Kunulua/Tell Tayinat
archaeological site · 3000 BC – 2100 AD
Tell Tayinat (ancient Kunulua) is a large site (comprising both a sizeable citadel and a sprawling lower town) located at the northern bend of the Orontes River, ca. 30 km southeast of Antakya (ancient Antioch). Strategically located, this fortified city served as a royal capital for various historically-attested Bronze and Iron Age kingdoms (ca. 3200-600 B.C.). In 738 B.C., the Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser III conquered Kunulua (alternately called Kinalua), then the royal city of Syro-Hittite kingdom of Patina, annexed it, and transformed it into an important provincial administrative center. Textual evidence found at the site (e.g., a large tablet inscribed with a copy of Esarhaddon’s Succession Treaty) leaves little doubt that Kunulua should be identified as Tell Tayinat.
- Coordinates
- 36.24827, 36.37594
- Also known as
- Kalneh (arc), Kinalia (akk), Kinalua (akk), Kullania (akk), Kunalia (akk), Kunalua (akk), Kunulua (akk), Tall Ṭa‘iynāt (ar), Tell Tayinat (tr), Tell Tayinat (tr), تل طعينات (ar)
- Dating
- attested
Sources
- Pleiades: A Gazetteer of Past Places · CC BY 3.0Pleiades: A Gazetteer of Past Places (CC BY 3.0)
- Wikidata · CC0 1.0Wikidata (CC0)