Ḫartapus

Ḫartapus or Kartapus was an Anatolian king who in the early 8th century BCE ruled a state in what is presently the region of Konya in modern Turkey.

[11] An alternative reading of this king's name could be Ḫarputas or Ḫarbudas, which might be composed of the Anatolian suffix -tta-, and whose root might also be found in the toponyms Ḫarbudā (𒌷𒄯𒁍𒋫𒀀𒀸[12]) and Ḫarbudauna (𒌷𒄯𒁍𒋫𒌋𒈾𒀸[13]).

Additionally, Ḫartapus himself is not known outside of his own monuments and is not mentioned in Neo-Assyrian sources, which has led to significant debate regarding how to date Hartapus since the discovery of this king in the early 20th century AD.

[14] Due to the archaising features of the inscriptions of Ḫartapus which show significant similarities with the Hieroglyphic Luwian writing traditions of the Hittite Empire, as well as the typically Hittite name of his father Mursilis, his reign had previously been dated to the late 2nd millennium BCE:[15][16] According to proponents of an earlier dating of Ḫartapus, the designation Muska for a people defeated by him referred to a population with a specific lifestyle rather than to an ethnic group, and was identical with the Eastern Muški of the Assyrian records.

[34] Based on the shape of the hieroglyphs in the inscriptions of Hartapus, Petra Goedegebuure and Theo van den Hout dated them to the 8th century BCE.

[38] Furthermore, the relief of Ḫartapus at Kızıldağ depicted him in an Assyrianising artistic style, such as his body's proportions, his beard and hairstyle as well as his dress, his hat with folded earmuffs, his upwards pointed shoes, the shape of the bowl and the way he holds it, while the imagery of the enthroned king used in the relief was common throughout the Iron Age Syro-Anatolian region, including the Katumuwa stele of Zincirli Höyük and a relief from the South Gate of Karatepe-Aslantaş; this imagery was related to the depictions of seated royalty from the Neo-Assyrian Empire, which include the image of the queen Libbāli-šarrat in the gardens of Nineveh.

[43][6] Therefore, Osborne and Massa have concluded that the various inscriptions refer to a single Ḫartapus, son of Mursilis, who reigned during the early 8th century BCE,[44] before Midas had become the king of Phrygia.

[76] The kingdom of Ḫartapus was however not powerful enough to have conquered early Phrygia, that is the territory of the Sakarya-Porsuk basin, and the 1st Türkmen-Karahöyük inscription instead recorded Hartapus's defeat of a raid from the region of the Phrygian city of Gordion.

[84] Some regions to the east of the Sultan Daği corresponding to the Lake Eber and the lower Kaystros river up to the area of Burunkaya might have been part of the kingdom of Ḫartapus.

[93] In 2018, a local former discovered a royal stele commissioned by Ḫartapus and inscribed in Hieroglyphic Luwian near the site of Turkmen-Karahoyuk, and he informed the researchers of the Türkmen-Karahöyük Intensive Survey Project in the summer of 2019.

Relief of Kilamuwa of Samʾal, 9th century BCE.
Narmer Palette
Narmer Palette
Pharaoh Ahmose I slaying a Hyksos
Pharaoh Ahmose I slaying a Hyksos
Tutankhamun
Tutankhamun
Taharqa
Taharqa
Seleukos I Nikator Tetradrachm from Babylon
Seleukos I Nikator Tetradrachm from Babylon
Coin of Ardashir I, Hamadan mint.
Coin of Ardashir I, Hamadan mint.