- Kaskians
Kaskians — a people (group of tribes) inhabiting northeastern Anatolia and the southern Black Sea region (Pontus) during the 2nd millennium BC, from the Halys River (Kızılırmak) or further west, to the upper Euphrates west of modern Erzincan, including the valleys of the Iris (Yeşilırmak) and Lycus (Wolf River, Gayl-get, Kelkit) rivers. This people is attested in cuneiform inscriptions of ancient Asia Minor. They are sometimes called Kaskaian tribes.
I.M. Diakonov writes about this people: "In the so-called 'Autobiography' of the Hittite king Hattusili III (c. 1275-1250 BC), it is reported that during the period corresponding to the 16th-15th centuries BC according to our chronology, the neighboring tribes and kingdoms took advantage of the Hittites' weakening and advanced deep into their territory. The Kaskians penetrated especially far to the south, but the more eastern tribes also had great success. Thus, the people of Azzi invaded the Upper Land (the region of the upper Halys River) and 'made their border' the city of Samuha, while the people of Isuwa, crossing to the right bank of the Euphrates, occupied Tegarama.
The term 'Kaskians' is very general in nature, but one of the inscriptions of Tiglath-Pileser I specifies the tribal name of these 'Kaskians' — they were the Abeshla (Abeshla), a tribe apparently unknown from Hittite sources. As for the Urumaeans, this tribe is also unknown to us from earlier sources. By 1115 BC, the Mushki resumed their advance and descended, with twenty thousand warriors led by five chiefs, into the valley of the upper Tigris — Kadmuhi, creating a serious threat to Assyrian possessions. Apparently, judging by the text of the annals, the Mushki were in alliance with the local inhabitants. This is understandable: both the Kadmuhians, and the Alziians, and the Purukuzians in the first half of the 12th century were repeatedly subjected to heavy tribute by the Assyrians, and the Assyrians had more booty for the Mushki.
Assyrian sources report the invasion of still mobile tribes from the west into the valleys of the upper Euphrates and Aratsani in the first half of the 12th century BC, immediately after the fall of the Hittite Kingdom: the Mushki, Kaskians-Abeshla, and Urumaeans are mentioned. Of these, in any case, the Mushki and Urumaeans apparently settled here, as the former are mentioned in this same territory already as agricultural tribes in the early 9th century BC, and the existence of the 'country' of Urumu, Urme, or Arme, also approximately in this same area, is attested by Assyrian and Urartian inscriptions in the 9th-8th centuries BC."
The Kaskians are identified with the Kassites. The Kassites were originally a pastoral shepherd tribe and lived in Western Iran (Zagros) near the northwestern borders of Elam. They used chariots as the striking force of their militia. It is assumed that the image of centaurs goes back to the Kassite horsemen. Along the Diyala River valley, the Kassites raided Mesopotamia at the end of the First Babylonian Dynasty period. One of the groups of Kassite tribes even advanced into Northern Mesopotamia in the 18th century BC and reached the Khabur, a tributary of the middle Euphrates. Somewhat below the confluence of the Khabur with the Euphrates, in connection with their invasion, the old Khanaean kingdom was recreated with its center in the city of Terqa. The dynasty that came to power here was apparently initially Akkadian-Amorite and only relied on the armed forces of the Kassites. But then the Kassites themselves seized power and became kings.
Thanks to the Hittite invasion, the Kassites in 1595 BC managed to overthrow the Amorite dynasty and establish control over Babylon, ruling it in the 16th-12th centuries BC. In the 15th century BC, the Kassite king Ulam-Buriash captured southern Mesopotamia and proclaimed himself "king of Babylon, king of Sumer and Akkad, king of the Kassites, and king of Kar-Duniash." Royal decrees were carved on kudurru stones. In the 14th century BC, the Assyrian danger became apparent. During the Kassite period, the Kassites became a privileged class of Babylonian society, who divided the country into houses (bitu), at the head of which stood a lord (bel biti), who managed the local taxation system and organized public works to maintain the irrigation system. The classes of priests and merchants played an important role. The cult of the god Marduk was strengthened. Relations with Egypt developed (dynastic marriages, trade, correspondence). The end of the Kassite dynasty was brought about by the Elamite invasion. The last Kassite king, Ellil-nadin-akhe, was taken into captivity. An Elamite protege was appointed governor of Babylon, and the Elamites continued their military campaigns to the south and north of the country.
VARIANT NAMES: Russian. Kashki, Kashaki, Kaskeitsy, Abeshla, Abeshlaitsy, Kassites, Assyrian. Ga-as-ga.
Sources:
Ethnogenesis of the Abkhazians. D.A. Arshba, 2015