Purushanda

Purushanda (also variously Puruskhanda, Purushhattum, Purushhatum or Burushattum) was an Anatolian kingdom of the early second millennium prior to the common era.

The name is written as māt Purušḫattim in the oldest Assyrian texts,[1] and it has been speculated that the root Puruš- is of Indo-European (i.e. Luwian language) heritage.

It can be discerned as a polity in the general central Anatolian region from Old Assyrian texts,[6] appeared to have access to the silver mines of the Taurus Mountains[7][8][2] and control of the Cilician Gates.

[9][10] It has been posited as lying astride an inland passage of Anatolia known as “the Great Caravan Route” during the Early Bronze Age,[2] connecting Cilicia with the Troad.

[18] Archaeology at Acemhöyük has confirmed the remains of central Anatolian, Mesopotamian and north Syrian pottery - as well as traces of monumental structures - dated 2659 to 2157 BC.

[21] Both works are anachronistic and ahistorical but may hint at a relationship between the Akkadians and Proto-Luwians in the twenty-fourth and twenty-third centuries BC before the latter's immigration to Anatolia.

Subsequent seals found at Acemhöyük suggest substantial trade between the two kingdoms as well as the possibility of dynastic intermarriage between the two royal houses.