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Zalpuwa
Zalpa (also called Zalba, Zalpah, Zalpuwa) were ancient regions mentioned in Assyrian, Mari and Hittite records. The toponyms appear in a variety of forms and contexts and likely refer to multiple similarly named regions. They have been located on the Pontic coast of the Black Sea, along the Euphrates in northern Mesopotamia and along the Balikh river in northern Syria.
The etymology is uncertain but the toponyms may have been Sumerian formulaic theophoric names derived from KA.ZAL. The same syllabary is found in the Akkadian toponym ka-zal-luki in records of the twenty-second through sixteenth centuries BC, which could explain the presence of multiple forms and uses of the toponyms in the historical record.
Zalpuwa is the setting for an ancient legend about the Queen of Kanesh, which was either composed in or translated into the Hittite language:
"[The Queen] of Kanesh once bore thirty sons in a single year. She said: 'What a horde is this which I have born[e]!' She caulked(?) baskets with fat, put her sons in them, and launched them in the river. The river carried them down to the sea at the land of Zalpuwa. Then the gods took them up out of the sea and reared them. When some years had passed, the queen again gave birth, this time to thirty daughters. This time she herself reared them."
The river at Kanesh (Sarımsaklı Çayı) drains into the Black Sea, which seemingly supported the argument that the city was located near the Black Sea.
"Zalpuwa" is further mentioned alongside Nerik in Arnuwanda I's prayer. Nerik was a Hattic language speaking city which had fallen to the Kaskians by Arnuwanda's time. This portion of the prayer also mentioned Kammama, which was Kaskian as of the reign of Arnuwanda II. The conclusion until recently, was to locate Zalpuwa in a region of Hattian cities of northern central Anatolia: as were Nerik, Hattusa, and probably Sapinuwa, and Zalpuwa was thought to have been founded by Hattians, like its neighbours.
Around the 18th century BC, Uḫna the king of Zalpuwa invaded Neša, after which the Zalpuwans carried off the city's "Sius" idol. Under Huzziya's reign, the king of Neša, Anitta, invaded Zalpuwa. Anitta took Huzziya captive, and recovered the Sius idol for Neša. Soon after that, Zalpuwa seems to have become culturally and linguistically Hittite.
Arnuwanda's prayer implies that Zalpuwa was laid waste by Kaskians, at the same time that Nerik fell to them, in the early 14th century BC.
Zalpuwa
Zalpa (also called Zalba, Zalpah, Zalpuwa) were ancient regions mentioned in Assyrian, Mari and Hittite records. The toponyms appear in a variety of forms and contexts and likely refer to multiple similarly named regions. They have been located on the Pontic coast of the Black Sea, along the Euphrates in northern Mesopotamia and along the Balikh river in northern Syria.
The etymology is uncertain but the toponyms may have been Sumerian formulaic theophoric names derived from KA.ZAL. The same syllabary is found in the Akkadian toponym ka-zal-luki in records of the twenty-second through sixteenth centuries BC, which could explain the presence of multiple forms and uses of the toponyms in the historical record.
Zalpuwa is the setting for an ancient legend about the Queen of Kanesh, which was either composed in or translated into the Hittite language:
"[The Queen] of Kanesh once bore thirty sons in a single year. She said: 'What a horde is this which I have born[e]!' She caulked(?) baskets with fat, put her sons in them, and launched them in the river. The river carried them down to the sea at the land of Zalpuwa. Then the gods took them up out of the sea and reared them. When some years had passed, the queen again gave birth, this time to thirty daughters. This time she herself reared them."
The river at Kanesh (Sarımsaklı Çayı) drains into the Black Sea, which seemingly supported the argument that the city was located near the Black Sea.
"Zalpuwa" is further mentioned alongside Nerik in Arnuwanda I's prayer. Nerik was a Hattic language speaking city which had fallen to the Kaskians by Arnuwanda's time. This portion of the prayer also mentioned Kammama, which was Kaskian as of the reign of Arnuwanda II. The conclusion until recently, was to locate Zalpuwa in a region of Hattian cities of northern central Anatolia: as were Nerik, Hattusa, and probably Sapinuwa, and Zalpuwa was thought to have been founded by Hattians, like its neighbours.
Around the 18th century BC, Uḫna the king of Zalpuwa invaded Neša, after which the Zalpuwans carried off the city's "Sius" idol. Under Huzziya's reign, the king of Neša, Anitta, invaded Zalpuwa. Anitta took Huzziya captive, and recovered the Sius idol for Neša. Soon after that, Zalpuwa seems to have become culturally and linguistically Hittite.
Arnuwanda's prayer implies that Zalpuwa was laid waste by Kaskians, at the same time that Nerik fell to them, in the early 14th century BC.