Tabal (state)

Tabal ( and  ), later reorganised into Bīt-Burutaš  or Bīt-Paruta, was a Luwian-speaking Syro-Hittite state which existed in southeastern Anatolia in the Iron Age.

Name
The name Tabal given to the kingdom by the Neo-Assyrian Empire was likely an Akkadian term meaning "bank" or "shore" of a body of water, in reference to the kingdom and region of Tabal being on the southern bank of the Halys river.

Due to an absence of relevant Luwian inscriptions, the native name of the kingdom of Tabal is still unknown.

Usage
The kingdom of Tabal was located in a region bounded by the Halys river, the Taurus Mountains, the Konya Plain and the Anti-Taurus Mountains, and which was occupied by a cluster of Syro-Hittite states.

The Neo-Assyrian Empire used the name of Tabal in a narrow sense to refer to the kingdom of Tabal and in a broader sense to designate both this larger region of which the kingdom was part of and to the other states within this region collectively.

Modern scholarship therefore designates the kingdom as "Tabal proper" to distinguish it from the broader region of Tabal.

Location
The kingdom of Tabal was one of the several states located in the larger region of Tabal, and was the northernmost and largest of them: the territory of Tabal proper was bounded to the north by the Halys river and it covered the areas surrounding what is presently the city of Kayseri in the modern Turkish provinces of Kayseri and Niğde until as far south as the region corresponding to present-day Kayseri.

Some inscriptions referencing its king Tuwattīs II nevertheless suggest that the kingdom of Tabal might have had some control in the areas to the north of the Halys river as well.

Settlements
The capital of Tabal has still not been discovered, although it might have been located at the site of present-day Kululu, and another city belonging to this state was discovered at Sultanhan, itself in the western whereabouts of Kululu.

Neighbours
The most important neighbour of Tabal in the 8th century BCE was the kingdom of Tuwana, which was located immediately to the north of the entrance to the Taurus mountains. The southern border of Tabal was formed by the Erdaş and Hodul mountains, which separated it from Tuwana.

Kingdom of Tabal
A possible but uncertain early reference to Tabal from the Late Bronze Age might have been the "Land of Tuali" whose king was member of a coalition of 23 rulers whom the Middle Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser I defeated during his first campaign in Nairi. The name Tuali might have been an Akkadian form of a Luwian original name Tuwattīs which had experienced the Luwian sound shift from to. The name Tuali/Tuwattīs appears to have belonged to an ancestral king of the kingdom, whose name was then reused by the later kings of this state.

Another possible but uncertain reference to Tabal might have been the prince Tuwattīs whose image was carved in the Lion Gate of Malatya.

Tabalian campaign of Shalmaneser III
The first certain mention of Tabal proper is from the records of the Neo-Assyrian king Shalmaneser III's ((r. 859 – 824 BCE)) campaign of 837 BCE in the region of Tabal, which was then constituted of 24 states.

During this campaign, Shalmaneser III crossed the Anti-Taurus Mountains, invaded the lands of the Tabalian king Tuwattīs I and destroyed the settlements in his kingdom, forcing the latter to flee to his capital of Artulu. Shalmaneser III then besieged Artulu, but Tuwattīs I immediately surrendered when the Neo-Assyrian army surrounded his city, and his son Kikki paid tribute to Shalmaneser III, as did the rulers of the 23 other states of the region without fighting, after which Kikki might have been installed by Shalmaneser III as the new king of Tabal.

The position of Tuwattīs I in the dynastic history of Tabal is uncertain: he might have founded a new dynasty in Tabal in the 8th century BCE; or he might have alternatively been a member of an older dynasty founded by an ancestor of his.

The kings of the region of Tabal offered tribute to Shalmaneser III again in 836 BCE, after he had conquered the fortress of Uetaš during campaign in Melid.

During the century following the campaign of Shalmaneser III, the kingdom of Tabal had absorbed several of the nearby small states in the Tabalian region, likely through aggressive expansionism, to grow into the largest, and northernmost, of its six main kingdoms, with the others being Atuna, Tuwana, Ištuanda, Ḫubišna, and Šinuḫtu.

Submission to Urartu
Around c. 780 BC, Tabal had submitted to the Urartian king Argišti I and paid tribute to him. Argišti I's annals recording this event referred to Tabal as, which has been variously interpreted as meaning: This mention of Tabal in the Urartian records suggests that Tabal held some importance in Central Anatolia.
 * "land of the sons (descendants) of Tuate (Tuwattīs)" ;
 * or "land belonging to Tuate (Tuwattīs)" ;
 * or "the one of Tuate, the land."

