Tunna, also Dunna or Atuna, was an ancient

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 ...

n city. In

classical antiquity Classical antiquity (also the classical era, classical period or classical age) is the period of cultural history between the 8th century BC and the 5th century AD centred on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ...

Tunna was known as Tynna. Today it is known as Porsuk Hüyük or Zeyve Höyük.

Bronze Age

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...

, Tunna or Dunna was a city under Hittite rule. The major deity of Tunna was the goddess Ḫallara. Additionally, the

storm god A weather god or goddess, also frequently known as a storm god or goddess, is a deity in mythology associated with weather phenomena such as thunder, snow, lightning, rain, wind, storms, tornadoes, and hurricanes. Should they only be in charge of ...

with the epitheton ''piḫaššašši'' was also venerated at Tunna.

Iron Age

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostl ...

, the city of Tunna was part of a city state called Atuna by the

Assyria Assyria ( Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , romanized: ''māt Aššur''; syc, ܐܬܘܪ, ʾāthor) was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization which existed as a city-state at times controlling regional territories in the indigenous lands of the ...

ns. It is sometimes doubted Atuna really is identical with Tunna or if it lay far more north, right south of the

Halys river Halys may refer to: * Health-adjusted life years (HALYs), a type of disability-adjusted life year which are used in attempts to quantify the burden of disease or disability in populations * Halys River, a western name for the Kızılırmak River (T ...

. Doubtlessly, Atuna lay within the region called Tabal by the Assyrians, not to confuse with the state of

Tabal Tabal (c.f. biblical ''Tubal''; Assyrian: 𒋫𒁄) was a Luwian speaking Neo-Hittite kingdom (and/or collection of kingdoms) of South Central Anatolia during the Iron Age. According to archaeologist Kurt Bittel, references to Tabal first appeare ...

which itself was located in the Tabal region and gave its name to the larger region. Three kings of Tunna are known: Ušḫitti, Ashwis(i), and Kurti.

Ušḫitti

Ušḫitti was a king of Tunna ruling ca. 740 BC. He is only known from Assyrian sources. Ušḫitti of Tunna was tributary to the Assyrian king

Tiglath-Pileser III Tiglath-Pileser III ( Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , meaning "my trust belongs to the son of Ešarra"), was the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 745 BC to his death in 727. One of the most prominent and historically significant Assyrian kings, T ...

in 738 and 732 BC.

Ashwis(i)

Ashwisi is only mentioned in the

Hieroglyphic Luwian Hieroglyphic Luwian (''luwili'') is a variant of the Luwian language, recorded in official and royal seals and a small number of monumental inscriptions. It is written in a hieroglyphic script known as Anatolian hieroglyphs. A decipherment was pr ...

inscription of Bohça, naming him the father of the succeeding king of Tunna, Kurti. It is not known if Ashwis(i) himself was king. However, based on the inscription of his son Kurti he can be dated to the 3rd quarter of the 8th century BC. Ashwis(i) may or may not be identical with Ušḫitti mentioned in Assyrian sources.

Kurti

Kurti was a king of Tunna mentioned in both Hieroglyphic Luwian and Assyrian sources. He ruled from 732 or at least 718 to 713 BC. In 718 BC, the territory of Tunna was enlarged. The Assyrian king Sargon II gave the Neo-Hittite state of Šinuḫtu to Kurti of Atuna after deporting Kiyakiya (Assyrian Kiakki), the king of Šinuḫtu, who withheld tribute from the Assyrians and conspired with king Mita of Muški (

Midas Midas (; grc-gre, Μίδας) was the name of a king in Phrygia with whom several myths became associated, as well as two later members of the Phrygian royal house. The most famous King Midas is popularly remembered in Greek mythology for his ...

of Phrygia). In 713 BC, Kurti himself conspired with Mita of Muški but confronted with the fate of Ambaris, king of Tabal, who conspired with

Urartu Urartu (; Assyrian: ',Eberhard Schrader, ''The Cuneiform inscriptions and the Old Testament'' (1885), p. 65. Babylonian: ''Urashtu'', he, אֲרָרָט ''Ararat'') is a geographical region and Iron Age kingdom also known as the Kingdom of V ...

and Muški and therefore was deported to Assyria by Sargon II, Kurti changed sides to Assyria again. Kurti himself left a Hieroglyphic Luwian inscription in Bohça. The inscription informs about Kurti's hunting success and how he was favored by the storm god Tarḫunza and by the stag god

Runtiya __NOTOC__ Runtiya was the Luwian god of the hunt, who had a close connection with deer. He was among the most important gods of the Luwians. Name The name was written in the Luwian cuneiform of the Bronze Age as , which can be read as *Runtiya ...

, who gave territories and wild animals to him. The inscription of Bohça may or may not have been used as a mark of Kurti's hunting territory. In 2017, Zsolt Simon argued that the Luwian name Kurti (Kurtis) reflects the name ''Gordios'', and that this name was borrowed from

Phrygian language The Phrygian language () was the Indo-European language of the Phrygians, spoken in Anatolia (modern Turkey), during classical antiquity (c. 8th century BC to 5th century AD). Phrygian ethno-linguistic homogeneity is debatable. Ancient Greek aut ...

into the Luwian, and not the other way around, as proposed by other scholars. So Kurti may have belonged to the Phrygian ethnicity.Zsolt Simon (2017)
Kurtis: A Phrygian Name in the Neo-Hittite World.
News from the Lands of the Hittites. Scientific Journal for Anatolian Research 1 (2017) 113-118

Literature

* Piotr Taracha: ''Religions of Second Millennium Anatolia''. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2009. * Trevor Bryce: ''The World of the Neo-Hittite Kingdoms: A Political and Military History''. Oxford University Press: Oxford, New York 2012. * Christian Marek, Peter Frei: ''Geschichte Kleinasiens in der Antike''. Verlag C.H.Beck, Munich 2010. * Annick Payne: ''Iron Age Hieroglyphic Luwian Inscriptions''. Society of Biblical Literature, Atlanta 2012. * Gwendolyn Leick: ''Who's Who in the Ancient Near East''. Routledge, London 1999, 2002.

References

{{coord, 37.5144, N, 34.5794, E, source:wikidata, display=title Hittite cities Syro-Hittite states