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68-562: The ancient name of the river is the Thermodon, and the surrounding region was the Pontus . In antiquity, its mouth was about "three plethra" wide (ca. 300 feet), and it was navigable. The river, said by Strabo to have "its many sources near Phanaroea... [in] many streams" (which is not true; perhaps he was thinking of the Iris), was "very often noticed by ancient writers", and its mouth was near

136-508: A Black Sea Region of Turkey location is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article related to a river in Turkey is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Pontus (region) 40°36′N 38°00′E  /  40.6°N 38.0°E  / 40.6; 38.0 Pontus or Pontos ( / ˈ p ɒ n t ə s / ; Greek : Πόντος , romanized :  Póntos , lit.   'sea', )

204-460: A change. Part of the kingdom was now annexed to the Roman Empire , being united with Bithynia in a double province called Pontus and Bithynia : this part included only the seaboard between Heraclea (today Ereğli ) and Amisus ( Samsun ), the ora Pontica . The larger part of Pontus, however, was included in the province of Galatia. Hereafter the simple name Pontus without qualification

272-623: A consequence of his time spent in Nysa with Aristodemus. At around the age of 21, Strabo moved to Rome, where he studied philosophy with the Peripatetic Xenarchus , a highly respected tutor in Augustus's court. Despite Xenarchus's Aristotelian leanings, Strabo later gives evidence to have formed his own Stoic inclinations. In Rome, he also learned grammar under the rich and famous scholar Tyrannion of Amisus . Although Tyrannion

340-757: A descriptive history of people and places from different regions of the world known during his lifetime. Although the Geographica was rarely used by contemporary writers, a multitude of copies survived throughout the Byzantine Empire . It first appeared in Western Europe in Rome as a Latin translation issued around 1469. The first printed edition was published in 1516 in Venice . Isaac Casaubon , classical scholar and editor of Greek texts, provided

408-491: A valuable source of information on the ancient world of his day, especially when this information is corroborated by other sources. He travelled extensively, as he says: "Westward I have journeyed to the parts of Etruria opposite Sardinia; towards the south from the Euxine [Black Sea] to the borders of Ethiopia; and perhaps not one of those who have written geographies has visited more places than I have between those limits." It

476-527: A very rocky mountain, called the Trojan mountain; beneath it there are caves, and near the caves and the river a village called Troy, an ancient settlement of the captive Trojans who had accompanied Menelaus and settled there. Strabo commented on volcanism ( effusive eruption ) which he observed at Katakekaumene (modern Kula , Western Turkey). Strabo's observations predated Pliny the Younger who witnessed

544-582: Is "... pro-Roman throughout the Geography. But while he acknowledges and even praises Roman ascendancy in the political and military sphere, he also makes a significant effort to establish Greek primacy over Rome in other contexts." In Europe , Strabo was the first to connect the Danube (which he called Danouios) and the Istros – with the change of names occurring at "the cataracts," the modern Iron Gates on

612-790: Is a region on the southern coast of the Black Sea , located in the modern-day eastern Black Sea Region of Turkey . The name was applied to the coastal region and its mountainous hinterland (rising to the Pontic Alps in the east) by the Greeks who colonized the area in the Archaic period and derived from the Greek name of the Black Sea: Εύξεινος Πόντος ( Eúxinos Póntos ) , "Hospitable Sea", or simply Pontos ( ὁ Πόντος ) as early as

680-513: Is little record of his travels until AD 17. It is not known precisely when Strabo's Geography was written, though comments within the work itself place the finished version within the reign of Emperor Tiberius . Some place its first drafts around 7 BC, others around AD 17 or AD 18. The latest passage to which a date can be assigned is his reference to the death in AD ;23 of Juba II , king of Maurousia ( Mauretania ), who

748-490: Is not known when he wrote Geographica , but he spent much time in the famous library in Alexandria taking notes from "the works of his predecessors". A first edition was published in 7 BC and a final edition no later than 23 AD, in what may have been the last year of Strabo's life. It took some time for Geographica to be recognized by scholars and to become a standard. Alexandria itself features extensively in

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816-506: Is only one inscription attesting it, he seems to have adopted the title “king of kings.” The very small number of Hellenistic Greek inscriptions that have been found anywhere in Pontus suggest that Greek culture did not substantially penetrate beyond the coastal cities and the court. During the troubled period following the death of Alexander the Great , Mithridates Ktistes was for a time in

