The history and historical geography of the neo-Hittite kingdom of Gurgum and its interactions with neighbouring cultures

The area, where Neo-Hittite Kingdom of Gurgum is located, is a place where human settlement is attested since Paleolithic to Iron Age. The fact that Kahramanmaraş is a passing point during the Assyrian Trade Colonies period and the Hittite period, which corresponds to the Bronze Age, shows the area's historical importance in Anatolia. The dawn of Iron Age in Anatolia and Mesopotamia came following a great chaos and destruction. The great powers of Bronze Age were either fallen or abandoned their empires and forced to retreat to their homelands. Out of the political vacuum created by this chaos, the states that we call Neo-Hittite Kingdoms and Kingdom of Urartu were established in Southeastern Anatolia, Eastern Anatolia and Northern Syria; while Assyria was trying to reclaim its former splendour in Mesopotamia, struggling to become the Neo-Assyrian Empire. In this thesis, the history, king list and other political elements surrounding the Neo-Hittite Kingdom of Gurgum, whose people are thought to speak Luwian and which lies within the present-day province of Kahramanmaraş, in the light of recovered inscriptions and funerary stelae. The greatest issue in the course of writing this thesis was the lack of extensive study on the Kingdom of Gurgum and in the region it was located.