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Alashia = Alasa; and Asy.

By G. A. Wainwright.

§ 1. For the sake of clearness in introducing a long article, it is as well to state the purpose for which it has been written, and what it is hoped to prove by means of it. The scope of this article then is generally to discuss the whole question of the lands of Asy and Alashia—or Alasa, under which form this last is found in the hieroglyphs-and to bring to bear upon the subject some fresh information, which has not yet received due attention i. e.

1. The existence of a thriving copper industry on the mainland of Syria.

2. The political connections of these lands, as they appear in the Annals of Thothmes III and the Tell el Amarna Letters.

3. To reinforce the equation of Alashia with the Biblical Elishah, with Müller's comparision of the Biblical Rodanim to the Egyptian Danuna.

More particularly it is hoped to prove firstly that Asy and Alashia are continental lands, and secondly that they lie in the extreme north of Syria.

It has been suggested by Max Müller1), that the last of these names. is the same as the other two, but not fully written out. Whether the usage of the language in transcribing the unfamiliar sounds of foreign names will uphold this suggestion must be left to philologists to decide, but in the course of this enquiry it will become abundantly clear, that archæologically there is nothing against such a proposition, but that whatever is applicable to Asy is also applicable to Alashia and vice versa; in fact it is difficult to distinguish clearly between the two.

After having discussed the position of these lands, their products will be treated, which again will be found to agree to a remarkable extent. To this will be appended any further scraps of information, that can be gleaned. With this explanation of the scope of the following remarks, we can approach the subject.

1) Zeitschr. für Assyriologie X, 1895/6, p. 262.

Klio, Beiträge zur alten Geschichte XIV 1.

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§ 2. It has been generally accepted that Asy is Cyprus and in 1895 Max Müller tried to show that Alasa-Alashia was another form of the same word; hence that the latter land also is Cyprus. When the evidence upon which this belief rests comes to be examined, it is found that its corner stone is the occurrence of copper in the lands of Asy and Alashia, which occurrence is naturally compared to the famous copper industry of Cyprus in classical days. Now on going into the distribution of copper in this part of the world, we find that Cyprus is by no means the only copper-producing land in this corner. Even prima-facie considerations would show, that if copper is plentiful in Cyprus, then it should also be plentiful in the continuation of the Cypriote geologic formation

on the continent-the Amanus Mountains-or rather the district to the south of this range. As a matter of fact we find that copper ores are very plentiful in Asia Minor and North Syria, in which last land they are found in the Vilayet of Aleppo1); and a mining prospector, who has spent his life travelling in this part of the world, has informed the writer, that all this region is full of copper. Ancient copper mines are also reported in the N. Lebanon, and were found not far from Gebel el Arba'in in the neighbourhood of Riha and Keftin on a journey from Aleppo to Gebel Ala2).

1) Zeitschr. für Krystallographie XLII, p. 636.

2) Thomson's Journey, Bibliotheca Sacra and Theological Review V, 1848, p. 673.

Therefore there is no reason why there should not have been a thriving copper industry in Syria in ancient days, and in fact we find copper to have been so conspicuous a product of that land, that the epithet applied to it by the Egyptians is not Cypriote, as in classical days, but Asiatic1).

§ 3. In view of this Cyprus can no longer hold a unique position as the copper-producing land of antiquity. We are therefore at liberty to examine afresh the evidence of the Egyptian monuments as to the position of Asy and Alashia, and the first question which springs to our minds is, how will these changed conditions affect the hitherto difficult question of the export of ivory tusks from these lands? If the transference of these lands from the island of Cyprus to the mainland of Syria will do away with this difficulty, then at the very outset our thesis obtains support.

