Lukka lands

The term Lukka lands (sometimes Luqqa lands), in Hittite language texts from the 2nd millennium BC, is a collective term for states formed by the Lukka people in south-west Anatolia. The Lukka were never subjected long-term by the Hittites, who generally viewed them as hostile. It is commonly accepted that the Bronze Age toponym Lukka is cognate with the Lycia of classical antiquity (8th century BC to 5th century AD).

The states formed by the Lukka (lower left) were located in south-west Anatolia/Asia Minor.

There are two somewhat different hypotheses with regard to the extent of the Lukka lands. The maximalist hypothesis is upheld by Trevor Bryce, who discusses the occurrences of Lukka in Bronze Age texts.[1] "From these texts we can conclude the Lukka, or Lukka lands, referred to a regions extending from the western end of Pamphylia, through Lycaonia, Pisidia and Lycia. "The minimalist hypothesis is upheld by Ilya Yakubovich, who concludes based on the analysis of textual evidence:[2] "[W]e have positive philological arguments for the presence of Bronze Age Lukka settlements in classical Lycia, but not anywhere else in Asia Minor or beyond it."

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 are also known from texts in Ancient Egypt as one of the tribes of the Sea Peoples, who invaded Egypt and the Eastern Mediterranean in the 12th century BC.[3]