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Urartian Reliefs at Adılcevaz, on Lake Van, and a Rock Relief from the Karasu, near Birecik

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

C. A. Burney  and
G. R. J. Lawson
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Extract

The Medieval Castle at Adılcevaz, on the north shore of Lake Van, incorporated in its walls fragments of a relief sculpture carved in basalt. Six such fragments have now been recovered. Two Urartian inscribed blocks, also of basalt, which have for some years stood outside the primary school, had also, no doubt, been used in the wall of the mediaeval castle.

The fragments of sculpture belong to a relief representing a god or king standing on a bull, facing left towards two triple spearheads, placed one above the other. Five of the fragments belong to this figure, but the sixth shows that there was another figure, looking towards the first and likewise facing a triple spearhead. Behind the right-hand figure stands a single triple spearhead, rather taller and more slender than those in the middle, and perhaps fixed on some solid base, only part of which remains. The god or king wears an elaborately decorated garment, probably woven of wool: the pattern, perhaps in gold brocade, is repetitive, with a wide border, edged with a fringe and a band of “herring-bone” pattern.

Type
Research Article
Information
Anatolian Studies , Volume 8 , December 1958 , pp. 211 - 218
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute at Ankara 1958

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References

1 The recognition of the lowermost block (now in the Van museum) of the main figure is due to the perspicacity of P. Hulin. I am indebted to him for the use of his photographs of three of the blocks.

2 König, F. W.: Handbuch der Chaldischen Inschriften I (Graz, 1955)Google Scholar, texts 128 and Inc. I.

3 Another fragment, possibly part of this second figure, was reported by a local inhabitant, who described it as depicting an arm with a snake coiled round it. The fragment has disappeared from its former position.

4 For Urartian parallels, probably from Toprakkale, see Bossert, H. Th.: Altanatolien (Berlin, 1942)Google Scholar, nos. 1169–1170. The theme occurs on seals of the late Bronze Age: e.g. (a) Güterbock, H. G.: Siegel aus Boğazköy (Berlin, 1942), p. 71Google Scholar, fig. 102a. (b) Goldman, H.: Excavations at Gözlü Kule, Tarsus, Vol. II (Princeton, 1956), pl. 407, no. 42Google Scholar. It also appears on reliefs: e.g. Altanatolien, nos. 570 (Yeniköy) and 857 (Carchemish).

5 Parrot, A.: Archéologie Mésopotamienne, Vol. I (Paris, 1946), pp. 48–9Google Scholar (fig. 8). Fig. 9 shows the rock relief at Bavian. Both are dated to the reign of Sennacherib.

6 e.g. Assyrian Sculptures in the British Museum, from Shalmaneser III to Sennacherib (London, 1938)Google Scholar, pls. V and XXV. Also Frankfort, H.: The Art and Architecture of the Ancient Orient (Pelican History of Art, 1954)Google Scholar, pls. 88, 89, 95, 96, 109, 116.

7 Barnett, R. D.: Iraq XII (1950), p. 32Google Scholar, fig. 20; cf. the bull on a bronze frieze from Toprakkale (ibid., pl. VIII, I). There seems no reason to date the rock carving before the 7th century.

8 Thureau-Dangin, F.: Une Relation de la Huitième Campagne de Sargon (Paris, 1912)Google Scholar, lines 366 and 386.

9 Oppenheim, A. L.: “The Golden Garments of the Gods”, in JNES. VIII (1949), pp. 172–193Google Scholar.

10 Barnett, R. D.: Iraq XII (1950)Google Scholar, pl. II.

11 Bossert: Altanatolien, no. 885 (where the two figures are facing inwards towards a tree of life and each is holding an object that may be a fir-cone).

12 Botta: Monument de Ninive, Tome II, pl. 141.

13 Thureau-Dangin, lines 393 and 378.

14 Godard, A.: Le Trésor de Ziwiye (Haarlem, 1950)Google Scholar, figs. 10, 13, 18 (gold pectoral); fig. 25 (gold plaque); fig. 48 (plaque from a coffin); fig. 109 (silver plaque). Assyrian parallels are illustrated (figs. 11 and 14). See also other gold plaques from Ziwiye in Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, 1955, pp. 217 and 219Google Scholar, and in University Museum Bulletin (Philadelphia), Vol. 21, no. 1 (1957), pp. 34–5Google Scholar, and a bronze band from Kars (ibid., p. 219). The bronze helmet of Sarduri from Karmir-Blur has similar representations of the tree of life (Barnett, R. D. and Watson, W.: Iraq XIV (1952)Google Scholar, fig. 15 (p. 140), pls. XXXII, 2, and XXXIII, 2).

15 Now at the Archaeological Museum, Ankara (unpublished).

16 RHA. I/5 (1931), p. 165Google Scholar and pls. 13 and 14. Reproduced in Bossert: Altanatolien, no. 1162, where another rock relief, at Herir-Batas, near Ruwanduz, is illustrated (no. 1161).

17 Barnett, R. D.: Iraq XII (1950), fig. 20 (p. 32), and pp. 38–9Google Scholar.

18 See my article in AS. VII (1957), pp. 37–53, especially pp. 50–1Google Scholar.

19 Barnett, R. D.: Iraq XII (1950)Google Scholar, pl. 1.

20 Remains of actual parapets have been found at Karmir-Blur (Karmir-Blur IV [Erivan, 1955], pp. 102–3Google Scholar). cf. also the parapets of the great stairway at Persepolis (Schmidt, E. F.: Persepolis I [Chicago, 1953], pl. 19Google Scholar).

21 Sargon II described the walls of the towns of the province of Sangibutu as having the height of iao courses of brick, being at least 12 m. (Thureau-Dangin, line 240).

22 Güterbock, H. G., in Halil Edhem Hatıra Kıtabı (Ankara, 1947), pp. 59–62Google Scholar.

23 cf. Akurgal, E., Spaethethitische Bildkunst (Ankara, 1949), 1–9Google Scholar.

24 SirWoolley, L.: Carchemish, Part III (London, 1952)Google Scholar, pl. B58b (similar stag), and pl. B33 (two gods standing on one lion).