Cilicia and Pamphylia during the Early Iron Age: Hiyawa, Mopsos and the Foundation of the Greek Poleis

Abstract

Various Greek authors from the Archaic to the Roman period refer to a migration of population groups from the Aegean and West Anatolia to Pamphylia and Cilicia in the aftermath of the Trojan War. The meagre archaeological evidence, as well as the Arcadocypriot and Mycenaean elements in the Pamphylian dialect, fits with this narrative. Furthermore, from (at least) the end of the 10th to the late 8th centuries a kingdom, which was called Hiyawa in Luwian and Qw or ‘mq ’dn in Phoenician inscriptions, controlled Cilicia and possibly also a part of Pamphylia. Its subjects were called Hiyawa in Luwian and dnnym in Phoenician. The term Hiyawa stems from the Hittite geographic term Ahhiyawa, which referred to one of the Mycenaean kingdoms in the Aegean during the LBA; both Ahhiyawa and Hiyawa derive from the ethnonym 'Achaean'. At least one of the rulers of the Kingdom of Hiyawa considered himself to be a descendant of Muksas/mpš, which shows that the later stories about Mopsos were not entirely fictitious. The Achaean settlers in Cilicia gradually fused with the Luwian population. Herodotus later called them Hypachaeans, which implies that they were neither Achaeans or Greeks, nor Luwians or Cilicians. Further waves of Aegean migrants continued to arrive mainly in Pamphylia and Cilicia Tracheia at least until the 7th century. These later migrants were also gradually amalgamated with the indigenous population and their vernacular became heavily influenced by the local Luwian dialects.