tablets_From_El-Amarna_and_Ugarit ''The Location of Alashiya, Petrographic analysis of the tablets'']. [American Journal of Archaeology](/source/American_Journal_of_Archaeology) 107:233-255
*Knapp, A. Bernard. (1985). "J Article Alashiya, Caphtor/Keftiu, and Eastern Mediterranean Trade: Recent Studies in Cypriote Archaeology and History". Journal of Field Archaeology. 12 (2).
*Knapp, A. B. ed. 1996. ''Near Eastern and Aegean Texts from the Third to the First Millennia BC.'' (Translations of all 122 Bronze Age and early Iron Age texts referring to "Alashiya"). {{ISBN|0-9651704-2-X}}
*Knapp, A. B. 1997. ''The Archaeology of Late Bronze Age Cypriot Society''. {{ISBN|0-85261-573-6}}
*Wachsmann, S. 1986. ''Is Cyprus Ancient Alashiya? New Evidence from an Egyptian Tablet''. [The Biblical Archaeologist](/source/Near_Eastern_Archaeology_Magazine) 49(1):37-40
==External links==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20041216142400/http://www.ashmol.ox.ac.uk/ash/amulets/cypruscopper/AncCyp-Cu-07.html Ancient Cyprus]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20041208191326/http://home.nycap.rr.com/foxmob/lba_cyprus.htm Cyprus in the Late Bronze Age]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070606044223/http://www.courses.psu.edu/cams/cams400w_aek11/amarnal.html The Amarna Letters]
Category:Alashiya
Category:Amarna letters locations
Category:Bronze Age Cyprus
Category:Sea Peoples
Category:Late Bronze Age collapse
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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Alashiya](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alashiya) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alashiya?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.