Recorded Missile Strike...14th century BC

There is a well documented missile strike recorded in the Annals of Mursilis II in the 3rd year of his 10 year long campaign, the strike was against the City of Apasas, which went on to become the City of Ephesus in Western Anatolia.

Then as I marched, when I reached Mt. Lawasa, the awesome Tarhunnas, my lord, manifested his grace : he hurled a thunderbolt . My army beheld the thunderbolt, the land of Arzawa saw it: the thunderbolt passed and it struck the land of Arzawa. It hit Apasas

This isn't a mythological account, it is seriously considered that the City was struck, that the power of that land was weakened aiding the advance of the Hittite King;

What exactly appeared in the sky above the Hittite army as it advanced on Arzawa? Opinion is divided between a thunderbolt and a meteorite . Taking the regional aspect into account – the place where Mursili II witnessed the missile is over four hundred kilometres from Ephesus, where the object, or part of it,landed (Calder/Bean 1958) – the event should be identified as the transit of a meteorite.

Assuming that the untoward incident noted in the Annals of Mursili II was the passing of a meteorite over Anatolia, local people would have experienced a startling sequence of visual and aural phenomena: the sudden appearance of a blazing fireball in the sky, explosions like loud thunderclaps, gusts of shock waves and, for those beneath the pathway of the missile, a surging heat wave.Finally, pieces of rock, most of them small, but some substantial, would have tumbled down from the heavens. One of the latter kind, it seems, fell on Ephesus.

Uhha-ziti King of Arzawa

Most experts then consider the missile a meteorite, so consider the context, the Hittites are marching on the land under the inspiration of their principle Deity the storm God Tarhunnas and he is assisting their campaign with strikes from Heaven, there is previous for this in that the Sumerian equivalent of the storm God, Ninurta, had destroyed the power of the Akkadians in around 2,200 BC seemingly through the usage of meteorites and destroyed an entire mountain for good measure, see Sumerian accounts of devasting meteorite impact

The Hittite term which above was translated as thunderbolt is Kalim sana;

When I marched and reached Mount Lawasa, the strong Tarhunta, my lord, manifested his Justice: threw a kalmi Sana: my army saw the kalmi Sana and saw him also the country Arzawa. The kalmi Sana went and struck the country of Arzawa, struck Apasa

Direct translations of the term suggest either liquid fire, or fire that liquefies, ie melts, the kalmi Sana relating to the weapon of the storm God.



The overall campaign context is interesting, Arzawa

It was the successor state of the Assuwa league, which also included parts of western Anatolia, but was conquered by the Hittites in c. 1400 BCE. Arzawa was the western neighbour and rival of the Middle and New Hittite Kingdoms. On the other hand, it was in close contact with the Ahhiyawa of the Hittite texts, which corresponds to the Achaeans of Mycenaean Greece

The zenith of the kingdom was during the 15th and 14th centuries BC. The Hittites were then weakened, and Arzawa was an ally of Egypt. This alliance is recorded in the correspondence between the Arzawan ruler Tarhundaradu and the Pharaoh Amenophis III called the Arzawa letters,

Mursilis II during his 10 year campaign was not only aided by the Storm God but also the Sun Goddess and took as his own personal banner that of the Sun God,

O Sungoddess of Arinna, my lady, the surrounding enemy lands which have called me a child, and they have made small of me, secondly they have made to attack your borders. O Sungoddess of Arinna, my lady, stand with me: forward and smite the afore-mentioned surrounding enemy lands!"

And the Sungoddess of Arinna, my lady, heard my word, and she stood with me, and while I sat on my father's throne, I conquered these surrounding enemy lands in ten years, and I destroyed them.

Because of this he was particularly troubled by a pair of solar eclipses recorded in the years 1308 and 1312 BC Mursili's eclipses, in his annals there was deliberation whether the omen had been against his wife who he thought had been practising black magic against him, or himself, his next wife insisted it was him...

Now the queen repeatedly cursed me, my wife and my son in front of the goddess Ishara and sacrificed against us. Then my wife died because of this…

When I was marching toward the land Azzi -now the Sun-god had made an omen-but the queen acted with malice and repeatedly said:

"That omen which the Sun-god made-did it concern the king's wife? Did it not rather concern the king himself?

So anyway it was all happening, meteoroite strikes and solar eclipses and Mursili II wondering what to make of it all.

a reply to: Kantzveldt

Yet more proof that the gods flew around in spacecraft (chariots), and wielded technology that the ancestors couldn't fathom.

