Bronze Tablet
The Bronze Tablet, also known as the Kurunta Treaty, (Bo 86/299) is a bronze tablet with a Hittite language cuneiform inscription dating to the Bronze Age and setting forth a vassal treaty between Hittite King Tudhaliya IV and his cousin, King Kurunta of Tarhuntassa.[1] While thousands of Hittite clay tablets have been unearthed, the Hattusa Bronze Tablet is the only Hittite metal tablet discovered so far.[2] It was discovered near the Sphinx Gate of the Hittite capital Hattusa (modern day Bogazköy, Turkey).[2] The tablet is housed at the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara.
The text includes a detailed description of the boundaries of the kingdom of Tarhuntassa.[1] For that reason, the tablet is an important source for Anatolian geography in the Bronze Age.[3]
The tablet is one of only three Hittite diplomatic documents so far discovered that are believed to be originals, rather than archival copies or drafts.[4] According to the tablet, it was written by a scribe named Ḫalwaziti.[5]
Analysis of the tablet showed that it consists of bronze with a very high tin content.[2] The use of tin-heavy bronze may have been deliberate, in order to create a "light silverish color and sheen."[2]
References
[edit]- ^ a b Kimball, Sara; Lehmann, Winfred; Slocum, Jonathan. "The Treaty of Tudhaliya with Kuruntas of Tarhuntassa (Later Neo-Hittite)". University of Texas at Austin Linguistics Research Center. Retrieved 26 June 2025.
- ^ a b c d Zimmermann, Thomas; Özen, Latİf; Kalayci, Yakup; Akdoğan, Rukiye (2010). "The Metal Tablet from Boğazköy-Hattuša: First Archaeometric Impressions". Journal of Near Eastern Studies. 69 (2): 225–29. doi:10.1086/597762. Retrieved 26 June 2025.
- ^ Gander, Max (2017). "The West: Philology". In Weeden, Mark; Ullmann, Lee (eds.). Hittite Landscape and Geography. Boston: Leiden. pp. 262–80.
- ^ Giusfredi, Federico; Pisaniello, Valerio (2023). "Akkadian and Akkadian Texts in Hittite Anatolia". In Giusfredi, Federico; Matessi, Alvise; Pisaniello, Valerio (eds.). Contacts of Languages and Peoples in the Hittite and Post-Hittite World. Leiden: Brill. pp. 206–41. ISBN 978-90-04-54863-3.
- ^ Torri, Giulia (2023). "The Hittite King as Administrator of the Land". In Mora, Clelia; Torri, Giulia (eds.). Administrative Practices and Political Control in Anatolian and Syro-Anatolian Polities in the 2nd and 1st Millennium BCE. Florence: Firenze University Press. pp. 25–36. ISBN 979-12-215-0042-4. Retrieved 4 July 2025.