Lukka

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources.
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. (help, get involved!)
This article has been tagged since November 2006.

The Lukka lands are often mentioned in Hittite texts from the second millennium BC. It denotes a region in the southwestern part of Asia Minor, modern Turkey. The Lukka lands were never put under permanent Hittite control and were viewed as hostile by the Hittites.

The interpretation of the Bronze Tablet discovered in Hattusa, which records the treaty between the Hittite king Tudhaliya IV and his cousin Kurunta, has helped in localizing the Lukka lands. Many scholars have the opinion the Lukka lands were more or less equal to the later kingdom of Lycia in Pisidia.

Soldiers from the Lukka lands fought on the Hittite side in the famous Battle of Kadesh (c.1274 BC) against the Egyptian Pharaoh Ramesses II. A century later the Lukka had turned against the Hittites. The Hittite king Suppiluliuma II tried in vain to defeat the Lukka. They contributed to the collapse of the Hittite empire.

The Lukka is also known from ancient Egyptian texts. They were one of the tribes that constituted the Sea Peoples who invaded Egypt and the Eastern Mediterranean in the twelfth century BC.