Tarhuntassa

Tarhuntassa is an as-yet undiscovered Bronze Age city south of Hattusa. Speculations of its site include Konya, Rough Cilicia, the Gok Su valley, and the vicinity of Kayseri. [http://www.hittites.info/history.aspx?text=history%2fMiddle+Late+Empire.htm] The site of Kilise Tepe has also been proposed for it. Its name means "City of Tarhunt (the Luwian storm god)" in the Luwian language, and likely had a Luwian-speaking majority when it was named.

In the early 13th century BC, Muwatalli II moved the Hittite capital from Hattusa to Tarhuntassa, officially as the result of an omen. His son Mursili III moved the capital back to Hattusa (KBo 21.15 i 11-12). After Hattusili III deposed Mursili, the new king appointed Muwatalli's son Kurunta as king in Tarhuntassa. The treaty which survives mostly refers to the appointed king as "Ulmi-Tessup", and so some scholars believe that Ulmi-Tessup and Kurunta are two different rulers of Tarhuntassa.

Tudhaliya IV re-ratified Kurunta as king in a treaty inscribed in bronze. At this time, Kurunta was leading his forces to war with Parha. This treaty, unlike previous treaties involving Tarhuntassa, calls to witness the Hittites' vassal kings of Mira and the Seha River Land on the Aegean coast. This implies that Tarhuntassa's stature was now a matter of importance for all western Anatolia.

Kurunta later claimed the title of Great King for himself. Whether or not this claim extended to the whole domain of Hatti, the court in Hattusa contested it (and buried the treaty). Toward the end of the Hittite empire, Suppiluliuma II recorded in a Hieroglyphic Luwian inscription that Hatti had attacked Tarhuntassa.