Kizzuwatna

Kizzuwatna (Hittite: 𒆳𒌷𒆠𒄑𒍪𒉿𒀜𒈾) was an ancient Anatolian kingdom attested in written sources from the end of the 16th century BC onwards. Although its origins remain obscure, the Middle Bronze Age in Cilicia (ca. 2000–1550 BC) may be regarded as its possible formative period. Kizzuwatna was situated primarily in the Cilician Plain of southeastern Anatolia, near the Gulf of İskenderun, in modern-day Turkey. It was bounded by the Central Taurus Mountains and the Amanus Mountains. The centre of the kingdom was the city of Kummanni, located in the highlands.

The name is said to be a Luwic transliteration (kez-watni) of the nešili kez-udne, meaning "a country on this side (of the mountains)." Puhvel alternately translates it from the nešili kez wetenezI, with the stem meaning "sea." It has been suggested that kez was an exonym used by the Hittites for a yet-to-be-determined ethnic group.

Kizzuwatna is associated with the Cilician plain in Hittite, Mittani, Egyptian, and Alalakh sources, the borders of which were "defined by the Taurus Mountains to the northwest and north, the Amanus Range to the east, and the Mediterranean Sea, with the Gulf of Iskenderun and the Gulf of Mersin to the south." Its westward extent remains the subject of debate.

The country possessed valuable resources, such as silver mines in the Taurus Mountains. The slopes of the mountain range remain partly wooded. Annual winter rains made agriculture possible in the area at an early date (see Çatalhöyük). The plains along the lower course of the Ceyhan River provided rich cultivated fields.

Several ethnic groups coexisted in Kizzuwatna, and its culture represents a fusion of Hurrian, Luwian, and Hittite elements. The pre-Indo-European Hurrians predate the Luwians in the area, and the Hittites probably arrived as part of the imperial expansion under Hattusili I and Mursili I. During the era of the Kingdom of Kizzuwatna, the primary local language was a distinctive Hurrian-influenced dialect of Luwian. However, its first king, Išputahšu, had a Hittite-derived name, and the toponym "Kizzuwatna" itself has been suggested to be a Luwianization of Hittite *kez-udne, meaning "land on this side" in relation to the mountains. Though Kizzuwatna Luwian differs from Empire Luwian spoken in the Hittite heartland, incantations written in Kizzuwatna Luwian appear untranslated in Hittite ritual texts. Hurrian culture became more prominent in Kizzuwatna once it entered the sphere of influence of the Hurrian kingdom of Mitanni.

Puduhepa, queen of the Hittite king Hattusili III, came from Kizzuwatna, where she had been a priestess. Its pantheon was also integrated into the Hittite one, and the goddess Hebat of Kizzuwatna became very important in Hittite religion towards the end of the 13th century BC.^{[citation needed]}

Excavations of Sirkeli Höyük establish occupation as early as 2420 BC, with an extensive settlement comprising both a central mound and a lower town existing from at least the 1600s BC, abandoned in the 1400s BC, and not resettled until after the Late Bronze Age collapse. This suggests the existence of a polity located at the southern end of both a "Great Caravan Route" that connected the Cilician plain with the Troad during the Early Bronze Age and an overland trade route from the Hittite Lower Land to Ebla, Alalakh, and Carchemish during the Middle Bronze Age.

King Sargon of Akkad claimed to have reached the Taurus Mountains (the "silver mountains") in the 23rd century BC; however, archaeology has yet to confirm any Akkadian influence in the area. The trade routes from Assyria to the karum in the Anatolian highlands passed through Kizzuwatna by the early 2nd millennium BC.