884-431: Is proper,' he observes in continuation, ' to derive our explanations from things which are obvious, and in some measure of daily occurrences, such as deluges, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and sudden swellings of the land beneath the sea; for the last raise up the sea also, and when the same lands subside again, they occasion the sea to be let down. And it is not merely the small, but the large islands also, and not merely

952-745: Is said to have died "just recently". He probably worked on the Geography for many years and revised it steadily, but not always consistently. It is an encyclopaedic chronicle and consists of political, economic, social, cultural, and geographic descriptions covering almost all of Europe and the Mediterranean: Britain and Ireland, the Iberian Peninsula, Gaul, Germania, the Alps, Italy, Greece, Northern Black Sea region, Anatolia, Middle East, Central Asia and North Africa. The Geography

1020-514: Is that its speakers migrated from Phrygia , past literary notice, across Pontus during the early Iron Age. The Greeks , who spoke a closely related Indo-European tongue, followed them along the coast. The Greeks are the earliest long-term inhabitants of the region from whom written records survive. During the late 8th century BC, Pontus further became a base for the Cimmerians , another Indo-European speaking people; however, these were defeated by

1088-672: Is that of Scylax of Korianda , who in the 7th century BC described Greek settlements in the area. By the 6th century BC, Pontus had become officially a part of the Achaemenid Empire , which probably meant that the local Greek colonies were paying tribute to the Persians. When the Athenian commander Xenophon passed through Pontus around a century later in 401-400 BC, in fact, he found no Persians in Pontus. The peoples of this part of northern Asia Minor were incorporated into

1156-445: Is the only extant work providing information about both Greek and Roman peoples and countries during the reign of Augustus. On the presumption that "recently" means within a year, Strabo stopped writing that year or the next (AD 24), at which time he is thought to have died. He was influenced by Homer , Hecataeus and Aristotle . The first of Strabo's major works, Historical Sketches ( Historica hypomnemata ), written while he

1224-538: The Aeschylean Persians (472 BC) and Herodotus ' Histories (circa 440 BC). Having originally no specific name, the region east of the river Halys was spoken of as the country Ἐν Πόντῳ ( En Póntō ) , lit. "on the [Euxinos] Pontos", and hence it acquired the name of Pontus, which is first found in Xenophon 's Anabasis ( c.  370 BC ). The extent of the region varied through

1292-592: The Bucellarian Theme . Progressively, these large early themes were divided into smaller ones, so that by the late 10th century, the Pontus was divided into the themes of Chaldia , which was governed by the Gabrades family, and Koloneia. After the 8th century, the area experienced a period of prosperity, which was brought to an end only by the Seljuk conquest of Asia Minor in the 1070s and 1080s. Restored to

1360-659: The First Council of Nicea , Trebizond had its own bishop. Subsequently, the Bishop of Trebizond was subordinated to the Metropolitan Bishop of Poti . Then during the 9th century, Trebizond itself became the seat of the Metropolitan Bishop of Lazica . Strabo Strabo ( / ˈ s t r eɪ b oʊ / ; Greek : Στράβων Strábōn ; 64 or 63 BC – c.  24 AD )

1428-676: The Komnenos dynasty. Through a combination of geographic remoteness and adroit diplomacy, this remnant managed to survive, until it was conquered by the Ottomans in 1461 after the Fall of Constantinople itself. This political adroitness included becoming a vassal state at various times to both Georgia and to various inland Turkic rulers. In addition, the Empire of Trebizond became a renowned center of culture under its ruling Komnenos dynasty. Under

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1496-721: The Lydians , and became a distant memory after the campaigns of Alyattes . Since there was so little literacy in northeastern Anatolia until the Persian and Hellenistic era, one can only speculate as to the other languages spoken here. Given that Kartvelian languages remain spoken to the east of Pontus, some are suspected to have been spoken in eastern Pontus during the Iron Age: the Tzans are usually associated with today's Laz . The first travels of Greek merchants and adventurers to

1564-583: The Mithridatic Wars . As the war drew to a close, Strabo's grandfather had turned several Pontic fortresses over to the Romans. Strabo wrote that "great promises were made in exchange for these services", and as Persian culture endured in Amaseia even after Mithridates and Tigranes were defeated, scholars have speculated about how the family's support for Rome might have affected their position in

