Kuruntiya Monument

This Hittite rock relief is located near the village of Hatip, about 9 km south of Konya city center. It was first discovered in 1993 by Osman Ermişler of the Konya Museum, and the first scholarly announcements about it were made in 1996 by Hasan Bahar and Ali Dinçol. It is on a rocky cliff below which flows a spring. The relief and the hieroglyphic inscription are carved on a flattened rock surface about 5 meters wide and 2 meters high. The relief shows a male figure striding to the right. In his outstretched left hand is a vertical spear. The tall, conical hat, bow on his right shoulder, kilt, short sword stuck in his belt, and pointy shoes display similarities to some other Hittite monuments, such as Hemite, Hanyeri, and Karabel. About a meter behind the relief is a single line hieroglyphic Luwian inscription: "Kuruntiya, Great King, Hero, son of Muwatalli, Great King, Hero." The horns on the conical suggest that the figure should represent a Hittite god rather than a king, unless it represents a deified Kuruntiya after his death.

Kuruntiya was one of the two known sons of Muwatalli II. After Muwatalli's death, the elder son (Urhi-Teššub) had become king, taking the name Mursili (III). But after only a few years, Muwatalli's brother Hattusili III usurped the throne from Mursili III. Kuruntiya was rewarded with the kingship of an appanage state around his father's capital city, Tarhuntassa. Kuruntiya's kingship in Tarhuntassa continued into the reign of Hittite king Tudhaliya IV. However, Kuruntiya's use of the "Great King" title in this monument and in a couple of seals found in Boğazköy suggests that he eventually fell into a conflict with the Hittite king in Hattusa.


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