Volume 36, Issue 1

In Alalaḫ – modern Tell Atchana – four marriage contracts were found in the archaeological level IV (15 th century b. C.). Since these documents were published in 1953, several works have focused on them. Some of these studies have provided a better understanding of AlT 92. However, several problems remain with regard to the precise interpretation of it. The purpose of this work is to clarify some of the aspects of this document by using parallels from other marriage contracts of Late Bronze Age Syria (Emar, Ekalte and Ugarit). A brief survey of the other marriage contracts from Alalaḫ IV (AlT 91, AlT 93 and AlT 94) is also provided.

This article aims at showing how the juxtaposition of several manuscripts and oral stories that originated in different cultural and chronological layers formed the Hittite legend of Sargon’s expedition to Purušḫanda. Comparing the examples connected with the fall of Purušḫanda in the Hittite historical literature, it is possible to trace back the insertion of the city into the legend. In Hittite sources the conquest of Purušḫanda is evoked in the first lines of the proclamation of Telepinu (CTH 19) and in the historical fragments KBo 3.28 and KBo 3.46+ referring to the military campaigns of the first Hittite kings. The echo of this war is possibly reflected in the Hittite composition of the šar tamḫāri. In particular the choice of inserting the fall of Purušḫanda into the Sargon story could have been stimulated by the narration of the deeds of Anitta in the most ancient Hittite period.

This article takes into consideration the different proposals advanced so far on the origin and meaning of the Iron age Hieroglyphic Luwian title tarwanis (normally translated as “ruler”) as well as of the abstract noun tarwan(a)- and the verb tarwanaza- , by providing a complete list of all the attestations within the Neo-Hittite corpus . Advantages and weaknesses of each theory are critically examined on the levels of both etymology and semantics. In conclusion, the hypothesis of a connection to the Hittite verb tarḫ(u)- is reconsidered in light of the data we now posses about Anatolian and Luwian morphology and phonology.

This paper offers a historical reconstruction of the period between the end of Muwatalli II’s reign and the beginning of his successor’s. Such a reconstruction is based on the hypothesis of a coregency between Muwatalli II and Muršili III/Urḫi-Teššub. This version of events, the paper argues, follows from a non-forced interpretation of the text KUB 21.33, a fragment mentioning a number of events of “political” nature independent of one another but are linked to a person called Muršili. This text has been widely discussed by previous scholarship and it is here re-edited and thoroughly examined. The hypothesis of a coregency seems to fit in with the evidence provided by another enigmatic text, KUB 31.66(+), and could also shed some light on the bullae characterized by the so-called Doppelabdrücken from the Nişantepe archive. The main topics discussed are the removal of Šapili, king of Amurru, the lawsuit concerning queen Tanuḫepa, the political relations with Manapa-Tarḫunta, king of Seḫa River Land, and the marriage arrangement concerning Maššanauzzi. Remarks on the hittite kings’ “double name option” and on coregency in hittite history conclude the paper.