Tunna

Shown within Turkey
Location	Turkey
Region	Niğde Province
Coordinates	37°30′52″N 34°34′46″E / 37.5144°N 34.5794°E / 37.5144; 34.5794

Tunna or Dunna (Hittite: 𒌷𒁺𒌦𒈾^[1]) was an ancient Anatolian city located at the foothills of the Taurus Mountains, near the town of Ulukışla and the Cilician Gates in southern Cappadocia.^[2][3]

In classical antiquity Tunna was known as Tynna (Ancient Greek: Τυννα, romanized: Tunna; Latin: Tynna),^[4] and today it is known as Porsuk Höyük^[5] or Zeyve Höyük.^[6]

History

Bronze Age

Tunna might have been founded during the Hittite Old Kingdom by the sons of the king Ḫattušili I, some time during the late Middle and early Late Bronze Age.^[7]

Beginning with the reign of the Hittite king Šuppiluliuma I, Tunna was referred to in state treaties of the Hittite Empire as the cult site of the goddess Ḫallara, who headed the local pantheon.^[5][8][1]

According to a bronze tablet and the Ulmi-Teššub treaty, Tunna was a location in the region of Tarḫuntašša in the Ḫūlaya River Land where the hypostasis of the storm god Tarḫunzas bearing the epithet of piḫaššaššiš (𒁉𒄩𒀸𒊭𒀸𒅆𒅖) was venerated.^[8][4]

Tunna was mentioned alongside Ḫupišna and Zallara in a Hittite local deity list, and a Chief of the Cooks was responsible for the cult inventory of the country of Tunna.^[4]

Due to its strategic location at the Cilician Gates, Tunna was located on one of the main routes which in ancient times connected the Anatolian Plateau to the Syro-Mesopotamian region.^[2]

Tunna (?)
Common languages	Luwian
Religion	Luwian religion
King
• 8th century BC	Tarḫunazzas
• 8th century BC	Masauraḫisas (?)
Vassal of Tuwana
Historical era	Iron Age
Preceded by Hittite empire
Today part of	Turkey

Iron Age

In the 9th century BC, Tunna was destroyed during the campaign of the Neo-Assyrian king Shalmaneser III in the Tabalian region in 837 BC.^[9]

During the 8th century BC, Tunna was a Tabalian petty city-state ruled by a king named Tarḫunazzas, who was himself a vassal of the king Warpalawas II of Tuwana.^[10] In an inscription at the site corresponding to present-day Bulgarmaden, Tarḫunazzas recorded that, in exchange for his services, his overlord Warpalawas II had offered to him the Mount Mudi.^[11][12]

Mount Mudi was a rocky outcrop of the Taurus Mountains near the Cilician Gates,^[13] and was likely identical with the "alabaster mountain," Mount Mulî, which the Neo-Assyrian king Shalmaneser III climbed and from where he extracted alabaster during his campaign in the Tabalian region in 837 BCE. The name Mulî (𒈬𒇷𒄿^{[14][15][16][17]}) was the Akkadian form of a Luwian original name Mudi (𔑿𔑣‎)^{[18][19][20][21]} which had experienced the Luwian sound shift from /d/ to /l/.^[12][22]

Based on the close association of the "silver mountain," Mount Tunni, with Mount Mulî in the Neo-Assyrian records, both of these mountains were located close to each other, in the northeastern end of the Bolkar and Taurus Mountains, where are presently located the silver mines of Bulgarmaden and the gypsum mine at Porsuk-Zeyve Höyük.^[12][2][23]

New defensive structures were built at Tunna during the reign of Warpalawas II.^[9]

Another petty-king of Tunna who was vassal of the kings of Tuwana might have been Masauraḫisas, who possibly reigned in the middle or late 8th century BC,^[2] and who is known from an inscription by his general Parḫwiras.^[9]

List of kings of Tunna

• Tarḫunazzas (Hieroglyphic Luwian: 𔓢𔕙𔐤𔖫𔐓𔖪𔗦𔗷;^[24][25] r. 8th century BC)
• Masauraḫisas^[26] ? (Hieroglyphic Luwian: 𔒅𔗔𔖙𔖱𔗒𔑷𔗦;^[27][28] r. unknown)

Classical Antiquity

During the Hellenistic period, Tunna became known as Tynna (Ancient Greek: Τυννα, romanized: Tunna; Latin: Tynna),^[4][4]