Kurunta (

Cuneiform Cuneiform is a logo- syllabic script that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Middle East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. It is named for the characteristic wedge- ...

: ) was younger son of the early 13th century BC Hittite king

Muwatalli II :''See also Muwatalli I'' Muwatalli II (also Muwatallis, or Muwatallish) was a king of the New Kingdom of the Hittite empire c. 1295–1282 (middle chronology) and 1295–1272 BC in the short chronology. Biography He was the eldest son of Murs ...

and cousin of

Tudhaliya IV Tudhaliya is the name of several Hittite kings: *Tudhaliya (also Tudhaliya I) is a hypothetic pre-Empire king of the Hittites. He would have reigned in the late 17th century BC (short chronology). Forlanini (1993) conjectures that this king corre ...

. Kurunta was thereby a Hittite prince and king of Tarhuntassa country. It has been suggested that he may have captured the Hittite capital for a very short time during the reign of the Hittite king Tuthaliya IV and declared himself a great king.

Name

His Luwian name ''Kurunta'' was after one of the patron gods in the Hittite pantheon. As is customary for late Hittite princes, the Kurunta had also a Hurrian name ''Ulmi-Teššup'' (spelled also''Ulmi-Teshup"''). The names of the gods and the monarchs are derived from a

Proto-Indo-European Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. Its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-European languages. No direct record of Proto-Indo ...

root ''*ker-'', meaning 'head', 'horn'. In the Anatolian branch, the root originated Hittite ''kara=war-'' and

Cuneiform Luwian Luwian (), sometimes known as Luvian or Luish, is an ancient language, or group of languages, within the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family. The ethnonym Luwian comes from ''Luwiya'' (also spelled ''Luwia'' or ''Luvia'') � ...

''zarwaniya'' ('pertaining to horn').

Life

Most of the information about Kurunta is known from two treaties concluded between Hittite state and kingdom of Tarhuntassa. His name is also mentioned in the document known as the Tawagalawa Letter, various seals, and a rock inscription. According to these documents, Muwatalli gave his son Kurunta to the care of his brother Hattusili III at a young age and Kurunta grew up with the sons of Hattusili. After the death of his father, Kurunta's elder brother Murshili III (Urhi-Tesup) took the throne. A significant event in Muwatalli's reign, which probably influenced the later course of Kurunta's life, was his transfer of the Hittite court to Tarhuntassa in south-central

Anatolia Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...

. However, a few years later, when Murshili III and his uncle Hattusili III began a struggle for the throne, Kurunta supported Hattusili. When Hattusili III ascended the throne, he rewarded Kurunta by appointing him vassal king over the city and country of Tarhuntassa in the south of central Anatolia. Tarhuntassa had already served as the Hittite administrative centre during the reign of Kurunta's father Muvatalli II, but after Muvatalli's death the capital was moved back to Hattusa. In that treaty he bore the name Ulmi-Tessup. However, most of the territory under Tarhuntassa's nominal sway had fallen into the hands of

Lukka The term Lukka lands (sometimes Luqqa lands), in Hittite language texts from the 2nd millennium BC, is a collective term for states formed by the Lukka people in south-west Anatolia (modern-day Turkey). The Lukka were never subjugated long-term by ...

n warriors acting with support from

Ahhiyawa The Achaeans (; grc, Ἀχαιοί ''Akhaioí,'' "the Achaeans" or "of Achaea") is one of the names in Homer which is used to refer to the Greeks collectively. The term "Achaean" is believed to be related to the Hittite term Ahhiyawa and t ...

. Kurunta apparently spent all of Hattusili's reign slowly reconquering the lost territory. A bronze tablet found in

Hattusa Hattusa (also Ḫattuša or Hattusas ; Hittite: URU''Ḫa-at-tu-ša'', Turkish: Hattuşaş , Hattic: Hattush) was the capital of the Hittite Empire in the late Bronze Age. Its ruins lie near modern Boğazkale, Turkey, within the great loop of ...

records a treaty between

and Kurunta, wherein Tudhaliya re-grants Kurunta authority over Tarhuntassa. At the time the treaty was sealed, it is clear that Kurunta was still actively reconquering the west, where the city Parha (Classical

Perge Perga or Perge ( Hittite: ''Parha'', el, Πέργη ''Perge'', tr, Perge) was originally an ancient Lycian settlement that later became a Greek city in Pamphylia. It was the capital of the Roman province of Pamphylia Secunda, now located i ...

Pamphylia Pamphylia (; grc, Παμφυλία, ''Pamphylía'') was a region in the south of Asia Minor, between Lycia and Cilicia, extending from the Mediterranean to Mount Taurus (all in modern-day Antalya province, Turkey). It was bounded on the north b ...

) was expected to fall into his hands. For modern scholarship, this treaty is very important, as it has been used to resolve many of the disputes about west Anatolian geography. Further, it is in a state of near perfect preservation, making it a rare and valuable artifact. Ultimately, Kurunta does not appear to have been content with his fiefdom, and at some point he began using the title of 'Great King' on his seals and on a rock inscription at Hatip, just outside Konya. The seals were found in Hattusa itself, and the bronze tablet was intentionally buried under a paved area near the great southern

Sphinx A sphinx ( , grc, σφίγξ , Boeotian: , plural sphinxes or sphinges) is a mythical creature with the head of a human, the body of a lion, and the wings of a falcon. In Greek tradition, the sphinx has the head of a woman, the haunches of ...

Gate, suggesting some severe breach between the two lands. The general supposition is that Kurunta usurped the throne from Tudhaliya or his successor

Arnuwanda III Arnuwanda III was the penultimate king of the Hittite empire (New Kingdom) c. 1215–1210 BC (middle chronology) or c. 1209–1207 BC (short chronology). Family Arnuwanda was a son of Tudhaliya IV and grandson of Hattusili III and Puduhepa. He ...

, although there is no agreement on the course of events. It has also been suggested, for instance, that Kurunta simply declared independence from the Hittite Great Kings, and that Tarhuntassa was then able to maintain that independence for some time. A Hieroglyphic Luwian inscription on a wall of the southern acropolis of Hattusa mentioned an attack by Suppiluliuma II, son of Tudhaliya IV, on Tarhuntassa. At this time Tarhuntassa likely was ruled by a certain great king known as Hartapu, son of the great king Mursili. This Hartapu is thought to be the son of Mursili III and thus to be the nephew of Kurunta.Trevor Bryce: ''The World of the Neo-Hittite Kingdoms: A Political and Military History''. Oxford, New York 2012, p. 21 f., 29, 145.

Ulmi-Tessup and Kurunta

There has been scholarly debate about whether Ulmi-Tessup and Kurunta were the same person. Comparisons between the Ulmi-Tessup treaty and the Kurunta treaty have led some scholars to conclude they are the same person, and others to conclude that they are different. For instance, the later treaty between Tudhaliya and Kurunta mentions that in a former treaty, Hattusili had demanded that Kurunta marry a woman of queen Pudu-Hepa's choice; Tudhaliya then revoked that demand. This requirement is not found in the Ulmi-Tessup's treaty, although the beginning of that treaty is missing.

Notes

References

*Bryce, Trevor. The Kingdom of the Hittites. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2005. 270-321.

External links