The Kingdom of Mira (ca. 1330–1190 BC) was one of the semi-autonomous

vassal state A vassal state is any state that has a mutual obligation to a superior state or empire, in a status similar to that of a vassal in the feudal system in medieval Europe. Vassal states were common among the empires of the Near East, dating back to ...

kingdoms that emerged in western Anatolia (

Asia Minor Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...

) after the destruction of the Arzava Kingdom by the

Hittite Empire The Hittites () were an Anatolian people who played an important role in establishing first a kingdom in Kussara (before 1750 BC), then the Kanesh or Nesha kingdom (c. 1750–1650 BC), and next an empire centered on Hattusa in north-centra ...

Location

According to the current understanding, Mira's northern border with the

Seha River Land The Seha River Land was a kingdom in Western Anatolia in the Late Bronze Age known from Hittite texts. Part of Arzawa, it was located north of Mira and south of Wilusa, and at one point controlled the island of Lazpa. History The Seha River L ...

was marked by the

Karabel relief The Hittite / Luwian Karabel relief is a rock relief in the pass of the same name, between Torbalı and Kemalpaşa, about 20 km from Izmir in Turkey. Rock reliefs are a prominent aspect of Hittite art. Description The monument origi ...

. This was first proposed in 1975 by

Hans Gustav Güterbock Hans Gustav Güterbock (May 27, 1908 – March 29, 2000) was a German- American Hittitologist. Born and trained in Germany, his career was ended with the rise of the Nazis because of his Jewish heritage, and he was forced to resettle in Turkey. ...

and confirmed by

John David Hawkins John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second E ...

decipherment of the inscription on the relief in 1998. The southern border with the

Lukka lands The term Lukka lands (sometimes Luqqa lands), in Hittite language texts from the 2nd millennium BC, is a collective term for states formed by the Lukka people in south-west Anatolia (modern-day Turkey). The Lukka were never subjugated long-term by ...

was probably at

Milas Milas ( grc, Μύλασα, Mylasa) is an ancient city and the seat of the district of the same name in Muğla Province in southwestern Turkey. The city commands a region with an active economy and very rich in history and ancient remains, the ter ...

, while the eastern border with the Hittite kingdom may have been somewhere around

Afyon Afyonkarahisar (, tr, afyon "poppy, opium", ''kara'' "black", ''hisar'' "fortress") is a city in western Turkey, the capital of Afyonkarahisar Province, Afyon Province. Afyon is in the mountainous countryside inland from the Aegean Sea, Aegean c ...

.Horst Ehringhaus: ''Götter, Herrscher, Inschriften – Die Felsreliefs der hethitischen Großreichszeit in der Türkei'', von Zabern 2005 p. 91 Borders with other territories, like Pitašša, Maša, and the kingdom of Arzawa are only attested in limited time periods. Mira was the closest of the Arzawa lands to the Hittite kingdom. Susanne Heinhold-Krahmer: ''Mira'' in

Erich Ebeling The given name Eric, Erich, Erikk, Erik, Erick, or Eirik is derived from the Old Norse name ''Eiríkr'' (or ''Eríkr'' in Old East Norse due to monophthongization). The first element, ''ei-'' may be derived from the older Proto-Norse ''* ain ...

Bruno Meissner Bruno Meissner also Bruno Meißner (25 April 1868, in Graudenz – 13 March 1947, in Zeuthen) was a German assyriologist.Erika Bleibtreu, Johannes Boese and Barthel Hrouda: ''Orientalistenleben. Kurzbiografien von E. F. Weidner, B. Meissner, E ...

Dietz-Otto Edzard Dietz-Otto Edzard (28 August 1930 in Bremen – 2 June 2004 in Munich) was a German scholar of the Ancient Near East and grammarian of the Sumerian language. He was elected a foreign member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences i ...

: ''

Reallexikon der Assyriologie und Vorderasiatischen Archäologie The ''Reallexikon der Assyriologie und Vorderasiatischen Archäologie'' (RlA), formerly ''Reallexikon der Assyriologie'', is a multi-language (English, German, and French) encyclopedia on the Ancient Near East. It was founded by Bruno Meissner in ...

'', Walter de Gruyter, 1997 pp. 218–220
Google Books
/ref>

History

The earliest reference to Mira is connected to the Arzawa campaign of the Hittite Great King

Šuppiluliuma I Suppiluliuma I () or Suppiluliumas I () was king of the Hittites (r. c. 1344–1322 BC (short chronology)). He achieved fame as a great warrior and statesman, successfully challenging the then-dominant New Kingdom of Egypt, Egyptian Empire for con ...

in the 14th century BC, but it is unclear whether Mira was one of the opponents of the Great King, or what its relationship to Arzawa was. Šuppiluliuma's daughter, Muwatti was married to Mašḫuiluwa, who came from the Arzawa lands. After the successful conclusion of the Arzawa campaign by Šuppiluliuma's son and successor

Muršili II Mursili II (also spelled Mursilis II) was a king of the Hittite Empire (New kingdom) c. 1330–1295 BC (middle chronology) or 1321–1295 BC (short chronology). King of the Hittites Mursili was the third born son of King Suppiluliuma I, one of ...

, Mašḫuiluwa was installed in Mira as a vassal ruler and granted 600 men as a personal guard. How much of the area of the former Arzawa lands were encompassed by Mira is not clear. It is probable that Mira extended to the Aegean coast and had its capital at Apaša (probably

Ephesus Ephesus (; grc-gre, Ἔφεσος, Éphesos; tr, Efes; may ultimately derive from hit, 𒀀𒉺𒊭, Apaša) was a city in ancient Greece on the coast of Ionia, southwest of present-day Selçuk in İzmir Province, Turkey. It was built in t ...

