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Hittitology today: Studies on Hittite and Neo-Hittite Anatolia in Honor of Emmanuel Laroche’s 100th Birthday

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Alice Mouton

IV. Archéologie

A new Tablet Fragment and a sealed Pottery Fragment from Alacahöyük

Belkıs Dinçol

Texte intégral

Tablet fragment (fig. 1a and 1b)

Fig. 1a: Photograph of ALH-2013/25

Fig. 1a: Photograph of ALH-2013/25

Fig. 1b: Handcopy of ALH-2013/25

Fig. 1b: Handcopy of ALH-2013/25

1Inventory number: ALH-2013/25.

2Find Spot: It was found in 2013, in the B building of the second level, which is dated to the Imperial Period by the director of the excavations.

3Size: height: 4 cm. Width: 2.5 cm.

4Description: Middle part of a tablet, only one side is preserved with two columns. There is only a part of a paragraph divider on the left. On the right column eleven lines are preserved under three paragraphs. On the third paragraph, the signs are smaller than the others.

Transliteration

x+1’

a-d[a]-a[n?-zi/na?

2’

pé-ra-a[n …

3’

GIŠBAN[ŠUR…

4’

ša-ra-a […

5’

[n]a-at EG[IR?

6’

[1? NIN]DA.GUR4.RA-i x-x[- …

7’

[ŠA] 2 UP-NI ŠA LÚ[…

8’

[še-e]p-pí-it-ta-aš [ …

9’

[

10’

[na-at/an L]UGAL-uš pár-[ši-ya-zi

11’

[ … … …] x x […

Translation

x+1’

They e[at?/to e[at…

2’

befor[e

3’

table[man …

4’

up/over

5’

and they/them [...] again? […

6’

[one] breadloaf (dat. sg.) ...[

7’

[…..] two handful for the [...]-man/men [

8’

[...] of [še]ppit-cereal [

9’

[…… ] (of) silver, two breadloaves […

10’

the king bre[aks ...

11’

...

Commentary

5The context indicates that it is a festival description.

66’: A restoration of the beginning of the line can be the numeral “1”, because NIN]DA.GUR4.RA-i (=harši/ haršai) is in dat. sg. Usually either a verb or a postposition is expected after this phrase (see HED H: 192). We could not offer any reading because of the following illegible signs.

78’: [šep]pittaš gen. sg. of šeppit-, a kind of cereal (Hoffner 1974: 77 ff.).

89’: The logogram KÙ.BABBAR was not written in one of its usual forms (see HZl no 69) According to its ductus, the fragment can be dated to the 13th century BC.

Sealed pottery fragment (fig. 2a to 2c)

Fig. 2a: Photograph of ALH 2012/1

Fig. 2a: Photograph of ALH 2012/1

Fig. 2b: Detail of ALH 2012/1

Fig. 2b: Detail of ALH 2012/1

Fig. 2c: Composite drawing of the sealing of ALH 2012/1

Fig. 2c: Composite drawing of the sealing of ALH 2012/1

9Inventory number: Alh 2012/1

10Find spot: H 4 (24), unearthed in 2012 (Çınaroğlu/Çelik/Güney 2014: 7) Diameter of the impression: 2.6 cm, width of the inner frame: 0.8 cm.

11Description: The pottery fragment has two impressions of the same seal. They are round and flat.

12Another pottery fragment, which bears two sealings of the same seal, had been found at the excavations of 1939 and published by Güterbock (1951: 195, Al. d. 12, pl. 76, 1 a,b). Güterbock could not achieve the full reconstruction of the seal and could not decipher the seal owner’s name due to the fragmentary condition of the piece. The new impressions allow the full reconstruction of that seal.

13The central field, which bears the seal owner’s name, is small and encircled with a wide frame. A cultic scene – a procession of seven male figures, walking to the left – was depicted on the outer frame. One of these male figures wears a round cap instead of a pointed helmet with horns, but with waterfalls which flow down from his shoulders. This figure possibly represents the god Ea/Enki, the God of freshwater and wisdom in Mesopotamia (Black/Green 1992: 75-76). This iconography seems to be unique in Hittite glyptic, to our knowledge. It seems to be the main figure of the scene.

14The six other figures after Ea/Enki are:

  • The first figure is dressed in a short robe, his headgear could not be identified. He holds an unidentified object − shaped like a long cone − in his left hand.

  • The second figure has a headdress, probably a flat cap, and he holds an acuminate object like a dagger or a scalprum in his right hand. His left arm is raised on his breast.

  • The third figure wears a pointed helmet, his right arm raised forward, and he has a wing on the left shoulder. He has a hunting bag on his back. He could be a protecting deity.

