Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T12:20:42.343Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

An Assyrianised rock wall panel with figures at Başbük in south-eastern Turkey

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2022

Mehmet Önal ,
Celal Uludağ ,
Yusuf Koyuncu  and
Selim Ferruh Adalı
Mehmet Önal
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Sciences and Literature, University of Harran, Turkey
Celal Uludağ
Affiliation:
Şanlıurfa Museum, Turkey
Yusuf Koyuncu
Affiliation:
Şanlıurfa Museum, Turkey
Selim Ferruh Adalı*
Affiliation:
Department of History, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Social Sciences University of Ankara, Turkey
*
*Author for correspondence ✉ selimferruh.adali@asbu.edu.tr
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The Neo-Assyrian Empire of the early first millennium BC ruled over the ancient Near East. South-eastern Anatolia was controlled through vassal city-states and provincial structures. Assyrian governors and local elites expressed their power through elements of Assyrian courtly style. Here, the authors report a rare processional panel recently discovered at Başbük in south-eastern Turkey. Incised on the rock wall of a subterranean complex, the panel features eight deities, three with associated Aramaic inscriptions. The iconographic details and Syro-Anatolian religious themes illustrate the adaptation of Neo-Assyrian art in a provincial context. The panel, which appears to have been left unfinished, is the earliest-known regional attestation of Atargatis, the principal goddess of Syria c. 300 BC–AD 200.

