The Niğde Stele is a

Neo-Hittite The states called Neo-Hittite, Syro-Hittite (in older literature), or Luwian-Aramean (in modern scholarly works) were Luwian and Aramean regional polities of the Iron Age, situated in southeastern parts of modern Turkey and northwestern parts o ...

monument from the modern Turkish city of

Niğde Niğde (; ; Hittite: Nahita, Naxita) is a city and is located in the Central Anatolia region of Turkey. It is the seat of Niğde Province and Niğde District. NigdeMuseumSteleNigde3

The stele was found on 24 September 1975 near the citadel of Niğde in the Çelebi Hüsamettin Bey Mosque (now Dışarı Camii), where it was reused, carved side down, as a step in front of the entrance to the mosque. It is now in the

Niğde Archaeological Museum Niğde Archaeological Museum () is located in the centre of the Turkey, Turkish provincial capital, Niğde between ''Dışarı Cami Sokak'' and ''Öğretmenler Caddesi''. It contains objects found at sites in the surrounding area, including the tel ...

(inventory no. 22.1.75).

Description

The black basalt stele is 2.18 metres high and about a metre wide and belongs to a type which developed in the 10th century BC. It depicts the weather god Tarhunzas, holding an axe and a thunderbolt in his raised hands. Vines sprout from the ground to his left and grain to the right, similar to the İvriz relief. A very similar depiction of the same god appears on the

relief Relief is a sculpture, sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces remain attached to a solid background of the same material. The term ''wikt:relief, relief'' is from the Latin verb , to raise (). To create a sculpture in relief is to give ...

in the village of Gökbez, some 22 km to the south. The figure is depicted with clothing, hair and beard of the Assyrian style. The winged solar disk, a traditional symbol of the ruler, hovers over his head. On the right edge of the stone block is an inscription in

Luwian hieroglyphs Anatolian hieroglyphs are an indigenous logographic script native to central Anatolia, consisting of some 500 signs. They were once commonly known as Hittite hieroglyphs, but the language they encode proved to be Luwian, not Hittite, and the ter ...

, recording the dedication of the stele to Tarhunzas by king Muwaharanis, the son of king

Warpalawas Warpalawas II () was a Luwian king of the Syro-Hittite kingdom of Tuwana in the region of Tabal who reigned during the late 8th century BC, from around to . Name Etymology The Luwian name was pronounced and was derived by adding the adjecti ...

: Muwaharanis succeeded his father Warpalawas on the throne of the late Luwian kingdom of

Tuwana Tyana, earlier known as Tuwana during the Iron Age, and Tūwanuwa during the Bronze Age, was an ancient city in the Anatolian region of Cappadocia, in modern Kemerhisar, Niğde Province, Central Anatolia Region, Central Anatolia, Turkey. It wa ...

, a successor state of the Hittite , in the southern part of the modern

Niğde Province Niğde Province () is a Provinces of Turkey, province in the southern part of Central Anatolia, Turkey. Its area is 7,234 km2, and its population is 365,419 (2022) of which 170,511 live in the city of Niğde. The population was 348,081 in 200 ...

. Since it is known that Warpalawas was still reigning in 709 BC, the stele must date some time after that year, making it the latest known and datable example of such a relief, and perhaps the latest known Luwian inscription, with the possible exception of the bilingual Azatiwada inscription at Karatepe.

References

Bibliography

* John Boardman (Ed.): ''The Cambridge Ancient history. Plates to volume III : the Middle East, the Greek world and the Balkans to the sixth century B.C.'' Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1984 pp. 85–87

External links

hittitemonuments.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nigde Stele Archaeological discoveries in Turkey Hittite art 8th-century BC steles Luwian inscriptions Ancient Cilicia History of Niğde Province Steles in Turkey 1975 archaeological discoveries