The Kaska (Kaška, also Kaskians or Gasgas) were a Bronze Age people of Anatolia, known from Hittite sources. They lived between the core Hittite region and the Black Sea, and are cited as the reason that the later Hittite Empire never extended northward to that area. They may have displaced the speakers of the Palaic language from their home in Pala. The Bronze Age is a period in a civilizations development when the most advanced metalworking has developed the techniques of smelting copper from natural outcroppings and alloys it to cast bronze. ... Anatolia lies east of the Bosphorus, between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Anatolia is a peninsula of Western Asia which forms the greater part of the Asian portion of Turkey, as opposed to the European portion (Thrace, or traditionally Rumelia). ... Relief of Suppiluliuma II, last known king of the Hittite Empire The Hittites were an ancient people who spoke an Indo-European language, and established a kingdom centered at Hattusa (Hittite URU) in north-central Anatolia from the 18th century BC. In the 14th century BC, the Hittite empire was... Map of the Black Sea. ... Palaic was one of the Anatolian languages, and as such a sister language of Hittite. ... This article is about a village in Estonia. ...

When the Kaska were not raiding or serving as mercenaries, they raised pigs and wove linen.[1]

As of the reign of Tudhaliya II (about 1430 BC), the Kaska had moved into the ruins of the holy city of Nerik. "Tudhaliya's 3rd campaign was against the Kaskas." [2] His successor Arnuwanda I composed 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. Tudhaliya II was a king of the Hittite empire (New kingdom) 1385 BC–1381 BC. Categories: Historical stubs | Hittite kings ... Nerik was a Bronze Age city to the north of the Hittite capitals Hattusa and Sapinuwa. ... Arnuwanda I was a king of the Hittite empire (New kingdom) 1410 BC–1386 BC. Categories: Historical stubs | Hittite kings ... Zalpuwa, also Zalpa, was an as-yet undiscovered Bronze Age Anatolian city of the 1700s BCE. Its history is largely known from the Proclamation of Anitta, CTH 1. ...

Some time between the reigns of Arnuwanda and Suppiluliuma I, in Maşat Höyük, the letters note that locusts ate the Kaskas' grain. The hungry Kaska were able to join with Hayasa-Azzi and Isuwa to the east, as well as other enemies of the Hittites, and burn Hattusa, the Hittite capital, to the ground. It is probable that they also burnt the secondary capital Sapinuwa. Suppiliuma's grandson Hattusili III in the middle 1200s BC wrote of the time before Tudhaliya that the Kaska had "made Nenassa their frontier" and that their allies in Azzi-Hayasa had done the same to Samuha. Suppiluliuma I (Shuppiluliuma) was king of the Hittites (ca. ... MaÅŸat Höyük[1] is an Bronze Age Hittite archaeological site northeast of BoÄŸazkale/Hattusa, about 20 km south of Zile, Tokat Province, north-central Turkey. ... Hayasa-Azzi or Azzi-Hayasa was a confederation formed between the Kingdoms of Hayasa located South of Trabzon and Azzi, located North of the Euphrates and to the South of Hayasa. ... The Lion Gate in the south-west Hattusa (also known as Hattusas or Khattushash) was the capital of the Hittite Empire. ... Sapinuwa or Shapinuwa was a Bronze Age Hittite city, at the site of Ortaköy, Çorum in Turkey. ... Hattusili III was a king of the Hittite empire (New kingdom) 1265 BC–1235 BC. He was the commander of Hittite forces in 1274 BC that defeated an Egyptian campign into Syria in the famous Battle of Kadesh. ... Samuha is an as-yet-undiscovered city of the Hittites. ...

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 too came to enlist subject Kaska for their armies. Amarna The site of Amarna (commonly known as el-Amarna or incorrectly as Tel el-Amarna; see below) (Arabic: العمارنة al-‘amārnä) is located on the east bank of the Nile River in the modern Egyptian province of al-Minya, some 58 km (38 miles) south of the city of... nomen or birth name Nebmaatre Amenhotep III (called Nibmu(`w)areya in the Amarna letters) was an Egyptian pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty. ...

Tudhaliya III and Suppiluliuma (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 onto Hayasa and defeat it too, despite some devasting guerrilla tactics at their rear. Some twelve tribes of Kaska then united under Piyapili, but Piyapili was no match for Suppiluliuma. Tudhaliya III was king of the Hittite Empire (New Kingdom) from ca. ...

Eventually Tudhaliya and Suppiluliuma returned Hattusa to the Hittites. But the Kaska continued to be a menace both inside and out. At one point they fielded 800 chariots.^{[citation needed]}

In the time of ailing Arnuwanda II (around 1323 BC), the Hittites worried that the Kaskas from Ishupitta within 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 II was a king of the Hittite empire (New kingdom) 1323 BC–1322 BC. Categories: Historical stubs | Hittite kings ...

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 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. Mursili II was a king of the Hittite empire (New kingdom) from 1322 BC–1295/92 BC. He was the younger son of Suppiluliuma I and unexpectedly assumed the throne after the premature death of his elder brother Arnuwanda II. He faced numerous rebellions early in his reign most seriously...

Then the Kaska united under Pihhuniya of Tipiya. Pihhuniya conquered Istitina and advanced as far as Zazzissa. But Mursili defeated this force and brought Pihhuniya back as a prisoner to Hattusas.

Mursili switched to a defensive strategy, with a chain of border fortresses. 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 the northern marches. Hattusili defeated the Kaska to the point of recapturing Nerik, and when he took over the kingdom he returned the capitol to Hattusa. Muwatalli II was a king of the New kingdom of the Hittite empire (1295–1272 BC). ... Tarhuntassa is an as-yet undiscovered Bronze Age city south of Hattusa. ... Hattusili III was a king of the Hittite empire (New kingdom) 1265 BC–1235 BC. He was the commander of Hittite forces in 1274 BC that defeated an Egyptian campign into Syria in the famous Battle of Kadesh. ...

The Hittite kingdom fell in the general calamity of 1200 BC. The Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser I recorded late in the 12th century BC that the Kaska and their Mushki allies were active in what had been the Hatti heartland. Tiglath-Pileser defeated them, and the Kaska then disappear from all historical records. When the Black Sea littoral returned to history, it was populated by the Armenians, although often overrun by Iranian peoples such as the Cimmerians. Assyrian may refer to: List of Assyrian settlements Anything from Assyria, an ancient empire in Mesopotamia Anything from Assyria (Roman province), a province of the Roman Empire Assyrian people, a present-day Middle Eastern ethnic group Several Christian denominations: Assyrian Church of the East Assyrian Church of the Easts... Tiglath-Pileser I (the Hebraic form of Tukulti-apil-Esharra, my trust is in the son of Esharra) was King of Assyria (1115 BC - 1077 BC). ... The Cimmerians (Greek Κιμμέριοι, Kimmerioi) were ancient equestrian nomads who, according to Herodotus, originally inhabited the region north of the Caucasus and the Black Sea, in what is now Russia and Ukraine, in the 8th and 7th century BC. Assyrian records, however, first place them in the region of Azerbaijan in...

See also

• Hayasa-Azzi
• Mushki

Hayasa-Azzi or Azzi-Hayasa was a confederation formed between the Kingdoms of Hayasa located South of Trabzon and Azzi, located North of the Euphrates and to the South of Hayasa. ... The Mushki (Muški) were an Iron Age people of Anatolia, known from and Assyrian sources. ...

External links

• Annals of Mursilis II