Malkaya

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Coordinates: 39 ° 8 ′ 36.7 ″  N , 34 ° 0 ′ 48.1 ″  E

Relief Map: Turkey
marker
Malkaya
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Turkey
Malkaya from the southwest
View from the west with the inscriptions 3, 4 and 5 (from right to left)

Malkaya ( Turkish herd rock ) refers to an exposed stone west of Kırşehir in central Turkey , which bears inscriptions in Luwian hieroglyphics from the time of the Hittite Empire .

Research history

The rock was discovered in September 1947 by the German banker Hans von Aulock on a hunting trip. He made recordings of it and notified Hans Gustav Güterbock , who at the time was Professor of Hittology at Ankara University , of the find. Since - apart from a brief inner-university message - there was no publication by Güterbock, the German ancient orientalist Helmuth Theodor Bossert visited the site for the first time in 1950 as part of an investigation by the Stadthüyüks of Kırşehir. He made copies and published a short note in a travelogue from Anatolia . Since the photographs he created were not sufficient for publication, he traveled again to Kırşehir in July 1956 and subjected the stone to a more detailed examination, which he published in 1958. On the occasion he cleaned the stone from algae with the help of hydrochloric acid and brushes.

The Italian linguist Piero Meriggi wrote another review of the inscriptions in 1975 on the basis of photos. He was followed in 1988 by Eberhard Rossner in his archaeological guide to the Hittite rock reliefs in Turkey, in 2005 by the German architect Horst Ehringhaus and finally in 2008 by the British Hittite scientist John David Hawkins .

description

The inscription stone is twelve kilometers west of Kırşehir, in an open field about a hundred meters northeast of the road to Yağmurlukale. It is irregularly shaped, has a maximum diameter of about six meters and is significantly taller than a man. The surrounding, steppe-like land is not used for agriculture. Bossert believes it is possible that at the time the inscription was written in the 2nd millennium BC. Was wooded or that a road ran here. However, no traces of settlement have been found in the area, the next known settlement hill is the Stadthüyük of Kırşehir, which, according to Bossert, could accommodate an important Hittite city. A smaller hill near the village Sevdiğim to the south seems too insignificant to him.

There is no clarity about the order in which the signs are read, Hawkins names the individual inscriptions starting with inscription 1 on the south side, progressing clockwise with the missing inscription 2, the inscriptions 3 to 5 on the west side and ending with inscription 6 in the east. There are also some differences between the various editors about the cardinal points of the pages, Hawkins gives a brief overview. Parts of the scriptures have been destroyed by the action of treasure hunters. The lower half of inscription 1 is no longer legible due to the drill holes. A large explosive funnel can be seen on the top of the stone, the right half of the inscription 6 has also disappeared. Inscription 2, originally on the southwest side, Bossert could still read and mark on a blasted stone block, but Hawkins could no longer recognize it.

A coherent reading of the texts is not possible. A prince named x- ziti and his father (?) Ura-Tarhunda as well as a princess x- parinaia are mentioned several times , whom Bossert erroneously read as a prince. However, the father is not referred to as king, which is possible as it was common for court officials to bear the title of prince (REX.FILIUS) who were not the king's sons. The names mentioned appear on seals from Boğazköy ( Ḫattuša ), but never in a context that would allow an identity with the persons mentioned here. Nevertheless, due to the name as well as from a paleographical point of view, due to certain character shapes, the inscription is dated to the time of the Hittite Empire. Bossert settled in the 14th or 13th century BC. Chr. Firmly.

literature

  • H. Th. Bossert: The HH inscription from Malkaya In: Orientalia. Nova Series, Volume 24, Number 4, 1958, pp. 325-350.
  • 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. 136-140.
  • Horst Ehringhaus: gods, rulers, inscriptions. The rock reliefs of the Hittite Empire in Turkey. Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 2005, ISBN 3-8053-3469-9 , p. 83.
  • JD Hawkins, Mark Weeden: The Hieroglyphic Rock Inscription of Malkaya: A New Look. In: Anatolian Archaeological Studies , Volume 17, pp. 241-249.

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ^ H. Th. Bossert: Travel report from Anatolia. In: Orientalia. Nova Series, Volume 29, Number 4, 1950, pp. 506-507.
  2. Hawkins notes in a footnote on p. 241: We had difficulties taking a compass reading with a traditional compass on the site ourselves. The same thing happened to the author of this article. Hawkins' names are used in the article.