city state · Greece and the Aegean

Millawanda

1450 BCE – 1200 BCE (approx.) · capital Miletus

Bronze Age Miletus as named in Hittite texts, a coastal foothold of the Aegean Ahhiyawa on the Anatolian mainland and a flashpoint with the Hittites.

Origins

Excavations at Miletus show a Minoan-style settlement from c. 1900 BCE, followed after c. 1450 BCE by a town with Mycenaean pottery, tombs and customs. Most scholars identify this town with Millawanda, or Milawata, named in Hittite sources as a place under the influence of Ahhiyawa, the power of the Mycenaean Greeks.

Rule and society

The Tawagalawa letter of Hattusili III, c. 1250 BCE, names Atpa as the local ruler, son-in-law of the rebel Piyamaradu, who used Millawanda as a base for raids on Hittite lands. The town was a port linking the Aegean with western Anatolia, and the Hittite Mursili II had sacked it c. 1315 BCE during his wars with Arzawa.

Decline and legacy

The so-called Milawata letter, probably from Tudhaliya IV, shows the town had passed under Hittite control and a new border was being fixed. Miletus was destroyed c. 1200 BCE, then resettled by Ionian Greeks as the city-state Miletus.

Few sources survive for this state; details are uncertain.

Connections (2)

  • Millawanda was a vassal of Ahhiyawa1320 BCE – 1250 BCE
  • Millawanda was a vassal of Hittite Empire1250 BCE – 1200 BCE

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Cite this page
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Millawanda. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/millawanda
MLA
“Millawanda.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/millawanda. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Millawanda.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/millawanda.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Millawanda’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/millawanda (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