Stela of Kocaoğuz
The stele of Kocaoğuz is a Hittite monument from the area of Çay in the central Turkish province of Afyonkarahisar and is exhibited in the Afyonkarahisar Archaeological Museum . It is probably one of the few known free-standing stone sculptures from the time of the Hittite Empire.
Find
In March 1999 the Turkish journalist Özgen Acar reported in the magazine Antik Dekor about a robbery excavation during which a stele with a hieroglyphic Luwian inscription was found. On the advice of İlhan Temizsoy, then director of the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara , the directorate of the Afyonkarahisar Archaeological Museum undertook research to find the location of the stele. After questioning a villager, the stele was brought to the Afyonkarahisar museum together with a sarcophagus and several finds from Roman times . According to him, the items were found in his field. A subsequent survey revealed Roman shards and traces of an illegal excavation on the nearby Kocaoğuz hill , but no traces of the Hittite presence. When questioned again, the farmer admitted that the stele had been found in the field of a farmer friend near Baslı Yan, between Çay and Sultandağı , and had been placed on his. A robbery excavation could also be found in this field, but again no Hittite traces. The investigating archaeologists conclude that the stele was later transported here from its original location as building material. The function of the Roman stone fragments found cannot be clarified. The first publication of the inscription was in 2003 by Seracettin Şahin and Recai Tekoğlu.
description
The stele is made of granite with smoothed edges and a round top. It is 2.00 meters high, 59 centimeters at the bottom and 48 centimeters wide at the top, and 26 centimeters thick at the bottom and 23.5 centimeters at the top. It bears a five-line inscription with horizontal lines separating the lines. The inscription is executed in raised relief, with the characters protruding 2.5 centimeters on average. The writing is surrounded by a frame about 1.3 centimeters wide and is in good condition. It is crowned by a winged solar disk . The text begins to the left in the upper right corner and continues boustrophedon to the end on the lower left. According to Rotislav Oreshko, the translation is:
(Thanks to) the Storm-God of Walma, Tarba-Zunauli, prince, conquered / holds sway over the city of… -hwa / i-li. This stela to the Storm-God of Walma Tarba-Zunauli, prince, dedicated.
The otherwise unknown prince dedicates the stele to the weather god in gratitude for a victory over an equally unknown country or city. Both the name of the prince and the city or region are controversial in the reading. Due to the archaic-looking character shapes, Şahin and Tekoğlu believe that the stele was made in the late 13th or early 12th century BC. Under Tudḫaliya IV. Or Šuppiluliuma II. For probably. Rotislav Oreshko, on the other hand, suspects a later dating, possibly in the transition period from the great empire to the late Hittite phase in the 12th and 11th centuries BC. Chr.
literature
- Seracettin Şahin, Recai Tekoğlu: A Hieroglyphic Stele from Afyon Archaeological Museum In: Estratto da ATHENAEUM - Studi di Letteratura e Storia dell 'Antichità pubblicati sotto gli auspici dell' Università di Pavia Vol. XCI - Como - Edizioni New Press 2003 545.
- Rostislav Oreshko: Hieroglyphic Inscriptions of Western Anatolia: Long Arm of the Empire or Vernacular Tradition (s) In: Alice Mouton, Ian C. Rutherford , Ilya S. Yakubovich (Eds.): Luwian Identities: Culture, Language and Religion between Anatolia and the Aegean . Brill, 2013. ISBN 978-90-04-25279-0 pp. 386-400.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Rostislav Oreshko: Hieroglyphic Inscriptions of Western Anatolia: Long Arm of the Empire or Vernacular Tradition (s) In Luwian Identities: Culture, Language and Religion between Anatolia and the Aegean . Brill, 2013. ISBN 978-90-04-25279-0 p. 400.