The Kaska (also Kaška , later Tabalian Kasku and Gasga ) were a loosely affiliated Bronze Age non-Indo-European tribal people, who spoke the unclassified Kaskian language and lived in mountainous East Pontic Anatolia , known from Hittite sources. They lived in the mountainous region between the core Hittite region in eastern Anatolia and the Black Sea , and are cited as the reason that the later Hittite Empire never extended northward to that area. They are sometimes identified with the Caucones known from Greek records.
21-425: (Redirected from Kaška ) Kashka may refer to: Kaskians , an ancient people of Anatolia Kashka, Armenia Kashka, Iran [REDACTED] Topics referred to by the same term This disambiguation page lists articles about distinct geographical locations with the same name. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to
42-588: A leader named Piyapili , but Piyapili was no match for Suppiluliuma. Eventually, Tudhaliya and Suppiluliuma returned Hattusa to the Hittites. But the Kaska continued to be a menace both inside and out and a constant military threat. They are said to have fielded as many as 9,000 warriors and 800 chariots. In the time of ailing Arnuwanda II (around 1323 BC), the Hittites worried that the Kaskas from Ishupitta within
63-527: A prayer for the gods to return Nerik to the empire; he also mentioned Kammama and Zalpuwa as cities which he claimed had been Hittite but which were now under the Kaskas. Arnuwanda attempted to mollify some of the Kaska tribes by means of tribute. Sometime between the reigns of Arnuwanda and Suppiluliuma I (about 1330 BC), letters found in Maşat Höyük note that locusts ate the Kaskas' grain. The hungry Kaska were able to join with Hayasa-Azzi and Isuwa to
84-520: A prisoner to Hattusas. Mursili then switched to a defensive strategy, with a chain of border fortresses north to the Devrez . Even so, in the early 13th century, when Mursili's son Muwatalli II was king in Hatti, the Kaskas sacked Hattusa. Muwatalli stopped enlisting Kaska as troops; he moved his capital to Tarhuntassa to the south; and he appointed his brother, the future Hattusili III , as governor over
105-588: The Plague Prayers of Arnuwanda’s brother and eventual successor Muršili II. In 1322 BC, Arnuwanda II seems to have succeeded his father Šuppiluliuma I on the Hittite throne without incident, having long been the recognized heir apparent, and having been entrusted with military command in the conflicts with Mittani and Egypt. Because his stepmother, the Babylonian Tawananna (Malnigal?),
126-748: The Proto-Colchian or Zan autochthons, forming a polity which was known as the Kolkha to the Urartians and later as the Colchis to the Greeks . Another branch might have established themselves in Cappadocia , which in the 8th century BC became a vassal of Assyria and ruled some Anatolian areas. According to I. Singer , Kaskians and Hattians are different branches of the same people. However, if
147-512: The 12th century BC that the Kaska (whom he referred to as "Apishlu") and their Mushki and Urumu ( Urumeans ) allies were active in what had been the Hatti heartland. Tiglath-Pileser defeated them, and the Kaska then disappear from all historical records. Repulsed by the Assyrians, a subdivision of the Kaska might have passed north-eastwards to the Caucasus , where they probably blended with
168-527: The Hattians were assimilated by the Hittites, then the Kaskians were pushed to the periphery of their former territory. Arnuwanda II Arnuwanda II was a Hittite great king who reigned in the late 14th century BC, perhaps in c. 1322–1321 BC. His reign was a briefly interlude between those of his father Šuppiluliuma I and younger brother Muršili II . Arnuwanda was the eldest surviving son of
189-445: The Hittite great king Šuppiluliuma I and his first wife, Ḫenti , herself apparently the daughter of Tudḫaliya III (sometimes called Tudḫaliya II) and granddaughter of Arnuwanda I . Arnuwanda was declared his father's heir apparent ( tuḫkanti ) and is attested as such in references to several events taking place during Šuppiluliuma's reign. Arnuwanda's absence from the record in the earliest events of his father's reign suggests he
210-460: The east, as well as other enemies of the Hittites, and burn Hattusa , the Hittite capital, to the ground. They probably also burned the Hittites' secondary capital Sapinuwa . Suppiluliuma's grandson Hattusili III in the mid-13th century BC wrote of the time before Tudhaliya. He said that in those days the Kaska had "made Nenassa their frontier" and that their allies in Azzi-Hayasa had done