Submission to the Neo-Assyrian Empire
By c. 738 BC, the Tabalian region, including Tabal proper, had become a tributary of the Neo-Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser III ((r. 745 – 727 BCE)), either after his conquest of Arpad over the course of 743 to 740 BC caused the states of the Tabalian region to submit to him, or possibly as a result of a campaign of Tiglath-pileser III in Tabal.

In the middle of the 8th century BCE, Tabal was ruled by the king Tuwattīs II, who might have been a descendant of Kikki. Some time before 738 BC, Tuwattīs II, along with the kings Warpalawas of Tuwana and Ašḫiti of Atuna, offered tribute to Tiglath-pileser III; Tabal's tribute to the Neo-Assyrian Empire at this time consisted of horses, oxen and sheep.

Regional hegemony
Several inscriptions by people referring to themselves as servants of Tuwattīs II found to the north-east of the region around Kululu and Sultanhan, and a lead strip mentioning a "Lord Tuwattīs" to the north of the Halys river, suggest that Tabal was during this time using one of these two locations as a base for consolidating its power in northwestern Cappadocia. Thus, Tuwattīs II, and possibly his son Wasusarmas after him, had interests in the region to the north of the Halys river, and the region to the north of the Halys river might itself have been ruled by either Tabal directly or by a vassal of Tuwattīs II named Muwatalis.

One sub-kingdom within the territory of Tabal was ruled by a man named Ruwas who styled himself as the "servant of Tuwattīs" on several stelae erected in the Tabalian capital. This Ruwas described himself as the "lord-house" of his overlords and styled himself as "the sun-blessed one" (, asha tiwaramis ) which were titles used by caretaker rulers who were in the service of great rulers.

Tuwattīs II was succeeded by his son, Wasusarmas, who was also a tribute-paying vassal of the Neo-Assyrian Empire.

Wasusarmas regarded himself as the local hegemon of the Tabalian region, and he styled himself using the prestigious titles of "Great King" and "Hero". Along with the revival of this title by the possibly contemporary king Ḫartapus who ruled a state further to the west, this was the first time that a Luwian ruler had adopted these imperial Hittite titles after the end of their use by the rulers of Karkamiš in the 10th century BC.

Wasusarmas's use of these titles for himself and his father appears to have been significant enough that the various rulers of the Tabalian region either identified or rejected it, and some other Tabalian rulers, such as Warpalawas II of Tuwana and Kiyakiyas of Šinuḫtu, might possibly have been his vassals.

Thanks to the renewed interest of powers like the Neo-Assyrian into the Tabalian region at this time, Wasusarmas was able to build his kingdom into a powerful and influential state: Wasusarmas's expansionist ventures brought him into conflict with a coalition of eight enemy rulers attempting to encroach on the Tabalian region that was led by the king of Phrygia or by king Ḫartapus in the Konya-Karaman Plains, and which Wasusarmas claimed to have defeated with the help of the kings Warpalawas II of Tuwana, Kiyakiyas of Šinuḫtu, and the otherwise unknown king Ruwandas. This victory allowed Wasusarmas to expand his borders to the west.

Deposition of Wasusarmas
Despite being a Neo-Assyrian tributary, Wasusarmas continued using the titles of "Great King" and "Hero"; since the Neo-Assyrian Empire sought to prevent local rulers from becoming too powerful, Tiglath-pileser III accused Wasusarmas of acting as his equal, in consequence of which he deposed him around c. 732 to c. 730 BC and replaced him as king of Tabal with a man named Ḫulliyas. The deposition of Wasusarmas resulted in a power vacuum in the Tabalian region, and no subsequent ruler from the Tabalian region claimed the title of "Great King" again after him.

The identity of Ḫulliyas is still uncertain: although Neo-Assyrian sources referred to him as a commoner, he might have instead been the same individual as Ḫulis the nephew of Ruwas, the vassal of Tuwattīs II, who had erected a stele in his uncle's honour in the Tabalian capital of Artulu, or alternatively he could have been of northern Syrian origin.

The deposition of Wasusarmas and his replacement by Ḫulliyas did not solve the problems which Neo-Assyrian power was facing in Tabal, and Neo-Assyrian policy in the Tabalian region throughout the 8th century BCE would continue being characterised by an inability to find any compatible partners there. Thus, in 726 BCE Tiglath-pileser III's son and successor, Shalmaneser V ((r. 727 – 722 BCE)), deported Ḫulliyas along with his whole family to Assyria, possibly because Ḫulliyas had conspired with Phrygia.

