Was There Any Mention of the Achaens in Hittite Texts?

By reading the tablets in Hittite archives, we see that the kings in the capital of the Hittite Empire, Hattusa, wanted to control all the countries in the South and West Anatolia either by means of war or treaties. Although they reached these goals to a large extent, a few kings in West Anatolia sometimes showed resistance. In these instances, the Hittite king had the situation under control by sending one of his generals and reinforced his authority in the region. It is in this context that we see many kingdoms in West Anatolia mentioned. Wilusija, meaning the Wilusa country is one of these kingdoms. Further from these kingdoms in the West, overseas, the Ahhija or the Ahhijawa Empire is located.

From what has been written, we understand that the king of this empire is an important person and at the level of the Hittite Great King. For a long time, researchers identify Ahhijawa with the Greek name Akhai(w)oi. Homeros often uses Akhaio to refer to the Greeks. According to this, Ahhijawa can be the Greek Empire, or probably the Big Mycenean Empire. Although it is philolologically problematic, a large majority of researchers now believe the identity of Ahhijawa-Akhai(w)oi. It is almost impossible for another overseas empire to exist in the West and Southwest besides the Myceneans in 2000 B. C. E. What is not for sure is whether the center of this aforementioned empire was located in the islands like Rhodes, in the mainland of Greece, in Mycenae, or Thebes.