1632-582: The 4th century BC ruled the Greek city of Cius (or Kios) in Mysia , with its first known member being Ariobarzanes I of Cius and the last ruler based in the city being Mithridates II of Cius . Mithridates II's son, also called Mithridates , would proclaim himself later Mithridates I Ktistes of Pontus. As the Encyclopaedia Iranica states, the most famous member of the family, Mithradates VI Eupator , although undoubtedly presenting himself to

1700-524: The Aristotelian Xenarchus and Tyrannion who preceded him in teaching Strabo, Athenodorus was a Stoic and almost certainly the source of Strabo's diversion from the philosophy of his former mentors. Moreover, from his own first-hand experience, Athenodorus provided Strabo with information about regions of the empire which Strabo would not otherwise have known about. Strabo is best known for his work Geographica ("Geography"), which presented

1768-665: The Byzantine Empire by Alexios I Komnenos , the area was governed by effectively semi-autonomous rulers, like the Gabras family of Trebizond. The region was secured militarily from the 11th through the 15th centuries with a vast network of sophisticated coastal fortresses. Following Constantinople's loss of sovereignty to the Fourth Crusade in 1204, the Pontus retained independence as the Empire of Trebizond under

1836-561: The Euxine [Black Sea] was so great, that its bed must be gradually raised, while the rivers still continued to pour in an undiminished quantity of water. He therefore conceived that, originally, when the Euxine was an inland sea, its level had by this means become so much elevated that it burst its barrier near Byzantium, and formed a communication with the Propontis [Sea of Marmara], and this partial drainage had already, he supposed, converted

1904-471: The Great, who for many years carried on war with the Romans. Under him, the realm of Pontus included not only Pontic Cappadocia but also the seaboard from the Bithynian frontier to Colchis , part of inland Paphlagonia , and Lesser Armenia . Despite ruling Lesser Armenia, King Mithridates VI was an ally of Armenian King Tigranes the Great , to whom he married his daughter Cleopatra. Eventually, however,

1972-476: The Greek world as a civilized philhellene and new Alexander, also paraded his Iranian background: he maintained a harem and eunuchs in true Oriental fashion; he gave all his sons Persian names; he sacrificed spectacularly in the manner of the Persian kings at Pasargadae (Appian, Mith. 66, 70); and he appointed “ satraps ” (a Persian title) as his provincial governors. Iranica further states, and although there

2040-708: The Islamized Greeks continued speaking their language , known for its unique preservation of characteristics of Ancient Greek and still today there are some in the Of valley that speak the local Ophitic dialect . The Republic of Pontus ( Greek : Δημοκρατία του Πόντου , romanized :  Dimokratía tou Póntou ) was a proposed Pontic Greek state on the southern coast of the Black Sea. Its territory would have encompassed much of historical Pontus and today forms part of Turkey's Black Sea Region. The proposed state

2108-421: The Pontus region occurred probably from around 1000 BC, whereas their settlements would become steady and solidified cities only by the 8th and 7th centuries BC as archaeological findings document. This fits in well with a foundation date of 731 BC as reported by Eusebius of Caesarea for Sinope , perhaps the most ancient of the Greek colonies in what was later to be called Pontus. The epical narratives related to

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2176-596: The Roman Emperor Diocletian decided to break up the area into smaller provinces under more localized administration. With the reorganization of the provincial system under Diocletian (about AD 295), the Pontic districts were divided up between three smaller, independent provinces within the Dioecesis Pontica : The Byzantine Emperor Justinian further reorganized the area in 536: By

2244-661: The Romanian/Serbian border. In India , a country he never visited, Strabo described small flying reptiles that were long with snake-like bodies and bat-like wings (this description matches the Indian flying lizard Draco dussumieri ), winged scorpions, and other mythical creatures along with those that were actually factual. Other historians, such as Herodotus , Aristotle , and Flavius Josephus , mentioned similar creatures. Charles Lyell , in his Principles of Geology , wrote of Strabo: He notices, amongst others,

2312-414: The Romans defeated both King Mithridates VI and his son-in-law, Armenian King Tigranes the Great, during the Mithridatic Wars , bringing Pontus under Roman rule. With the subjugation of this kingdom by Pompey in 64 BC, little changed in the daily lives of either the oligarchies that controlled the cities or for the common people there and in the hinterland, though the meaning of the name Pontus underwent

