Not hostile but loyal kings in Tabal, c. 735 BC.
A new interpretation of TOPADA §§ 3-4
Keywords:
Anatolian hieroglyphs, Luwian history, Neo-Hittite period, Tabal, historical geographyAbstract
This paper offers an interpretation of the as yet undeciphered Anatolian glyph in § 3 of the Hieroglyphic Luwian inscription TOPADA dated c. 735 BC and recently redated c. 900 BC. The sign is usually translated with ‘hostile’ qualifying as such a coalition of eight Neo-Hittite kings against Great King Wasusarma of Tabal in or at Parzuta. This in contrast to three allies mentioned in § 4. Judging the traces of the sign, visible in available photographs, two signs can be identified which are also present elsewhere in the same inscription. Further investigation makes clear that these signs stand for the Luwian word tarrawanni-, the meaning of which has recently been established as ‘just, loyal’. This gives a completely different understanding to §§ 3-4. It is argued that in the conflict with Parzuta seven (not eight) kings in the broader Tabal region are ‘loyal’ to Great King Wasusarma. In the following sentence another three kings are named, who were his most trustworthy allies and who due to the location of their kingdoms and speciality, were directly involved in the conflict as well.
References
Adiego, I.-X., Trabazo, J.V.G., Vernet, M., Obrador-Cursach, B., Martínez Rodríguez, E. (eds) 2019. Luwic Dialects and Anatolian. Inheritance and Diffusion (Barcino. Monographica Orientalia 12, Series Anatolica et Indogermanica 1). Barcelona: Edicions de la Universitat de Barcelona.
Avetsiyan, P.S., Dan, R., Grekyan, Y.H. (eds) 2019. Over the Mountains and Far Away. Studies in Near Eastern History and Archaeology Presented to Mirjo Salvini on the Occasion of His 80th Birthday. Oxford: Archaeopress.
Bauer, A.H. 2014. Morphosyntax of the Noun Phrase in Hieroglyphic Luwian (Brill’s Studies in Indo-European Languages and Linguistics 12). Leiden – Boston: Brill.
Bauer, A.H. 2022. Hieroglyphic Luwian late /tarrawann(i)-/, (“IUSTITIA”)tara/i-wa/i-ni-, in: eDiAna (online), ID 1998.
Bryce, T. 2012. The World of the Neo-Hittite Kingdoms. A Political and Military History. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Bunnens, G. 2006. A New Luwian Stele and the Cult of the Storm-God at Til Barsib – Masuwari (Mission archéologique de l’Université de Liège en Syrie, Tell Ahmar II). Louvain – Paris – Dudley, MA: Peeters.
d’Alfonso, L. 2019. War in Anatolia in the post-Hittite period: The Anatolian hieroglyphic inscription of Topada revised. JCS 71: 133-152.
Demarée, R.J., Veenhof, K.R. (eds) 2003. Zij schreven geschiedenis. Historische documenten uit het Oude Nabije Oosten (2500 – 100 v. Chr.) (Mededelingen en Verhandelingen van het Vooraziatisch-Egyptisch Genootschap “Ex Oriente Lux” XXXIII). Leiden: Ex Oriente Lux – Leuven: Peeters (in Dutch).
Dillo, M. 2003. De Neo-Hettitische rotsinscriptie van grootkoning Wasusarmas van Tabal (ca. 735 v. Chr.), in: Demarée, Veenhof 2003: 311-321 (in Dutch).
Dillo, M. 2013. The name of the author of ŞIRZI: A text collation. BiOr LXX/3-4: 332-360.
Ehringhaus, H. 2013. Das Ende, das ein Anfang war. Felsreliefs und Felsinschriften der luwischen Staaten Kleinasiens vom 12. bis 8./7. Jahrhundert v. Chr. Mainz am Rhein: Nünnerich-Asmus Verlag & Media.
Giusfredi, F. 2009. The problem of the Luwian title tarwanis. AoF 36/1: 140-145.
Giusfredi, F. 2018. ‘Chariots’ in contact: On the value of the signs *91, *92 and *94 of Hieroglyphic Luwian. Kadmos 57: 1-13.
Giusfredi, F., Pisaniello, V., Rizza, A. 2021. On the origin and meaning of the Assyrian toponym Tabal. AJNES 15/1-2: 128-140.
Goedegebuure, P., van den Hout, Th., Osborne, J., Massa, M., Bachhuber, C., Şahin, F. 2020. TÜRKMEN-KARAHÖYÜK 1: A new Hieroglyphic Luwian inscription from Great King Hartapu, son of Mursili, conqueror of Phrygia. AnSt 70: 29-43.
Hawkins, J.D. 1995. The Hieroglyphic Inscription of the Sacred Pool Complex at Hattusa (SÜDBURG) (StBoT, Beiheft 3). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag.
Hawkins, J.D. 2000. Corpus of Hieroglyphic Luwian Inscriptions, vol. I: Inscriptions of the Iron Age, Part 1-2: Text, Part 3: Plates. Berlin – New-York: Walter de Gruyter.
Hawkins, J.D. 2006. The Inscription [TELL AHMAR 6], apud Bunnens 2006: 11-31 (Chapter 2).
Hawkins, J.D., Weeden, M. 2021. The new inscription from Türkmenkarahöyük and its historical context.AoF 48/2: 384-399.
Kloekhorst, A. 2019. The etymology of Hieroglyphic Luwian izi(ya)-di ‘to do, to make’: An athematic i-present in Anatolian, in: Adiego et al. 2019: 163-180.
Melchert, H.C. 2019. Iron Age Luvian tarrawann(i)-, in: Avetsiyan et al. 2019: 337-345.
Payne, A. 2012. Iron Age Hieroglyphic Luwian Inscriptions (WAW 29). Atlanta, Georgia: Society of Biblical Literature.
Payne, A. 2014. Hieroglyphic Luwian. An Introduction with Original Texts, 3rd Revised Edition (Subsidia et Instrumenta Linguarum Orientis 2). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag.
Rieken, E., Yakubovich, I. 2010. The new values of Luwian signs L319 and L172, in: Singer 2010: 199-219.
Singer, I. (ed.) 2010. ipamati kistamati pari tumatimis. Luwian and Hittite Studies Presented to J. David Hawkins on the Occasion of His 70th Birthday (Sonia and Marco Nadler Institute of Archaeology. Monograph Series 28). Tel Aviv: Yass Publications in Archaeology.
Starke, F. 1990. Untersuchung zur Stammbildung des keilschrift-luwischen Nomens (StBoT 31). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag.
Weeden, M. 2010. Tuwati and Wasusarma: Imitating the behaviour of Assyria. Iraq 72: 39-61.
Yakubovich, I. 2010. Sociolinguistics of the Luvian Language (Brill’s Studies in Indo-European Languages and Linguistics 2). Leiden – Boston: Brill.
Yakubovich, I. 2020. Doing things reverently among the Luwians. Les Études classiques 88: 465-489.
