Hatip rock relief

Hatip relief

with redrawing (after Ehringhaus)

Coordinates: 37 ° 45 ′ 52.5 ″  N , 32 ° 24 ′ 7.5 ″  E

Hatip​

Turkey

The Hatip rock relief is a Hittite relief from the time of the Hittite empire in central Turkey . It shows a male figure and an inscription in Luwian hieroglyphics .

location

To the west of the hamlet of Hatip in the Meram district of the provincial capital Konya , a long rock barrier stretches from north to south. At the western edge of the village it forms a semicircle, about in the middle of which several streams arise at its foot. In the 15–20 meter high cliff there is the relief at a height of about five meters. Trout breeding ponds and a restaurant were built in front of the rock face in the 1990s. The rock relief between trees can be seen from their terrain.

Research history

In the course of the construction of the concrete basin for fish farming, vegetation was cleared from the area in front of the steep face around 1990. In 1993, Osman Ermişler, assistant at the Konya Museum, discovered the monument, after which a short message appeared in a local newspaper. The following year, the Turkish ancient historian Hasan Bahar from the Selçuk Üniversitesi in Konya examined the place. He published the first report on it in 1996. For the reading of the inscription, the Hittitologists Ali M. Dinçol and Belkis Dinçol from the University of Istanbul were called in , who also published various articles on the relief and the hieroglyphic text. In 2005 the German architect Horst Ehringhaus published a detailed description with photos in his book on Hittite rock reliefs.

description

Location on the steep slope

At a height of five meters above the ground is the roughly smoothed, east-facing area about five meters wide and two meters high. The right side bears the relief, the left the text. Since the area is interrupted by a few cracks in the rock and also has a slight kink, the image can only be seen in very favorable lighting. The right side shows a life-size male figure, turned to the right. She wears warrior clothing, known from many pictures, with a short skirt and pointed shoes, on her head a pointed hat with two barely recognizable horns in front. On the face, the ear with the large earring is particularly easy to see, behind it the drooping hair. The figure is armed with a sword - unusually on the right side of the body - the outstretched left hand holds a lance reaching down to the ground, the right the bow hanging over the shoulder.

In the left part you can see the inscription to the relief, which can be read from right to left. She describes the portrayed as Kurunta , great king, [hero], Muwatalli , the great king, the hero's son. Kurunta was one of the sons of the great king Muwatalli II. After his death, his son Urḫi-Teššup was first under the throne name Muršili III. his successor until he was by Ḫattušili III. , a brother of Muwatalli, was deposed. This set Kurunta, a younger brother of Urḫi-Teššup, as king of the Tarḫuntašša region in southern Anatolia. Ḫattušilis son and successor Tudḫaliya IV. Concluded a state treaty with Kurunta, which assured him the rule over Tarḫuntašša. A cuneiform version of this treaty is preserved on bronze tablets found in Ḫattuša , the capital of the Hittite Empire. In the later reign of Tudḫaliyas or his successor Arnuwanda III. Kurunta seized the rule in Ḫattuša for a short time, which is why he is dubbed the great king in the relief discussed, a title that was only due to the ruler of the Hittite Empire. The relief marks the border between the Hittite heartland and Tarḫuntašša.

Ehringhaus recognizes traces of intentional damage in the volute of the Great King's sign with the name Kuruntas, which means MAGNUS (large) . He sees in it parallels to the erased second relief on Sirkeli Höyük , which possibly also showed Kurunta. Ali M. Dinçol is of the opinion that this and similar warrior reliefs do not show the ruler named in the inscription, but a deity in an apotropaic , i.e. disaster-protecting function. However, since the apotropaic figure here turns to the land to be protected, the interpretation as improbable is mostly rejected.

literature

• Hasan Bahar: A new Hittite monument in Konya-Hatip In: Arkeoloji ve Sanat 73, 1996, pp. 6-7.
• Ali M. Dinçol: The discovery of the rock monument in Hatip and its effects on the historical and geographical questions of the Hittite Empire In: Türkiye Bilimler Akademisi arkeoloji dergisi 1 (1998) pp. 27–35.
• Horst Ehringhaus: gods, rulers, inscriptions. The rock reliefs of the Hittite Empire in Turkey. Zabern, Mainz 2005, ISBN 3-8053-3469-9 , pp. 101-107.

Web links

Commons : Hatip rock relief  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Hatip at hittitemonuments.com