Fist vessel in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

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Front of the fist vessel with musicians and staff bearers
Reverse with the weather god and the liberating King Tudḫaliya

The fist vessel is a Hittite cult vessel made of silver that was used for libations . It can go back to the 14th century BC. And shows a Hittite sacrificial ceremony for the weather god in a picture frieze . The vessel is in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston , which is why it is also known as the Boston Fist .

Finding circumstances

The circumstances of the find of the hand vessel are unknown. It was acquired by a private collector in 1976 and loaned to the Museum of Fine Arts in 1977. The fist was poorly preserved before the restoration in 1990 and consisted of thirteen more or less heavily corroded parts. The collector donated it to the museum in 2004.

description

Dimensions, material, design

The vessel is the size and shape of a man's fist and was made from sheet silver . In length, from the opening to the thumb, it measures 16.3 cm, the circumference of the oval opening is 28 cm. The sacrificial vessel has no support surface, so that the sacrificial liquid had to be completely emptied or drunk during libation . The vessel originally had a handle, which has not been preserved. The fist is worked out very close to nature, even the veins are stylized. The fist grasps an indefinable object, the visible end of which was designed as a rosette .

Relief tape

Around the opening there is a 28 millimeter wide framed relief band depicting a victim scene. The ribbon begins with the depiction of a bearded god swinging a club in his right hand and holding reins in his left hand with which he leads a bull, of which only the rear part has been preserved. In front of it there is an offering table (altar) with offerings on it. The king stands in front of this and pours a sacrificial potion from a vessel on the floor. As a token of his power, he holds a lituus . There are Luwian hieroglyphs between the king's head and the altar , which can be clearly read as “Tudḫaliya, Great King”. Behind the king there is a bird on the ground. Behind it you can see parts of a kneeling man holding a vessel towards the king. Most of this figure is lost. Behind him follows a standing man with an offering bread in his hand. Then musicians join in: two men who play the small Ištar instrument , a kind of lyre, and a man who strikes a pair of cymbals . Behind this stands a man with a stick in his hands. Then comes the depiction of a divine being, which iconographically resembles the depiction of a mountain god. This one has a beard and a leafy hairstyle and it seems to be clapping its hands. The lower part of the divine being symbolically represents a mountain according to popular interpretation or, according to Hans Gustav Güterbock, a bush or a tree. At the end of the scene, which could also represent the beginning, there is a tower-like structure made of masonry with eleven layers of stone on which there are objects that cannot be determined.

interpretation

Fist symbolism

Fists and fists are attested several times: silver for the weather god, for the battle god Zababa and for the unknown deity Karmaḫili, gold for Teššub , iron for Šauška , and finally a cedar fist .

In Hittite art, men and women are often depicted with fists, a gesture whose symbolism is unknown. The men have both fists clenched, unless they are holding an object in one hand, with one fist held over the chest. In women, only one hand is shown as a fist, while the other hand is slightly open and points upwards, with the thumb and index finger pointing towards the mouth.

Victim scene

The sacrificed god can be identified as the weather god Tarḫunna on the basis of the bull and the club . The depicted libation with bread offering and musicians is typical of many Hittite rituals and is described many times in Hittite texts. According to Hans Gustav Güterbock, the kneeling man behind the king can be interpreted as the “cupbearer of the kneeling down”, who hands over the sacrificial liquid to the king, while the second man hands over the sacrificial bread to him. Musical accompaniment is also well attested for Hittite sacrificial rituals. According to Güterbock's interpretation, the man with the staff could be the "staff bearer", who led the victims and assigned them their places.

The interpretation of the divine being and the tower-like structure, on the other hand, cause difficulties. According to Güterbock, this being could be a god of vegetation or a deified tree. He interprets the masonry behind it as a kind of altar with offerings on it. Timothy Kendall, on the other hand, saw in it the tower of a city and the divine being as a mountain overgrown with trees, past which the procession passes.

Since stylized plants are increasingly interspersed in the scene, the depicted sacrificial scene seems to take place outdoors between flowering vegetation. In connection with the interpretation of the divine being as the god of vegetation, a reference to a spring festival is conceivable. Güterbock refers to the 14th and 15th day of the AN.TAḪ.ŠUM festival . On these days, sacrifices were made to the ḫuwaši stele of the weather god near a boxwood grove , which was located in a tarnu house. Savaş Özkan Savaş relates the sacrificial scene directly to the AN.TAḪ.ŠUM festival and interprets the plants as AN.TAḪ.ŠUM plants, which are an indefinable bulbous plant . He interprets the mountain god-like figure as the deified boxwood grove and the tower-like building as the tarnu house, which, according to him, was a "rotunda".