As a matter of fact, if Asy can be freed from Cyprus and assigned to N. Syria, the evidence of the ivory not only ceases to be a difficulty, but falls in with all the other products of these countries as a natural thing. This is the case because we already know that elephants were common in the XVth cent. B. C. in N. Syria, as the Syrians in the tomb of Rekhmara are depicted bringing a live one as tribute, and moreover Amenemheb2) gives a lively account of the hunting of 120 elephants in Niy on the Euphrates. Again in the thirteenth campaign of Thothmes III 5 tusks are brought from Syria3), and also in the forty-first year (?) Rutennu brings 18 tusks1). This is just what is represented in the tombs, as for instance in Rekhmara, where the Syrians bring a pair of tusks, while in Menkheperrasenb the Kadesh people bring one, and possibly a second.

In N. Syria then ivory was fairly generally obtainable in the XIV th and XVth cents. B. C., but usually in very limited quantities). It is in just such limited quantities as the above named, that Asy and Alashia send their ivory, for in the Annals of Thothmes III Asy sends three tusks, and again three tusks appear from Alashia in the Tell el Amarna Letters 6). § 4. So then the evidence of the ivory trade fits in with the new evidence as to the occurence of copper, and unless some serious objection can be raised to the proposed situation of Asy and Alashia in N. Syria,

D

hmt stt Newberry,

1) Breasted, Ancient Records II. §§ 45. 755 etc. The Life of Rekhmara pl. XVIII. Further references to Breasted will be given under the title BAR.

5) It continued so at least into the XIth cent. when Tiglath Pileser I killed ten elephants and captured four alive in Kharran. King, Annals of the Kings of Assyria pp. 85. 139.

6) See table of products § 30.

1*

this position must stand, in that it solves the difficulty of the ivory tusks. For this difficulty has been one of the most serious in considering these names to represent Cyprus.

We will now proceed to a discussion of the evidence to be obtained. from the Egyptian monuments as to these lands, their products, their position, and anything else we can learn about them. It will perhaps be best to begin with a discussion of the evidence to be obtained as to the position of Alashia, as that land had not been supposed to represent Cyprus until Max Müller suggested its identification with Asy.

Alashia.

The Land of Alashia appears under two forms-Alashia and Alasa. These are known to be merely forms of the same name, Alashia being the cuneiform rendering, and Alasa being the hieroglyphic.

The cuneiform rendering A-la-ši-ia is obtained from the Tell el Amarna Letters, which include a number from the king of this country. That the Egyptian name Alasa represents the cuneiform Alashia is substantiated by letter 291), which bears in the cuneiform text the address Alashia (A-la-ši-ia) as its place of origin, and which is endorsed

in Egyptian hieratic Letter of the Prince of Alasa"

It is thus beyond dispute, that Alashia and Alasa represent the cuneiform and hieroglyphic versions of the same name, and it can only be regretted that proof so indubitable as this, is as rare as it is in archæology.

§ 6. Alashia originally was placed both by Max Müller) and by Maspero3) in Syria about the mouth of the Orontes river, along the coast. Müller confines it to the country south of this river, while Maspero makes it stretch to the foot of the Amanus Mountains, on the north of the river. But in 1895 Müller tried to show, that Alashia was only another form of Asy, which he accepted as Cyprus. To put it shortly, his view comes to this; that as is well known a liquid is often left unexpressed in the hieroglyphic writing of native Egyptian words, as for instance romet „men“ and henket beer", which are commonly written rt and kt. Hence, he suggests, a foreign word might also suppress a liquid, and such a foreign word as is written in the hieroglyphs A-si-y might stand for Assiy(a), which might stand again for Alsiy(a) or Arsiy(a). But as it stands and without more proof this theory does not meet with general acceptance 4).

1) The Tell el Amarna Letters. Winckler's Edition 1896 p. XVIII.
2) Asien und Europa 1893 map at end of book.

3) Rec. de Trav. X, 1888 p. 210. Struggle of the Nations 1896 map opposite p. 142. 4) As for instance Maspero, The Struggle of the Nations 1896 p. 142 note 3 and map facing, and all the Egyptologists with whom I have dicussed the question. Ed. Meyer however accepts the identification: Festschrift für G. Ebers 1897 p. 65.