Urhi-Teshub’s (step-?)brother Kurunta had remained loyal to
Hattusili and his son and successor Tudhaliya, and had been
given rule over the important appanage kingdom Tarhuntassa.
Previously, during the reign of Urhi-Teshub’s father Muwat-
talli, the city of Tarhuntassa had become the Hittite capital.
Urhi-Teshub shifted the capital back to Hattusa.
A hieroglyphic inscription found at Hatip near modern Konya
identifies Kurunta, son of Muwattalli, as a‘Great King’. Hatip
probably lay near Tarhuntassa’s northern border.
Three seal impressions found at Hattusa bear the name
Kurunta and call him a‘Great King’.
Hieroglyphic inscriptions found at three sites in south-central
Anatolia, and probably to be dated to this period, were
commissioned by a ruler called Hartapu. The inscriptions
identify this man as a‘Great King’and the‘son of Mursili’who
is also called a‘Great King’.^3
Mursili (III) was the official throne-name of Urhi-Teshub.
Hartapu’s father and Urhi-Teshub may thus be identical. If so,
Hartapu would have been a nephew of Kurunta.
We would therefore have a family-line of three rulers, Mursili
(Urhi-Teshub?), Kurunta (his son) and Hartapu (Kurunta’s
nephew) who all bore, or assumed, the title‘Great King’.
But Hattusili and his direct descendants Tudhaliya, Arnuwanda
(III) and Suppiluliuma (II) also bore this title.
Conventional wisdom is that only the supreme ruler of Hatti,
whose royal seat was in Hattusa, could call himself‘Great King’.
That applied to Hattusili and his heirs.
But at least two members of the collateral branch of the royal
family, based in Tarhuntassa, also claimed the status of‘Great
King’.
In the Südburg inscription, Suppiluliuma claims a successful
military campaign against a number of countries in southern
Anatolia, as far west as the Lukka lands. He also refers (we have
concluded) to the land and city of Tarhuntassa. But the passages
in which he does so are unclear. He certainly entered the land
and city, but we cannot be sure why. Was his intention to
conquer it, or did he enter it for some other reason?
