ḫuwaši stele
The ḫuwaši stele was a Hittite cult monument made of stone that could represent a deity or indicate their presence.
A ḫuwaši stele was an unworked or a more or less worked stone. Those made of wood or silver are also rarely mentioned. The ḫuwaši stele of the weather god of Watarwa was covered with tin and represented a man with a club. A silver ḫuwaši was decorated with the rays of the sun goddess . Reliefs or inscriptions could point to the deity worshiped as the ḫuwaši stele. Like statuettes of gods, these stelae were washed and anointed and sacrifices were made to them. A stele called “ ḫuwaši of the dog” marked the border of the country Tarḫuntašša .
In contrast to statuettes of gods, the ḫuwaši steles were mostly located outdoors in sacred groves, which were themselves called ḫuwaši . Most of them were in the great outdoors outside the city. It is not uncommon for several ḫuwaši steles to stand together, up to 32 are mentioned. Tudḫaliya IV ordered that fallen ḫuwaši steles be rebuilt and their neglected victims renewed. He had some replaced by statuettes.
A ḫuwaši sanctuary was excavated 2.5 kilometers south of the Hittite city of Šarišša . Texts from this city name the ḫuwaši steles of the weather god. Whether the Yazılıkaya rock shrine was also a ḫuwaši shrine is disputed.
literature
- Volkert Haas : History of the Hittite religion (= Handbook of Oriental Studies . Volume 1.15). Brill, Leiden 1994, ISBN 90-04-09799-6 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Astrid Nunn: Imagery and lack of images in the ancient Orient. In: Dahlia Shehata among other things: Of gods and people Of gods and people. Brill 2010, ISBN 978-90-04-18748-1 , pp. 140f.