macedon - Mushki

Mushki

Tuesday, 11. August 2009, 18:01:11

Another storm, coming from the West and through the straits, burst upon Asia Minor in 1200 B.C. This cataclysm is known as the Thracian-Phrygian or "Sea-People's" invasion. The only known evidences of this catastrophe are found in the ruins of Troy, in the sudden interruption of the Hittite inscriptions, and a short record from the Pharaoh Rameses III (1200‑1168 B.C.), which reads, "People dwelling in the islands came forth . . . spread immediately. No nation whatsoever could resist their soldiers. All were devastated. They were marching towards Egypt, the flames of torches preceding them. . . ."

These invaders must have clashed with Assyria, whose military and commercial outposts at that period reached to the Euphrates. Recently discovered Assyrian inscriptions refer to certain tribes of the conquering army, among which were the Mosks or Musks. In 1170 B.C. the Muskayas captured from Assyria the countries known as Alze (Aghtznik) and Purukkuzi, to the east of the Euphrates. These were the Moschesº of the Greeks, a people in the Pontus Mountains lands, scattered through eastern Asia Minor, after the fall of the Hatti empire. This revolution in the political world was the result of a famine in southern Russia during the time of Assurdan I of Assyria (1192‑1157 B.C.), which compelled some of the population to emigrate to the southern side of the Black Sea; others were deported.

By the incursion of the Sea-Peoples, the frontier of Hither Asia was pushed from the Aegean and Adriatic Seas back to the Euphrates and the Tigris Rivers.
The Mushki state, one of those created east of Hatti after the latter's fall, with its center in Cappadocia, had, in the half century following 1075 B.C. or thereabouts, expanded its rule as far as the land of Alshe (Alze) and beyond, to p30the Lake of Van.
The terror they spread was still reechoing in man's memories in the days of the priest-prophet Ezekiel. He was one of the 8,000 Jews taken to Babylonia in the first exile, 597 B.C. In his Lamentations for Tyre, Ezekiel cites the Meshek (Mushki), together with other neighboring or related peoples.1

Later on, Sargon of Assyria (722‑705) tells in his inscriptions of victories over several nations, among which were the Moschi, under King Mita; "I gave my daughter to Ambaris (Ampalis?), King of Khilakku (Cilicia). He was unfaithful to me and allied himself with Ursana of Urartu and Mida of Mushki. They (Kusas?) captured my towns and districts in Tabal land . . . Mida sent me tributes. . . . He acknowledged the power of the great god Ashur."

The central location of the Mushki is identified by Forrer as Phrygia.
Within its approximate frontiers were Kummuch (Comagene), Millita (Melitene), Til-garium (Gurin), also Divrik, Akn and Arapkir, all west of the Euphrates. Tabal was west of Kummuch. Northwest of Tabal was Khilikku, which at that time included Mozacca-Mazhac (Caesarea). Phrygia was still farther west.

The Mushki were ethnically related to the Tabal, Gamer, Mada, Thorgoma and Ashkenaz (Tabal, Gimmerians, Mitanni, Togarma and Ashkuza-Scythians), all Indo-Europeans. The Armens claim to be the issue of Gamer, Torgom and Ashkenaz. The Mushki therefore had been in southwestern Armenia since the twelfth century B.C.; first as invaders, and then as an important part of the population, finally being absorbed in the Christian nation.

The same people or some of its tribes seem to have settled in other parts of Armenia or near by. The oldest record of a clash between Tiglat-Pileser I (1300 B.C.) and the Mushki was in southern Armenia. Rusas II of Urartu fought against the Mushki-ni on the west (although allied with them later against Assyria). Then, after some centuries, the Roman historian Pliny (23‑79 A.D.) mentions the "Moscheni" on the southern border of Armenia,a which designation properly fits into the name of the population of the southern province of Moks or Mokq, on the river Bohtan — Bit Moksaye in the Assyrian, Moxene in Latin. Marquartº locates the ancient land of Moschi as bordering on the Iberian (Georgian) district of Moshket. The last habitat of the Moschi-Mosches was in Goukarq, one of the northern provinces of Armenia.

As to their origin; Moschi is just another name for the Phrygs, who infiltrated Armenia as Phryg-Armens. It was against them that Rusas II of Urartu (685‑675), waged a war of defence which soon had to be directed against the Gimmers, too. King Mita of the Moschi, and Midas, the founder of the Phrygian kingdom, were one and the same person. In the East these people were called Muski, in the West they were known as Phrygs.

The Biblical story points to a close relationship between them and the Togarmah, Gamer and Ashkenaz. The Armenians have assumed the titles of the "House of Torgom" and the "Ashkenazi Nation." The traditional ancestor of the Armenians, Haik, was a son of Gomer, one of the six sons of Japheth. Ashkenaz, Riphath and Togarmah were the sons of Gomer (Gen., X, 2‑3).

The Author's Note:

1 Ezekiel XXVII, 13 and XXXVIII, 2‑6.

Thayer's Note:
a Pliny mentions the Moscheni on the southern border of Armenia: Pliny does mention the Moschi, but not as living specifically on the southern border of Armenia: in H. N. VI.13 he states that the Moschi live around the headwaters of the largest river of Colchis, now the Rioni River — and thus in what is now central Georgia, to the north of what the Romans called (Greater) Armenia, and to the west of the modern state; in VI.28‑29 Pliny writes that the Moscheni live in valleys adjoining Armenia; his reference to them in V.99 is much vaguer.

A History of Armenia
by Vahan M. Kurkjian
published by the
Armenian General Benevolent Union of America 1958

This is just example of that how some people give explain who were Sea People.

Who were the Sea People?

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