Monika Schuol considers that the ornate and valuable cult vessel must have belonged to an important temple. Since the weather god and a mountain god stand next to each other on the vessel, it makes sense to think of the important cult of the weather god of Zippalanda , who was worshiped together with the mountain god Taḫa . This mountain god also had his own festival of sacrifices, including a spring festival. The holy mountain Taḫa stood at the cult city Zippalanda and several sacrificial feasts were performed on this in honor of the weather god of Zippalanda and the mountain god. It fits that the victim scene on the fist apparently takes place in the open air. According to Schuol, the wall construction on the cult vessel could represent a cult building on the mountain, for example the "gate of the god Taḫa" called in Hittite ritual texts. There is also literary evidence of a ritual fist fight in front of the cult stele of the mountain god Taḫa. The man with the staff on the fist could not be precisely identified, since wands played a diverse role in the Hittite cult. The “man of the weather god” attested in the cult of Zipplanda, who could also appear with a staff, would be conceivable. Schuol also quotes a Hittite text that goes well with the picture scene:

"When the king arrives at the cult site of Mount Daḫa,
the king in turn begins to sacrifice.
He offers two (gods) in turn: The weather god of Zippalanda
and Mount Daḫa, they drink.
The priest singers play the little lyre. "
KUB XX 96 Vs. III 12′ – 16 ′

Chronological order

The pictures on the fist vessel show striking parallels to the reliefs by Alaca Höyük , such as the depiction of the plants and details of the men's costume and can therefore be dated back to the late 15th or 14th century BC. To be dated. The king's costume and the lack of a name cartouche make identification with King Tudḫaliya IV (1236–1215 BC) unlikely. Therefore, the fist vessel can best be attributed to the Hittite kings Tudḫaliya II. (Approx. 1375–1355 BC) or Tudḫaliya III. (around 1355 BC).

See also

literature

  • Hans Gustav Güterbock & Timothy Kendall: A Hittite Silver Vessel in the Form of a Fist ; in: Jane B. Carter et al .: The Ages of Homer: A Tribute to Emily Townsend Vermeule . Pp. 45-60. University of Texas Press, Austin 1995. ISBN 0-292-71169-7
  • Monika Schuol : Considerations on a Hittite vessel in the form of a clenched fist , in: Old Oriental Research . Volume 31, Issue 2, 2004, pp. 320–339.
  • Savaş Özkan Savaş: The Fist of the Storm God and the 'Rundbau = É tarnu -structure' ; in: Studi micenei ed egeo-anatolici 50 (2008) 657–680. ISSN 1126-6651.
  • Volkert Haas : History of the Hittite religion (= Handbook of Oriental Studies . Volume 1.15). Brill, Leiden 1994, ISBN 978-90-04-09799-5 . P. 526f.

Web links

Commons : Vessel in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Güterbock, Kendall: A Hittite Silver Vessel in the Form of a Fist , p. 45ff.
  2. ↑ Volkert Haas: History of the Hittite Religion P. 526.
  3. ^ Güterbock, Kendall: A Hittite Silver Vessel in the Form of a Fist , pp. 45, 59.
  4. ↑ Güterbock, Kendall: A Hittite Silver Vessel in the Form of a Fist , pp. 47–54, with photographs and drawings.
  5. ↑ Monika Schuol: Considerations on a Hittite vessel in the form of a clenched fist , p. 322f.
  6. ^ Savaş: The Fist of the Storm God and the 'Rundbau = É tarnu -structure' ; Pp. 658-663
  7. ↑ Güterbock, Kendall: A Hittite Silver Vessel in the Form of a Fist , p. 55.
  8. ↑ Güterbock, Kendall: A Hittite Silver Vessel in the Form of a Fist , p. 51.
  9. ↑ Volkert Haas: History of the Hittite Religion P. 526
  10. ^ Güterbock, Kendall: A Hittite Silver Vessel in the Form of a Fist , p. 52.
  11. ↑ Güterbock, Kendall: A Hittite Silver Vessel in the Form of a Fist , p. 53
  12. ↑ a b Güterbock, Kendall: A Hittite Silver Vessel in the Form of a Fist , p. 54.
  13. ↑ Güterbock, Kendall: A Hittite Silver Vessel in the Form of a Fist , p. 53.
  14. ↑ Güterbock, Kendall: A Hittite Silver Vessel in the Form of a Fist , p. 59.
  15. ^ Savaş: The Fist of the Storm God and the 'Rundbau = É tarnu -structure' ; Pp. 665, 668-670.
  16. ↑ Monika Schuol: Considerations on a Hittite vessel in the form of a clenched fist , p. 325.
  17. ↑ Monika Schuol: Considerations on a Hittite vessel in the form of a clenched fist , pp. 328–333, 336f.
  18. ↑ a b Monika Schuol: Considerations on a Hittite vessel in the form of a clenched fist , p. 335f.
  19. ↑ Güterbock, Kendall: A Hittite Silver Vessel in the Form of a Fist , p. 56f.