  • The right arm of the fourth person is raised up, he carries a rabbit in his left hand, he also has a hunting bag. Because of his short conical cap he could represent also a protecting deity.

  • The fifth figure wears probably a flat cap. He holds an animal in his right hand, probably as an offering. He is armed with a spear and has a hunting bag. He could be a hunter or a deity, without conical helmet.

  • The sixth figure has wings on the shoulders. The shape of his headdress could not be completely identified, he holds a beak-spouted pitcher in his right hand for libation. The close parallel of this pitcher holding by a male figure in kneeling position is found in the frame of a seal (Dinçol 1983: Nr. 8). This figure could represent either a god or a hybrid creature.

15In the central field there are four hieroglyphic signs which express the name of the seal owner. They are placed from left to right in the following order: L.186 - L.247 - L.329 - L.90 (Lu-DOMUS-kwi/a-ti). Thus the name can be read as Luparnakwati or Luparnakwiti. This name has not been encountered hitherto. Personal name DOMUS-ni-wa/i+ra/i in the Assur letter b §3, was read by Hawkins as Parniwari (Hawkins 2000: 534).

16The name DOMUS-na-pi on a seal unearthed from Soloi/Pompeiopolis, was read as Parnapi (Dinçol/Dinçol 2008).

17The impressions are most probably originating from a flat sided disc seal. According to the cultic scene in the frame, the seal dates to the 2nd half of the 15th century (late 15th - early 14th century Calibrated Middle Chronology: see Peker 2009).

Bibliographie

Black, J. / Green, A., Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia. British Museum Press, Londres, 1992.

Çınaroğlu, A. / Çelik, D. / Güney, A., “2011 ve 2012 yılı Alaca Höyük kazıları”, 35. Kazı Sonuçları Toplantısı, 3. cilt, 2014, 6-18.

Dinçol, A., “Hethitische Hieroglyphensiegel in den Museen zu Adana, Hatay und İstanbul”, Anadolu Araştırmaları 9, 1983, 173-249.

Dinçol, A. / Dinçol, B., “Neue Hethitische Siegelabdrücke aus den Ausgrabungen von Soli und aus der Privatsammlung Haluk Perk”, in: Euergetes. Festschrift für Haluk Abbasoğlu zum 65. Geburtstag (Armağan dizisi 1), Delemen, İ. / Çokay- Kepçe, S. / Özdizbay, A. (éds.). Suna-İnan Kıraç Akdeniz Medeniyetleri araştırma enstitüsü, Antalya, 2008, 383-385.

Güterbock, H. G., “Tablettes et sceaux”, apud Koşay, H. Z., Les fouilles d’Alaca Höyük entreprises par la société d’histoire turque. Rapport préliminaire sur les travaux en 1937-1939 (Türk Tarih Kurumu Yayınları 5). Türk Tarih Kurumu, Ankara, 1951, 189-197.

Hawkins, J. D., Corpus of Hieroglyphic Luwian Inscriptions I. Inscriptions of the Iron Age (Untersuchungen zur indogermanischen Sprach- und Kutlurwissenschaft NF 8). De Gruyter, Berlin − New York, 2000.

Hoffner, H. A., Alimenta Hethaeorum: Food Production in Hittite Asia Minor (American Oriental Series 55). American Oriental Society, New Haven, 1974.

Peker, H., Suriye Üzerindeki Hitit Hakimiyetinin Kurulması: M.Ö. II. Binyılda Eski Yakındoğuda Süper Güçler ve Küçük Devletler [Establishing Hittite Hegemony on Syria: Super Powers and Minor States in Ancient Near East in the 2nd Millennium BC], Unpublished doctoral thesis, Istanbul University, 2009.

Table des illustrations

Titre Fig. 1a: Photograph of ALH-2013/25
URL http://books.openedition.org/ifeagd/docannexe/image/3558/img-1.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 173k
Titre Fig. 1b: Handcopy of ALH-2013/25
URL http://books.openedition.org/ifeagd/docannexe/image/3558/img-2.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 164k
Titre Fig. 2a: Photograph of ALH 2012/1
URL http://books.openedition.org/ifeagd/docannexe/image/3558/img-3.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 149k
Titre Fig. 2b: Detail of ALH 2012/1
URL http://books.openedition.org/ifeagd/docannexe/image/3558/img-4.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 107k
Titre Fig. 2c: Composite drawing of the sealing of ALH 2012/1
URL http://books.openedition.org/ifeagd/docannexe/image/3558/img-5.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 85k

Auteur

Istanbul University

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