western Asia Minor. But meanwhile, let it be borne in mind that their
royal name Mita does not necessarily imply a connection between the
Mushki and Phrygia; for since the ethnic "Mitanni" of north Mesopotamia
means "Mita's men," that name must have long been domiciled much farther
east.

On the whole, whatever their later story, the truth about the Mushki,
who came down into Syria early in the twelfth century and retired to
Cappadocia some fifty years later after crossing swords with Assyria, is
probably this--that they were originally a mountain people from northern
Armenia or the Caucasus, distinct from the Hatti, and that, having
descended from the north-east in a primitive nomadic state into the seat
of an old culture possessed by an enfeebled race, they adopted the
latter's civilization as they conquered it and settled down. But
probably they did not fix themselves definitely in Cappadocia till the
blow struck by Tiglath Pileser had checked their lust of movement and
weakened their confidence of victory. In any case, the northern storms
had subsided by 1000 B.C., leaving Asia Minor, Armenia and Syria
parcelled among many princes.


SECTION 6. ASIA MINOR

Had one taken ship with Achaeans or Ionians for the western coast of
Anatolia in the year 1000, one would have expected to disembark at or
near some infant settlement of men, not natives by extraction, but newly
come from the sea and speaking Greek or another Aegean tongue. These men
had ventured so far to seize the rich lands at the mouths of the long
Anatolian valleys, from which their roving forefathers had been almost
entirely debarred by the provincial forces of some inland power,