Yazılıkaya

Coordinates: 40°01′30″N 34°37′58″E / 40.02500°N 34.63278°E / 40.02500; 34.63278
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Yazılıkaya, Eskişehir
, also called Midas City, is a village with Phrygian ruins.
Yazılıkaya
Yazılıkaya
Yazılıkaya is located in Turkey
Yazılıkaya
Shown within Turkey
LocationÇorum Province, Turkey
RegionAnatolia
Coordinates40°01′30″N 34°37′58″E / 40.02500°N 34.63278°E / 40.02500; 34.63278
TypeSettlement
Site notes
ConditionIn ruins

Yazılıkaya (

Hittite Empire, today in the Çorum Province, Turkey. Rock reliefs are a prominent aspect of Hittite art
, and these are generally regarded as the most important group.

History

This was a holy site for the

Suppiluliuma II
in the late 13th century BCE, when the site underwent a significant restoration.

The most impressive is Chamber A, which contains rock-cut relief of 64 deities in procession. The left wall shows a procession of male deities, wearing the traditional kilts, pointed shoes and horned hats. Mountain gods are also shown with scaled skirts to symbolise the rocky mountains. The right wall shows a procession of female deities wearing crowns and long skirts. The only exception to this divide is the goddess of love and war,

Sharruma, daughter Alanzu
and a granddaughter.

The smaller and narrower Chamber B has fewer but larger and better preserved reliefs. It may have served as a mortuary mausoleum or memorial for the Hittite king Tudhaliya IV.

The Hittite practise of assimilating other cultures' gods into their own pantheon is in evidence at Yazilikaya. The Mesopotamian god of wisdom, Ea (

Hittite religion
.

A 2021 study concluded that the sanctuary depicted the cosmos including its three levels: earth, sky, and underworld; in addition to the cyclical processes: day/night, lunar phases, and summer/winter, which served as a lunisolar calendar. However, the supreme deities in Chamber A, referred to the northern stars, while Chamber B represented the netherworld.[2]

Gallery

  • Rock carving in Chamber B depicting the god Sharruma and King Tudhaliya IV, dated to around 1250–1220 BCE
    Rock carving in Chamber B depicting the god
    Tudhaliya IV
    , dated to around 1250–1220 BCE
  • Nergal, the god of the underworld
    Nergal, the god of the underworld
  • Entrance to Chamber B with demon relief
    Entrance to Chamber B with demon relief
  • Chamber B
    Chamber B
  • Chamber B relief with the twelve gods of the underworld
    Chamber B relief with the twelve gods of the underworld

References

  1. ^ Eberhard Zangger; Rita Gautschy (2019). "Celestial Aspects of Hittite Religion: An Investigation of the Rock Sanctuary Yazılıkaya" (PDF). Equinox Publishing.
  2. doi:10.1558/jsa.17829
    .

External links

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