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A Hittite Cylinder Seal in the Fitzwilliam Museum

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

Robert L. Alexander
Robert L. Alexander
Affiliation:
University of Iowa
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Extract

The Hittite cylinder seal discussed here (Figs. 1–4) was purchased by Sir Max Mallowan in the 'thirties while he was working in northern Syria. In the division of his collections it was allotted to the Fitzwilliam Museum, in Cambridge, which received it in 1966. Extensive use has severely worn the engraved surface, and even the two large old chips have been smoothed over. Despite the loss of all details, such as facial features, each element of the composition can be recognized or restored. In the chipped area are fragments of the main figure, the Storm-god raising a mace and standing on the shoulders of two Mountain-gods. Before the Storm-god and facing him is the Sun-god, winged disk overhead, two kneeling animal-headed supporting figures below. The Storm-god is followed by a deity in walking position, over a bull. A many-branched tree, repeated in the impression, closes the three-part composition, and a cross with approximately equal arms occupies a place between the tree and the upraised mace. Simple incised lines mark the top and bottom edges of the engraved surface. There seems to be no form that can unquestionably be called a Hittite hieroglyph.

Type
Research Article
Information
Anatolian Studies , Volume 25 , December 1975 , pp. 111 - 117
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute at Ankara 1975

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References

1 Its accession number is E.66.1966. Of haematite, it is 3·2 cm. high and 1·3 cm. in diameter, with a normal bore through the length of the cylinder. The major study of Imperial Hittite cylinder seals suggests that they were employed in the late Empire primarily by vassal kings; Beran, T., “Hethitische Rollsiegel der Grossreichzeit,” Istanbuler Mitteilungen 8 (1958), pp. 137–41Google Scholar; 9–10 (1959–60), pp. 128–33.

For permission to publish this cylinder seal I am much indebted to R. V. Nichols of the Fitzwilliam Museum, and fof valuable suggestions, to O. R. Gurney. Photographs are reproduced by permission of the syndics of the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.

2 For the Fraktin reliefs of Hattusili III (1275–1250), see Akurgal, E. and Hirmer, M., The Art of the Hittites (New York, 1962), pls. 100–101Google Scholar. For the Yazılıkaya reliefs, from the time of Hattusili III and his successor Tudhaliyas IV, see Bittel, K., Naumann, R., and Otto, H., Yazılıkaya (Leipzig, 1941Google Scholar; repr. Osnabrück, 1967), esp. the central panel, pls. 18–20. For seals from Carchemish, see Schaeffer, C.-F.-A., Ugaritica III (Paris, 1956Google Scholar): the second and third cylinder seals of Ini-Teshub (second and third quarters of the thirteenth century), pp. 23–9, 121–7, figs. 32–5; the stamp seal of Tudhaliyas IV, pp. 14–19, 111–19, figs. 24–6, pls. III–IV. These compositional qualities appear by the time of Muwatalli, around 1300 B.C., in the cylinder seal designs of Amanmashu and Lat-Kur, scribes of Carchemish; ibid., pp. 42–7, 142–7, figs. 66–72.

3 For Eflatun Pınar, see Akurgal and Hirmer, pl. XXXI; for thirteenth-century date, see Alexander, Robert L., “The Mountain-god at Eflatun Pınar,” Anatolica II (1968), pp. 79–80Google Scholar. For the Megiddo ivory, see Loud, G., The Megiddo Ivories (Chicago, 1939), pp. 10–11, pl. 11Google Scholar; for date, 1275–1190 B.C., see Danmanville, J., “Iconographie d'Ištar-Šaušga en Anatolie ancienne,” RAss LVI (1962), pp. 124–5Google Scholar.