).Charles Allen Burney: ''Historical dictionary of the Hittites''. Scarecrow Press, 2004 S. 202
Google Books
/ref> Soon after, Mašḫuiluwa was convicted of perjury, stirred up the land of Pitašša against the Hittites, and fled to the land of Maša. Muršili II threatened to invade Maša and thus Mašḫuiluwa was handed over to him, whereupon he was deported to

Hattusa Hattusa (also Ḫattuša or Hattusas ; Hittite: URU''Ḫa-at-tu-ša'', Turkish: Hattuşaş , Hattic: Hattush) was the capital of the Hittite Empire in the late Bronze Age. Its ruins lie near modern Boğazkale, Turkey, within the great loop of t ...

. By agreement with 'the Great men' of Mira, Mašḫuiluwa's successor was his nephew and adopted son, Kupanta-Runtiya. Horst Klengel: ''Geschichte des hethitischen Reiches.'' Brill 1999 p. 194
bei GoogleBooks
/ref> During the reign of

Ḫattušili III Hattusili III ( Hittite: "from Hattusa") was king of the Hittite empire (New Kingdom) c. 1267–1237 BC (short chronology timeline)., pp.xiii-xiv Early life and family Much of what is known about the childhood of Hattusili III is gathered from ...

in the 13th century BC, there seem to have been disagreements between the Hittites and the king of Mira (probably Kupanta-Runtiya), because of the latter's support for the Urḫi-Teššup, whom Ḫattušili had ousted. Whether this led to war between Mira and the Hittites is not clear. The last known reference to Mira is in the treaty of

Tudḫaliya IV Tudhaliya IV was a king of the Hittite Empire (New kingdom), and the younger son of Hattusili III. He reigned c. 1245–1215 BC (middle chronology) or c. 1237–1209 BC (short chronology). His mother was the great queen, Puduhepa. Biograph ...

with his cousin or uncle

Kurunta Kurunta (Cuneiform: ) was younger son of the early 13th century BC Hittite king Muwatalli II and cousin of Tudhaliya IV. Kurunta was thereby a Hittite prince and king of Tarhuntassa country. It has been suggested that he may have captured the Hi ...

of Tarḫuntašša, late in the 13th century BC, in which a king of Mira with the name of Alantalli is named as a witness to the treaty.

Kings

* Mašḫuiluwa (ca. 1330–1300 BC;

Luwian The Luwians were a group of Anatolian peoples who lived in central, western, and southern Anatolia, in present-day Turkey, during the Bronze Age and the Iron Age. They spoke the Luwian language, an Indo-European language of the Anatolian sub-fa ...

: 'Mouse'); married Muwatti, the sister of Mursili II. * Kupanataruntiya (Kupantakurunta; ca. 1300–1250/40 BC); nephew and adopted son of Mašḫuiluwa. * Alantalli (after 1259 – after 1236 v. Chr.) *

Tarkasnawa Tarkasnawa was ruler of the Kingdom of Mira, and one of the last independent kings of Arzawa, a Bronze Age confederation of kingdoms in western Anatolia. He was probably the son of King Alantalli, and a contemporary of the later king Tudḫaliy ...

(until some time after 1220 BC; Luwian: 'Ass'); son of Alantalli * Mašḫuitta or Parḫuitta (Reading uncertain; after 1220 BC)

Testimonies

In the Suratkaya inscription, a 'Great prince' Kupantakurunta is named, who is most likely the son of Mašḫuiluwa. The reference to Mira in the inscription is an indication that the land extended at least to the eastern part of the

Beşparmak Mountains Beşparmak Mountains ( la, Latmus; grc, Λάτμος, Latmos) are a ridge of many spurs located in the Muğla and Aydın provinces of Turkey, running in an east–west direction along the north shore of the former Latmian Gulf on the coast of ...

. Mira is mentioned in around twenty, mostly fragmentary,

cuneiform Cuneiform is a logo-syllabic script that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Middle East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. It is named for the characteristic wedge-sha ...

tablets found at

Boğazkale Boğazkale ("Gorge Fortress") is a district of Çorum Province in the Black Sea region of Turkey, located from the city of Çorum. Formerly known as Boğazköy ("Gorge Village"), Boghaz Keui or Boghazköy, this small town (basically one street of ...

(Ḫattuša) from the 14th and 13th centuries BC. In the Karabel relief, a king of Mira named

is depicted. The

Hieroglyphic Luwian Hieroglyphic Luwian (''luwili'') is a variant of the Luwian language, recorded in official and royal seals and a small number of monumental inscriptions. It is written in a hieroglyphic script known as Anatolian hieroglyphs. A decipherment was pr ...

inscription on the relief reads: The name Tarkasnawa also appears on a silver seal and in seal impressions from Hattusa, where the name was previously read as Tarkondemos.

References

Bibliography

Frank Starke Frank or Franks may refer to: People * Frank (given name) * Frank (surname) * Franks (surname) * Franks, a medieval Germanic people * Frank, a term in the Muslim world for all western Europeans, particularly during the Crusades - see Farang Cur ...

: ''Mirā.'' In: ''

Der Neue Pauly Der or DER may refer to: Places * Darkənd, Azerbaijan * Dearborn (Amtrak station) (station code), in Michigan, US * Der (Sumer), an ancient city located in modern-day Iraq * d'Entrecasteaux Ridge, an oceanic ridge in the south-west Pacific Ocean ...

'' (DNP). Band 8, Metzler, Stuttgart 2000, {{ISBN, 3-476-01478-9, Sp. 250–255. Historical regions of Anatolia Arzawa Hittites Former countries in the Middle East