Kötükale Inscription

The six-line Neo-Hittite inscription used to be by the Tohma-Su river about 5 km east of the town of Balaban, near the village of Kötükale. Early in this century, its location was pretty hard to reach due to the river. Attempts by the Cornell University expedition in 1911 and H. H. von der Osten in 1929 were not successful getting a copy of it. But fortunately in 1935 Ignace Gelb was able to take good pictures of the 1.80-meter-high inscription. By 1954, when H. Th. Bossert went to the site, the entire inscription was covered by earth due to a recently constructed road. Interestingly, the inscription is a dedication for the building of a road by Runtiya, King of Malatya, who is also the author of the Gürün inscription and thus from the same period (12th century BCE). Runtiya describes himself as the grandson of Kuzi-Teššub (of Karkamış). Thus, it is likely that Runtiya is possibly a brother of King Arnuwanti (I), who is known as another son of PUGNUS-mili (Allumalli?) and grandson of Kuzi-Teššub from the İspekçür inscription.


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