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A Seal Impression from el-Qiṭār/Til-Abnu (Syria)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

Alfonso Archi
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Extract

The seal rolled on the six sides of the envelope containing a legal document found at el-Qiṭār (Pls. XXXV–XXXVI), on the west bank of the Euphrates some 33 km. downstream from Tell Ahmar, has its best parallels in the imprints of the Hittite seals from Ugarit and Emar of the thirteenth century B.C.

The scene is framed above and below by a border à guilloche. To the left is the Weather-god, standing on two triangles representing mountains, which do not seem to be marked with a scale pattern as in Yaz. 64.

The god wears a beard and his hair falls in a long pigtail down his back to his waist. He is wearing a short kilt and probably a shirt which leaves his arms bare. On his head he wears a tiara with horns, and a curved sword hangs from his waist, with the tip pointing downward and with the usual half-moon pommel. In his right hand, raised behind his head, he brandishes an axe. Behind his back, beneath the pigtail, is a filling motif (cf. SBo II no. 229). His raised left arm reaches out in front, and on the fist rests the god's symbol: TONITRUS, L 199, to the right of which is a star.

Type
Research Article
Information
Anatolian Studies , Volume 43 , December 1993 , pp. 203 - 206
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute at Ankara 1993

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References

1 I thank T. L. McClellan director of the archaeological expedition at el-Qiṭār for having allowed me to study this seal impression, and Mr. H. Hammade of the National Museum of Aleppo, who made it possible for me to examine the original. Death prevented W. Culican from completing the study of this seal impression, a drawing of which he gave in Abr-Nahrain 22 (1983–1984), 57 fGoogle Scholar. The impression has been re-drawn for me by L. Scardala.

Note the following abbreviations:

L.: list of hieroglyphs according to Laroche, E., Les hiéroglyphes hittites, I (Paris 1960)Google Scholar.

M.: list of hieroglyphs according to Meriggi, P., Hieroglyphisch-hethitisches Glossar (Wiesbaden 1962)Google Scholar.

SBo II; Güterbock, H. G., Siegel aus Boğazköy II (AfO, Beiheft 7; Berlin 1942)Google Scholar.

Yaz.: list of reliefs of Yazilikaya, according to Bittel, K. et al. , Yazilikaya1 (WVDOG 61; Berlin 1941)Google Scholar; Yazilikaya2 (Berlin 1975)Google Scholar.

2 In other seals, as well as in Yaz. 42, the Weather-god is standing on two deified mountains in anthropomorphic form, that is male human figures wearing skirts with scales, see Ugaritica III, 50 fig. 68Google Scholar; MDOG 118 (1986), 185Google Scholar (seal from Lidar).

3 In the relief of Fraktin, Ḫepat, seated in front of the table, lifts a cup with one hand and perhaps a loaf with the other.

4 L.155, frequently pictured in the seals, should have the same meaning.

5 For the cult of Divine River in Northern Syria in the Old Babylonian period, see Lambert, W. G., MARI 4 (1985), 535Google Scholar.

6 On the cult of Baliḥ, see Archi, , Festschrift S. Alp (Ankara, 1992), 8 fGoogle Scholar.

7 The homage of a deity to the Weather-god is pictured in various seals, cf. Ugaritica III, 24Google Scholar no. 32, 41 no. 56, 51 no. 70. However, it cannot be excluded that some times the owner of the seal may have been represented, cf. Laroche, , Ugaritica III, 123 fGoogle Scholar. On this problem, cf. Archi, , SMEA 14 (1971), 73 fGoogle Scholar.

8 All of these elements are found in seal no. 22 published by Güterbock, in: Bittel, et al. ,Boğazköy V (Berlin 1975), 59 fGoogle Scholar. Other seals representing the god KAL are collected by Masson, E., Syria 52 (1975), 237 fCrossRefGoogle Scholar. In addition, see Ugaritica III, 50 no. 68Google Scholar; Dinçol, A. M., Anadolu 9 (1982)Google Scholar, tables XII-XVI; Ertem, H., Korucutepe (Ankara 1988), 7Google Scholar no. 6. For the description of statues representing this deity, see von Brandenstein, C.-G., Hethitische Götter nach Bildbeschreibungen in Keilschrifttexten (MV AeG 46, 2; Leipzig 1943), 78–82Google Scholar; Jakob-Rost, L., MIO 9 (1963), 204 fGoogle Scholar. (sub: LAMA); in one of these statues the god holds a shield, arītu, in his right hand.

9 See Sürenhagen, D., MDOG 118 (1986), 183–190Google Scholar; Hawkins, J. D., AnSt 38 (1988), 99–108Google Scholar.

10 The sign nu has only 8 and not 9 dashes; la, as M. Poetto has pointed out to me, is clearly visible in the imprints on the smaller sides of the envelope. He identified also pá+ra/i. The signs sà- and tà were suggested to me by J. D. Hawkins, to whom I owe also a profitable discussion on this seal, including the correction of Snell's reading of the name of the NIN.DINGIR on line 1 of the tablet to Sippilumše.

11 The cuneiform text has been studied by Snell, D. C., Abr-Nahrain 22 (1983–1984), 159–70Google Scholar.

12 Gelb, I. J., Purves, P. M. and MacRae, A. A., Nuzi Personal Names (OIP 57; Chicago 1943), 180Google Scholar: fZIPE; Cassin, E. and Glassner, J.-J., Anthroponymie et Anthropologie de Nuzi (Malibu 1977), 175Google Scholar: fZIPE.

13 See the ritual from Emar for the enthronement of the NIN.DINGIR of the Weather god, Arnaud, D., Recherches au pays d'Aštata, Emar VI.3 (Paris 1986), 326–37Google Scholar no. 369.

14 Culican, W. and McClellan, T. L., Abr-Nahrain 22 (1983–1984), 31Google Scholar. For the results of the archaeological exploration, see McClellan, , National Geographic Research 2 (1986), 418–40Google Scholar.

15 See Friedrich, J., Hethitisches Wörterbuch (Heidelberg 1952), 211Google Scholar; Tischler, J., Hethitisches Etymologisches Glossar III, 8 (Innsbruck 1991), 118–19Google Scholar.

The value pá for L.462/M.128 was accepted tentatively by both Meriggi, , Glossar, 203Google Scholar, and Laroche, , Hiéroglyphes hittites, 238Google Scholar, and it was discussed by Hawkins, , AnSt 33 (1983), 135Google Scholar with note 15. Melchert, H. C., AnSt 38 (1988), 36–8Google Scholar has brought some evidence for a value ma.

16 See also the recent edition by Grayson, A. K., Assyrian Rulers of the early First Millennium BC, I (1114–859 B.C.), Toronto 1991, 216 fCrossRefGoogle Scholar.

17 Tell Hadidi/Azû is 12 km. to the south. For this geographical datum, see Culican, and McClellan, , Abr-Nahrain 22 (1983–1984), 29Google Scholar.