Stele from Gözlühöyük
The stele of Gözlühöyük (also Gözlühüyük ) is a late Hittite monument from the 8th or 7th century BC. With a representation of the weather god. It is exhibited outside of the Gaziantep Archaeological Museum .
origin
The stele was near the village Gözlühöyük at Nurdağı in the Nur Mountains , about 60 kilometers west of Gaziantep in southern Turkey brought to the museum and found the provincial capital.
description
The basalt block is 1.38 meters high and 1.01 meters wide, it shows an image of the weather god walking to the right in a typical pose in a frame. The right hand, raised backwards, holds a battle ax , the left hand in front a three-pronged bundle of lightning . It is remarkable and unique for Hittite sculptures that the ax reaches into the frame. The figure wears a wrapped short skirt that ends above the knees in a decorated border. While the hairstyle and the beard show Assyrian influence, the helmet clearly shows Egyptian features. The two pairs of horns on the helmet are a Neo-Hittite attribute of the weather god, but the worm-shaped outgrowth on the front of the helmet can be clearly identified as a uraeus snake in Egyptian mythology . Two decorative ribbons, which run along the front and back of the headgear to the tip and each end in a volute , are reminiscent of the Egyptian Atef crown . A rope or plait-like structure that hangs down from the tip of the helmet and ends coiled up under the right arm shows similarities with similar helmet decorations in the Syrian-Egyptian Baal , but also with the ponytail of the Anatolian weather god.
The relief is in good condition, only the base area is damaged, which is why the god's feet and shoes are no longer recognizable. From a stylistic point of view, the work is dated to the late 8th or early 7th century BC. Dated.
literature
- Guy Bunnens, JD Hawkins , Isabelle Leirens: A New Luwian Stele and the Cult of the Storm-god at Til Barsib-Masuwari , Peeters Publishers, 2006 ISBN 9789042918177 p. 114.