4 Pecorella, P. E., “Una stele neoetea da Malatya,” Athenaeum, n.s. XLVII (1969), pp. 226–35Google Scholar; lists of examples of this image occur in notes 9 and 15. To the list of seals in Pecorella's note 15, add this Fitzwilliam cylinder and Ashmolean 993; Buchanan, B., Catalogue of Ancient Near Eastern Seals in the Ashmolean Museum. I, Cylinder Seals (Oxford, 1966), pp. 196–7, pl. 61Google Scholar. On the basis of all these examples some generalizations can be made: The Sun-god may appear on a supporting animal or mixed beings when other figures in the composition are so represented; he generally carries the lituus; he often appears with the ankh above and the triangle below his outstretched hand, apparently the only Hittite deity to be distinguished regularly in this manner; and the image was especially popular in Carchemish where some of the earliest and the latest examples originated. It does not appear on Hittite stamp seals. For ease of reference, I call this image the Sun-god, but some examples of it are considered representations of a priest-king; see Pecorella, pp. 230–5, for opinions and bibliography on this question.

5 The relationship of the bull-men to Hittite art has been studied in Kantor, H., “A ‘Syro-Hittite’ Treasure in the Oriental Institute Museum,” JNES XVI (1957), pp. 147–9Google Scholar; to the Hittite examples given there, add Louvre A 1028, in Delaporte, L., Catalogue des cylindres orientaux … Musée du Louvre, 2 vols. (Paris, 1920–1923Google Scholar). In the earliest representation of the Sun-god, the cylinder seal of Amanmashu, ca. 1300 B.C., a lion is the supporter; toward the middle of the thirteenth century, on the third cylinder seal of Ini-Teshub, king of Carchemish, the image is supported by a standing bull-man; in this century, on the Megiddo ivory, it is supported by many figures, including the kneeling animal-headed being. This latter supporter occurs with other figures on the seal of Amanmashu and the second cylinder seal of Ini-Teshub. Thus the relationship between the Sun-god image and the bull-men supporters seems to develop in the course of the thirteenth century.

6 For the ladder pattern in Syria, see Woolley, L., Alalakh (Oxford, 1955), pl. LXIII, no. 52Google Scholar. For the short tiara at Alaca Höyük, see Akurgal and Hirmer, pl. 93 bottom; at Hanyeri, see Riemschneider, M., Die Welt der Hethiter (Zurich, 1954), pl. 7Google Scholar top. This young deity is reminiscent of Yazılıkaya 44, Sharruma, who follows his mother (figure 43) in the procession and has her kind of animal, a lion (or panther), as his supporting attribute. Both she and the Storm-god (figure 42) are accompanied by calf protomes wearing the divine tiara, perhaps symbols of their off-spring; Laroche, E., “Les Dieux de Yazılıkaya,” RHA XXVII (1969), pp. 67, 69Google Scholar; see also Laroche, E., “Le Dieu anatolien Sarruma,” Syria XL (1963), pp. 277–302CrossRefGoogle Scholar. One other example of this type of image appears in a stamp seal; Güterbock, H., Siegel aus Boǧazköy, AfO., Beih. 5 and 7, 2 vols. (Berlin, 1940–1942Google Scholar; repr. Osnabrück, 1967), II, no. 20.

7 Ozgüç, N., The Anatolian Group of Cylinder Seal Impressions from Kültepe (Ankara, 1965Google Scholar), shows only five possible examples of a deity with raised weapon (nos. 4, 8, 52, 55, 69), but many with a shouldered weapon; in foreign designs at Kültepe the Syrian pose is customary. Among bronze figurines of the Storm-god only those from Anatolia regularly avoid the smiting pose; see Collon, D., “The Smiting God,” Levant IV (1972), pp. 111–34, esp. pp. 120–2Google Scholar. The seals published by Beran (see note 1 above) and Schaeffer, (Ugaritica III, pp. 22–47Google Scholar, figs. 27–72, for seals of Carchemish) provide a small but representative group for study; among the very few representations of the Storm-god in the glyptic finds at Boǧazköy, the shouldering pose clearly dominates. For the Imamkulu relief, showing the Storm-god and chariot, see Frankfort, H., The Art and Architecture of the Ancient Orient (Baltimore, 1954), p. 129, fig. 56Google Scholar.

