Rock inscription from Bulgarian soldiers

Coordinates: 37 ° 29 ′ 15 ″  N , 34 ° 41 ′ 4 ″  E

Bulgarian merchants​

Turkey

Redrawing of the inscription by Ramsay / Hogarth (1892)

The rock inscription from Bulgarmaden (now also Bolkar Maden ) in southern Turkey is written in Luwian hieroglyphics and comes from the time of the late Hittite states . It is assigned to the Kingdom of Tabal and is believed to have been in the late 8th century BC. BC originated.

location

The rock with the inscription is located at an altitude of 1517 meters in the Bolkar Dağları Mountains , north of the Maden Çayı river valley , near the village of Alihoca in the Ulukışla district of Niğde Province . The former Bulgarian army, now called Bolkar Maden or Bolkar Dağı, was, like the entire mountain range, a center of silver and ore mining ( Turkish maggot for ore ) as early as the Hittite period . The earlier name refers to Bulgarian farmers who settled here in Byzantine times, today's Bolkar is a folk etymological formation from bol (much) and kar (snow). The center of the area was probably the Hittite Tunna , which is equated with Porsuk Hüyük, about ten kilometers to the north-west . From the village of Madenköy (ore village), ten kilometers upstream from Alihoca , a mountain path stretched over the 2000-meter-high ridge to Gümüşköy (silver village ) and to Porsuk Hüyük, which is now a narrow, winding road.

Research history

In 1879 the traveler Reverend Edwin John Davis quoted an account of the inscription from a friend's diary and published a simple sketch. The first visit in 1890 David George Hogarth and AC Headlam the inscription and make copies and squeezes on. Hogarth published the results in 1892 together with William Mitchell Ramsay . Shortly afterwards, the Cornell Expedition (1907) and John Garstang (1910) visited and published the inscription. After further editing by Bedřich Hrozný and Piero Meriggi in 1934, Helmuth Theodor Bossert in 1942 and M. Kalaç in 1976, among others . John David Hawkins included the inscription in his Corpus of Hieroglyphic Luwian Inscriptions in 2000 . Horst Ehringhaus finally described the monument in 2014 in his collection of Hittite rock reliefs and inscriptions.

description

The inscription is carved on a smooth rock face facing east-southeast at a height of 1.30 meters. The five lines are separated by horizontal lines. The entire text is 1.10 meters high, the bottom three lines 1.90 and the top two 1.43 meters long. It begins at the top right and is written boustrophedon . The signs are washed out by the weather, but still largely legible.

In the text, the ruler Tarhunaza, son of Tarhuwara, introduces himself as a servant of King Warpalawas of Tabal. He reports that he received the divine Muti Mountains from him, which can probably be identified with the Bolkar Dağları. With the help of the gods Tarhunzas and Kubaba , it was profitable for him and his king. He ruled there fairly and with the grace of Runtiyas , the patron god of the wilderness, hunted wild animals for his master. This in turn sold him wagons for the mules. This is followed by the instruction for future rulers to sacrifice sheep to the gods annually, and finally the usual curse formula against those who violate this treaty:

“ ... that person should destroy Tarḫunza and the gods, namely Arma should touch him, Nikkarruḫa eat him, Kubaba him .... "

The author Tarhunaza was the sovereign of the area around Tunna (Porsuk Hüyük). The Assyrian King Shalmaneser III. speaks in various annals of Mount Mūli and Mount Tunni, which, according to today's view, are to be equated with the Muti, i.e. the Bolkar Dağları and its highest elevation Mededsiz Tepesi , on the one hand, and the Zeyvegediği near Porsuk on the other. Since the reign of Warpalawas is known to be around 740 to 705, the inscription can date to the late 8th century BC. To be dated.

literature

• Eberhard P. Rossner: Rock monuments in Turkey. Volume 1: The Hittite rock reliefs in Turkey. An archaeological guide. 2nd, expanded edition. Rossner, Munich 1988, ISBN 3-924390-02-9 , pp. 119-118.
• John David Hawkins : Corpus of Hieroglyphic Luwian Inscriptions. Vol. I: Inscriptions of the Iron Age. Part 2: text. Amuq, Aleppo, Hama, Tabal, Assur Letters, Miscellaneous, Seals, Indices. Part 3: Plates. (= Studies in Indo-European Language and Culture 8). de Gruyter, Berlin et al. 2000, ISBN 3-11-010864-X , pp. 521-525.
• Horst Ehringhaus : The end that was a beginning - rock reliefs and rock inscriptions of the Luwian states of Asia Minor from 12th to 8th/7 Century BC Chr. Nünnerich-Asmus, Mainz 2014, ISBN 978-3-943904-67-3 , pp. 66–71.

Web links

• Hittitemonuments.com

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b} W. G. Ramsay, DG Hogarth: Pre-Hellenic Monuments of Cappadocia In: Recueil de travaux relatif à la philologie et à l'archéologie Egyptiennes et Assyriennes XIV (1893) p. 85 plate II.
2. ↑ Edwin John Davis: Life in Asiatic Turkey: a Journal of Travel in Cilicia (Pedias and Trachoea), Isauria, and Parts of Lucaonia and Cappadocia , 1879 London pp. 221–223 ( digitized version )
3. ^ Benson Brush Charles: Hittite Inscriptions ( Cornell Expedition to Asia Minor ). Ithaca / New York 1911, p. 22.
4. ^ John Garstang: The Land of the Hittites , London 1910 pp. 189-190
5. ↑ German translation quoted from Horst Ehringhaus: The end that was a beginning. Rock reliefs and rock inscriptions of the Luwian states of Asia Minor from 12. to 8./7. Century BC Chr. Nünnerich-Asmus, Mainz 2014, ISBN 978-3-943904-67-3 , p. 69.