Statue of Çineköy

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Statue of Çineköy in the Adana Museum
Frontal view

The çineköy inscription , because of the engraved thereon bilingual inscription often called Bilingue from Cineköy referred is the statue of a weather god on a chariot drawn by bulls car, found in the village Cineköy, about 30 km south of Adana in Cilicia in southern Turkey . It is now on display in the Adana Archaeological Museum .

Find

The sculpture was on 30 October 1997 by a farmer in the village Cineköy ( 36 ° 48 '  N , 35 ° 16'  O ) in the district of Yüreğir province Adana found during plowing. After notification of the competent authorities, İzmet İpek and A. Kazım Tosun carried out excavations on behalf of the Archaeological Museum of Adana, during which the statue of the god and the chariot with the bulls came to light in several parts. The statue, which was made of soft limestone , was taken to the museum on November 13th, and shortly afterwards the other parts made of basalt . They were restored under the direction of the Istanbul Central Restoration and Conservation Workshop and then exhibited in the museum. In the summer of 1998 the museum continued the excavations, but could not find any other parts of the work.

statue

The figure, carved from limestone, wears a headgear with tassels, including a circlet with two horns, which identifies it as a god. The long straight hair, the trimmed beard, eyes and ears are easy to see. The upper body is covered with a cape, the short sleeves close over the elbow. There is a belt around the hips that is attached to a band of fabric that extends from the left shoulder to the floor. The clothing below the hips is difficult to see. In front of the chest, the hands hold an object that cannot be interpreted, and in the right hand there are eight small holes that may have been used to attach another object.

The god stands on a chariot pulled by two bulls. These parts of the statue are made of basalt. The head of the bull on the left is broken off at the eyes, the rest including the yoke is well preserved. The right draft animal is missing except for a remnant of the left hind leg. The animals are shown in motion, muscles, veins, hooves, a long braided tail and other body parts are clearly visible. The wheels of the car had eight spokes, but only some of them have been preserved. The standing hole of the statue measures 40 × 40 cm and is 30 cm deep. Walls with three towers can be seen in front of the platform, which may symbolize the kingdom of Avarik, who is considered to be the author of the statue.

There is general agreement that the statue depicts the Luwian weather god Tarhunzas, who is mentioned several times in the Luwian text of the inscription. In the Phoenician part, as in the Karatepe bilingual , he is identified as Baal . The monument was created according to Neo-Hittite standards, but, according to Giovanni Lanfranchi, shows Assyrian influences in hair, beard and clothing.

inscription

Inscriptions in hieroglyphic Luwian and Phoenician are placed between the legs of the bulls and on the base plate , which form a bilingual . The author of the inscription is King Awariku (Urikki) of Qu'e (ruled 738–732 BC ), known from Assyrian scriptures . As usual in ancient oriental royal inscriptions, it consists of two parts, in the first the author is introduced and in the second he gives a report of his deeds.

First, Awarik - in the Luwian text Wariki, in Phoenician only the first letter W is preserved - introduces himself with his name, title and descent as well as with two epithets, which bring him in connection with the weather god Tarhunzas and the sun god. Like Azatiwada von Karatepe in the inscription there, he traces his descent back to the house of Muk (a) sas , in the Phoenician MPŠ , who is generally equated with the legendary Greek seer and city founder Mopsos . In the following text Awarik describes achievements and services to his country. He reports on the expansion of his kingdom and army as well as the progress that he has brought to the country with divine help. He praises the merging of Qu'e with the Assyrian Empire and boasts of the destruction and construction of fortresses in unnamed, distant areas.