Terribly misleading headline worthy of the sensationalist press. I'd expect such a thing from National Enquirer. Otherwise a good read.

Just saying, a "thunderbolt" appears far different than a 'missile'.

Lightening would also appear far different than a 'shooting star', their term for meteorites back then.

a reply to: _BoneZ_

It's interesting within the context of an entirely historical account, the strike was from the direction of Hatti toward Arzawa, so passed over the army before striking the City, mentioned in a second account;

As I reached the R. Sehiriya, the awesome Tarhunnas, my lord, manifested (his) grace: he hurled a thunderbolt. The land of Hatti saw it from behind, and the land of Arzawa saw it from the front. The thunderbolt itself hastened, and it struck Apasas, the city of Uhhazitis,

a reply to: schuyler

Not my term the one used by historians, a missile/bolide/projectile, and they weren't trying to be sensational.

What exactly appeared in the sky above the Hittite army as it advanced on Arzawa? Opinion is divided between a thunderbolt and a meteorite . Taking the regional aspect into account – the place where Mursili II witnessed the missile is over four hundred kilometres from Ephesus, where the object, or part of it,landed (Calder/Bean 1958) – the event should be identified as the transit of a meteorite.

a reply to: intrptr

The Hittite term is kalmi Sana and i suggested how that might be translated.

originally posted by: Kantzveldt
a reply to: _BoneZ_

Not my term the one used by historians, a missile/bolide/projectile, and they weren't trying to be sensational.

What exactly appeared in the sky above the Hittite army as it advanced on Arzawa? Opinion is divided between a thunderbolt and a meteorite . Taking the regional aspect into account – the place where Mursili II witnessed the missile is over four hundred kilometres from Ephesus, where the object, or part of it,landed (Calder/Bean 1958) – the event should be identified as the transit of a meteorite.

Yes, it is. Take responsibility. They used three terms as shown in the quote you provided: thunderbolt, meteorite, and missile. You are the one who chose to use "missile" and add "strike" to make it even more misleading.

a reply to: schuyler

Oh right so it's irresponsible to use the same term as the historians and the term strike when something has been struck, none of the terms they used are literal translation, i could have gone with kalmi Sana but few around here speak Hittite i would imagine, so i used contemporary, might have been a little mischievous triggering also but i expect people will survive.

a reply to: Kantzveldt

Your post got me thinking about a vid newearth had posted that might help link to old with the new and the devastation that occurred at that (?) time . Dating the past is always dicey imo but getting it into the neighborhood is kind of fun and exciting .

Watching the whole thing might link the past with the new because of the architecture design and there may be some tid bits in the folk lore . "Not only Sodom and Gomorrah... Ancient star wars in Uzbekistan, fulgurites, tektites...

a reply to: the2ofusr1

Yes i like that video, linked to it on my Sumerian meteorite thread, and i think she'd like the example i've brought to attention here as it contains all the elements she's interested in, a very little known example too.

a reply to: Kantzveldt
Wonderful food for thought as always, and well sourced.

I always find it remarkable how religious people will ascribe divination to anything that happens which supports their beliefs. Likewise, when something that confronts the notion occurs, they will dismiss it. I should like to believe this superstitious behavior is confined to ancient peoples, but I see it around the globe every day. It should not be acceptable in an age where science and magic are no longer the same thing. Yet we have modern disasters with divine [lack of] reasoning.

originally posted by: schuyler
Terribly misleading headline worthy of the sensationalist press.

Oh, come now. She did not use the word in an incorrect manner. Besides, our own government claimed in the same fashion that a "missile" hit the Pentagon on 9/11:

a reply to: SargonThrall

I find it perfectly understandable really, like i said if you're marching to conquer a City and consider that your Gods go before you and with you, as they did;

The Sungoddess of Arinna, my lady, the awesome Tarhunnas, my lord, Mezzullas, and all all the gods aided me (lit.: they fore-ran, preceded), and I smote Piyama-Kurundas, the son of Uhhazitis, together with his troops (and) his horse(-troop)s, and I defeated him.

Then if a strike occurs when you're still 400 kilometres away that not only impacts the city but directly injures their King breaking his knee and making him sick, unable to do battle, i'm not sure what other conclusion they could have drawn, it would be like Hilary's house being struck on November 7th, what conclusions would the Americans draw?....probably the right one, but not going to happen because they don't have proper Gods.

a reply to: Kantzveldt
Shamash is a god of Justice, I doubt that he favors Clinton.
I also doubt that Nabu favors Trump (burn!).

a reply to: SargonThrall

We could in fact consider that the basis of science is repeatabilty, it was held that the storm God Ninurta had come up with the goods as far as sorting out the Akkadians on behalf of the Sumerians as i considered here, but the seal evidence i utilized there is Mitanni, seemingly this had really impressed them and may go some way to explaining why the storm God had become the principle Deity of the Mitanni, Hurrians and Hittites, based upon the event circa 2,200 BC.

