The ethnical history of Kizzuwatna: an onomastic approach

The mixed nature of Kizzuwatna’s population is widely accepted by the scholars, considering the Hurrians and the Luwians its main components. Which of these peoples came to the Cilician plain earlier than another one, is the subject of the discussion between archaeologists and linguists. In the course of this discussion, the onomastic and toponymical data were underestimated and became the subject of my investigation.The onomastic data collected from the historical and ritual texts coming from Kizzuwatna, seals and sealings discovered or bought at the Cilician plain give us a collection of proper names dating to Middle Hittite, New Hittite and Late New Hittite periods. Their distribution by language and period gives us the picture of the Hurrian domination in the Middle Hittite period. By the Late New Hittite period the Luwian names became prevailing. This trend supports the scenario of the Hurrian earlier arrival. Both Hittite and Luwian presence in the Middle Hittite period should reflect the traces of the first conquest of Kizzuwatna by the Old Hittite kingdom, and the Luwian influence increased after the second conquest of Kizzuwatna by the New Hittite kingdom. The geographical distribution between Luwian West and Hurrian East should be further investigated on the ground of the place names of the Cilician plain through ages

Scene of Triumph Over the Stretched Enemy Next to an Anatolian Sacred Tree on One Old Assyrian Sealing from Kültepe (the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, I 2 b 1598)

The paper presents a study of a seal impression from Kültepe (Kanish, Old Assyrian period) from the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts (Moscow, inv. No. I 2 b 1598). The authors were first to prepare the drawing of the damaged image, using modern methods of computer processing and modifying digital photographic material, to recognize in detail its plot and to trace its place within the context of concepts and iconography of the Ancient Near East. It was revealed that the seal depicts a scene of triumph over a defeated enemy in front of a deity sitting on the throne and the sacred tree of some rarest form; the imagery seems to be a fruit of synthesis of Mesopotamian motifs (the pose of both the enemy and the triumphant) with the Eastern Anatolian ones (the tree of the above-mentioned rare form and other parallels provided by one Hittite Empire seal)

On the Origin of Küçükçekmece Iron Figurines

Introduction The 2013 excavations in the Küçükçekmece Lake Basin (in the European part of Istanbul) unearthed two iron figurines (Fig. 1) that have been identified as votive statuettes of Early Hittite-Hurrian type dating to the second quarter of 2nd millennium BC (Aydıngün 2013). During the next seasons, archaeologists found fragments of Hittite and Cypriote White Slip wares and a tin figurine nearby, which they interpreted as the traces of the Old Hittite presence in Thrace (Aydıngün 2017b:..

Escena de combate con serpiente(s) en la impresión de un sello paleoasirio de Kültepe

Abstract: The aim of the article is to publish and present in detail an Old Assyrian sealing from Kültepe (collection of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow), which carries a scene of a hero’s struggle with a serpent-like monster. Such scenes are rare in the Ancient Near Eastern art, while the seal is one of the few highly original artifacts from Kültepe (most seals from Kültepe, on the contrary, present images repeated on other seals from there or other centers). This interpretation of the scene is confirmed in detail by photographs and parallels in the glyptics as well as among other preserved artifacts of cuneiform cultures of the 3rd–1st millennia BC that existed in the Mesopotamian and Syro-Anatolian spaces. The closest parallel to the monster on the seal in question can be seen, apparently, in the monstrous serpent on the famous Neo- Hittite relief from Malatya, suggesting an essential role of Anatolian imagery in the genesis of composition at our seal. The question of the specific myth or plot reflected in this composition remains open.Resumen: El objetivo de este artículo es publicar y presentar en detalle un sello paleo-asirio proveniente de Kültepe (colección del Museo Estatal Pushkin de Bellas Artes, Moscú), el cual presenta una escena de combate entre un héroe y un monstruo con forma de serpiente. Tales escenas resultan extrañas para el arte del Cercano Oriente antiguo, y el sello es uno de los pocos artefactos especialmente originales de Kültepe (dado que la mayoría de los sellos allí encontrados presentan imágenes que se repiten en otros sellos del mismo sitio o de otros centros). La interpretación de la escena se encuentra confirmada en detalle por fotografías y hallazgos con algunos paralelos en los glípticos y entre otros artefactos conservados de culturas cuneiformes del tercer al primer milenio a.C. y que existieron en los espacios mesopotámico y siro-anatolio. Los paralelos más cercanos del monstruo en el sello en cuestión, pueden ser vistas, aparentemente, en la monstruosa serpiente del famoso relieve neo-hitita de Malatya, lo cual nos permite hablar de un papel esencial de la imaginería de Anatolia en la génesis de la composición de nuestro sello. La cuestión del mito o de la trama específicos reflejados en esta composición permanece aún abierta