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Neo Hittites and Isaiah

31 July 2012
Ancient history

At www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-07/uot-aue073012.php … archaeologists have unearthed a human sculpture at Tell Tayinat. It had originally been about 3m in height but had been destroyed and buried. The Assyrian king Shalmaneser III has been blamed. Tayinat is thought to be ancient Kunulua, a Neo Hittite city of the kingdom of Patina. A heiroglyphic Luwian inscription is carved on the back of the sculpture, carved in raised relief. It is said to record the campaigns and accomplishments of a Suppiluliumas, thought to be Supalulme as recorded by Shalmaneser. Others have suggested it was Suppiluliumas II, last known king of the Hittite empire … and still others, Suppiluliumas the Great, contemporary of the EA letter archive at Amarna (Egypt). The content of the inscription is not provided in the news release but it does mention Isaiah 10:9-10 where Calno is mentioned in an oracle against the Assyrians, a reference to their misdeeds (presumably in the past), namely, the conquest of Kinulua. Isaiah lived in the 8th century and Sapalulme/Shalmaneser in the 9th century BC. Does the Bible provide a clue to Hittite history and chronology?

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