Alatra (region)
{{Short description|Bronze Age region of Anatolia}}
File:Mid000017 Map 2011 09 Middle-Bronzse-Age-Anatolia.jpg
Alatra was an ancient region of Anatolia and one of the lands of the Assuwa coalition that opposed the Hittites. It is mentioned in the Annals of Tudḫaliya and possibly in a later Iron Age stela.
Geography
The site has yet to be archaeologically located.Gander, Max. (2022). The West: Philology, p. 264-266. Hittite Landscape and Geography, Netherlands: Brill. [https://www.academia.edu/34316588/The_West_Philology_in_Weeden_Mark_Ullmann_Lee_Z_Hg_Hittite_Landscape_and_Geography_Leiden_2017_S_262_280 Academia.edu] Woudhuizen noted the similarity to the Luwian word for "army camp" (kwalatarna) and suggested it was sited at Kaunos in ancient Caria.Etruscan as a Colonial Luwian Language, Linguistica Tyrrhenica III. Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Kulturwissenschaft, Sonderheft 128. Innsbruck: Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Kulturwissenschaft. [https://www.talanta.nl/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Woudhuizen-2019-Etruscan_as_a_Colonial_Luwian_Language.pdf Talanta] A funerary stelea at Carchemish dated to the 800s BC makes reference to "the people of Kwalatarna and Tlawa", a grouping that includes a site in classical Lycia.Peker, Hasan. (2023). A New Funerary Stele from Karkemish and New Values for Some Anatolian Hieroglyphic Signs. [https://belleten.gov.tr/tam-metin/3728/eng Belleten Turk Tarih Kurumu] Thonemann locates it at classical Toriaeum.Thonemann, Peter. (2008). Cistophoric Geography: Toriaion and Kormasa. The Numismatic Chronicle (1966-) Vol. 168 (2008), pp. 43-60 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/42678760?read-now=1&seq=2#page_scan_tab_a JStor]
History
Alatra is named as one of the lands that comprised the Assuwa coalition, a military confederacy of twenty-two towns that opposed the Hittite army as it campaigned west of the Maraššantiya:
{{Blockquote
|text= But when I turned back to Hattusa, then against me these lands declared war: [—]lugga, Kispuwa, Unaliya, [—], Dura, Halluwa, Huwallusiya, Karakisa, Dunda, Adadura, Parista, [—], [—]waa, Warsiya, Kuruppiya, [—]luissa, Alatra, Mount Pahurina, Pasuhalta, [—], Wilusiya, Taruisa. [These lands] with their warriors assembled themselves...and drew up their army opposite me...Bryce, Trevor. (1999). The Kingdom of the Hittites. United Kingdom, Oxford University Press. [https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Kingdom_of_the_Hittites/Agg5-lpVI2MC?hl=en&gbpv=0 Google Books].}}
The reference to Kwalatarna is nearly 600 years later and is in the context of a sacrifice to the Sun goddess of Arinna.