Cow

Location of the presumed capital Kummuh, later Samosata , today Samsat in Turkey

Location of Kummuh (Kummukhi) within the late Hittite world of the 1st millennium BC Chr.

The Iron Age empire of Kummuh ( Kumaha , Assyr. Kummuh, Urartian Qumaha ) lay in eastern Anatolia south of Malatya and north of Karkemiš , west of Alzi and east of Gurgum in the plain of Maraş .

The capital was probably the city of the same name Kummuh, later Samosata . The city is presumably identical to the Kummaha of the Hittite Empire, but it has also been suggested to equate it with Kemah . Other important cities were Uita and Ḫalpa .

It appears to have had largely friendly relations with Assyria. So came Adad-nīrārī III. with his mother Šammuramat according to the Pazarcık stele 805 BC To help the king of Kummuh against his enemies from Gurgum, and sacrificed to the weather god in his capital.

In the first half of the 8th century, Urartian raids increased. 744 BC The Urartians had incited the Aramaic tribes in the north to rebellion against Kummuh. When Sarduri II moved against Kuštašpi von Kummuh in 743 , destroyed the city of Uita and besieged the royal city of Ḫalpa, the king of Kummuh submitted and was reinstated by the Urartians. According to the Sarduri report, he paid 40 mines of gold, 800 mines of silver, 3,000 pieces of textiles, 200 bronze shields and much more as a tribute . 743, in the third year of Tiglath-Pileser III. the annals then report a victory against Sarduri of Urartu, Matu-Ilu of Arpad , Sulumal of Melidu and Tarhulara of Gurgum. Tiglath-pileser III. also reports of a victory over Sarduri in Kistan and Ḫalpa, districts of Kummuhi. He takes the Urartian camp, but the king escapes. The heartland of Kummuh was no later than 708 BC. BC , annexed during the reign of Sargon II and became part of the Assyrian province . This was subordinate to the general on the left ( turtānu šumēlu ).

In 709 Mutallu von Kummuh allied himself with Argišti II , but then became an Assyrian vassal again. Under Sargon II , a part of Melid was briefly attached to Kummuh, until its king Mutallu was deposed in 708. Kummuh was under Assyrian rule until 612.

Five kings are known from Assyrian sources, and another from Luwian sources:

Ruler	Reign	Synchronisms with Assyrian rulers	comment
Hattusili I./Qatazilu	approx. 866 to approx. 857	Shalmaneser III, government years 1 and 2	Name maybe Hittite
Kundašpi	approx. 853/856	Shalmaneser III, year of government 6	Name maybe Iranian
Suppiluliuma / Ušpilulume	805 to 773		Assyrian subject, also known from Luwian inscriptions
Hattusili II	Mid 8th century		Son of Suppiluliuma
Kuštašpi	approx. 750	Tiglat-pileser III, years of government 3, 6, 8, 14	Name maybe Iranian, Assyrian and Urartian subject
Muwatalli / Mutallu	712 to 708	Sargon II, government years 10, 14	Hittite name, used by Assyrians

In the Hellenistic and Roman times , the landscape was known under the Graecized name of Commagene .

Inscriptions

Ancoz ( Ancoz 5 , Ancoz 7 , Ancoz 8 , Ancoz 9 , Ancoz 10 )
Hieroglyphic inscription from Boybeypınarı , Adıyaman province , north slope of Kızıl Dağ, secondary built into a wall, discovered in 1931 ( Ankara Museum )
Adıyaman 1 and Adıyaman 2 , excavations in Eski Kâhta
Samsat ( Stele Samsat 1 )
the sunken rock relief of Malpınar

literature

Peter Dubovský: Hezekiah and the Assyrian spies. Reconstruction of the Neo-Assyrian Intelligence Services and its significance for 2 Kings 18-19 . Pontifical Biblical Institute, Rome 2006, ISBN 9788876533525 , especially pp. 50-60.
John David Hawkins: North Syria and South-East Anatolia . In: M. Liverani (Ed.): Neo-Assyrian geography . Università di Roma, Dipartimento di scienze storiche, archeologiche e antropologiche dell'Antichità, Rome 1995 ( Quaderni di geografia storica . Vol. 5) pp. 87-101.
John David Hawkins: Hieroglyphic Hittite Inscriptions of Commagene. Anatolian Studies, 1970, No. 20, pp. 69-110.
Bradley J. Parker: At the edge of empire: conceptualizing Assyria's Anatolian frontier, ca.700 BC . In: Journal of anthropological Archeology , 2002, No. 21, pp. 371-395.

Individual evidence

^ John David Hawkins, Corpus of Hieroglyphic Luwian Inscriptions, Berlin-New York: de Gruyter, 2000, v1, part 1, p.331-2.
↑ after John David Hawkins: Hieroglyphic Hittite Inscriptions of Commagene . Anatolian Studies 20, (1970), p. 69
^ ^A ^b Trevor Bryce: The World of the Neo-Hittite Kingdoms; A Political and Military History . Oxford, New York 2012, pp. 110-114, pp. 304.
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Christian Marek, Peter Frei: History of Asia Minor in antiquity. Munich 2010, p. 803.
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ Trevor Bryce: The World of the Neo-Hittite Kingdoms; A Political and Military History . Oxford, New York 2012, p. 304.

[1] John David Hawkins, Corpus of Hieroglyphic Luwian Inscriptions, Berlin-New York: de Gruyter, 2000, v1, part 1, p.331-2.

[2] ter John David Hawkins: Hieroglyphic Hittite Inscriptions of Commagene . Anatolian Studies 20, (1970), p. 69

[Bryce110-3] A ^b Trevor Bryce: The World of the Neo-Hittite Kingdoms; A Political and Military History . Oxford, New York 2012, pp. 110-114, pp. 304.

[Marek803-4] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Christian Marek, Peter Frei: History of Asia Minor in antiquity. Munich 2010, p. 803.

[Bryce304-5] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ Trevor Bryce: The World of the Neo-Hittite Kingdoms; A Political and Military History . Oxford, New York 2012, p. 304.