Keywords

TurkeyNeo-AssyrianArameanMiddle Iron Agerock reliefinscription
Type
Research Article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 96 , Issue 387 , June 2022 , pp. 575 - 591
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Antiquity Publications Ltd.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abou-Assaf, A., Bourdreuil, P. & Millard, A.R.. 1982. La statue de Tell Fekherye et son inscription bilingue assyro-araméenne. Paris: Editions Recherche sur les Civilisations. https://doi.org/10.3406/crai.1981.13895Google Scholar
Albenda, P. 1986. The Palace of Sargon, King of Assyria: monumental wall reliefs at Dur-Sharrukin, from original drawings made at the time of their discovery in 1843–1844 by Botta and Flandin. Paris: Editions Recherche sur les Civilisations.Google Scholar
Albenda, P. 2005. Ornamental wall painting in the art of the Assyrian Empire. Leiden & Boston (MA): Brill & Styx.Google Scholar
Assyrian reliefs excavated in northern Iraq. n.d. Available at: https://www.archaeology.org/news/8361-200117-iraq-assyrian-reliefs (accessed 1 August 2021).Google Scholar
Bakker, D. 2011. Bardaisan's book of the laws of the countries: a computer-assisted linguistic analysis. Unpublished PhD dissertation: Leiden University.Google Scholar
Balcioğlu, B. & Mayer, W.R.. 2006. Eine neuassyrische Votivstele aus Turlu Höyük. Orientalia Nova Series 75: 177–81.Google Scholar
Beyer, K. 1998. Die aramäischen Inschriften aus Assur, Hatra und dem übrigen Ostmesopotamien (datiert 44 v.Chr. bis 238 n.Chr). Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.Google Scholar
Bonatz, D. 2014. Art, in Niehr, H. (ed.) The Aramaeans in ancient Syria: 205–53. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Börker-Klähn, J. 1982. Altvorderasiatische Bildstelen und vergleichbare Felsreliefs. Mainz: Philipp von Zabern.Google Scholar
Cornelius, I. 2012. In search of the goddesses of Zincirli (Samʾal). Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins (1953–) 128: 15–25.Google Scholar
Degen, R. 1969. Altaramäische Grammatik der Inschriften des 10.-8. Jh. v. Chr. Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner.Google Scholar
Drijvers, H.J.W. 1980. Cults and beliefs at Edessa. Leiden: Brill.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fales, F.M. 2019. An Aramaic docket on clay from Kahramanmaraş. Archivum Anatolicum 13: 43–55.Google Scholar
Fales, F.M., Radner, K., Pappi, C. & Attardo, E.. 2005. The Assyrian and Aramaic texts from Tell Shiukh Fawqani 2005, in Fales, F.M. (ed.) Tell Shiukh Fawqani 1994–1998: 595–694. Padova: S.A.R.G.O.N. Editrice e Libreria.Google Scholar
Ferg, E. 2020. Geography, religion, and sainthood in the Eastern Mediterranean. London & New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429060151CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gerlach, I. 2000. Tradition-adaption-innovation: zur Reliefkunst Nordsyriens/Südanatoliens in neuassyrischer Zeit, in Bunnens, G. (ed.) Essays on Syria in the Iron Age: 235–57. Louvain: Peeters.Google Scholar
Green, T.M. 1992. The city of the moon god: religious traditions of Harran. Leiden: Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004301429CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harmanşah, Ö. 2014. Event, place, performance: rock reliefs and spring monuments in Anatolia, in Harmanşah, Ö. (ed.) Of rocks and water: towards an archaeology of place: 140–68. Oxford: Oxbow. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvh1dt5x.13CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hawkins, J.D. 1972. Building inscriptions of Carchemish: the Long Wall of Sculpture and Great Staircase. Anatolian Studies 22: 87–114. https://doi.org/10.2307/3642555CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hawkins, J.D. 2000. Corpus of hieroglyphic Luwian inscriptions. Berlin: De Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holloway, S.W. 2002. Aššur is King! Aššur is King! Religion in the exercise of power in the Neo-Assyrian Empire. Leiden: Brill.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Köroğlu, K. 2018. Anadolu'daki Yeni Assur Dönemi Stelleri ve Kaya Kabartmaları [Neo-Assyrian rock reliefs and stelae in Anatolia], in Köroğlu, K. & Adalı, S. F. (ed.) Assurlular: Dicle'den Toroslara Tanrı Assur'un Krallığı [The Assyrians: kingdom of the God Aššur from Tigris to Taurus]: 162–207. İstanbul: Yapı Kredi Yayınları.Google Scholar
Kreppner, F.J. 2002. Public space in nature: the case of Neo-Asssyrian rock reliefs. Altorientalische Forschungen 29: 367–83. https://doi.org/10.1524/aofo.2002.29.2.367CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kulakoğlu, F. 2006. Some Neo-Assyrian sculptures from Şanlıurfa Province (Upper Balikli), in Erkanal-Öktü, A. et al. (ed.) Hayat Erkanal'a Armağan: Kültürlerin Yansıması [Studies in honour of Hayat Erkanal: cultural reflections]: 515–18. İstanbul: Homer Yayınevi.Google Scholar
