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The Cappadocian Symbol

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 June 2015

G. A. Wainwright
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Extract

There are two well-defined varieties of the Cappadocian Symbol; one with bosses and one without. It is the first type that is considered here.

Apart from the presence or absence of the bosses there is a fairly well-defined difference in the curved members, Figs, 1, 2. Those with the bosses almost invariably curve upwards and inwards as if embracing the limb of the cross, while those without the bosses are so strongly recurved outwards as to double back on to the other limb of the cross, and perhaps were finally thought of as belonging to it.

The two types very rarely combine, but on one occasion we have a curious case where there are only four bosses inside the curves and the curves themselves are very strongly bent backwards in the manner of those without the bosses. On yet another occasion we have a case which again only has the four bosses within the curves, but here the latter have come completely apart from the cross and lie almost on the horizontal limbs, see Figs. 6, 7 infra. As will appear later on, these seem to provide a link between the two types, that with the bosses and that without.

Type
Research Article
Information
Anatolian Studies , Volume 6 , December 1956 , pp. 137 - 143
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute at Ankara 1956

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References

page 137 note 1 Fig. 1 is drawn from von der Osten, , The Alishar Hüyük Seasons of 1930–32, Pt. II, Fig. 257, e 1584, p. 220Google Scholar. Fig. 2 is drawn from Id., Explorations in Hittite Asia Minor, 1929, Fig. 14a, p. 27 (Chicago Univ. Or. Inst. Communications, No. 8).

page 137 note 2 Schaeffer, in Syria, XII (1931), Pl. XIII, Fig. 4, facing p. 12Google Scholar.

page 138 note 1 Matz, , Die Frühkretischen Siegel, p. 121Google Scholar.

page 138 note 2 For example, P. Jacobsthal, Der Blitz in der orientalischen und griechischen Kunst, Pl. I, Figs. 1–11, where, moreover, a central boss or disc is not shown, though it is the regular thing in the Cappadocian Symbol.

page 138 note 3 There is, however, one curious instance of what seems to be a representation of the sun that has been influenced by that form of the Cappadocian Symbol which has no bosses (Woolley, , Carchemish, III, Pl. A. 30Google Scholar, Fig. h, left face, and p. 260). It shows a central disc with eight rays, instead of four, and between the rays there are eight curling lines. Two pairs of these curls embrace the horizontal rays just as they embrace the upright ones on the Cappadocian Symbol. The four others curl about indiscriminately. The sculpture is probably datable to the time of a grandson of Shubbiluliuma, i.e. to the fourteenth century B.C.

page 138 note 4 Woolley, , Alalakh, Pl. LXXVII, top and p. 290Google Scholar, no. AT/38/79. It comes from Niqme-pa's palace, Level IV, c. 1450 B.C., p. 377.

page 138 note 5 Some dated examples are: Sealings of the Late Twelfth and the Thirteenth Dynasties, Petrie, , Kahun, Gurob and Hawara, Pl. X, 35, 39Google Scholar, and p. 31.

page 138 note 6 Some dated examples are: Petrie, Scarabs and Cylinders with Names, Pl. XXI, Apepa I, no. 2 (a variety); Id., Hyksos and Israelite Cities, Pl. IX, 139, 140. Our Fig. 3 dates to the early Thirteenth Dynasty, being taken from Reisner in Bull, of the Fine Arts Museum (Boston), XXVIII (1930), p. 53Google Scholar, Fig. 7, no. 22 and p. 49 for the date.

page 138 note 7 Thutmosis III, Petrie, , Scarabs and Cylinders with Names, Pl. XXVII, 53Google Scholar, XXVIII, 115; Amenhotep II, Fraser, , Catalogue of the Scarabs belonging to George Fraser, Pl. VIII, 240Google Scholar; Thutmosis IV, Petrie, op. cit., Pl. XXX, 5, bottom row where the spirals are degraded into concentric circles; Akhenaton, Id., Tell el Amarna, Pl. XVI, 211. A later one is dated to Sheshonk III of the Twenty-Second Dynasty, Id., Scarabs, etc., Pl. 50, 8. In Kahun, Gurob and Hawara, Pl. XXIII and p. 36 Petrie approximately dates no. 58 to Amenhotep I, no. 70 to Thutmosis IV, and no. 107 to Ramesses II. A collection, which is without information, is published in Petrie, , Buttons and Design Scarabs, Pl. VIII, 259, 261–8, 271, 275–7Google Scholar. Nos. 246, 247, retain the simple design without the bars at the side and no. 248 has the horizontal limbs but not the upright ones. There are also a number of patterns developed from the original one.

page 139 note 1 A Rowe, A Catalogue of Egyptian Scarabs … in the Palestine Archaeological Museum, Pls. II, III, IX, XVI, XVII.

page 139 note 2 Montet, Byblos et l'Égypte, Pl. LXV, no. 456.

page 139 note 3 Andrae, , Die Kleinfunde von Sendschirli (Ausgrabungen in Sendschirli, v)Google Scholar, Pl. 38, Fig. h.

