Kurunta

A significant event in Muwatalli's reign, which probably influenced the later course of Kurunta's life, had been his transfer of the Hittite court to Tarḫuntašša in south-central Anatolia.

When Ḫattušili III ascended the throne, he rewarded Kurunta by appointing him vassal king over the city and country of Tarḫuntašša in the south of central Anatolia.

[14] For modern scholarship, the treaties of Kurunta with his Hittite overlords are very important, as they help resolve some of the questions about Anatolian geography in the Bronze Age.

One of the so-called "Insibia letters" from Ramesses II to (apparently) Tudḫaliya IV and his mother Puduḫepa records the special dispatch of an Egyptian physician, Pariamaḫu, to cure Kurunta from an unspecified ailment.

[15] Ultimately, Kurunta does not appear to have been content with his fiefdom, and at some point he began using the title of 'Great King' on his seal and on a rock inscription at Hatip, 17 km southwest of Konya.

"[16] The seal impressions were found in Ḫattuša itself, and the treaty bronze tablet was intentionally buried under a paved area near the great southern Sphinx Gate, suggesting some severe breach between the two courts that led to this purposeful act of obliteration.

[17] It has also been suggested that Kurunta simply declared his local independence or his equality with the Hittite great king, perhaps profiting from Tudḫaliya IV's defeat by the Assyrians, without having to attempt at usurpation or engage in military conflict.

[19] A Hieroglyphic Luwian inscription on a wall of the southern acropolis of Ḫattuša mentions an attack by the last generally recognized Hittite great king, Šuppiluliuma II, a son of Tudḫaliya IV, on Tarḫuntašša.

[21] Some scholars place Great King Ḫartapu, son of Muršili, known from inscriptions found at Burunkaya, Karadağ, Kızıldağ, and Türkmen-Karahöyük, in the early 11th century BC, as a successor of Kurunta and possibly as the supposed adversary of Šuppiluliuma II.