Larsen, M.T. 2020. The development of Neo-Assyrian narrative art: toward Assurbanipal's Ulai River reliefs, in Finkel, I.L. & Simpson, S.J. (ed.) In context: the Reade Festschrift: 119–34. Oxford: Archaeopress. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1ddckv5.13CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lawson-Younger, K. Jr. 2016. A political history of the Arameans: from their origins to the end of their polities. Atlanta (GA): Society of Biblical Literature. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt1g69w78CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lemaire, A. & Sass, B.. 2013. The mortuary stele with Samʾalian inscription from Ördekburnu near Zincirli. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 369: 57–136. https://doi.org/10.5615/bullamerschoorie.369.0057CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lipińsky, E. 2010. Studies in Aramaic inscriptions and onomastics III: Ma‘alānā. Leuven: Peeters.Google Scholar
von Luschan, F. 1902. Ausgrabungen in Sendschirli III: Thorsculpturen. Berlin: Georg Reimer.Google Scholar
von Luschan, F. 1911. Ausgrabungen in Sendschirli IV. Berlin: Georg Reimer.Google Scholar
MacGinnis, J. 2020. The gods of Arbail, in Finkel, I.L. & Simpson, S.J. (ed.) In context: the Reade Festschrift: 101–18. Oxford. Archaeopress. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1ddckv5.12CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Matney, T. 2011. The Iron Age of south-eastern Anatolia, in Steadman, S.R. & McMahon, G. (ed.) The Oxford handbook of ancient Anatolia 10 000–323 BCE: 443–63. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Millard, A.R. 1994. The eponyms of the Assyrian Empire 910–612 BC. Helsinki: The Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project.Google Scholar
Miller, F.J. 1951. Ovid. Metamorphoses (Loeb Classical Library 42). Cambridge (MA): Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Oldfather, C.H. 1989. Diodorus of Sicily in twelve volumes. Books I and II, 1–34 (Loeb Classical Library 279). Cambridge (MA): Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Ornan, T. 2005. The triumph of the symbol: pictorial representation of deities in Mesopotamia and the biblical image ban. Fribourg: Academic.Google Scholar
Orthmann, W. 1971. Untersuchungen zur späthethitishen Kunst. Bonn: Rudolf Habelt.Google Scholar
Osborne, J.F. 2021. The Syro-Anatolian city-states: an Iron Age culture. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780199315833.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Porter, B.N. 2000. The anxiety of multiplicity: concepts of the divine in ancient Assyria, in Porter, B.N. (ed.) One god or many? Concepts of divinity in the ancient world: 211–72. Chebeague Island (ME): Casco Bay Assyriological Institute.Google Scholar
Radner, K. 2006. Provinz. C. Assyrien. Reallexikon der Assyriologie und Vorderasiatischen Archäologie 11: 42–68.Google Scholar
Reade, J. 1979. Assyrian architectural decoration: techniques and subject matter. Baghdader Mitteilungen 10: 17–49.Google Scholar
Rehm, E. 2014. Private Denkmäler für die Ewigkeit: Stelen und Statuen aus den nordsyrisch-südostanatolischen Kleinstaaten. Studia Mesopotamica 1: 369–89.Google Scholar
Rostovtzeff, M. 1933. Hadad and Atargatis at Palmyra. American Journal of Archaeology 37: 58–63. https://doi.org/10.2307/498042CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schwemer, D. 2008. The storm-gods of the ancient Near East: summary, synthesis, recent studies. Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Religions 7: 121–68. https://doi.org/10.1163/156921207783876404CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sevin, V. 2010. Assur Resim Sanatı. Ankara: Türk Tarih Kurumu Basımevi.Google Scholar
Siddall, L.R. 2013. The reign of Adad-nīrārī III: an historical and ideological analysis of an Assyrian king and his times. Leiden: Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004256149CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simi, F. 2020. The endangered archaeological site of Faida. Available at: https://eamena.org/article/endangered-archaeological-site-faida (accessed 29 July 2021).Google Scholar
Smith, M.S. 2014. ‛Athtart in Late Bronze Age Syrian texts, in Sugimoto, D.T. (ed.) Transformation of a goddess: Ištar–Astarte–Aphrodite: 33–85. Fribourg: Academic.Google Scholar
Teixidor, J. 1979. The pantheon of Palmyra. Leiden: Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004295599CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thureau-Dangin, F. & Dunand, M., with Carvo, L. & Dossin, G.. 1936. Til-Barsib. Paris: Libraire Orientaliste Paul Geuthner.Google Scholar
Uludağ, C., Koyuncu, Y. & Ergin, A.. 2018. Sin Tapınağı. Aktüel Arkeoloji 66: 39–42.Google Scholar
Walton, F.R. & Spawforth, A.. 2015. Atargatis, in Oxford classical dictionary. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.013.896Google Scholar
Weiss, D. 2020. The King's canal. Archaeology 73(3): 44–47.Google Scholar
Wicke, D. 2015. Assyrian or Assyrianized: reflections on the impact of Assyrian art in southern Anatolia, in Rollinger, R. & van Dongen, E. (ed.) Mesopotamia in the ancient world: impact, continuities, parallels. Proceedings of the seventh symposium of the Melammu Project held in Obergurgl, Austria, November 4–8, 2013: 561–601. Münster: Ugarit. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1t4m1zc.42CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woolley, C.L. 1921. Carchemish II: town defences. Report on the excavations at Jerablus on behalf of the British Museum. London: British Museum.Google Scholar