Mursili II
Mursili II was a king of the
Hittite Empire (New kingdom) from ca.
1322 BC to ca.
1295 BC. He was the younger son of
Suppiluliuma I. RH Beal believes that before his accession, his name was written in
Luwian hieroglyphic seals with the combined Sumerian and Akkadian glyphs, GAL-
MEŠEDI (NABU 2001/4); which elsewhere is understood as the title, "chief of the bodyguards".
This prince assumed the throne after the premature death of his elder brother
Arnuwanda II, like their father victim to the plague ravaging the empire in the 1320s; and likely took the name "Mursili" afterward. He faced numerous rebellions early in his reign, the most serious of which were by the
Kaskas in the mountains of Anatolia. The annals for the first ten years of his reign have survived, and they reveal that an "omen of the sun," or
solar eclipse, occurred in his tenth year as king, just as he was about to launch his campaign against the Kaska peoples. While Mursili II's highest confirmed year date was his twenty-second, it is believed that he enjoyed a reign of around 25-30 years. He was succeeded by
Muwatalli.
Mursili's eclipse is of great importance for the absolute dating of the Hittite Empire within the
chronology of the Ancient Near East. There are only two possible dates for the eclipse:
13 April 1308 BC or
24 June 1312 BC. The 1312 date is accepted by most Hittitologists, e.g. Trevor Bryce (1998), while Paul Astrom (1993) suggested the 1308 date.
A fictionalized version of Mursili II appears in the Japanese
manga Red River. He is "Kail Mursili", which according to Beal would be an anachronism - since he is not named "Mursili" in any texts prior to those of his own reign, and was likely named something else. Kail is one of the comic's main protagonists and is portrayed as noble and brave, as well as a playboy.
*Paul Astrom, 'The Omen of the Sun in the Tenth Year of the Reign of Mursilis II', in
Horizons and Styles: Studies in Early Art and Archaeology in Honour of Professor Homer L. Thomas (1993)
*Trevor Bryce,
The Kingdom of the Hittites (1998)
*
Reign of Mursili II
