Denyen

Danunäer or Danuna ( Akkadian Kurda -nu -na, Phoenician Dnn - in, egyptian Dnwn / Dnjn / dnan ) is the name of a people, which was established in the Adana region. The origin of its name is therefore also associated with the city of Adana.

Location and origin

The settlement area of Danunäer lay in a valley by the sea, surrounded by high mountain ranges. Equating to the tribe of Dan is controversial. According to biblical tradition of the tribe of Dan populated a similar area, but geographically farther south.

Historical Sources

The Egyptian name Dnwn appear first half of the 14th century BC in the Amarna letter EA 151 by Abi - Milki. More mentions place, inter alia in connection with the Sea Peoples, which in the 8th year of the reign of Ramses III. Egypt attacked by water. Later, in an inscription of the king Kilamuwa from the city-state Ja'udi around 800 BC as a people of Danunäer:

" My father's house was under powerful kings. About me but powerful was the Danunäer King. "

The Danunäer are mentioned as inhabitants of the kingdom Qu'e both in the Karatepe bilingual as well as in the co bilingual inscription on the statue of Cineköy.

Biblical References

W. Max Müller wanted to equate the Rodanim table of nations with the Danuna the Amarna letters. The discussed equating the Danunäer with the pedigree of Jawan as a people of Rhodes is based on the table of nations in Genesis (Gen 10.4 EU) and the Chronicle ( 1 Chr 1.7 EU) with the summary of Dodanim, Tharsisa, Elisa and Chittim. Jawan corresponds to this interpretation, the Achi- jawa.

Literary references

The sayings of King Azatiwada:

"The name Azatiwada shall be for ever, as the names of the sun and the moon. "

" His seed shall endure for ever, like the sun and the moon it shall be established for ever"

References to the Danaans

→ Main article: Danai

The fact that it is the Danunäer at the Danaans, was suspected but could not be proven until now. In the list of place names of Amenhotep III. cities or landscapes on the Greek mainland ( = Tanaja / Danaja ), mainly in the Peloponnese are named:

Mukana ( Mycenae ), Deqajis (Thebes or the countryside around Thebes), Misana ( Messenenien ) Nuplija ( Nafplio ), Kutira ( Kythera ), Weleja ( Elis ). The place Amukla ( Amyklai ), a few kilometers south of Sparta, was removed from this list. The reason is unclear.

However, the simultaneous mention of Danuna in the area of the Levant contradicts a direct derivation of the mainland Greek Danaans in connection with the attacks of the Sea Peoples, which is why possible equivalences were controversially discussed.