Statue fragment Maraş 14
The statue fragment Maraş 14 , also the statue of Astiwasu , is the lower part of a late Hittite statue from the 8th century BC. BC, which is described with an inscription in Luwian hieroglyphics . It is exhibited in the Archaeological Museum of the southern Turkish city of Kahramanmaraş under the inventory number 1/1/85.
origin
The fragment was found in 1985 when an old building was demolished on the southern slope of the castle hill of Kahramanmaraş, formerly Maraş. The inventory number presumably indicates the date it was brought into the museum, so it was brought there on January 1, 1985 or was cataloged on that day. It was first published by the Turkish Hittite scientist Mustafa Kalaç in 1998 in the publications of the 45th Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale . The British Hittite scientist John David Hawkins included it in his Corpus of hieroglyphic Luwian inscriptions in 2000 under the name Maraş 14 .
description
The basalt block has an approximately square cross-section. It measures at the base 23 centimeters in width and 25 centimeters in depth. The statue has been preserved up to a height of 44 centimeters, the upper part is missing. At the lower edge, apart from the damaged areas, the fringed hem of a long item of clothing can be seen. In the middle of the front (side B) there is a tassel hanging from the belt. A sword hangs in a sheath on the left side of the body (C).
The inscription begins at the top right corner of the right side of the body (A), runs to the left, turns there and continues bustrophedon over the sides A, B and C. It extends on side C to the scabbard, the back and the right part of side C are blank. The text has five lines eight to nine centimeters high, separated by lines in relief. The top line has not been preserved, but it can be made accessible by an amu figure that extends over two lines, a figure pointing to itself, which at the beginning of Luwian inscriptions often stands for the EGO hieroglyph (I) . The lower half of this figure can be seen on page A, right at the beginning of line 2. The text is a building inscription for a building, the author - and probably the sitter - introduces himself as Astiwasu, chief eunuch of his ruler, whose name has unfortunately been lost. He thanks his master for letting him use the site on which he created the building and the statue, and then describes the ritual acts to be performed on the statue. Two loaves of bread are mentioned, probably as sacrifices, the rest is illegible. Damage to or removal of the statue is also prohibited and, as usual, threatened with punishment. After that the text breaks off, it probably continued on the base or another part.
According to stylistic and linguistic criteria as well as the character shapes, which show similarities with Maraş 1 , Hawkins suggests a date around 800 BC. BC or later before, after that the mentioned ruler Halparuntiyas III. be the builder of the portal lion Maraş 1.
Overall view of pages A + B
right side (A)
left side (C)
literature
- John David Hawkins : Corpus of Hieroglyphic Luwian Inscriptions. Vol. I: Inscriptions of the Iron Age. Part 1: Text: Introduction, Karatepe, Karkamiš, Tell Ahmar, Maraş, Malatya, Commagene. (= Studies in Indo-European Language and Culture 8). de Gruyter, Berlin et al. 2000, ISBN 3-11-010864-X , pp. 265-267, No. IV.4, plates 114-115.
Web links
annotation
- ↑ The terms left or right side usually refer to the view of the person represented