Altınyayla stele
The Altınyayla stele is a monument from the area around Sivas in the local Archaeological Museum . It is one of the few known free-standing stone sculptures from the time of the Hittite Empire.
Find
The stele was found in a second use before 2003 in a cemetery in the southeast of Altınyayla in the Turkish province of Sivas . About 16 kilometers northeast of it is the Hittite city of Sarissa ( Kuşaklı ), which is why it is assumed that the work may have been abducted from there. The first description of the stele was written by Andreas Müller-Karpe in 2003 .
description
The stele is made of light green-gray gabbro , which was probably broken in the village of Kaleköy, seven kilometers to the west. It has a height of 1.86 meters, a width of 0.68 meters and a depth of 38 centimeters. Their weight is estimated at around 1.2 tons. Since the piece was used a second time as a tombstone and was tilted so that the picture side was up in the ground, it was heavily exposed to the weather and is accordingly heavily rubbed. The edges are bumped, but crucial parts do not seem to be missing. The details of the representation can only be seen with artificial grazing light. The entire front surface of the block is smoothed; A horizontal line runs roughly halfway up, which forms the basis for the 80 × 60 centimeter picture area. The illustration shows on the left a god facing to the right, who is standing on a stag, also facing to the right, who in turn is standing on stylized, scale-like rocks (mountain gods). Opposite him is another person, presumably a ruler. Compared to late Hittite portraits, the animal's body shapes are more vivid. The chest is arched forward and the head is held high. No details can be seen of the antlers. The figure on the left is wearing a headgear, the upper part of which has been broken off. However, it can be supplemented as a pointed cap, which identifies the person as a god, even if no traces of horns are recognizable. He is dressed in an apron with a wide belt and pointed shoes. A bird sits on the left shoulder and a bow over the right. A deer antler, the Luwian hieroglyph CERVUS, which is read as the name of the patron god Kurunta, is indistinctly visible above the extended left arm . The man opposite is much more difficult to see due to the abrasion. He stands on two small hybrid creatures with arms raised. Both legs with pointed shoes and the hem of an apron over the knees can be seen. A sloping, slightly curved line can be seen in front of it, which extends roughly from the hips of the figure to the ground in front of the deer's forelegs. It can be interpreted in such a way that the one standing before God offers him a libation (libation). To do this, he pours a liquid from a vessel into a trough or basin on the floor in front of the god. There is no inscription on the libender, which makes identification impossible. What is striking about the depiction is that the sacrificing king is shown larger than the god. This is possibly due to the given area of the relief and the principle of iscephaly ( equal head height). In the upper right corner the relief block has a notch, the function of which is unclear. It could be a support for a beam, which would mean that the stone adorned a door jamb.
The motif of the patron god standing on the stag is a fixed type of image from the Great Empire and the subsequent epoch, which goes back to older models. Among other things, it is known from seals from the Karum times from Kültepe , as well as from an Old Ethite shard from Eskiyapar and from other Hittite sculptures and seals. The rock relief on Karasu and the stele of Hacibebekli are from the late Hittite period . There you can see the Luwian patron god of the wilderness, Runtiya, corresponding to Kurunta .
Various characteristics of the depiction, including the curved hem of the skirt - in contrast to the straight hems of the late Hittite pictures - point to a development in the Great Empire. Due to stylistic features, the relief is dated to the 15th to 14th centuries BC. Dated.
literature
- Andreas Müller-Karpe : The Stele from Altınyayla - A New Relief of the Hittite Great Empire In: Mehmet Özdoğan , Harald Hauptmann , Nezih Başgelen (ed.): Köyden Kente - Yakındoğu'da İlk Yerleşimler (From Villages to Cities - Early Villages in the Near East). Studies Presented to Ufuk Esin . Arkeoloji ve Sanat Publications, Istanbul, 2003, ISBN 978-9756561423 pp. 313-319
- Horst Ehringhaus : gods, rulers, inscriptions. The rock reliefs of the Hittite Empire in Turkey. von Zabern, Mainz 2005, ISBN 3-8053-3469-9 pp. 80-83
