Rock inscription on Suratkaya

Coordinates: 37 ° 30 ′ 32 "  N , 27 ° 40 ′ 46"  E

Suratkaya​

Turkey

The rock inscription at Suratkaya is an inscription in Luwian hieroglyphics from the time of the Hittite Empire on Mount Suratkaya ( Turkish for face rock ) in the east of the Beşparmak Dağları , the ancient Latmos Mountains, in western Turkey .

Location and discovery

East of Lake Bafa , a pass leads north over the Latmos, which is now called Anadol Gecidi . Since in ancient times the lake was part of the Aegean Sea as the Gulf of Latvia, this road represented the connection from Miletus in the west to the north of Asia Minor and to Caria . This pass, which was already used in ancient times and is followed by a modern road, leads through the Place Sakarkaya in today's Milas district of the Turkish province of Muğla . At the place another ancient pass road branches off to the east, still partly recognizable today, called Yaylacık Beleni in Turkish , which led on to Alinda and Alabanda . In the northern corner between the two pass paths, about three kilometers from both, there is a prominent rock overhang on the eastern slope of Suratkaya, under which the inscription is located.

The German archaeologist Anneliese Peschlow-Bindokat , who has been researching prehistoric and early historical evidence in the Latmos Mountains since 1994 and, among other things, found the rock paintings in the Latmos Mountains , discovered the Luwian inscription in 2000 as part of her work and recognized its meaning. With the support of the ancient orientalist Suzanne Herbordt , who took over the reading of the hieroglyphs, she published the inscription in 2001 and 2002.

description

The area on which the inscription is attached faces north-south and measures about 12 meters in width and 3.60 meters in height. The inscription facing east is only faintly carved into the rock. Since it is protected by the overhang, it is still quite well preserved except for one breakout below the first group of characters. It does not represent a coherent text, but consists of six groups of hieroglyphics, which are labeled 1–6 from left to right. The first, incomplete group speaks of a man from the land of Mira . The next give the names and titles of various princes that are not known from any other documents. Group 5 can be assumed to be the most important personality due to its size and its central arrangement. Its structure is similar to the well-known king cartouches of other inscriptions, with the title double and mirror-inverted enclosing the name of the person. Unusually, the aforementioned is referred to here as the Grand Prince , an otherwise unknown title. Herbordt reads the name as ku-pa-i (a) , i.e. Kupaya. In it she suspects a short form of Kupanta-Kuruntija (also Kupantakurunta ), who is known as the son of King Mašḫuiluwa of Mira . By titling it as the Grand Prince, the inscription would be dated from the end of the 14th century to the beginning of the 13th century BC. Given that Kupantakurunta was then appointed by the Hittite great king Muršili II as king and successor to his father.

While the phonetic value of the first and last character ( ku and i (a) ) are considered certain, that of the middle character is unclear. Rostislav Oreshko considers the reading Herbordt as pa to be very dubious, since it shows great differences to a character that can be clearly read as pa in character group 2 . Instead he recognizes similarities to a character that appears on the graffiti of Malkaya (after Laroche character * 324). Its sound value is also unclear, but it only occurs in connection with a name. Lycian names beginning with ku or -i, -ya or -zidi are common, but only the names Kuniya-zidi and Kukunni are known in combination , which would mean that the middle character has the sound value kuni (ya) that could not yet be assigned to a character. Kuk (k) unni is an Anatolian name and its most famous bearer was that for the second half of the 14th century BC. Kukkunni of Wiluša attested . The name can also be understood in Lycian , at least in the at least related female form xuxune . The name Cyknos, a mythical ruler in the Troad, is also believed to be a Greek form of the Anatolian name Kukkunni. Orshenko stresses, however, that his reading is only an option that should be used with caution.

Suzanne Herbordt concludes from naming a "man of the land of Mira" in group 1 of the Suratkaya inscriptions that the Latmos belonged to Mira at least up to this place, the northern border of which is marked by the rock relief of Karabel . However, Herbordt's reading and especially its conclusion are controversial. Whether the inscription served as a border marker is speculative, as the course of the western border to Millawanda (most likely Miletus) is not certain. However, the inscription provides further evidence that Luwish was at least understood in western Anatolia during this period .

literature

• Anneliese Peschlow-Bindokat, Suzanne Herbordt: A Hittite grand prince inscription from the Latmos. In: Archäologischer Anzeiger , 2001, pp. 363–378.
• Anneliese Peschlow-Bindokat: The Hittites on the Latmos. In: Antike Welt , 2002, pp. 211–215.
• Horst Ehringhaus : Gods, rulers, inscriptions - the rock reliefs of the Hittite empire in Turkey. Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 2005, ISBN 3-8053-3469-9 , pp. 91-94.
• Rostislav Oreshko: Hieroglyphic Luwian Inscriptions of Western Anatolia. Long Arm of the Empire or Vernacular Tradition (s)? In: Alice Mouton, Ian C. Rutherford , Ilya S. Yakubovich (Eds.): Luwian identities. Culture, language and religion between Anatolia and the Aegean. ISBN 978-90-04-25279-0 pp. 345–420 (especially pp. 346–368), Brill, Leiden – Boston 2013.

Web links

• Suratkaya at hittitemonuments.com

Remarks

1. ↑ The coordinates give the approximate location according to the description at Peschlow-Bindokat.
2. ↑ Oreshko 2013, p. 355 ff.
3. ↑ Oreshko 2013, p. 355: "However, the identification of the second sign as <pa> is highly dubious",
4. ↑ Oreshko 2013, p. 355 f.
5. ↑ Oreshko 2013, p. 356.
6. ↑ Sedat Alp : The hieroglyphic seal of Troy and its meaning. In: Gernot Wilhelm : Files of the IV. International Congress for Hittitology: Würzburg, 4.-8. October 1999 (= Studies on the Boğazköy Texts Volume 45). Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2001, p. 28 f.
7. ↑ Oreshko 2013, p. 356 f.
8. ↑ Oreshko 2013, p. 357. Already based on Wolfgang Röllig : Achaeans and Trojans in Hittite sources? In: Ingrid Gamer-Wallert (Ed.): Troia. Bridge between Orient and Occident. Attempto, Tübingen 1992, p. 194, the name still occurs in Lycian. See also Philo Hendrik Jan Houwink Ten Cate: The Luwian Population Groups of Lycia and Cilicia Aspera During the Hellenistic Period. Brill, Leiden 1961, p. 199.
9. ^ For the first time Paul Kretschmer : On the question of the Greek names in the Hittite texts. Glotta 18, 1930, p. 170. See also Wolfgang Röllig : Achaeans and Trojans in Hittite sources? In: Ingrid Gamer-Wallert (Ed.): Troia. Bridge between Orient and Occident. Attempto, Tübingen 1992, p. 193 f .; Martin Litchfield West : The Epic Cycle. A Commentary on the Lost Troy Epics. P. 116; Robert Louis Fowler: Early Greek Mythography. Volume 2: Commentary. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2013, pp. 534 f.
10. ↑ Oreshko 2013, p. 357.
11. ↑ s. this u. a. Max Gander: An alternative View on the Location of Arzawa. In. Alice Mouton (Ed.): Hittitology Today. Studies on Hittite and Neo-Hittite Anatolia in Honor of Emmanuel Laroche's 100th Birthday. 5 ^èmes Rencontres d'Archéologie de l'Iféa. Institut Français d'Études Anatoliennes Georges - Dumézil, 2017, p. 170 f. (with further documents)