Tushratta

Tushratta
King of Mitanni
Reign1380-1345 BC
1358-1335 BC
PredecessorArtashumara
SuccessorArtatama II
IssueShattiwaza
Tadukhipa
FatherShuttarna II
One of the Amarna letters. A letter from Tushratta king of Mitanni to the Egyptian Pharaoh Amenhotep III, c. 1370 BCE. Akkadian cuneiform text. From Tell el-Amarna, Egypt. Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin

Tushratta (Akkadian: Tušratta[1] and Tuišeratta[2]) was a king of Mitanni, c. 1358–1335 BCE,[3] at the end of the reign of Amenhotep III and throughout the first half the reign of Akhenaten. He was the son of Shuttarna II. Tushratta stated that he was the grandson of Artatama I.[4] His sister Gilukhipa (Gilu-ḫepa in Hurrian) and his daughter Tadukhipa (Tadu-ḫepa in Hurrian) were married to the Egyptian pharaoh Amenhotep III;[5] Tadukhipa later married Akhenaten who took over his father's royal harem.

He had been placed on the throne after the murder of his brother Artashumara. He was probably quite young at the time and was destined to serve as a figurehead only but he managed to dispose of the murderer. A tablet was found in a Mitanni building at Tell Brak which stated it was witnessed "in the presence of Tushratta, the king" and had a seal of an earlier king Shaushtatar on the reverse which was a common practice.[6]

  1. ^ tu-uš-rat-ta in "CDLI-Archival View". cdli.ucla.edu.
  2. ^ tu-iš-e-rat-ta in "CDLI-Archival View". cdli.ucla.edu.
  3. ^ Mladjov, I., (2019). "The Kings of Mittani in Light of the New Evidence from Terqa", in: NABU 2019, No. 1, March, p. 34.
  4. ^ Goetze, Albrecht. “On the Chronology of the Second Millennium B. C. (Concluded).” Journal of Cuneiform Studies, vol. 11, no. 3, 1957, pp. 63–73
  5. ^ Dodson, Aidan and Hilton, Dyan. The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt. Thames & Hudson. 2004. ISBN 0-500-05128-3,
  6. ^ N. J. J. Illingworth. “Inscriptions from Tell Brak 1986.” Iraq, vol. 50, 1988, pp. 87–108