Between Space and Power – Was there a Territory of Ura?
Before appearing in Hittite documentation, Ura had long been famous for its merchants and goods. In the Ebla texts (3rd millennium BC) “the place-name ù-ra(ki) was closely associated with various precious colored fabrics” (Pasquali 2015), which recall the supply of “blueviolet wool” via the city of Ura mentioned in Ugarit letters (13th century BC). The text KBo 12.42 suggests that the port of Ura was very active during the time of the Old Hittite Kingdom, and even during that of the Assyrian trading colonies (Ünal 2018). During the reign of Neriglissar (560-556 BC), Ura was the metropolis of the kingdom of Pirindu, and in his chronicle the Neo-Babylonian king describes Kiršu (Meydancıkkale) as the “royal city of the Ancestors” of Appuašu, king of Pirindu, whose territory therefore extended from the coast far into the hinterland (Casabonne 2005). In CTH 144 (ca. the end of the 15th century BC), the Hittite king makes an agreement with the “elders of Ura”, whose indication of the places of origin can also suggest the idea of a territory of which Ura would be the metropolis (Casabonne 2005). The hypothesis of a territory of Ura during the Hittite period was stated by Dinçol et al. (2000), who extend this territory in the 13 th century BC to the southeastern coastal boundary of Tarhuntassa at Saranduwa, which would correspond to Kelenderis (Dinçol et al. 2000; Melchert 2007) or Selinunte (Gazipaşa) (Casabonne 2005). Ura needed a hinterland, especially for the supply of wood essential for shipbuilding. This hinterland was probably also a land of production and marketing of other products, such as the Red Lustrous Wheel-made ware (RL). Its distribution to Hattusa and central Anatolia was through the Göksu Valley (Kozal 2018), and its supposed origin in Rough Cilicia (Kibaroğlu et al. 2017; Kozal 2015). This hypothesis is reinforced by the fact that RL is mainly found in Kilise Tepe and Rough Cilicia but much less frequently in Plane Cilicia, while Cypriot pottery is found throughout Plane Cilicia but almost absent from Rough Cilicia. Through an integrated approach bringing together written and archaeological sources as well as landscape studies, this paper aims to argue the idea that there was indeed a territory of Ura, and will attempt to define this territory as a regional space linked to the Hittite power, although no mention of “country” of Ura is mentioned in the texts.