Astarpa
Encyclopedia
The Astarpa River is a river in southwestern Turkey. It rises in west central Turkey near Dinar before flowing west through the Büyük Menderes graben until reaching the Aegean Sea in the proximity of the ancient Ionian city Miletus...
, Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
) is a river in western Anatolia
Anatolia
Anatolia is a geographic and historical term denoting the westernmost protrusion of Asia, comprising the majority of the Republic of Turkey...
mentioned in Hittites
Hittites
The Hittites were a Bronze Age people of Anatolia.They established a kingdom centered at Hattusa in north-central Anatolia c. the 18th century BC. The Hittite empire reached its height c...
records of the 14th century BC.
The annals of Mursili II
Mursili II
Mursili II was a king of the Hittite Empire ca. 1321–1295 BC .-Family:Mursili II was the younger son of Suppiluliuma I, one of the most powerful rulers of the Hittite Empire...
record that in the 3rd year of his reign, which would be 7 years prior to Mursili's eclipse
Mursili's eclipse
The solar eclipse mentioned in a text dating to the reign of Mursili II could be of great importance for the absolute chronology of the Hittite Empire within the chronology of the Ancient Near East....
in 1312 BC, prince Piyama-Kurunta
Piyama-Kurunta
Piyama-Kurunta was a prince and regent for the last independent king of Arzawa, a Bronze Age kingdom of western Anatolia. The king of Arzawa Uhha-Ziti named his son "Gift of the god Kurunta", after a god whose name had featured in the names of previous Arzawan kings.In c...
of Arzawa
Arzawa
Arzawa in the second half of the second millennium BC was the name of a region and a political entity in Western Anatolia, the core area of which was centered on the Hermos and Maeander river valleys, corresponding with the Late Bronze Age kingdoms of the...
stood against his army at Walma by the river Astarpa. Mursili chased Piyama-Kurunta into Apasa. The following winter, Mursili withdrew to the Astarpa to prepare for the next season.
A treaty between Mursili and Kupanta-Kurunta
Kupanta-Kurunta
Kupanta-Kurunta was the first recorded king of Arzawa, in the late 15th century BC. He was defeated by an earlier Tudhaliya and his son, the future Arnuwanda I. He then attacked Arnuwanda's restive vassal Madduwatta at Zippasla...
of Mira later lists the Astarpa as the border of Kupanta-Kurunta's client region of Kuwaliya.
The annals of Mursili during the Astarpa campaign mention nearby regions of "Apasa", "Millawanda", and "Ahhiyawa". It is thought that these are the Bronze Age
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...
names of Ephesus
Ephesus
Ephesus was an ancient Greek city, and later a major Roman city, on the west coast of Asia Minor, near present-day Selçuk, Izmir Province, Turkey. It was one of the twelve cities of the Ionian League during the Classical Greek era...
, Miletus
Miletus
Miletus was an ancient Greek city on the western coast of Anatolia , near the mouth of the Maeander River in ancient Caria...
, and Mycenaean Greece
Mycenaean Greece
Mycenaean Greece was a cultural period of Bronze Age Greece taking its name from the archaeological site of Mycenae in northeastern Argolis, in the Peloponnese of southern Greece. Athens, Pylos, Thebes, and Tiryns are also important Mycenaean sites...
. Astarpa is most likely the Meander River. This means that Mira is probably to the north of Astarpa, and that its neighbouring Seha River Land would be to the north of Mira.