The situation of Tabal during the exile of Ḫulliyas is unknown, although the deportation of its king likely to have resulted in the leadership vacuum there. Alternatively, another Tuwattīs, possibly a son of Wasusarmas II, might have been installed on the throne of Tabal after the deportation of Ḫulliyas.

Meanwhile, the kingdom of Atuna appears to have benefited from the deportation of Ḫulliyas, with the power vacuum in Tabal proper having allowed it to become a local power in the Tabalian region.

Between Phrygia and Assyria
Following the union of the Phrygians and the Muški under the Phrygian king Midas, his kingdom became a major rival to Neo-Assyrian power in eastern Anatolia, and the region of Tabal became contested between the Neo-Assyrian and Phrygian empires.

Midas tried to convince the still independent local rulers of Tabal to switch their allegiances to Phrygia, and several of them accepted his offer. Shalmaneser V's successor, Sargon II ((r. 722 – 705 BC)), reacted by restoring Neo-Assyrian power in the Tabalian region, from where deported the rebellious rulers to Assyria and gave their cities to rulers who had remained loyal to him, and settled Assyrians and other foreigners in Tabal.

Kingdom of Bīt-Burutaš
Sargon II's main preoccupation regarding the region of Tabal was to secure the whole of it from Phrygian attacks from the north-west, and, fearing that the void left in the leadership of Tabal would worsen the threat posed by Phrygia and Urartu to Neo-Assyrian interests in Anatolia, in 721 BC he restored Ḫulliyas to Tabal's throne after returning him and his family back there. Thus, the Neo-Assyrian Empire had to navigate a situation where it sought to prevent local rulers from becoming too powerful while also preventing chaos which could allow other powers to become influential there or where Neo-Assyrian power would have no partners in the region.

This restoration of Ḫulliyas on the throne of Tabal might itself have been linked to the power struggle within the Neo-Assyrian Empire which led to Sargon II seizing power from Shalmaneser V. It is possible that the tradition of Hieroglyphic Luwian inscriptions in the kingdom of Tabal might have ended with the appointment of Ḫulliyas, whose deportation to Assyria before his restoration as well as the re-education of his son at the Neo-Assyrian court might have distanced him from the Syro-Hittite cultural traditions.

By this time, Tabal's western borders had expanded so as to reach the region of modern Konya and its southern borders extended to the northern border of the country of Ḫilakku.

Sargon II soon appointed Ḫulliyas's son Ambaris as his successor to the kingship of Tabal: Ambaris had himself been re-educated in Assyria during his family's exile there, and his pledges of loyalty had convinced Sargon II that Ambaris could be trusted and be placed on the throne of Tabal. Additionally, Sargon II desperately tried to ensure the loyalty of Ambaris and augment his position above those of the other Tabalian kings by marrying him to his own daughter, Aḫat-abiša, and gave them Ḫilakku as dowry.

However, since Ḫilakku itself had remained mostly independent of Neo-Assyrian authority, it is unlikely that Ambaris ever held any concrete power there. Sargon II's conferring of authority over Ḫilakku to him appears to have instead been due to the unavailabiliy of any other land that he could offer Ambaris after he had given the northwestern part of Wasusarmas's kingdom, corresponding to the region of present-day Suvasa, Topada and Göstesin, to Kurdis of Atuna when he had handed over the territory of Šinuḫtu to him in 718 BC after he had repressed the rebellion of its king Kiyakiyas.

Sargon II himself claimed to have "widened the land" which he had given to Ambaris, and this new enlarged and reorganised kingdom of Tabal was given the new name of Bīt-Burutaš: this reorganisation was part of Sargon II's attempt to establish a centralised authority in the region of Tabal in the form of a single united kingdom incorporating most of the region under a ruler whom he could trust so as to more efficiently impose Neo-Assyrian authority there and better contain the threat posed by the Phrygian king Midas to Neo-Assyrian power in Anatolia.

Thus, by reorganising Tabal as Bīt-Burutaš and appointing Ambaris as its king, Sargon II was trying to reinforce Neo-Assyrian authority in the Tabalian region against Phrygian expansionism and attempting to restore Neo-Assyrian control there. However, likely beginning in 714 BC, Ambaris came under pressure from Midas, who attempted to persuade him to renounce Neo-Assyrian allegiance and join him, initially through diplomatic means and later through military threats.

Since Ambaris had been educated at the Assyrian court along with Neo-Assyrian princes, it is possible that his experience had instilled in him a significant sense of Assyrian identity, and he might therefore have possibly not have continued the local monumental traditions of the Tabalian region.