8 This relief has not been studied or illustrated, but is referred to in Bittel et al., p. 84.

9 For the Syrian cylinder seal, see Seyrig, H., “Cachets d'archives publiques de quelques villes de la Syrie romaine,” Mélanges de l'Université de St. Joseph XXXIII (1940), pp. 93–4Google Scholar, pl. V. The reliefs of Alaca Höyük, like the seal of Amanmashu, may date from the reign of Muwatalli, although an earlier date is possible; see Mellink, M., “Observations on the Sculptures of Alaca Hüyük,” Anadolu XIV (1972), p. 18Google Scholar. For Eflatun Pınar and the Fasıllar stele, see Bossert, H. Th., Altanatolien (Berlin, 1942), figs. 565–6, 568–9Google Scholar; see also Mellaart, J., “The Late Bronze Age Monuments of Eflatun Pınar and Fasıllar near Beyşehir,” AS XII (1962), pp. 111–17Google Scholar; Orthmann, W., “Hethitische Götterbilder,” in Vorderasiatische Archäologie, ed. Bittel, K. et al. ((Berlin, 1964), pp. 221–9Google Scholar; Alexander (see above, n. 3), pp. 77–85; Behm-Blancke, M. and Rittig, D., “Der ‘Aslantaş,’ von Eflatun Pınar,” MDOG. 102 (1970), pp. 89–99Google Scholar.

10 The tree as a terminus is known from early in the millennium and has a fairly continuous use in Syria; Parrot, A., Mission Archéologique de Mari II (Paris, 1958), pt. 3, pp. 153–4Google Scholar, fig. 101, pl. XL; Woolley, pl. LXIII, no. 61. Other Hittite cylinder seals with this device include an example in a private collection (Beran, pl. 35, 3) and one in the Louvre, AO 11234, which was graciously brought to my attention by P. Amiet; Amiet, P., Bas-reliefs imaginaires de l'ancien Orient (Paris, 1973), no. 392Google Scholar. Again, Syria by the mid-millennium employed the tree in a container, especially in Mitanni glyptic; Porada, E., Seal Impressions of Nuzi, AASOR XXIV (1947), pp. 109–110Google Scholar, and numerous illustrations; Woolley, pl. LXII, 40–2; pl. LXIII, 58–9, 61; pl. LXV, 98. In Hittite cylinders, see Beran, pl. 35, 3; Parrot, A., “Cylindre hittite nouvellement acquis (AO 20138),” Syria XXVIII (1951), fig. 4Google Scholar and pl. XIII, 1, for the tree in the hunt frieze; and a single example from the capitol, a tree in a wide bowl, Güterbock, II, no. 221. Trees do not appear in the seal impressions of Carchemish found at Ras Shamra.

11 For the equal-armed cross as hieroglyph, see Güterbock, II, p. 93, no. 86; Laroche, E., Les Hiéroglyphes hittites, pt. 1 (Paris, 1960), pp. 158–9, no. 310Google Scholar. Several versions of this cross are known on both stamp and cylinder seals; Buchanan, no. 993; Porada, E., Corpus of Ancient Near Eastern Seals in North American Collections. I, The Pierpont Morgan Collection, ed. Buchanan, B. (Washington, 1948), no. 909Google Scholar; von der Osten, H. H., Ancient Oriental Seals in the Collection of Mr. Edward T. Newell (Chicago, 1934), no. 386Google Scholar; Goldman, H., Excavations at Gözlü Küle, vol. II (Princeton, N. J., 1956), pp. 243–44, pls. 403, 407, no. 42Google Scholar; Kennedy, D. A., “Sceaux hittites conservés à Paris,” RHA XVII (1959), p. 162, no. 44Google Scholar.

12 Güterbock, H., “The Hurrian Element in the Hittite Empire,” Journal of World History II (1954–1955), pp. 383–94Google Scholar.