Şırzı rock inscription

38.8785 37.913555555556Coordinates: 38 ° 52 '42.6 " N , 37 ° 54' 48.8" E

Şırzı

Inscription stone from the north

The Şırzı rock inscription is a late Hittite monument with an inscription in Luwian hieroglyphics in south-eastern central Turkey . It is assigned to the Kingdom of Melid and originated in the 8th century BC. Chr.

location

The stone block with the inscription is located on a slope above the village of Boğazgören (formerly Şırzı) in the Hekimhan district of Malatya province , about 800 meters south-southeast of the village at an altitude of 1445 meters above sea level. The slope is overgrown with bushes that are interspersed with rocks. In ancient times it was probably forested, the trees fell victim to the smelting of ores as fuel, which were mined in an area about 300 meters southwest of the inscription rock. However, the mining traces do not come from the Hittite, as initially assumed, but from Roman times. They are therefore not related to the inscription.

exploration

In 1937 a German engineer Müller reported the inscription to the ancient orientalist Benno Landsberger, who was teaching in Ankara , and gave him a recording, which, however, was unsuitable for publication. In the summer of 1946, an expedition made up of Landsberger, Hans Gustav Güterbock , Sedat Alp , Ekrem Akurgal and others set out and found the rock near what was then Şırzı. They drew and photographed the inscription and Güterbock and Alp published it in a publication from Ankara University . In 1952 and 1953 Helmuth Theodor Bossert and Mustafa Kalaç visited the site and created pictures, drawings and copies . They also discovered another part of the writing on the surface of the boulder, remains of walls in the area and the traces of the mine. Piero Meriggi visited Şırzı in the summer of 1962. Later reports were made by Eberhard Rossner in 1988 and Horst Ehringhaus in 2014. The British Hittitologist John David Hawkins included the inscription in his Corpus of Hieroglyphic Luwian Inscriptions in 2000 .

description

The boulder has a height of about 1.50 meters and a width of 2.50 meters. On the north-west facing, unsmoothed side surface four lines and on the surface another line of an inscription are carved. The writing on the side is relatively well preserved, while the line on the surface that is more exposed to the weather is in poor condition. The lines are to be read bustrophedon and separated by incised lines. The text begins with the introduction of the author:

Satiruntija, ruler of Malida, son of Saḫwis, the hero
Runtija's excellent servant, made [this] tarpamman of the wild field,
and I have always favored my lord Runtija of the wild field with cult deliveries.

This is followed by further, only partially legible indications of favor to Runtija as well as the usual curse formulas. Whoever destroys the tarpamman should punish Runtija himself, the destroyer of the inscription faces the punishment of Tarḫunza . The unknown word tarpamman probably describes a kind of place of worship for Runtija. Hawkins tentatively identifies the father of Satiruntija, Saḫwis, with Šahu, the father of Ḫilaruada , a king of Malida who lived around 780–760 BC. Ruled and is documented in Urartian sources. According to this, Satiruntija would be a brother of Ḫilaruada who ruled before or after him. Thus the inscription would be in the 8th century BC To date. Analyzes of the character shapes also speak for this dating.

View of the stone from the north
right part of the inscription
left part of the inscription
Surface from the south
Inscription on the surface

literature

Helmuth Theodor Bossert: The rock inscription from Şırzı In Archive for Orient Research, Volume 17 (1954–1956) P. 56–70 ( Online )
Eberhard P. Rossner: Rock monuments in Turkey. Volume 1: The Hittite rock reliefs in Turkey. An archaeological guide. 2nd, expanded edition. Rossner, Munich 1988, ISBN 3-924390-02-9 , pp. 194-197.
John David Hawkins: Corpus of hieroglyphic Luwian inscriptions . Vol 1. Inscriptions of the Iron Age . Part 1: Introduction, Karatepe, Karkamiš, Tell Ahmar, Maraş, Malatya, Commagene. de Gruyter, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-11-010864-X , pp. 322-324, plates 157-159.
Horst Ehringhaus: The end that was a beginning. Rock reliefs and rock inscriptions of the Luwian states of Asia Minor from 12. to 8./7. Century BC Chr. Nünnerich-Asmus, Mainz 2014, ISBN 978-3-943904-67-3 , pp. 90-94.

Web links

Commons : Şırzı - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

hittitemonuments.com

Individual evidence

^ Hans Gustav Güterbock, Sedat Alp: The Hittite Hieroglyphic Inscription of Şırzı In: Dil ve Tarih-Cografya Fakanschesi Dergisi 5/2 1947 Ankara Üniversitesi pp. 147–151 (Turkish), 152–158 (English).
↑ Helmuth Theodor Bossert: The rock inscription from Şırzı In Archive for Orient Research, Volume 17 (1954–1956) P. 56–70
^ Translation after Frank Starke , cf. Horst Ehringhaus: The end that was a beginning. Rock reliefs and rock inscriptions of the Luwian states of Asia Minor from 12. to 8./7. Century BC Chr. Nünnerich-Asmus, Mainz 2014, ISBN 978-3-943904-67-3 , pp. 92–93.

[1] Hans Gustav Güterbock, Sedat Alp: The Hittite Hieroglyphic Inscription of Şırzı In: Dil ve Tarih-Cografya Fakanschesi Dergisi 5/2 1947 Ankara Üniversitesi pp. 147–151 (Turkish), 152–158 (English).

[2] Helmuth Theodor Bossert: The rock inscription from Şırzı In Archive for Orient Research, Volume 17 (1954–1956) P. 56–70

[3] Translation after Frank Starke , cf. Horst Ehringhaus: The end that was a beginning. Rock reliefs and rock inscriptions of the Luwian states of Asia Minor from 12. to 8./7. Century BC Chr. Nünnerich-Asmus, Mainz 2014, ISBN 978-3-943904-67-3 , pp. 92–93.