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. 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. 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. 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 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:
The reference to Kwalatarna is nearly 600 years later and is in the context of a sacrifice to the Sun goddess of Arinna.
See also Ancient regions of Anatolia Assuwa
References