Linear B texts from Mycenaean Greece identified it as a region within reach of Pylos associated with levies of rowers,[16] suggesting a location separated by water from the Peloponnese.

Egyptian records mention a region called isy[15] and an Assuwan "chief" and "prince" providing supplies to Thutmose III from 1445-1439 BC during his military campaigns against Nuhašše in modern Syria, including copper, lead, lapis lazuli, ivory, wood and horses.

[3] Most of our knowledge comes from the Annals of Tudḫaliya, which gives a detailed account of a rebellion by a league of towns in the aftermath of a Hittite campaign against Arzawan controlled territories west of the Maraššantiya.

[10][28][12] But when I turned back to Hattusa, then against me these lands declared war: [—]lugga, Kispuwa, Unaliya, [—], Dura, Halluwa, Huwallusiya, Karakisa, Dunda, Adadura, Parista, [—], [—]waa, Warsiya, Kuruppiya, [—]luissa, Alatra, Mount Pahurina, Pasuhalta, [—], Wilusiya, Taruisa.

[29] Cline dates this rebellion to circa 1430 BC[10] and Bryce describes it as "the first major [Hittite] venture to the west" which was "not carried out with the aim to impose authority on the western border, but just to secure it.

"[30] The annals further detail the capture of an Assuwan king named Piyama-dKAL,[31] the establishment of a client state under his son Kukkuli[32] and a second rebellion[33]after which "the coalition of Assuwa was destroyed".

[40] Archaeology at Acemhöyük has confirmed the remains of central Anatolian, Mesopotamian and north Syrian pottery - as well as traces of monumental structures - dated 2659 to 2157 BC,[41] providing a plausible terminus a quo for the Luwian takeover of the region.

[29][44] By 1650 BC everything west of Purushanda was regarded as the unconquered (and not worth conquering) land of Luwiya,[45][46] "an Old Hittite ethno-linguistic term referring to the area where Luwian was spoken.

[49] This suggests an extensive colonization of the land of Luwiya by a non-Luwian peoples by the turn of the sixteenth century BC - Gander focuses on Hurrian[49] Yakubovich says Carian[50] and Cline implies Ahhiyawan[3] - in the wake of prior Luwian westward migration.

[15] As a result of this contact the Luwian language and culture went through a profound metamorphosis,[58][15] - and spread inland along the Hermos and Maeander river valleys into classical Pisidia and beyond:[29][59][60] "Extension of the Lower land further to the southwest would have brought Hittite territory in close proximity to the region which came to be called Arzawa, thus creating the potential for border disputes and cross border raids of the kind allied to in a number of treaties which Hittite kings subsequently drew up with their immediate neighbors.

"[46] By the 1430s BC the Hittites perceived a threat from this unfamiliar mixture of different political, social, cultural and linguistic groups amongst the small entities and independent polities[61][62][63] in the land of Luwiya and launched a preemptive strike.

"[29] ‣"...the province of Assuwa...is located in the Hermos valley, as much as four toponyms featuring in the list with bearing on the blanket term Assuwian League can positively be situated in the realm of Arzawa.

"[49] ‣"For the identification of Dura with classical Tyrrha and modern Tire(h) along the southern bank of the river late called Kaystros, see Freu (208)b...[15] ‣"...not attested anywhere else.