The politics of the Wilusiad
Although The Wilusiad is a work of fiction the world it inhabits is based to a large extent on the real world of Late Bronze Age Anatolia, which was a land dominated by the Hittite Empire. This domination however was increasingly challenged in the West by the rising power of the Ahhiyawans, people history records as the Mycenaean Greeks. This left the Luwian Kingdoms on the Western edge of Hittite influence trapped between two powers whilst trying to retain some measure of autonomy for themselves. It is this background that I used as a starting point to develop the political life of Wilusa, a city with roots going back thousands of years by the Late Bronze Age and yet facing political currents and turmoil that threaten to sweep all this away.
The Mysterious Luwians
The luwians were a people living in the West if Anatolia in the late bronze age in the area marked out in map on the right. They were divided into a series of individual Kingdoms, including The Seha River Land, Arzawa and of course Wilusa (Troy), in the extreme North East of the territory, as seen on the map on the left. The Luwians shared a common indo-european language and hieroglyphic script (see pictue on lower left) which has been discovered at Hisarlik on the seal stone pictured on the right, which was discovered at Hisarlik, which is the modern hill which contains the ruins of Wilusa today. This evidence was key to my decision to portray the basic culture of Wilusa as a Luwian one.
This map shows the distribution of the Luwian people during the late bronze age - source, Ancient Near East today https://anetoday.org/zangger-mutlu-luwian-culture/
Map of Late Bronze Age Anatolia showing Troy - by World History Encyclopaedia https://www.worldhistory.org/image/11228/map-of-the-hittite-empire-and-surrounding-states/
Luwian Hieroglyphs - original image https://kayipdiller.com/en/exhibition/luwian/
The Luwian seal, image by The Troy Excavation Archive, Canakkale
Ahhiyawan Rulers, Hittite Allies?
This is a Paragraph. Click on "Edit Text" or double click on the text box to start editing the content and make sure to add any relevant details or information that you want to share with your visitors.
Caught Between Two Powers
This is a Paragraph. Click on "Edit Text" or double click on the text box to start editing the content and make sure to add any relevant details or information that you want to share with your visitors.