Kalašma or Kalasma (occasionally Kalašpa^[1][2]) was a late Bronze Age polity in Northern Anatolia on the border of the Hittite Empire.

Location

The location of Kalašma is uncertain; scholars infer it from references in contemporary documents to nearby places, many of whose locations are also uncertain. According to Carlo Corti, Kalašma lay west of Pala.^[3] Stefano de Martino places it south of Arawanna and north of Lukka.^[4] Harranassi may have been a city in Kalašma.^[5]

Following the view expressed in 1977 by Massimo Forlanini,^[6] the University of Würzburg says Kalašma was likely in northwest Anatolia, in what is now the Turkish province of Bolu,^[7] In 1960, John Garstang and Oliver Gurney had put it in southeast Anatolia, between Marash and the Euphrates,^[8] whereas Albrecht Goetze favoured southwest Anatolia.^[9] In 1958 Friedrich Cornelius suggested Greek Cerasus (now Turkish Giresun).^[10]

While Bedřich Hrozný in 1935 identified Kalašma with Kalašmitta^[11] (one of the towns which worshipped Ala^[12]) later sources state they were distinct places.^[13]

History

Forlanini says that Kalašma was not a tribal name but a city-state, the eponymous city having been fortified by the Hittite king Hantili I (died c. 1560 BCE).^[14] Hantili failed to reinstate Kalašma's local weather god, and on returning to Ḫattuša, the Hittite capital, he had to perform expiatory rituals to the Sun goddess of the Earth.^[15]

Arnuwanda I (ruled 1380s BCE) installed oathbound military commanders in regions including Kalašma.^[16] Civil administration was by a council of elders.^[17] In the reign of Arnuwanda's son Tudhaliya II, troops from Kalašma and elsewhere rebelled and fled through Išuwa to an unnamed enemy country; Tudhaliya's son Suppiluliuma I subdued the rebel regions.^[18] There were several revolts in the reign of Suppiluliuma's son Muršili II (ended 1295 BCE). One triggered a punitive raid by Hittite general Nuwanzas.^[8][19] Muršili replaced the elders with a single administrator named Aparru, who rebelled, seized royal power, and invaded neighbouring Sappa.^{[20][21][16][22]} Aparru was soon defeated but Kalašma was in civil war until pacified the next year by Hutupiyanza, governor of Pala.^[20][23]

Kalašmans were later to be found further east, at Pahhuwa on the upper Euphrates, possibly having been deported there by Muršili, or as mercenary soldiers.^[24] Kalašmans fought alongside the Hittites at the Battle of Kadesh against the Egyptian Empire in 1274 BCE.^[17]

Kalašma is one of the places mentioned in a Luwian hieroglyphic tablet from the reign of Arnuwanda III (ended c. 1210 BDE) as conquered by Mukšuš.^[25]

Language

In 2023 a tablet written in "the language of the land of Kalašma" was discovered in the Bogazköy Archive excavated at Ḫattuša.^[7] It is in the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European languages, probably the Luwic sub-branch.^[7] In 1958 Einar von Schuler had noted that a Hittite-language oath taken by officials from Kalašma represented a different dialect of Hittite from the oath of other regions' officials.^[26]

Sources

• Carnevale, Antonio (2018). La frontiera orientale dell'impero ittita (PDF) (Doctorate) (in Italian). Sapienza University of Rome. hdl:11573/1147202. CORE 188823629.
• Forlanini, Massimo (2010). "Deportati e mercenari dall'Anatolia occidentale all'alto Eufrate sotto l'impero hittita". Orientalia (in Italian). 79 (2): 152–163. ISSN 0030-5367. JSTOR 43077905.
• Garstang, John; Gurney, O.C. (1960). The geography of the Hittite Empire. Occasional Publications. Vol. 5. London: British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara – via Internet Archive.
• Weeden, Mark; Ullmann, Lee Z., eds. (20 May 2022) [2017]. Hittite Landscape and Geography. Handbook of Oriental Studies, Section 1: The Near and Middle East. Vol. 121. Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-34939-1.

References