231-535: The enemy, allowing Šuppiluliuma to undertake the ultimately successful siege of Carchemish . Following the murder of Arnuwanda’s younger brother Zannanza en route to become king of Egypt , Šuppiluluma sent Arnuwanda to raid and pillage the Egyptian possessions in southern Syria. Arnuwanda met with success, but the large number of captives that he brought back with him carried with them plague , which would ravage Hittite society for at least two decades, according to
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#1732782436582252-488: The intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kashka&oldid=1004515970 " Category : Place name disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Kaskians The Kaska, probably originating from the eastern shore of the Propontis , may have displaced
273-576: The kingdom to Kammama without might take advantage of the plague in Hatti. The veteran commander Hannutti moved to Ishupitta, but he died there. Ishupitta then seceded from Hatti, and Arnuwanda died too. Arnuwanda's brother and successor Mursili II recorded in his annals that he defeated this rebellion. Over the ongoing decades, the Kaskans were also active in Durmitta and in Tipiya, by Mount Tarikarimu in
294-426: The land of Ziharriya, and by Mount Asharpaya on the route to Pala; they rebelled and/or performed egregious banditry in each place. At first, Mursili defeated each Kaska uprising piecemeal. The Kaska united for the first time under Pihhuniya of Tipiya, who "ruled like a king" the Hittites recorded. Pihhuniya conquered Istitina and advanced as far as Zazzissa. But Mursili defeated this force and brought Pihhuniya back as
315-547: The latter died soon after meeting with the king. Fragmentary texts suggest Arnuwanda renewed the treaties of vassalage that his father had concluded with his younger brothers, particularly Piyaššili (Šarri-Kušuḫ) of Carchemish . Like his father Šuppiluliuma and his younger brother Muršili II, Arnuwanda seems to have interceded on behalf of the exiled ruler of the Šeḫa River Land Manapa-Tarḫunta with his hosts in Karkiša ; later, Muršili would restore Manapa-Tarḫunta to his throne as
336-554: The northern marches . Hattusili defeated the Kaska to the point of recapturing Nerik, and when he took over the kingdom he returned the capital to Hattusa. The Kaska may have contributed to the fall of the Hittite empire in the Bronze Age collapse , c. 1200 BC. Then they penetrated eastern Anatolia, and continued their thrust southwards, where they encountered the Assyrians . The Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser I recorded late in
357-485: The permanent landscape. Tudhaliya III and Suppiluliuma I (c. 1375–1350 BC) set up their court in Samuha and invaded Azzi-Hayasa from there. The Kaska intervened, but Suppiluliuma defeated them; after Suppiluliuma had fully pacified the region, Tudhaliya and Suppiluliuma were able to move on Hayasa and defeat it too, despite some devastating guerrilla tactics at their rear. Some twelve tribes of Kaska then united under
378-533: The same to Samuha . In the Amarna letters , Amenhotep III wrote to the Arzawan king Tarhunta-Radu that the "country Hattusa" was obliterated, and further asked for Arzawa to send him some of these Kaska people of whom he had heard. The Hittites also enlisted subject Kaska for their armies. When the Kaska were not raiding or serving as mercenaries, they raised pigs and wove linen, leaving scarcely any imprint on
399-519: The speakers of the Palaic language from their home in Pala . The Kaska first appear in the Hittite prayer inscriptions that date from the reign of Hantili II , c. 1450 BC, and make references to their movement into the ruins of the holy city of Nerik . During the reign of Hantili's son, Tudhaliya II (c. 1430 BC), " Tudhaliya 's 3rd campaign was against the Kaskas." His successor Arnuwanda I composed
420-464: Was still alive when Arnuwanda became king, she continued to occupy the position of chief queen throughout his brief reign and into that of his successor. Once king, Arnuwanda was forced to attend to the Kaška threat on northern frontier, which had preoccupied Šuppiluliuma's last years. Apparently already ill, Arnuwanda seems to have intended conferring that command to his father's veteran general Ḫannutti, but
441-713: Was too young to participate in them at the time. Together with his father, mother, and uncle Zida, Arnuwanda was mentioned in the description of the formal installation of his younger brother Telipinu as priest (and governor) of Kizzuwatna . By the time of the Six-Year War against Tushratta of the Mittanians , Arnuwanda was ready for military command. When the Mittanians defeated a Hittite contingent in northern Syria, Šuppiluliuma dispatched against them advance forces under Arnuwanda and his uncle Zida; they chased off
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