2380-481: The ages but generally extended from the borders of Colchis (modern western Georgia ) until well into Paphlagonia in the west, with varying amounts of hinterland . Several states and provinces bearing the name of Pontus or variants thereof were established in the region in the Hellenistic , Roman and Byzantine periods, culminating in the late Byzantine Empire of Trebizond . Pontus is sometimes considered as

2448-583: The area (including Trabezon and Kars in northeastern Turkey/the Russian Caucasus) until the 1920s, and in parts of Georgia and Armenia until the 1990s, preserving their own customs and dialect of Greek . One group of Islamicized Greeks were called the Kromli, but were suspected of secretly having remained Christians . They numbered between 12,000 and 15,000 and lived in villages including Krom, Imera, Livadia, Prdi, Alitinos, Mokhora, and Ligosti. Many of

2516-586: The eruption of Mount Vesuvius on 24 August AD 79 in Pompeii : …There are no trees here, but only the vineyards where they produce the Katakekaumene wines which are by no means inferior from any of the wines famous for their quality. The soil is covered with ashes, and black in colour as if the mountainous and rocky country was made up of fires. Some assume that these ashes were the result of thunderbolts and subterranean explosions, and do not doubt that

2584-539: The explanation of Xanthus the Lydian, who said that the seas had once been more extensive, and that they had afterwards been partially dried up, as in his own time many lakes, rivers, and wells in Asia had failed during a season of drought. Treating this conjecture with merited disregard, Strabo passes on to the hypothesis of Strato , the natural philosopher, who had observed that the quantity of mud brought down by rivers into

2652-672: The first converts to Christianity . Acts 2:9 mentions them present in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost ; Acts 18:2 mentions a Jewish tentmaker from Pontus, Aquila , who was then living in Corinth with his wife Priscilla , who had both converted to Christianity, and in 1 Peter 1:1 , Peter the Apostle addresses the Pontians in his letter as the "elect" and "chosen ones". As early as

2720-448: The first critical edition in 1587. Although Strabo cited the classical Greek astronomers Eratosthenes and Hipparchus , acknowledging their astronomical and mathematical efforts covering geography, he claimed that a descriptive approach was more practical, such that his works were designed for statesmen who were more anthropologically than numerically concerned with the character of countries and regions. As such, Geographica provides

2788-412: The islands, but the continents, which can be lifted up together with the sea; and both large and small tracts may subside, for habitations and cities, like Bure, Bizona, and many others, have been engulfed by earthquakes.' Strabo commented on fossil formation mentioning Nummulite (quoted from Celâl Şengör ): One extraordinary thing which I saw at the pyramids must not be omitted. Heaps of stones from

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2856-464: The last book of Geographica , which describes it as a thriving port city with a highly developed local economy. Strabo notes the city's many beautiful public parks, and its network of streets wide enough for chariots and horsemen. "Two of these are exceeding broad, over a plethron in breadth, and cut one another at right angles ... All the buildings are connected one with another, and these also with what are beyond it." Lawrence Kim observes that Strabo

2924-753: The left side into marshy ground, and that, at last, the whole would be choked up with soil. So, it was argued, the Mediterranean had once opened a passage for itself by the Columns of Hercules into the Atlantic, and perhaps the abundance of sea-shells in Africa, near the Temple of Jupiter Ammon , might also be the deposit of some former inland sea, which had at length forced a passage and escaped. But Strabo rejects this theory as insufficient to account for all

2992-458: The legendary story of Typhon takes place in this region. Ksanthos adds that the king of this region was a man called Arimus. However, it is not reasonable to accept that the whole country was burned down at a time as a result of such an event rather than as a result of a fire bursting from underground whose source has now died out. Three pits are called "Physas" and separated by forty stadia from each other. Above these pits, there are hills formed by

3060-521: The local community, and whether they might have been granted Roman citizenship as a reward. Strabo's life was characterized by extensive travels. He journeyed to Egypt and Kush , as far west as coastal Tuscany and as far south as Ethiopia in addition to his travels in Asia Minor and the time he spent in Rome . Travel throughout the Mediterranean and Near East, especially for scholarly purposes,

