Tawananna[1] is the title for the queen of the Hittites, the king's consort, as long as she was living. Upon her death the title Tawananna passed to her daughter or the new king's consort, whichever was available to ascend. The Hittites were ruled by a theocraticmonarchy, in which the king's heir's wife did not succeed as Tawananna until the death of the reigning Tawananna.[2]
The Tawananna also had the duty of ruling when the King was away fighting in battle and was the High Priestess while the king was High Priest of the Hittite Empire. The main duties of Tawanannas were mainly religious. An example of a Hittite Tawananna was Puduhepa, wife of Hattusili III. After the death of Hattusili III, Puduhepa took on the responsibility of communicating with the Egyptian royal family and rulers of the Hittite vassal states.
Because the title was reserved, it meant no Tawananna began the Ceremony of Enthronement to her king, until just after the previous Tawananna died. This often resulted in bitter rivalries between newly appointed queens and their stepchildren who would inherit the true power of the kingdom. Such an incident is noted in the translated version of a bilingual Akkadian-Hittite cuneiform tablet, the Testament of Hattusili.[3]
Tawananna is also a personal name of one queen.
In fiction
The Tawananna title becomes extremely important in the historical manga Red River by Chie Shinohara. The current Tawananna is the very manipulative and embittered Queen Nakia, who wants her son Juda to become the King at any costs; she summons the main protagonist, Yuri Suzuki, via magic to use her as a human sacrifice. However, Yuri turns out to be a very resourceful and caring young woman as well as a serious candidate to ascend to the Tawananna position after becoming the concubine and partner of Nakia's stepson and current heir, Kail Mursili; the rivalry between the ruthless Nakia and the kind-hearted Yuri becomes increasingly personal, and ultimately is one of the main drives of the plot as a whole. By the end Nakia is defeated and banished away, with Yuri taking the Tawananna title and reigning alongside Kail.
Janet Morris wrote a detailed biographical novel, I, the Sun, whose subject was Suppiluliuma I. The Tawanannas Asmu-nikal, Daduhepa, Khinti and Malnigal are important figures in this novel, in which all characters are from the historical record, which Dr. Jerry Pournelle called "a masterpiece of historical fiction" and about which O.M. Gurney, Hittite scholar and author of The Hittites,[4] commented that "the author is familiar with every aspect of Hittite culture".[5] Morris' book was republished by The Perseid Press in April 2013.
↑ This is the reconstruction, based on inscriptions, offered by Margalit Finkelberg, Greeks and Pre-Greeks: Aegean Prehistory and Greek Heroic Tradition, (Cambridge) 2005, ch. 1. cf W.H. Stiebing, Ancient Near Eastern History and Culture, p. 200.
↑ A dynastic analysis of the Testament of Hattusili is an appendix to Finkelberg 2005:177ff.
Nefertari, also known as Nefertari Meritmut, was an Egyptian queen and the first of the Great Royal Wives of Ramesses the Great. She is one of the best known Egyptian queens, among such women as Cleopatra, Nefertiti, and Hatshepsut, and one of the most prominent not known or thought to have reigned in her own right. She was highly educated and able to both read and write hieroglyphs, a very rare skill at the time. She used these skills in her diplomatic work, corresponding with other prominent royals of the time. Her lavishly decorated tomb, QV66, is one of the largest and most spectacular in the Valley of the Queens. Ramesses also constructed a temple for her at Abu Simbel next to his colossal monument there.
Suppiluliuma I or Suppiluliumas I was king of the Hittites. He achieved fame as a great warrior and statesman, successfully challenging the then-dominant Egyptian Empire for control of the lands between the Mediterranean and the Euphrates.
Mursili I was a king of the Hittites c. 1620-1590 BC, as per the middle chronology, the most accepted chronology in our times,, and was likely a grandson of his predecessor, Hattusili I. His sister was Ḫarapšili and his wife was queen Kali.
Hattusili III was king of the Hittite empire c. 1275–1245 BC or 1267–1237 BC.
Mursili II was a king of the Hittite Empire c. 1330–1295 BC or 1321–1295 BC.
Arnuwanda II was a king of the Hittite Empire ca. 1330 BC or 1322–1321 BC. He succeeded his father Suppiluliuma I, who succumbed to the plague which Egyptian captives from his Canaan campaign had brought with them to the Hittite heartland.
Tudhaliya IV was a king of the Hittite Empire, and the younger son of Hattusili III. He reigned c. 1245–1215 BC or c. 1237–1209 BC. His mother was the great queen, Puduhepa.
Hattusili I was a king of the Hittite Old Kingdom. He reigned ca. 1650–1620 BCE, or ca. 1640–1610 BCE. Excavations in Zincirli Höyük, Southern Turkey, suggest that a complex there was destroyed in the mid to late 17th century BCE, possibly by Hattusili I in a military campaign, which could confirm the middle chronology dating for his reign. This destruction was recently radiocarbon-dated to sometime between 1632 and 1610 BCE. This event could have been part of Ḫattušili's campaign against Zalpa in order to disrupt an exchange network connected to Aleppo that previously linked the Euphrates, North Syria, and Central Anatolia. Aslihan K. Yener dates destruction of Level VII Palace at nearby Alalakh, located around 100 km southeast of Tilmen Höyük, in the second year of Hattusili's reign, 1628 BCE.
Red River, also known as Anatolia Story, is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Chie Shinohara. It was published by Shōgakukan in their Sho-Comi magazine from January 1995 to June 2002. It was collected in 28 tankōbon volumes. It is published in English in North America by Viz Media.
Yazılıkaya was a sanctuary of Hattusa, the capital city of the Hittite Empire, today in the Çorum Province, Turkey. Rock reliefs are a prominent aspect of Hittite art, and these are generally regarded as the most important group.
Zannanza was a Hittite prince, son of Suppiluliuma I, king of the Hittites. He is best known for almost becoming the Pharaoh of Egypt, and because his death caused a diplomatic incident between the Hittite and Egyptian Empires, resulting in warfare.
Kurunta 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 Hittite capital for a very short time during the reign of the Hittite king Tuthaliya IV and declared himself a great king.
Piyamaradu was a warlord mentioned in Hittite documents from the middle and late 13th century BC. As an ally of the Ahhiyawa, he led or supported insurrections against the Hittites in Western Anatolia. His history is of particular interest since his area of activity may have included Wilusa, thus suggesting a potential connection to the myth of the Trojan War.
Puduḫepa or Pudu-Kheba was a Hittite queen, married to the King Hattusili III. She has been referred to as "one of the most influential women known from the Ancient Near East."
Ḫarapšili was a Hittite queen during the Old Kingdom of Hittites.
Yarim-Lim III was the king of Yamhad (Halab) succeeding Hammurabi II.
The Hittite rock relief Fıraktın relief is located roughly 50 km south of Kayseri in the province of the same name in southern Turkey, at Fıraktın on the bank of the Enzel Dere, a tributary of the Zamantı Irmağı. Strabo called the place Dastarkon. Rock reliefs are a prominent aspect of Hittite art.
The Sun goddess of Arinna, also sometimes identified as Arinniti or as Wuru(n)šemu, is the chief goddess and companion of the weather god Tarḫunna in Hittite mythology. She protected the Hittite kingdom and was called the "Queen of all lands." Her cult centre was the sacred city of Arinna.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
