Anthropology of a Frontier Zone: Hittite-Kaska Relations in Late Bronze Age North-Central Anatolia

The northern and northeastern borders of the Hittite Empire of Late Bronze Age Anatolia hosted a loosely federated group of peoples known as the Kaska. Hittite texts tell us much about the persistent state of hostility between the Hittites and the Kaska, but there have been few serious attempts to understand the Kaska on their own terms. Here we employ a flexible interpretive framework, rooted in frontier studies, in order to review the textual evidence for Hittite-Kaska relations before treating the Kaska as anthropologically approachable subjects. Issues such as ceramics, diet, and subsistence are explored by means of Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age evidence from a range of archaeological sites. Finally, survey evidence from the Paphlagonia region is considered in the light of Hittite-Kaska relations, and the importance of natural features as frontiers, especially rivers, is underlined.