3128-567: The master of rhetoric Aristodemus , who had formerly taught the sons of the Roman general who had taken over Pontus. Aristodemus was the head of two schools of rhetoric and grammar, one in Nysa and one in Rhodes . The school in Nysa possessed a distinct intellectual curiosity in Homeric literature and the interpretation of the ancient Greek epics. Strabo was an admirer of Homer 's poetry, perhaps as

3196-515: The original home of the Amazons , in ancient Greek mythology and historiography (e. g. by Herodotus and Strabo ). Pontus remained outside the reach of the Bronze Age empires, of which the closest was Great Hatti . The region went further uncontrolled by Hatti's eastern neighbors, Hurrian states like Azzi and (or) Hayasa . In those days, the best any outsider could hope from this region

3264-401: The phenomena, and he proposes one of his own, the profoundness of which modern geologists are only beginning to appreciate. 'It is not,' he says, 'because the lands covered by seas were originally at different altitudes, that the waters have risen, or subsided, or receded from some parts and inundated others. But the reason is, that the same land is sometimes raised up and sometimes depressed, and

3332-417: The quarries lie in front of the pyramids. Among these are found pieces which in shape and size resemble lentils. Some contain substances like grains half peeled. These, it is said, are the remnants of the workmen's food converted into stone; which is not probable. For at home in our country (Amaseia), there is a long hill in a plain, which abounds with pebbles of a porous stone, resembling lentils. The pebbles of

3400-428: The region, mostly Greek, noted that the hinterlands remained disunited, and they recorded the names of tribes: Moskhians (often associated with those Muški), Leucosyri , Mares, Makrones , Mossynoikoi , Tibarenoi , Tzans and Chalybes or Chaldoi. The Armenian language went unnoted by the Hittites, the Assyrians, and all the post-Hittite nations; an ancient theory – first conjectured by Herodotus  –

3468-401: The sea also is simultaneously raised and depressed so that it either overflows or returns into its own place again. We must, therefore, ascribe the cause to the ground, either to that ground which is under the sea, or to that which becomes flooded by it, but rather to that which lies beneath the sea, for this is more moveable, and, on account of its humidity, can be altered with great celerity. It

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3536-400: The sea-shore and of rivers suggest somewhat of the same difficulty [respecting their origin]; some explanation may indeed be found in the motion [to which these are subject] in flowing waters, but the investigation of the above fact presents more difficulty. I have said elsewhere, that in sight of the pyramids, on the other side in Arabia, and near the stone quarries from which they are built, is

3604-494: The service of Antigonus , one of Alexander's successors , and successfully maneuvering in this unsettled time managed, shortly after 302 BC, to create the Kingdom of Pontus which would be ruled by his descendants mostly bearing the same name, until 64 BC. Thus, this Persian dynasty managed to survive and prosper in the Hellenistic world while the main Persian Empire had fallen. This kingdom reached its greatest height under Mithridates VI or Mithridates Eupator, commonly called

3672-406: The subsequent Ottoman rule which began with the fall of Trebizond , particularly starting from the 17th century, some of the region's Pontic Greeks became Muslim through the Devşirme system. But at the same time some valleys inhabited by Greeks converted voluntarily, most notably those in the Of valley. Large communities (around 25% of the population) of Christian Pontic Greeks remained throughout

3740-399: The third and nineteenth satrapies of the Persian empire. Iranian influence ran deep, illustrated most famously by the temple of the Persian deities Anaitis, Omanes, and Anadatos at Zela , founded by victorious Persian generals in the 6th century BC. The Kingdom of Pontus extended generally to the east of the Halys River. The Persian dynasty which was to found this kingdom had during

3808-412: The three districts: Pontus Galaticus in the west, bordering on Galatia ; Pontus Polemoniacus in the centre, so called from its capital Polemonium ; and Pontus Cappadocicus in the east, bordering on Cappadocia (Armenia Minor). Subsequently, the Roman Emperor Trajan moved Pontus into the province of Cappadocia itself in the early 2nd century AD. In response to a Gothic raid on Trebizond in 287 AD,

3876-414: The time of the early Byzantine Empire, Trebizond became a center of culture and scientific learning. In the 7th century, an individual named Tychicus returned from Constantinople to establish a school of learning. One of his students was the early Armenian scholar Anania of Shirak . Under the Byzantine Empire, the Pontus came under the Armeniac Theme , with the westernmost parts (Paphlagonia) belonging to