So when the Hittite storm God had repeated the act circa 1,320 BC that had to be case proven, Tarhunnas was indeed awesome!

Sometimes the Hurrians considered Ninurta as their storm God Tessub's vizier, which was a bit cheeky.

a reply to: Kantzveldt
I heard it may have been a Russian sourced BUK missile......
From the accounts, seems like this one did not leave a smoke trail either.....

a reply to: schuyler

You do realize that the word "missile" is used to describe a projectile, not just modern missiles....right?

originally posted by: Kantzveldt

This isn't a mythological account, it is seriously considered that the City was struck, that the power of that land was weakened aiding the advance of the Hittite King;

Au contraire, this is clearly a mythological account. Basically, while Mursilis and his armies were marching on Arzawa a lightening bolt (the word Thunderbolt has always seemed wrong to me) struck the city of Apasas, as a follower of Tarhunta Mursilis wrongly attributed the natural event as ordinance from.his God. End of story...

a reply to: djz3ro

It's an historical account given in terms of their cultural frame of reference, the point being they're not inventing but describing actual events, the annals all check out in terms of the historical context , the solar eclipses related and one should assume the supposed meteorite strike.

a reply to: Kantzveldt

This should be regarded as historiography, and not history. Historiography is the study of historical writing. We can never be certain of any actual historical events when all we have to go by is the ancient writings of those who lived in that period, and may have tainted factual events with their own bias. For instance, with Homer's Illiad, we might speculate a city named Troy existed and waged a war with the Greeks, as Homer wrote, but how likely was it that the Gods actually joined in the battles alongside men, as Homer also wrote?

In the case of Mursulis, it may have been a meteor strike or a lightening strike against the opposing city, but given the writer's hyperbole, it would be foolish to make a claim either way based solely on Mursulis' writings alone. IIRC modern historiographer's deduction is that it must be a meteorite as the distance was too far for lightening to be seen. The problem still remains however that the event happened just as described, without bias from Mursulis. It may have been lightening at a much more local level but greatly elaborated upon.

There are 2 possibilities here:
1 A natural event was written down as it happened but with embellishments.
2 A historical event was written down exactly as it happened.

If you could even see a bolt of lightning 250 miles away, you would have to be looking at it at the exact second it happened. But that bolt would not pass over the armies and go directly to the city. A meteorite could do this.
But this brings up the whole COINCIDENCE thing.

The idea that a meteorite just happens to hit the very city they are attacking is just downright stupid. To believe in that coincidence is a waste of everyone’s time.

The only way to accept that a natural meteorite did hit the city is that Mursilis, or one of his people, actually saw this happen and then decided to attack the city. He took advantage of a natural happening right when it occurred. Or more likely within a week of its occurrence, meaning he was told about and THEN acted on it.

Option #1: A natural event.
Mursilis credited his God for making the event happen. And with embellishments, this was how it was passed down thru history.

Even this requires coincidence in that the meteor hit this small city, instead of hitting all the miles and miles of empty land around the city. Not impossible, but the percentages are against it.

This leaves us with the other choice.

Option #2: An Ancient Astronaut event.
You recall how Semjaza and his crew taught humans how to make weapons. All thru written ancient history we see the Gods helping or destroying humans. The different Gods seemed to have their own favorite human groups and they use these humans to battle other groups of humans.

Taken literally, what we have here is a human army being superseded by its *God* who dealt the city a technological blow before the Gods own human army attacked it. This is the simplest and most logical choice that rules out all coincidence. It is also one that merits historical significance. The ancients who could write were the smartest people of their time. They did not waste time writing out “Alice in Wonderland”. They wrote out important, spiritually significant history. What modern humans, unaware of the reality of ancient so-called gods, have shrouded in Myth.

If this was the only time in history this happened then you could say i am full of begonias and everyone would believe you. But it is not the only event of its kind, this happened many times in history and all with the same conclusion.

“The Gods made me do it.”

a reply to: Blackmarketeer

Technically i suppose but it was written as a historical account, there is a paper here that considers the case for a comet which i think is most unlikely, but she does look at what was involved with the Hittite term kalmi-sana and finds the closest contextual usage relating to a length of burning wood, a burning brand, thus a fiery streak or length it might be considered