The land of the Hittites : $b An account of recent explorations and discoveries in Asia Minor, with descriptions of the Hittite monumentsGarstang, John
History
The land of the Hittites : $b An account of recent explorations and discoveries in Asia Minor, with descriptions of the Hittite monuments
Garstang, John
Hittites; Turkey -- Antiquities
The sculptures of Giaour-Kalesi, however, are of unmistakably Hittite
origin, even though no inscription seems to have been noticed with them.
Here the subjects are godlike figures, in familiar Hittite guise.[363]
They are carved in relief upon the living rock, and their situation
is particularly noteworthy. A rocky knoll overlooks, indeed partly
overhangs, a narrow pass: upon the summit is a fortress, rectangular in
shape, about eighteen yards by thirty-seven, and supported by an outer
and lower wall at a distance of twelve to thirty yards. The masonry of
the inner wall is rough dry-walling, while the outer is built in the
style of the fortress on Beuyuk Kaleh at Boghaz-Keui,[364] of stones
roughly pentagonal in shape, irregular in size, fitted to one another,
and laid without mortar. In its shape this fortress corresponds to that
of Yenije Kaleh at Boghaz-Keui;[365] in its double wall and rough inner
masonry to that on Kizil Dagh;[366] and in the position of the monuments
near its entrance to that on Kizil Dagh just mentioned, and to another at
Karaburna.[367]
[Illustration: PLATE L
ANGORA: THE ACROPOLIS (_See also p. 36._)]
The sculptures represent two male figures: the one bearded, the other
beardless. Both are clad in the short tunic, tip-tilted shoes, and
conical hat familiar in the god-figures at Boghaz-Keui.[368] A dagger
with crescental hilt is stuck into the belt of each. They are of gigantic
size, seemingly about ten or twelve feet high, and both are posed in
the same way facing in the same direction. They turn to the observer’s
left; their right hands are advanced, as though pointing down the pass,
while their left arms are drawn back. Obedient to convention, the right
legs are advanced, and the shoulders are seen almost in full view.
Something hangs down from the hat of each, falling behind the neck;[369]
and upon the front of the hat worn by the bearded figure there may be
traced a curving object, but whether the upturned brim familiar on the
sculptures at Sinjerli and Boghaz-Keui,[370] or some other emblem, is not
determinable.
There can be little doubt as to the identification of these two figures,
as they are portrayed, with the father-god and the son-god (the two forms
of Attis of later times), seen in exact correspondence on the sculptured
walls of the sanctuary at Boghaz-Keui.[371] Is it merely a coincidence
that, while being a link in the great westerly route from Boghaz-Keui
towards Kara-Bel and Sipylus, they are pointing down the pass which is
thought by many to have led also directly to Pessinus or Pessinous, the
chief sanctuary of the Mother-goddess[372] in this part of Asia Minor?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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