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Kupanta-Kurunta (king of Arzawa)

This article is about king of Arzawa. For the similarly named king of Mira, see Kupanta-Kurunta.

Kupanta-Kurunta (or Kupanta-Kruntiya [1]) was the first recorded king of Arzawa, in the early 14th century BC.

Kupanta-Kurunta, the "man of Arzawa," is recorded as defeated by the Hittite joint great kings Tudḫaliya II and Arnuwanda I, but avoiding capture and retaining his territory.[2] Either subsequently or on an earlier occasion described retroactively in Hittite sources,[3] Kupanta-Kurunta was attacked by a restive Hittite vassal, Madduwatta of Zippašla, who acted without authorization from the Hittites. Kupanta-Kurunta defeated Madduwatta and invaded the latter's lands in turn, causing him to flee for his life and taking over his refuge Šalawašši.[4] When the Hittites came to Madduwatta's aid under the general Pišeni, Kupanta-Kurunta had to retreat, losing some of his booty, but the Hittites made no attempt to conquer Arzawa.[5] During the reign of Arnuwanda I, Madduwatta made an alliance with his erstwhile enemy, Kupanta-Kurunta, who married Madduwatta's daughter.[6] While doing so, Madduwatta assured the Hittite monarch of his loyalty, portraying his alliance with Kupanta-Kurunta as a ploy. If a Hittite text is to be taken literally, that Madduwatta "took the whole land of Arzawa for himself," he might have eliminated Kupanta-Kurunta in the end.[7]

A letter found at Šapinuwa (Ortaköy) was sent to a Hittite great king by a vassal named Uḫḫamuwa, reporting that a Kupanta-Kurunta, Tarḫunnaradu, and three sons of Kupanta-Kurunta, called Mašturi, Piyam-aradu, and Kupanta-zalma, convened at the town of Ḫappuriya.[8] While it is probable that the Hittite king in question was Tudḫaliya III, it is unclear whether the letter refers to the Kupanta-Kurunta who was an adversary of Tudḫaliya II and Arnuwanda I, or to any king of Arzawa at all.[9] An obscure Uḫḫa-zalma (or Ḫuḫḫa-zalma), who concluded a treaty with Arnuwanda I, has been posited as a possible successor of Kupanta-Kurunta.[10]

Arzawa remained a powerful adversary of the Hittite Kingdom for several generations, until reduced to the position of a Hittite vassal in the reign of the Hittite great king Muršili II.[11]

References

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  1. ^ Yakubovich 2008: 98.
  2. ^ Bryce 2005: 129; Freu 2007b: 109; Yakubovich 2008: 98.
  3. ^ Yakubovich 2008: 98.
  4. ^ Bryce 2005: 131-132; Freu 2007b: 109; Bryce 2009: 611.
  5. ^ Bryce 2005: 132; Yakubovich 2008: 98.
  6. ^ Bryce 2005: 134; Yakubovich 2008: 98-99.
  7. ^ Freu 2007b: 111-112; Yakubovich 2008: 99.
  8. ^ Yakubovich 2008: 107-108.
  9. ^ Yakubovich 2008: 108-109.
  10. ^ Freu 2007b: 132.
  11. ^ Bryce 2009: 74.

Bibliography

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  • Bryce, Trevor (2005), The Kingdom of the Hittites, Oxford.
  • Bryce, Trevor (2009), The Routledge Handbook of The People and Places of Ancient Western Asia, New York.
  • Freu, Jacques, and Michel Mazoyer (2007b), Les débuts du nouvel empire hittite, Paris.
  • Yakubovich, Ilya (2008), Sociolinguistics of the Luvian language, doctoral dissertation, University of Chicago. online
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