Ambaris himself came under pressure from Midas, who attempted to persuade him to renounce Neo-Assyrian allegiance and join him, initially through diplomatic means and later through military threats. Because Phrygia directly bordered Bīt-Burutaš in the south-east, and Ambaris was not capable of efficiently defending his new kingdom against the Phrygian armies who were able to rapidly march to his cities, he therefore found himself forced to make the difficult decision of remaining loyal to Sargon II and lose his kingdom and throne to Phrygia and Urartu, or allying with these latter rivals of the Neo-Assyrian Empire and face a military response by Sargon II.

With Sargon II occupied by his campaign in Urartu in 714 BC, Ambaris was left with no significant military support from the Neo-Assyrian Empire with which he could have defended Bīt-Burutaš, and therefore had little choice but to accept an alliance with Phrygia and renounce his allegiance to the Neo-Assyrian Empire.

Despite Sargon II having successfully attacked and defeated Urartu in 714 BC, the new Urartian king Argišti II continued the attempts to expand Urartian influence on the Neo-Assyrian vassals, especially those to the west of the Euphrates, on the Anatolian plateau and the south-east coast of Anatolia.

Thus, both Phrygia and Urartu were trying to expand their power in these regions and challenge the sole supremacy of the Neo-Assyrian Empire there. Facing increased pressure from both of these powers, Ambaris communicated with them seeking guarantees that they would protect him should he break his ties with the Neo-Assyrian Empire.

Annexation by the Neo-Assyrian Empire
Neo-Assyrian intelligence however intercepted Ambaris's messages to Phrygia and Urartu, causing him to lose favour with Sargon II, who accused him of conspiring with Phrygia and Urartu, and consequently deported Ambaris, his family and his chief courtiers to Assyria in 713 BCE.

Following the deportation of Ambaris, Bīt-Burutaš was annexed into the Neo-Assyrian Empire and made into a province, and Sargon II appointed the eunuch Aššur-šarru-uṣur as governor of Que based in Ḫiyawa who also held authority on Hilakku and Bīt-Burutaš and had general oversight on Tuwana. Thus, Bīt-Burutaš and Ḫilakku were placed under the administration of a Neo-Assyrian governor and were settled by people deported from other regions newly conquered by the Neo-Assyrian Empire, putting Tabal under direct Assyrian rule.

Sargon II also handed over part of the territory of Bīt-Burutaš to Warpalawas II of Tuwana, who had remained a loyal subject of the Neo-Assyrian Empire and had now become a token ruler under the authority of Aššur-šarru-uṣur.

Some fortifications in Tabal, along the tops of the Kulmaç hills and over a hill to the north-west of what is presently Topada might have been built in connection to the annexation of Bīt-Burutaš.

The annexation of Bīt-Burutaš and the deportation of Ambaris was impactful enough that it was able to convince the king Kurdis of Atuna, who had abandoned his allegiance to the Neo-Assyrian Empire and become a vassal of Midas, to submit to Sargon II again. However, around c. 710 BCE, Atuna and Ištuanda launched a joint attack on the cities of Bīt-Burutaš, although it is unknown whether Kurdis was still the king of Atuna by then.

The hostilities between the Neo-Assyrian and Phrygian empires soon came to and end by 710-709 BC, which in turn provided to Sargon II the opportunity to consolidate Neo-Assyrian rule over Anatolia, and especially the kingdoms of Tabal.

End
In 705 BCE, Sargon II campaigned against the Cimmerians in Tabal but he died in battle against one Gurdî of Kulummu, ending Neo-Assyrian direct rule there, with the Tabalian region consequently becoming independent again while also becoming destabilised and vulnerable to the attacks of the Cimmerians. After this, the direct presence of Neo-Assyrian officials and military in Central Anatolia ceased being attested.

With Sargon II's death, Bīt-Burutaš suddenly disappeared from Neo-Assyrian sources. The subsequent fate of Tabal/Bīt-Burutaš is unclear, although it might possibly have been ultimately destroyed by the Cimmerian invasions.

List of rulers

 * Tuwattīs I, (r. unknown – c. 837 BC)
 * ᵐKikki (Hieroglyphic Luwian: Kiyakiyas or Kiyakis; ), (r. c. 837 BC – unknown)
 * Tuwattīs II, (r. undefined – undefined)
 * Wasusarmas, (r. c. 740 BC – 730 BC)
 * Ḫulliyas, (r. 730 BC – c. 726 BC)
 * ᵐAmbaris, (r. c. 721 BC – 713 BC)