The Lukka are a people that are mentioned in some ancient texts, but rarely found in more than just a list.  From Pritchard, a translation is given of a Hittite prayer.  In this prayer the Hittites say �Lukka country� (Pritchard 1969: 396) and tell how they denounce the Hittite deities.  Egyptian texts from Ramsses II and Merneptah, have poems from the Battle of Kadesh and the Great Karnak Inscriptions.  These both brag about the greatness of the pharaoh over the smaller attacking peoples, like the Lukka.  The more modern sources from Bryce, Barnett, and Drews, give scholars interpretations on the Lukka and their relation to the world around them at that time. 

There is no clear evidence of where exactly the Lukka (Lycians) lands were but scholars have proposed some possibilities.  One theory is that the Lukka resided in western Anatolia, in western Caria.  According to the Ugarit tablets, there are writings form the Ugarit king to the king of Alasyia, stating that he will send a fleet to the coast of Lukka to defend the pass from the Aegean to the Mediterranean  (Bryce 1986:6, 7).  Their territory went to the coast, but it�s unclear if it�s the Aegean or Mediterranean coast.  These Lukka lands are also referred to as the Xanthos Valley (Bryce 1986:100). 

The Lycians had a series of kingdoms, called Arzawa lands, which were run by the Hittites (Bryce 1986:3).  These kingdoms had no real political power though, for there is no evidence of any treaties with the Hittites, nor is any Lukka king named (Bryce 1986:4). 

According to Hittite texts the Lukka were a rebellious people and easily swayed by  foreign influences.  These Hittite texts state that the Lukka are sea-goers.  They made yearly attacks on the King of Alasiya and his lands by sea, and did so effectively, and so were considered pirates in this way. The Amarna letters gives us an example of a letter from the Alasiyan king to the Pharaoh Akhenaton.  These letters ask for Egyptian aid, and were also written to re-assure Akhenaton that they were not siding with these Lukka people.  During the mid 15th century, early in the New Kingdom, Lukka was part of an alliance against the Hittites with 22 other countries, called the Assuwan Confederacy, but were defeated by the Hittite king, Tudhaliya I (Bryce 1986:4-6; 1993:128-129).  In a Hittite prayer, the Lukka are referred to as denouncing the Hittite sun goddess of Arinna (Pritchard 1969: 396).  In this same prayer, the Lukka are said to be attacking the Hatti land, along with other peoples, and to be destroying it (Pritchard 1969: 396).  These examples just further prove that the Lukka were in the area and were attacking lands and had some sort of power. 

Egyptian sources too mention the Lukka peoples.  From the time of Ramesses II, a poem from the battle of Kadesh, mentions the Lukka as being an ally of the defeated prince of Kheta (Breasted 1906: 138).  Another text that gives a more descriptive view of the Lukka comes from the reign of Merneptah, and his Great Karnak Inscription (Breasted 1906: 243).  It accounts his fifth year of reign, in 1208 BC, when a Libyan King, Meryre, attacked the western Delta.  This Libyan king brought with him a large army, which included the Lukka people (Drew 1993: 19, Breasted 1906: 580).  The actual inscription tells about Merneptah�s great victory over these invaders who were attacking Egypt (Breasted 1906: 243). There are numbers given to the casualties of this battle, and the supposed number is 200 for the Lukka, which is very small in comparison to the 6,539 Libyans killed (Drews 1995: 49).  The Lukka were seen as a part of a northern sea-borne alliance with the Libyans (Barnett 1975: 366, Drews 1995: 49).  Barnett (1975: 366) notes that though there are many drawing inscriptions of Sea Peoples�, that none exist of the Lukka.  The Great Karnak inscription also notes that these sea peoples brought families over with them (Breasted 1906: 243), giving a sense that these people didn�t just come over to attack but to stay. 

The Lukka had their own language, which probably was a descendant of Luwian and related to Hittite, with some Greek influence in the letter forms and sound (Barnett 1975:362 and Bryce 1986: 58; 1993:129).  The language only lasted 170 years, from 500BCE to 330BCE.  It is thought that the language died because of the more commonly used Greek and Aramaic, many inscriptions from the Lukka are found written in these tongues too (Bryce 1986:51, 53, 54).   There are very few Lukka inscriptions, and are only found on stone, coins, graffiti or inscriptions on ceramic and metal artifacts (Bryce 1986:42).  Scholars believe that only certain specialists could write.  Many of the burials found have very specific instructions on them.  They list such things as who can be buried here, who the tomb owner is, how violators would be punished if they tried to bury someone who didn�t belong, and more (Bryce 1986:116). 

The Lukka didn�t seem to have a distinct area to themselves, but were mainly in western Anatolia. They were scatterers too, going into another areas of Anatolia, and over time broke down the rule of the Hittites, due to numerous raids just warring down the system (Bryce 1993:130). 

Primary Sources

�Poem on the Battle of Kadesh� 305-313,  Ramesses II
�Great Karnak Inscription�  572-592,  Merneptah
Breasted, J. H. 
   1906    Ancient Records of Egypt. Vol. III. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

�Plague Prayers of Mursilis�  A1-11, b,  Mursilis
Pritchard, J. B.
   1969    Ancient Near Eastern Texts. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 

Secondary Sources

Barnett, R. D.
   1975   The Sea Peoples. Pp. 362-366 in The Cambridge Ancient History, vol. II, part 2, ed. 
              J. B. Bury, S. A. Cook, F. E. Adcock. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 
             Refers to many different sea peoples and their contact with Egypt and Anatolia.  Also tells about the Philistines during the reign of  Ramesses III.

Bryce, T. 
   1993    Lukka Revisited. Journal of Near Eastern Studies 51: 121-130. 
               Discusses Lukka relations to other regions (like Miletus) and where they inhabited.

Bryce, T., & Zahle, J. 
   1986    The Lycians vol. 1. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press: Copenhagen. 
               Covers the Lycians and where they lived, their history, language, culture, cults, and their language.

Drews, R.
   1995     The End of the Bronze Age: Changes in Warfare and the Catastrophe CA.1200 B.C. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 
                A description of the Egyptian evidence on the Sea Peoples.