3944-499: The town of Themiscyra . Starting with Dionysius Periegetes , in his Periegesis of the World , the Thermodon is often confused with the Iris River (modern Yeşilırmak), which is much larger, flows through Phanaroea , and carries much more sediment. In Greek mythology , the Thermodon was the location of the plain and capital, Themiscyra , where the Amazons dwelt. 41°12′N 37°02′E  /  41.200°N 37.033°E  / 41.200; 37.033 This article about

4012-480: The travels of Jason and the Argonauts to Colchis , the tales of Heracles ' navigating the Black Sea, and Odysseus ' wanderings into the land of the Cimmerians , as well as the myth of Zeus constraining Prometheus to the Caucasus mountains as a punishment for his outwitting the Gods, can all be seen as reflections of early contacts between early Greek colonists and the local, probably Caucasian, peoples. The earliest known written description of Pontus, however,

4080-401: The writings of other authors. Strabo was born to an affluent family from Amaseia in Pontus (in present-day Cappadocia ) in around 64   BC. His family had been involved in politics since at least the reign of Mithridates V . Strabo was related to Dorylaeus on his mother's side. Several other family members, including his paternal grandfather, had served Mithridates VI during

4148-448: Was a Greek geographer , philosopher , and historian who lived in Asia Minor during the transitional period of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire . He is best known for his work Geographica ("Geography"), which presented a descriptive history of people and places from different regions of the world known during his lifetime. Additionally, Strabo authored historical works, but only fragments and quotations of these survive in

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4216-427: Was also a Peripatetic, he was more relevantly a respected authority on geography, a fact of some significance considering Strabo's future contributions to the field. The final noteworthy mentor to Strabo was Athenodorus Cananites , a philosopher who had spent his life since 44 BC in Rome forging relationships with the Roman elite. Athenodorus passed onto Strabo his philosophy, his knowledge and his contacts. Unlike

4284-440: Was discussed at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 , but the Greek government of Eleftherios Venizelos feared the precarious position of such a state and so it was included instead in the larger proposed state of Wilsonian Armenia. Neither state came into existence and the Pontic Greek population was subjected to genocide and expelled from Turkey after 1922 and resettled in the Soviet Union or in Macedonia . This state of affairs

4352-626: Was in Rome ( c.  20 BC ), is nearly completely lost. Meant to cover the history of the known world from the conquest of Greece by the Romans, Strabo quotes it himself and other classical authors mention that it existed, although the only surviving document is a fragment of papyrus now in the possession of the University of Milan (renumbered [Papyrus] 46). Strabo studied under several prominent teachers of various specialities throughout his early life at different stops during his Mediterranean travels. The first chapter of his education took place in Nysa (modern Sultanhisar , Turkey) under

4420-399: Was later formally recognized as part of the population exchange between Greece and Turkey in 1923. The Black Sea Region ( Turkish : Karadeniz Bölgesi ), comprising all or parts of 22 provinces, is one of Turkey 's seven census-defined geographical regions . It encompasses but is larger than historic Pontus. Mentioned thrice in the New Testament, inhabitants of Pontus were some of

4488-461: Was popular during this era and was facilitated by the relative peace enjoyed throughout the reign of Augustus (27 BC – AD 14). He moved to Rome in 44 BC, and stayed there, studying and writing, until at least 31 BC. In 29 BC, on his way to Corinth (where Augustus was at the time), he visited the island of Gyaros in the Aegean Sea. Around 25 BC, he sailed up the Nile until he reached Philae , after which point there

4556-410: Was regularly employed to denote the half of this dual province, especially by Romans and people speaking from the Roman point of view; it is so used almost always in the New Testament . The eastern half of the old kingdom was administered as a client kingdom together with Colchis . Its last king was Polemon II . In AD 62, the country was constituted by Nero a Roman province . It was divided into

4624-413: Was temporary alliance with a local strongman. The Hittites called the unorganized groups on their northeastern frontier the Kaška . As of 2004 little had been found of them archaeologically. In the wake of the Hittite empire's collapse, the Assyrian court noted that the "Kašku" had overrun its territory in conjunction with a hitherto unknown group whom they labeled the Muški . Iron Age visitors to

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