Forerunners of the Hattusili-Ramesses treaty

Dietrich Sürenhagen

The Hattusili-Ramesses treaty from 1259 BC was preceded by only one earlier agreement. This becomes obvious from clauses in the actual treaty as well as from citations in Hittite texts of Suppiluliuma I and his son Mursili II. This was a parity treaty, which was possibly concluded during the reign of the Middle Hittite king Tuthalija I, three generations before Suppiluliuma I.

Its original wording can partly be found in the Middle Hittite so-called ‘Kurustama treaty’. There is no evidence for the renewal or cancelling of this older agreement prior to the Hattusili-Ramesses treaty. Under these aspects the latter must be regarded nothing but the updated version of a still existing older treaty.

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To reference this article we suggest
Sürenhagen, D., 'Forerunners of the Hattusili-Ramesses treaty', BMSAES 6 (2006), 59-67, http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/bmsaes/issuer/suerenhagen.html