The Karasu relief, also known as the Süpürgüç relief after the earlier name of the nearby town of Akbudak, is a

rock relief A rock relief or rock-cut relief is a relief sculpture carved on solid or "living rock" such as a cliff, rather than a detached piece of stone. They are a category of rock art, and sometimes found as part of, or in conjunction with, ro ...

located on a tributary of the

Euphrates The Euphrates () is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of Western Asia. Tigris–Euphrates river system, Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia ( ''the land between the rivers'') ...

and derives from the Neo-Hittite period. It depicts a protective god standing on a deer. Rock reliefs are a prominent aspect of

Hittite art Hittite art was produced by the Hittite civilization in ancient Anatolia, in modern-day Turkey, and also stretching into Syria during the second millennium BCE from the nineteenth century up until the twelfth century BCE. This period falls under ...

Location and discovery

The relief is located near the town of Gümüşpınar near Akbudak in the district of

Araban Araban ( ku, Qale) is a district and town of Gaziantep Province of Turkey. The population is 9,863 as of 2010. History The city was historically known as Raban. In October/November 958, the Byzantine Empire led by John Tzimiskes and Basil Lekapen ...

Gaziantep Province Gaziantep Province ( tr, ) is a province in south-central Turkey. It is located in the westernmost part of Turkey's Southeastern Anatolia Region and partially in the Mediterranean Region. Its capital is the city of Gaziantep. It neighbours Ad ...

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

, on a cliff-face about 200 m above the Karasu river, about three km from where it meets the

. Here the river has dug a deep gorge in the limestone of the ''Kartal Dağı''. A few metres below the top of the cliff is the relief on the east side of a rectangular outcrop. In the early first millennium BC the border between the

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...

kingdoms of

Kummuh Kummuh was an Iron Age Neo-Hittite kingdom located on the west bank of the Upper Euphrates within the eastern loop of the river between Melid and Carchemish. Assyrian sources refer to both the land and its capital city by the same name. The city i ...

(later

Commagene Commagene ( grc-gre, Κομμαγηνή) was an ancient Greco-Iranian kingdom ruled by a Hellenized branch of the Iranian Orontid dynasty that had ruled over Armenia. The kingdom was located in and around the ancient city of Samosata, which ser ...

) and

Carchemish Carchemish ( Turkish: ''Karkamış''; or ), also spelled Karkemish ( hit, ; Hieroglyphic Luwian: , /; Akkadian: ; Egyptian: ; Hebrew: ) was an important ancient capital in the northern part of the region of Syria. At times during its ...

was located in the area. From the inscription on the late

Assyria Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , romanized: ''māt Aššur''; syc, ܐܬܘܪ, ʾāthor) was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization which existed as a city-state at times controlling regional territories in the indigenous lands of the A ...

n relief at Kenk Boğazı, ten kilometres away, it appears that both reliefs were located within the kingdom of Kummuh. The relief was discovered by geologists Krummanacher and Wilson in 1956 and first published by

Charles Burney Charles Burney (7 April 1726 – 12 April 1814) was an English music historian, composer and musician. He was the father of the writers Frances Burney and Sarah Burney, of the explorer James Burney, and of Charles Burney, a classicist a ...

and G.R. Lawson in 1958.

Description

The relief is 1.98 m high by 1.6 m wide. It shows a warrior standing on a deer. The deer is 1.2 m high, its back is 52 cm high and the body is 68 cm long. It faces left, with its head held high on a slender neck. The head with a slightly opened mouth is depicted in profile. A finely carved pair of antlers with two branches on each side is depicted front-on on top of the head. According to

Frank Starke Frank or Franks may refer to: People * Frank (given name) * Frank (surname) * Franks (surname) * Franks, a medieval Germanic people * Frank, a term in the Muslim world for all western Europeans, particularly during the Crusades - see Farang Cur ...

it is a

red deer The red deer (''Cervus elaphus'') is one of the largest deer species. A male red deer is called a stag or hart, and a female is called a hind. The red deer inhabits most of Europe, the Caucasus Mountains region, Anatolia, Iran, and parts of wes ...

