Sacred Landscapes of Hittites and Luwians
From Firenze University Press Book
Edited by:
Anacleto D’Agostino, University of Pisa
Valentina Orsi, University of Florence
Giulia Torri, University of Florence
The greater part of the landscape of Hittite Anatolia was sacred, in that its mountains, rivers and springs were so regarded and invoked. In some places, Hittite monuments have been found which mark more clearly such sacred sites, e.g. Eflatun Pınar, Gavurkale, Sipylos-Akpınar. If, as often, these are accompanied by a Hieroglyphic inscription, this may define even better the character of the site, and perhaps reveal its ancient name. As I have argued, a series of monuments mark the establishment by Tutḫaliya IV on locations of his royal hunts of cult centres of the Stag-God and his consort Ala, and juxtaposing these with Tutḫaliya’s festival for all the names of the Stag-God and Ala, we may locate the mountains Sarpa, Sarissa, Sunnara and perhaps Alatarma. The inscription KARADAĞ 1 marks a mountain-top shrine of the divine ‘Great Mountain’. The line of monuments Fraktin, Taşçı, İmamkulu and Hanyeri lay on or near a route through a mountain pass, Gezbel, and each no doubt had its own peculiar sanctity, most obviously in the case of Hanyeri, which depicts and names a sacred mountain and its patron deity Šarruma ‘mountain king’. At Yalburt, a historical inscription recording a Lukka campaign of Tutḫaliya IV was incorporated into a pool structure, presumably at a sacred spring. Some sites marked by monuments may be both sacred and also serve as frontier markers, thus KARABEL on the pass between Mira and the Seḫa River land, and HATIP at the beautiful spring between Tarḫuntassa and Hatti. Other inscriptions however appear to be more like graffiti recording the names of passersby: SIPYLOS, MALKAYA and LATMOS. Other such monuments belong to the post-Empire period. The remarkable hydronomy of the İvriz area could not but attract sanctity, signalled by the long-known great relief and the recently added stele and colossal statue fragment. Other inscriptions seem to record particular events without obvious sanctity: TOPADA (a battle), GÜRÜN (establishment of a city’s territory), KÖTÜKALE (a road building), SUVASA (graffiti). One further feature of the sacred landscape deserves a new look: the DKASKAL.KUR, brilliantly elucidated nearly 50 years ago by Edmund Gordon as ‘sink hole, underground water course’, Turkish düden.
The Anatolian landscape is also dotted which man-made monuments attaching to various features, which bring with them indications of sanctity. When uninscribed, the character and the purpose of such monuments may or may not be obvious. In such cases there has often been much discussion as to whether these can be recognized as commemorative or funerary, and in particular whether they may be identified with terms appearing in cuneiform texts, the «peak sanctuary» (NA4ḫekur) or the «Stone House» (É.NA4 ). For a recent evaluation of these terms, see van den Hout 2002, «Mortuary chapel» and «Mausoleum, tomb»; also HW2 b III/2, lief. 8, 2010, s.v. (NA4)ḫekur. When however these monuments are accompanied by an inscription, this may give a clue or even direct information about the monument itself. My purpose in this paper is to review what these inscriptions may tell us. First, however, let us consider several uninscribed monuments which have been identified with terms occurring in the texts.
2. Gavurkalesi
This rocky hill-top with rock-cut sculptures, ruins of a cyclopean precinct wall and a stone-built chamber presents features which we might expect both from a ‘stone-house’ tomb and a ḫekur mortuary precinct. The main problem in interpreting the site is the question whether such an elaborate monument could have been constructed for any individual other that royalty, set against an assumption that Hittite royalty might have required burial and mortuary cult to be located in Ḫattusa itself rather than in a distant site in the middle of the countryside. So if not royalty, then who?
3. Eflatun Pınar
Up from the north-east side of Lake Beyşehir west of Konya lies the copious perennial spring Eflatun Pınar celebrated by the famous Hittite monument, a stone-built structure on the edge of an artificial pool. Discovered as long ago as 1837 (Hamilton 1842), the monument and its iconography and purpose have been much discussed. In the absence of any identifying inscription, its date and builder are uncertain, though the execution and the style point to the later Hittite Empire, 13th century BC, and an attribution to Tutḫaliya IV is not improbable. From 1999 archaeological investigations and the dredging of the pool revealed the long-hidden lower course of the structure’s façade, a row of five mountain-men wearing pointed helmets and skirts pierced with holes to jet water. It can hardly be doubted that the monument is connected with the sanctity of the spring.
4. Sipylos-Akpınar
The ‘Mother-goddess’ figure on the north side of Manisa Dağ (classical Mount Sipylos) is clearly visible from the plain below and has been known since classical antiquity. It has been visited and reported by travellers at least since the 18th century. The much eroded carving in its arched niche has been variously described: some have seen it as a seated female figure, thus ‘Mother-goddess’, others have seen what appear to be traces of a beard, thus a male figure, also perhaps standing. A link between the figure and the abundant springs at the foot of the hillside has been suggested, though no ancient construction around these has been reported. The figure itself, whatever it represents, can hardly be other than divine, and the spring themselves are also such as would attract a notion of sanctity, so the idea that the two together represent a sacred precinct is not unreasonable. Attached to the figure are two small Hieroglyphic inscriptions representing names. The first is placed high up on the right side of the niche, a rectangular incised panel, its component signs in raised relief, reading (sinistroverse) «Kuwalanamuwa, prince». The same name and title are attached to the figures with bow and spear on the İMAMKULU and HANYERİ monuments, for which see below. The other inscription, incised, further to the rght and lower, reads (sinistroverse) «Zuwani, eunuch, …» (further title, uncertain reading). This incised inscription has the appearance of a graffito left by a casual visitor.
DOI: 10.36253/978–88–6655–904–7
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