Arslan Tash

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Coordinates: 36 ° 50 ′ 56 ″  N , 38 ° 24 ′ 28 ″  E

Relief Map: Syria
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Arslan Tash​
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Syria
Warrior, orthostat made of basalt from the second half of the 8th century BC BC, found in Arslan Tash, Louvre , Paris

Arslan Tash or Arslan Tasch ( Turkish Arslan Taş , lion's stone , also Arslantaş and Aslantaş ) is an archaeological site in northern Syria . The complex got its name because there were two lion reliefs on both its west and east gate. In ancient times the place was called Hadatu ( Aramaic Hadattu , the new one).

location

Arslan Tash is located 9 kilometers southwest of Ain al-Arab in the village of Shiran , ( Arabic شيران). Five kilometers to the north is the border with Turkey and 35 kilometers southwest of the excavation site of Til Barsip . On the road to Helinge , west of the village, there are now reconstructions of the lion reliefs on both sides of the road.

exploration

Arslan Tash was first described by western travelers in the 19th century. The Indian infantry officer Lieutenant RB Lynch discovered the two basalt lion reliefs in 1836 and the Royal Navy officer Lieutenant Henry Eden made a drawing of a lion. In 1883 the archaeologist Eckhard Unger visited the site and photographed it for the first time. In the same year, the Turkish archaeologist Osman Hamdi Bey had orthostat reliefs brought from the west gate to Istanbul . These are now exhibited in the Istanbul Archaeological Museum .

In 1884 the Wolfe expedition , funded by Catharine Lorillard Wolfe , paid a visit to Arslan Tash. Albert T. Olmstead followed between 1904 and 1908, Max von Oppenheim in 1912 , Arnold Nöldeke in June 1917 , Paul Perdrizet in 1925 and finally the French archaeologist François Thureau-Dangin in May 1927 . In the following year he carried out excavations there in two campaigns from March 13 to June 2 and from September 27 to December 21 and discovered the city wall with three gates, the Ištar temple and the palace. The finds are now in the Louvre .

In 1933 the French archaeologist Robert du Mesnil du Buisson bought the two Arslan Tash amulets from a farmer in Arslan Tash , which date from the 7th to 6th centuries BC, but some scholars doubt their authenticity.

description

Arslan Tash was 560 meters from north to south and 728 meters from west to east. The city wall was made of adobe bricks and rested on a stone foundation. It ran in an oval around the city and was 4 meters thick. So far, three gates have been identified in the north, west and east. The west and east gates were flanked by lions and had a double row of orthostats. The lions at the west gate were broken and the fragments were scattered over a large area. The lion reliefs that stood south of the two gates were brought to ar-Raqqa and are now in ar-Raschid garden . The lion reliefs were destroyed by ISIS terrorists in April 2014 . The lion reliefs that stood north of the two gates and individual fragments of all lion reliefs are now in the Aleppo National Museum . More fragments can now be seen in the museum of ar-Raqqa. All the lions had a trilingual inscription in Aramaic , Assyrian cuneiform and hieroglyphic Luwish , which reported the construction of the city wall.

Private rooms in the palace of Arslan Tash

In the center on the highest elevation there was a palace and to the east of it the Bâtiment aux ivoires ( French for 'ivory building'), a small palace in which many ivory carvings were found. The throne room and living quarters of the palace were decorated with wall paintings. Inside the city wall there was also a temple area for the goddess Ištar . The entrance to the temple was flanked by bull reliefs, which were also provided with inscriptions. Later, a temple from the Hellenistic era was located in Arslan Tash .

history

As early as the 9th century BC At the time of Shalmaneser III. there was the place Hadattu, which was probably on the Assyrian royal road that led from Assyria to Carchemish . During this time, the Bâtiment aux ivoires and the orthostats of the east gate with bulls were built. Ivory carvings with the name of Hazael of Damascus were found , which are interpreted as parts of a bed frame and were probably brought here after the sacking of Damascus . During the first half of the 8th century BC, the Assyrian general Šamši-ilu had the city wall and the Ištar temple built by the governor of Kar-Salmanassur Ninurta-bel-uṣur, the lion reliefs also date to this time.

After the reorganization of the provinces by Tiglat-Pileser III. Hadattu belonged to Harran Province. The construction of the great palace complex and the bull sculptures of the Ištar temple, which are dated to the year 736 BC, in which the governor Ninurta-ilija led the eponymate , falls under his government .

The most recent Assyrian finds date from the reign of Sargon II , but after that the place seems to have continued to be inhabited, as the existence of the Hellenistic temple suggests.

literature

Web links

Commons : Arslan Tash  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Edward Lipinsky: The Aramaeans: Their Ancient History, Culture, Religion. Leuven 2000, ISBN 90-429-0859-9 , p. 170 ( online ).
  2. ^ John David Hawkins: Corpus of hieroglyphic Luwian inscriptions. Volume 1, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-11-010864-X , p. 226 ( online )
  3. ^ Robert Rollinger, Christoph Ulf: Commerce and Monetary Systems in the Ancient World. Means of Transmission and Cultural Interaction. December 2004, ISBN 3-515-08379-0 , p. 444 ( online )
  4. ^ Francis Rawdon Chesney : The expedition for the survey of the rivers Euphrates and Tigris. Carried on by the order of the British Government. London 1850, pp. 114–115 ( online )
  5. ↑ Eckhard Unger: The reliefs Tiglatpileser III. from Arslan Tasch. With 2 illustrations and 12 plates. Ahmed Ihsan & Co., Constantinople 1925.
  6. ^ William Hayes Ward : Report on the Wolfe expedition to Babylonia, 1884-85. Boston 1886, p. 11 ( online ).
  7. ^ American School of Classical Studies at Athens : An epigraphical journey in Asia Minor. Boston 1888, p. 299 ( online )
  8. ↑ Lilith Prophylactic from Arslan Tash
  9. ↑ Ar-Rashid-Garten at facebook.com with photo of the lion reliefs
  10. ↑ Pictures of the destroyed relief on Facebook