bout de papier, Vol. 26, No. 2 (2011) — Fall/Winter 2011 // Automne/Hiver 2011, p. 19
The University of To (TAP) unearthed a m Kunulua, capital of tl east Turkey. Associat position, was a magn approximately 1.3 m in height and 1.6 m in length. The lion is poised in a seated position, with ears back, claws extended and roaring. A second sculptural piece, part of a large statue base, depicts a human figure flanked by lions, an iconic ancient Near Eastern cultural motif known as the “Master and the Animals”, which symbolized the civilizational imposition of order over the chaotic forces of the natural world.
The gate complex is reminiscent of the great staircase excavated by Sir Leonard Woolley in 1911 at the royal Hittite capital at Carchemish. The presence of lions, or sphinxes, and colossal statues astride the Master and Animals motif in the citadel gateways of the Neo-Hittite royal cities of Iron Age Syro-Anatolia continued a Bronze Age Hittite tradition. It accentuated their e role of the king as the eper”, of the community. elaborately decorated gateways had come to serve as dynastic parades, legitimizing the power of the ruling elite. The gate reliefs also formed linear narratives, guiding their audiences between the human and divine realms, with the king serving as the link between the two worlds.
The Tayinat gate complex appears to have been destroyed following the Assyrian conquest of 738 BCE, when the area was paved over and converted into the central courtyard of an Assyrian sacred precinct. Smashed remains of stelae carved in Hittite Luwian Hieroglyhpic script hint of an earlier Neo-Hittite religious complex that might have once faced the gateway approach. Scholars have speculated that the reference to Calneh in Isaiah’s oracle against Assyria alludes to its devastation of new insight into the innovative character and sophistication of
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Originally published in bout de papier, Vol. 26, No. 2 (2011) — Fall/Winter 2011 // Automne/Hiver 2011, p. 19. Read the rest of this issue →