The Kingdom of Qu'e roughly corresponds to the Kizzuwatna of the Hittite period and thus roughly to the flat Cilicia (Kilikia pedias) of the later period. It is the part of the Luwian Karatepe text Adanawa and the inhabitants in the Phoenician part, as well as here, denyen called. In the Luwian part of the Çineköy inscription, the land is referred to as Hijawa . This name is associated with the Aḫḫijavā , which appears frequently in Bronze Age Hittite texts , which is often, but not entirely undisputed, considered to be a Mycenaean empire (cf. the name Achaeans for the Greeks in Homer ). Equating Hijawa with Aḫḫijavā would support the thesis of a settlement of Greeks in Cilicia at the transition to the Iron Age, which Recai Tekoğlu and André Lemaire also represent. However, this equation is not without its problems.

  • Hieroglyphic inscription between the left legs of the left bull

  • Hieroglyphic inscription on the back of the car

  • Phoenician inscription on the front between the bulls

literature

  • Recai Tekoğlu, André Lemaire, İsmet İpek, A. Kazım Tosun: La bilingue royale louvito-phénicienne de Çineköy. In: Comptes-rendus des séances de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres , 144e année, N. 3, 2000. pp. 961-1007. ( Digitized version)
  • J. David Hawkins: The inscription of the Warikas from Hiyawa from Çineköy. In: Bernd Janowski, Gernot Wilhelm (ed.): Texts from the environment of the Old Testament, New Part 2: State treaties, rulers' inscriptions and other documents on political history. Gütersloh 2005, pp. 155–156. [Translation of the hieroglyphic Luwian version]
  • Giovanni B. Lanfranchi: The Luwian-Phoenician Bilingual of Çineköy and the Annexation of Cilicia to the Assyrian Empire. In: Robert Rollinger (Ed.): From Sumer to Homer: Festschrift for Manfred Schretter on his 60th birthday on February 25, 2004 (Old Orient and Old Testament 325). Münster 2005, pp. 481-496.
  • Robert Rollinger: The Terms “Assyria” and “Syria” again. In: Journal of Near Eastern Studies 65 (2006), pp. 283-287.
  • Giovanni B. Lanfranchi: The Luwian-Phoenician bilinguals of ÇINEKÖY an KARATEPE: An ideological dialogue. In: Robert Rollinger, Andreas Luther, Josef Wiesehöfer: Separate ways? Communication, Space and Perception in the Old World (Oikumene 2). Verlag Antike, Frankfurt / M. 2007, pp. 179-217. ISBN 978-3-938032-14-5 ( on GoogleBooks )
  • Çineköy. In: Trevor Bryce : The Routledge Handbook of The People and Places of Ancient Western Asia: The Near East from the Early Bronze Age to the fall of the Persians Empire. Routledge 2011, p. 167. ISBN 978-0-415-39485-7 ( at GoogleBooks )
  • Gary M. Beckman, Trevor R. Bryce, Eric H. Cline : The Ahhiyawa Texts (= Writings from the Ancient World 28). Society of Biblical Literature, Atlanta 2011, ISBN 987-1-58983-268-8, pp. 263-266 (AHT 28).

Web links

Commons : Statue of Çineköy  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Giovanni B. Lanfranchi: A happy son of the king of Assyria: Warikas and the Çineköy Bilingual (Cilicia) (PDF; 1.4 MB) p. 129
  2. ↑ André Lemaire adds the name to WR (Y) K and reproduces it in the translation with Urikki (Recai Tekoğlu, André Lemaire, İsmet İpek, A. Kazım Tosun: La bilingue royale louvito-phénicienne de Çineköy. In: Comptes-rendus des séances de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres , 144e année, N. 3, 2000. p. 994), which is the name form known from Assyrian scriptures.
  3. ^ Gerd Steiner: The Case of Wiluša and Ahhiyawa. Bibliotheca Orientalis 64, 2007, pp. 590-611
  4. ↑ Max Gander: Aḫḫiyawa - Ḫiyawa - Que. Is there evidence of the presence of Greeks in Cilicia at the transition from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age? Studi Micenei ed Egeo-Anatolici (SMEA) 54. 2012, pp. 281-309.