İnandık vase
The so-called İnandıkvase is a Hittite cult vessel found in İnandıktepe in Turkey from the end of the 17th century BC. And comes from a local temple. It is now on display at the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara . It has a relief and painted surface. The pictures show an old Ethite festival ritual with sacrificial and music scenes. The vase is thus an important testimony to Hittite religion and Hittite music . Comparable vases come from Hüseyindede , Eskiyapar and Bitik . Only fragments of the latter two have survived.
Description and interpretation
The 82 cm high ornate vessel shows four relief strips. According to Volkert Haas' interpretation, the lowest register shows the preparations for a festive ritual. Two men are sitting opposite each other at a small table or altar, making a libation , in front of them is a musician playing a lyre , followed by a large stand lyre which is played by two musicians at the same time. Another musician plays a lute. In the second frieze a man is libelling in front of a seated person, behind him are a lyre player and a child. To the right of this, several people with offerings are moving towards a bull standing on a pedestal. This is likely to represent the local weather god . In front of this, the chef slaughters a bull, as described in the Hittite rituals. Accordingly, the man standing behind him should be the king, followed by a lyre player. In the third register, two women playing pelvis and a lyre player as well as various cult functionaries approach a couple, possibly the royal couple, who are sitting on a lounger . In front of it are an altar and a pedestal with small statuettes. On the top frieze, a couple, probably the royal couple, performs the sexual act, presumably the hieros gamos . This ceremony is also accompanied by music, a lute, a lyre and four women with cymbals, and two acrobatic dancers are shown. All parts of the event are well documented in Hittite cult descriptions with the exception of the sexual act.
While Volkert Haas (not attested) part of the celebrated in the spring to Hieros Gamos as purulliya -Festes want to consider suggested HA Hoffner the scene as an ordinary wedding. Maciej Popko also doubts the interpretation as a holy wedding .
The İnandık vase
Drawing of the representations on the vase
Web links
literature
- Ekrem Akurgal : The Art of the Hittites . Munich, Hirmer 1961.
- Volkert Haas : History of the Hittite religion (= Handbook of Oriental Studies . Volume 1.15). Brill, Leiden 1994, ISBN 978-9-004-09799-5 . Pp. 523-524
- Maciej Popko : Religions of Asia Minor . Warsaw 1995. ISBN 83-86483-18-0 .