Karabel rock relief

Coordinates: 38 ° 22 ′ 14 "  N , 27 ° 27 ′ 21.5"  E

Carabel​

Turkey

Hittite rock relief of King Tarkasnawa, Turkey

The Hittite rock relief of Karabel is located on the pass of the same name between Torbalı and Kemalpaşa , about 25 km east of İzmir in Turkey.

Until the pass road was expanded between 1977 and 1982, the memorial consisted of four parts, two rulers carved into the rock (carabels A and B) and two inscriptions on exposed boulders (carabels C ₁ and C ₂ ). Except for Karabel A, the monument has been removed. The relief (carabel A) shows a warrior walking to the right with a bow in his right hand and a spear in his left hand. Luwian hieroglyphs are placed over the left arm . The relief is 1.5 by 2.5 meters.

Research history

Herodotus thought the figure was the Egyptian Pharaoh Sesostris . The relief was visited in 1839 by the French traveler Charles Texier , who described it in 1862. He was followed by Karl Richard Lepsius in 1840 , both of whom stuck to the Egyptian interpretation. Only Heinrich Kiepert was able to refute this in 1843 by comparing it with the reliefs of Yazılıkaya . After it later became apparent that it belonged to the Hittite culture, the place was visited and described by numerous scientists, including Kurt Bittel , Helmuth Theodor Bossert , Hans Gustav Güterbock , Ekrem Akurgal , Heinrich Otten and Annelies Kammenhuber .

Drawing by Charles Texier

interpretation

According to the latest findings, which have found consensus in research, it is Tarkasnawa , the king of the Hittite member state of Mira from the time of the Hittite empire (13th century BC). The inscription could be read by John David Hawkins in 1998 , it reads:

Tarkasnawa, king [of the land] Mira
son AVIS-li, king of the land Mira
grandson of ...., the king of the land Mira

From the name of the grandfather character track is just get Hawkins takes Kupanta- ^d KAL ( Kupantakurunta ) to. Even the reading of Alantalli, who as King of Mira is documented as a witness of the state treaty between him and Kurunta of Tarḫuntašša towards the beginning of the reign of the Hittite great king Tudḫalija IV , is not certain. Hawkins derives it from the recognizable characters AVIS (logogram in the shape of a bird) and li (the final syllable). The long-known silver so-called Tarkondemos seal of Tarkasnawa as well as other seal impressions that have recently been found in the Hittite capital Ḫattuša also come from Hawkins .

Web links

Commons : Karabel  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• www.hittitemonuments.com (English)

literature

• Birgit Brandau, Hartmut Schickert: Hittites, the unknown world power . Piper, Munich 2001. ISBN 3-492-04338-0
• J. David Hawkins: Tarkasnawa, King of Mira: 'Tarkondemos', Boğazköy sealings and Karabel , in: Anatolian Studies 48, 1998, pp. 1–31.
• Joachim Latacz : Troy and Homer. The way to solve an old riddle . Koehler-Amelang ⁵ 2005. ISBN 3-7338-0332-9

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hittitemonuments.com with pictures of the removed reliefs
2. ↑ The relief of Sesostris Historien des Herodotus 2.102-103, 106 (Engl.)
3. ^ Charles Texier. Asie mineure: description geographique, historique et archéologique des provinces et des villes de la Chersonnèse d'Asie . Didot frères, 1862
4. ↑ Horst Ehringhaus: Gods, Rulers, Inscriptions - The rock reliefs of the Hittite Empire in Turkey , von Zabern 2005 p. 90 ISBN 3-8053-3469-9
5. ^ J. David Hawkins: Tarkasnawa, King of Mira, Boğazköy sealings and Karabel. Anatolian Studies 48, 1998, pp. 1-31.
6. ↑ Hawkins 1998, p. 45; see also Jörg Klinger : The development of ruler genealogies among the Hittite great kings. In: Almut-Barbara Renger, Markus Witte (Ed.): Succession in Religions: Authorization, Legitimation, Knowledge Transfer. De Gruyter, Berlin / Boston 2017, p. 78, note 75, according to which the reading of the country's name Mira is also uncertain.
7. ↑ Hawkins 1998. pp. 2-4.