Isuwa

Isuwa (transcribed Išuwa and sometimes rendered Ishuwa), was a kingdom founded by the Hurrians, which came under Hittite sovereignty towards 1600 BC as a result of their struggle with the Hittites. Isuwa was located on the eastern bank of the river Euphrates, opposite modern-day Malatya and along the south bank of the Murat Su. The important crossing of the Euphrates from Malatya to Elazığ is referred to in the Hittite texts as the 'Isuwa crossing' (eberti KUR URUIśuwa). Isuwa covers the present-day province of Tunceli. The plain had favourable climatic conditions due to the abundance of water from springs and rainfall. Irrigation of fields was possible without the need to build complex canals. The river valley was well suited for intensive agriculture, while livestock could be kept at the higher altitudes. The mountains possessed rich deposits of copper which were mined in antiquity. The area was one of the places where agriculture developed very early in the Neolithic period. Urban centres emerged in the upper Euphrates river valley around 3000 BC. The first states may have followed in the third millennium BC. The name Isuwa is not known until the literate Hittite period of the second millennium BC. Few literate sources from within Isuwa have been discovered and the primary source material comes from Hittite texts. The Isuwans left no written record of their own, and it is not clear which of the Anatolian peoples inhabited the land of Isuwa prior to the Luwians. Aram Kosyan identified etymologically Hittite, Luwian, Indo-Iranian (possibly connected to the Mitanni), Hurrian, and Kaskian personal names in Isuwa, as well as a number of anthronyms with unknown or unclear origins. To the west of Isuwa lay the hostile kingdom of the Hittites. The Hittite king Hattusili I (c. 1600 BC) is reported to have marched his army across the Euphrates river and destroyed the cities there. This corresponds with burnt destruction layers discovered by archaeologists at town sites in Isuwa at roughly this date.