Kuruntiya Monument This Hittite rock relief is located near the village of Hatip about 9 km south of Konya city center. First scholarly announcements about it was 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 and a 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 conical hat has horns in front, therefore 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 "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. Click on the pictures for larger images.

Literature:
Bahar, H. "Konya-Hatip'te Bulunan Yeni bir Hitit Anıtı - Eine neues hethitischen Denkmal in Konya-Hatip," Arkeoloji ve Sanat 73, Temmuz-Ağustos 1996: 2–8.
Dinçol, A., B. Dinçol. "Hatip Anıtı'ndaki Hiyeroglif Yazıt," Arkeoloji ve Sanat 73, 1996: 8–9.
Dinçol, A. "The Rock Monument of the Great King Kurunta and its Hieroglyphic Inscription," in ICH III, 1998: 159–66.
Dinçol, A. "Die Entdeckung des Felsmonuments in Hatip und ihre Auswirkungen über die historischen und geographischen Fragen des Hethiterreichs," TÜBA-AR 1, 1998: 27–35.
Ehringhaus, H. Götter, Herrscher, Inschriften, Mainz, 2005: 101–7.
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Image sources:
Tayfun Bilgin, 2009, 2021.
Horst Ehringhaus, 2005.