(''Cervus elaphus''). On the back of the dear, there is a 1.2 m high male figure facing left and wearing a short kilt and shoes. He is armed with a spear in his right hand and holds a bow over his shoulder with his left hand. In 1976, the upper part of the cliff was blown away with dynamite by treasure hunters. Since then none of the head is visible except for the beard. On old illustrations show details of the face and the hair hanging down his neck. The wears the tall, round-topped hat of a god. A Sun symbol hovers above the figure. Although there is no inscription on the relief, the figure with the deer is clearly the protective god of the wild, Kurunta or Tuntija. The motif of the "god on the deer" is already known attested at Assyrian trade outposts and the

Hittite empire The Hittites () were an Anatolian people who played an important role in establishing first a kingdom in Kussara (before 1750 BC), then the Kanesh or Nesha kingdom (c. 1750–1650 BC), and next an empire centered on Hattusa in north-centra ...

at the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. In late Hittite times the motif is found on, for example, the Hacıbebekli stele. Inspection revealed traces of a late Hittite settlement in the area, which suggests that the relief depicts a protective god of the settlement. Hansgerd Hellenkemper and Jörg Wagner assigned the work to the "traditional style" (1050-850 BC) on the basis of stylistic elements, while

Winfried Orthmann Winfried Orthmann (born 16 August 1935) is a German archaeologist specialized on Near East regions. Life Winfried Orthmann studied the ancient history of the Middle East, classical archaeology and Assyriology from 1954 to 1961 at universities in ...

dated it to the "Late Hittite II" period (950-850 BC).Winfried Orthmann: ''Untersuchungen zur späthethitischen Kunst.'' (=''Saarbrücker Beiträge zur Altertumskunde'' Vol. 8) Habelt, Bonn 1971, , p. 487.

Bridge

About two kilometres upstream are the remains of a Roman bridge at Karasu, known in Turkish as Karasu Köprüsü. It was part of the military road which led from Zeugma to

Samosata Samsat ( ku, Samîsad), formerly Samosata ( grc, Σαμόσατα) is a small town in the Adıyaman Province of Turkey, situated on the upper Euphrates river. It is the seat of Samsat District.Monumental graves at Elif, Hisar und Hasanoğlu. From the bridge it is about forty-five minutes walk up the plateau to the relief.

References

Bibliography

* Charles A. Burney, G. R. Lawson: "Urartian reliefs at Adilcevaz, on Lake Van, and a rock relief from the Karasu, near Birecik." ''Anatolian Studies'' 8, 1958, pp. 211–218. * Hansgerd Hellenkemper, Jörg Wagner. "The God on the Stag. A Late Hittite Rock-Relief on the River Karasu" ''Anatolian Studies'' 27, 1977, pp. 167–173. * Eberhard P. Rossner: ''Felsdenkmäler in der Türkei.'' Vol. 1: ''Die hethitischen Felsreliefs in der Türkei. Ein archäologischer Führer.'' 2nd, revised edition. Rossner, München 1988, , pp. 198–201. *

Horst Ehringhaus Horst may refer to: Science * Horst (geology), a raised fault block bounded by normal faults or graben People * Horst (given name) * Horst (surname) * ter Horst, Dutch surname * van der Horst, Dutch surname Places Settlements Germany * Horst, ...

. ''Das Ende, das ein Anfang war. Felsreliefs und Felsinschriften der luwischen Staaten Kleinasiens vom 12. bis 8./7. Jahrhundert v. Chr.'' Nünnerich-Asmus, Mainz 2014, {{ISBN, 978-3-943904-67-3, pp. 95–101.

External links

Description on Hittitemonuments.com
Hittite art Archaeological sites in the Mediterranean Region, Turkey Hittite sites in Turkey Rock reliefs in Turkey Tourist attractions in Gaziantep Province