page 139 note 4 Goldman, , in AJA., XLI (1937), p. 280Google Scholar, Fig. 37. This is no isolated wanderer, for other Egyptian things and of an earlier date have been found in Asia Minor. Thus, there is the statuette of a woman called Sat-s-neferu which was found at Adana in Cilicia (Winlock, in Bull. Metrop. Mus. of Art, XVI (1921), pp. 209, 210, and fig.Google Scholar) the details of which lead Evers to put it to the time of Senusret II of the Twelfth Dynasty (Evers, H. G., Staat aus dem Stein, I, Pl. 62Google Scholar). Another, also of Twelfth Dynasty date, was actually found at Kürigin Kaleh a few miles west of Boğaz Köi itself in the heart of Cappadocia (von der Osten, in AJSLL., XLIII (1926–1927), p. 100 and fig. 19, and p. 293Google Scholar, Figs. 11–13, and Allen, pp. 294–6; Roeder, in OLZ., 1927, cols. 545 ffGoogle Scholar. and Pl., Ibid., 1928, vol. 426. Allen republished his account of the statuette in von der Osten, , Explorations in Central Anatolia, Season of 1926, pp. 66 f.Google Scholar, where the site is called Kirik Kaleh. By a strange coincidence all these three Egyptian objects were found with things of much later date; the scarab in an Iron Age stratum and each of the two statuettes with classical things.

page 140 note 1 Delaporte, Catalogue des Cylindres orientaux de la bibliothèque Rationale, Pl. XXXIV, Fig. 515b and Text, p. 290, from which our Fig. 4 is drawn. The spaces are filled in with four uraei.

page 140 note 2 Frankfort, , Cylinder Seals, p. 298Google Scholar and Pl XLVI, Fig. n.

page 140 note 3 Fig. 5 is taken from Petrie, Antaeopolis, Pl. I, Fig. 2. This design and its history have been studied in my article, Keftiu and Karamania (Asia Minor) in Anatolian Studies, IV (1954), pp. 33–48Google Scholar.

page 140 note 4 Rowe, op. cit., Pl. III, 97, and p. 26.

page 140 note 5 For example, Egypt, Prisse d'Avennes, Histoire de l'art égyptien i, Architecture, Plafonds, 31st Plate (in the list though they are not numbered), Figs. 4, 6; Crete, Evans, , The Palace of Minos, I, Pl. I, Fig. kGoogle Scholar, facing p. 231; Mycenae, Karo, Die Schachtgräber von Mykenai, Pl. LVI, no. 649.

page 140 note 6 Wainwright in op. cit., p. 36, Fig. 2.

page 141 note 1 Vernier, , Bijoux et orfèvreries, Pl. XXII, no. 52239 and Text, p. 89Google Scholar. They are arranged differently from the volutes of our pattern, for they are placed facing each other instead of back to back. As the ring's ornamentation consists of granulations and twisted wire it is an example of that class of jewellery which appears suddenly in Egypt at this time fully formed without antecedents.

page 141 note 2 Fig. 6 is drawn from von der Osten, , The Alishar Hüyük, Seasons of 1930–32, II, Fig. 257, no. e, 1611Google Scholar.

page 141 note 3 Used in this way between the points of a star, bosses are not uncommon in the Near East, for example, GAZA, Petrie, , Ancient Gaza, IV, Pl. XVII=XVIII, 112Google Scholar; Shamra, Ras, Schaeffer, in Syria, XVIII (1937)Google Scholar, Pl. XVIII; Arslan Tash, Thureau-Dangin, Arslan Tash, Pl. XLVI, no. 104; de Morgan, Susa and others, Délégation en Perse, VIIGoogle Scholar, Pl. XII, nos. 5, 6, 7, Figs. 129, 130, 132, 133, 156, 157. On Fig. 131 rings replace bosses, and on Fig. 127 there are three bosses between the rays except in one place where there are four, and on Fig. 128 there are none; Persia, , Herzfeld, in Ill. London News, 1 June, 1929, p. 943Google Scholar, Fig. 10, where, as at Susa, rings take the place of bosses. The pendant is decorated with granulations; Crete and Mycenae, as rings once again, Bossert, , Altkreta, Figs. 166, 312Google Scholarj.

page 142 note 1 Fig. 7 is drawn from Remzi Oğuz Arik, Les fouilles d'Alaca Höyük, Pl. XII, Fig. 18.

page 142 note 2 Petrie, , Tell el Amarna, Pl. XVIII, 440Google Scholar, at the bottom right hand corner of the plate. In his Decorative Patterns of the Ancient World, Pl. LXXXV, no. 28, Petrie has already classified this with some Hittite examples. See p. 9 for the statement.

page 142 note 3 Petrie, loc. cit., no. 29, and p. 9, where it is called Z 9. But it does not seem to be published in Engelbach, Harageh. It is, however, said to be in the University College Collection, London.

page 142 note 4 Riemschneider, Die Welt der Hethiter, Pl. 107, publishes a gold disc ornamented with a design described as an impoverished version of our Symbol. However, it is hardly that, but would more accurately belong to a family that is perhaps related to, or influenced by, our design. It consists of a central boss from which spring four pairs of volutes instead of two and there are four bosses, though they are placed one at the centre of each pair of volutes, a position which has already been seen on the Twelfth Dynasty ring. The cross is lacking. The ornament comes from Smyrna and is supposed to be of the Second Millennium. The design, though without the bosses, had already appeared on a scarab of about the XIV Dynasty, say c. 1700 B.C. (Petrie, , Buttons and Design Scarabs, Pl. VIII, no. 269, and p. 16Google Scholar.)

page 143 note 1 Schaeffer, in Syria, XXXI (1954), Pl. VIII and pp. 54, 55, 59Google Scholar.

page 143 note 2 Sellin, in Zeits. d. D. Palästina-Vereins, XLIX (1926), Pl. 30, following p. 260Google Scholar.

page 143 note 3 W. Bachmann, Felsreliefs in Assyrien, Pls. 26–28, 30, 31.