Atuna | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Early 1st millennium BC | |||||||
 Atuna among the Neo-Hittite states | |||||||
| Capital | Atuna | ||||||
| Common languages | Luwian | ||||||
| Religion | Luwian religion | ||||||
| Government | Monarchy | ||||||
| Great King | |||||||
| Historical era | Iron Age | ||||||
• Established | Early 1st millennium BC | ||||||
| |||||||
| Today part of | Turkey | ||||||
Atuna was a Luwian-speaking Syro-Hittite state which existed in the region of Tabal in southeastern Anatolia in the Iron Age.
The exact location of Atuna is still unknown due to a present lack of Luwian inscriptions from the kingdom's capital.[1] However, Atuna was likely located to the west of the kingdom of Tabal proper, likely near the Tabalian kingdom of Šinuḫtu since Atuna later obtained the territory of this state.[2][3]
While the site of Zeyve Höyük, corresponding to classical Tynna, has been suggested as a possible location for the capital of Atuna,[4] the Hittitologist Trevor R. Bryce has instead proposed that it was more likely located further north in the region immediately south of the Halys river's southernmost bend, with its capital being possibly located at the site of the present-day village of Bohça, where the king Kurtis of Atuna had erected a stele.[2][1]
Due to the lack of written sources from the kingdom of Atuna, it is unknown whether it was connected with the "silver-mountain," Mount Tunni, mentioned by the Neo-Assyrian king Shalmaneser III.[2][1]
The kingdom of Atuna might have come into existence during the early 1st millennium BCE, and one of the state's early kings might have been one of the 24 kings of the Tabalian region who offered tribute to the Neo-Assyrian king Shalmaneser III during his campaign there in 837 BCE.[5]
During the century following the campaign of Shalmaneser III, the kingdom of Atuna had absorbed several of the nearby small states in the Tabalian region, growing territorially and in status, and becoming one of the region's six main kingdoms, with the others being Tabal, Tuwana, Ištuanda, Ḫubišna, and Šinuḫtu. Atuna was nonetheless of lesser size and status than the kingdom of Tabal itself.[5]
During the middle of the 8th century BCE, Atuna was ruled by the king Ušḫitti, who was paying tribute to the Neo-Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser III to prevent attacks against his kingdom by the Neo-Assyrian Empire[2][1] following Tiglath-pileser III's annexation of Kinalua.[4]
In the late 8th century BCE, Atuna was ruled by the king Kurtis, whose father Ashwisis might have been identical with the Assyrian-attested Ušḫitti.[6] Kurtis was initially loyal to the Neo-Assyrian Empire during the rules of Tiglath-pileser III, Shalmaneser V, and the early reign of Sargon II.
In the early 710s BCE, the king Kiyakiyas of Šinuḫtu had broken his oath of allegiance to the Neo-Assyrian Empire, in response to which the Neo-Assyrian king Sargon II invaded Šinuḫtu and deposed Kiyakiyas, and handed over the territory of Šinuḫtu to Kurtis of Atuna for his loyalty.[2][3]
At one point, Kurtis had erected a stele near what is presently the village of Bohça, close to the south of the southernmost bend of the Halys, in which he mentioned his hunting expeditions in this region, which he claimed the gods Tarḫunzas and Runtiyas had offered him.[5]
Kurtis however later rebelled against Neo-Assyrian rule and accepted the overlordship of Midas of Phrygia. But, following Sargon II's invasion of Tabal, which had by then been reorganised as Bīt-Burutaš, and his deportation of its king Ambaris, Kurtis defected back to Neo-Assyrian overlordship, and he sent envoys to Sargon II in Media to re-pledge his allegiance and pay tribute to the Neo-Assyrian Empire.[2][7][4]
Around c. 710 BCE, Atuna and the nearby Tabalian state of Ištuanda jointly attacked and occupied some of the cities of Bīt-Burutaš which Sargon II had handed over to his loyal vassal, the king Warpalawas II of Tuwana. It is unknown whether Kurtis was still the king of Atuna by then.[2][8][7]
