Malpınar rock relief

Coordinates: 37 ° 30 ′ 40.1 ″  N , 38 ° 8 ′ 58 ″  E

Malpınar​

Turkey

The rock relief of Malpınar , also Malpınarı , is a late Hittite monument with an inscription in Luwian hieroglyphics from the 8th century BC. In south-east Turkey . It has been sinking in the water of the Göksu river, which was dammed up to form the Burç Bendi reservoir , since the beginning of the 2010s .

location

The relief is located near the hamlet of Malpınar, seven kilometers west of the village of Kuyulu in the central district of Adıyaman province and about 30 kilometers southwest of the provincial capital. A few kilometers further south towards the mouth of the Göksu into the Euphrates are the remains of a bridge from Roman times . It was part of the military route from Zeugma to Samosata , the capital of the Kommagene empire in the 2nd century BC. At the time the rock relief was created, the latter corresponds roughly to the late Hittite kingdom of Kummuh , whose capital was probably also Samosata, then Kummaha. 7.5 kilometers to the west is the burial mound of Sesönk from the time around the birth of Christ. To the west of Malpınar the rock breaks off steeply to the river, at the foot of the steep face the relief was near the bank, but is now covered by the reservoir. About 25 meters downstream, a spring rises in a grotto that gave the place its name (Malpınar, Turkish for cattle spring ).

Research history

The rock relief was discovered in September 1979 by the Turkish Hittite scientist Mustafa Kalaç and his students Selahattin Aksu and Hüseyin Sayıcı as part of the Lower Euphrates Survey of the Technical University of the Middle East (METU) in Ankara . They made photographs and latex copies . Kalaç published the first report in 1979 in the Lower Euphrates Project Publications of the METU, another publication followed in 1989 together with the British Hittite scientist John David Hawkins . Hawkins included the inscription in his Corpus of hieroglyphic Luwian inscriptions in 2000 , making some improvements in the reading of the text. Finally, Horst Ehringhaus described the place in 2014 in his volume on the rock reliefs of the Luwian states of Asia Minor .

description

The inscription and the relief are placed in a rectangular niche carved into the rock, 1.80 meters wide and 0.90 meters high. On the right, close to the edge, a 0.80 meter high male figure is depicted, which extends into the top line of text and slightly protrudes above the text below. She strides to the right and is dressed in the Assyrian style with a long robe with a fringed hem that extends over the ankles. The presumably bearded figure wears a high headgear on its head. The hair is tied in a bun at the nape of the neck. Details of the clothing cannot be seen due to the weathering. One arm, probably the right one, is stretched forward and holds a long stick with a knob that reaches to the floor, probably a symbol of a ruler. The other is angled up and the hand is pointing to the mouth. Thus, according to Hawkins, it resembles the amu-figure, with amu denoting the EGO sign ("I") of the Luwian hieroglyphs, with which numerous texts are introduced.

The six-line text begins in the top right corner and runs in a bustrophedon shape to the bottom right. In each line a few characters are written to the right of the figure. Parts of the inscription have been lost through a 0.40 × 0.60 meter hole in the left part in the area of ​​the last three lines and a smaller one above, the weathering also strongly affects the legibility in this section. The author, who is probably also the sitter, introduces himself as Atayazas, river lord of the cities of Sari (?) Ta and Sukita and as servant of King Hattusilis. In the further course of the text he gives regulations about sacrifices, including a sheep, that are to be offered to the "statue". This is followed by the usual blessings of the sun god for those who carry out and prepare these orders, as well as the threat of punishment for those who do not carry them out or hinder or destroy the image. The named king is likely to be Hattusili II, King of Kummuh and son of Suppiluliuma (ruled 805-773). Since another ruler of Kummuh, Kuštašpi, is known from Assyrian sources for 755–732, Hattusili's reign can be traced back to the second quarter of the 8th century BC. BC, which also gives the time of origin of the relief.

literature

• M. Kalaç, JD Hawkins: The Hieroglyphic Luwian Rock-Inscription of Malpınar. In: Anatolian Studies 39, 1989, pp. 107-112.
• John David Hawkins: Corpus of hieroglyphic Luwian inscriptions . Volume 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. 340-344, plates 166-168.
• 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. 101-105

Web links

• hittitemonuments.com

Individual evidence

1. ^ Translation after Hawkins and Kalaç, Frank Starke transfers the name to Ehringhaus as Alijazza .