The Inscriptions of the Aleppo Temple
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Anatolian Studies 61 (2011): 35–54 The inscriptions of the Aleppo temple J.D. Hawkins School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London Abstract The location of the Temple of the Storm-God of Aleppo, one of the most famous cult-centres of antiquity, has long been a matter of speculation, but was finally revealed by excavations on Aleppo citadel begun in 1996. These have gradually uncovered the central cult-room of the temple with a rich inventory of sculptures datable to several phases of the construction. In 2003 came the dramatic exposure of a substantial Hieroglyphic Luwian inscription recording a dedication to the Storm-God by a ruler, Taita King of Palistin, incised alongside his own image standing in an attitude of reverence before the deity. This was followed in 2004–2005 by the discovery of a further, but broken, inscription on portal figures of the entrance, attributable to the same ruler. These inscriptions are datable by their palaeography approximately to the 11th century BC, a period previously regarded as a dark age lacking written records. They suggest the existence of a large and powerful kingdom in an area where the increasingly known archaeology shows an influx of people of Aegean connections bringing with them the distinctive Mycenaean IIIC pottery. A combination of the archaeological data and the evidence of the inscriptions begins to offer an outline history for this little-known age. This paper presents the first full publication of the inscriptions together with some comments on their background and implications. Özet Antik dünyanın en ünlü kült merkezlerinden biri olan, Aleppo’daki Fırtına Tanrısı Tapınağı’nın yeri uzun bir süre tartışma konusu olmuş, fakat nihayet 1996’da başlatılan Aleppo kalesi kazıları sırasında ortaya çıkarılmıştır. Bu kazılar sonucunda kademeli olarak, yapının değişik dönemlerine tarihlenebilen çok sayıda heykeli barındıran tapınağın merkezi kült odası açığa çıkarılmıştır. 2003 yılında, Palistin Kralı Taita tarafından Fırtına Tanrısı’na adanmış, kendisinin Tanrı önünde saygıyla eğilir pozisyondaki heykelinin yanında kazılmış, önemli bir Luvi hiyeroglif yazıtı ortaya çıkmıştır. Bunu, 2004–2005 yıllarında, girişteki kapı figürlerinin üzerinde, aynı yöneticiye atfedilebilen daha ileri seviyede fakat kırık olan bir yazıtın keşfi takip etmiştir. Bu yazıtlar paleografik açıdan, daha önce yazılı kayıtlar olmadığı için karanlık çağ olarak kabul edilen, M.Ö. 11. yüzyıla tarihlenmiştir. Bu yazıtlar, giderek daha iyi bilinen arkeolojik verilerin gösterdiği gibi, Ege bağlantıları olan ve beraberinde karakteristik Miken IIIC seramiğini getiren halkın akın ettiği bu bölgede, büyük ve güçlü bir krallık var olduğunu akla getirmektedir. Arkeolojik veriler ve yazıtların birleşimi, bu az bilinen dönemin tarihi hakkında ipuçları vermektedir. Bu makale, yazıtların geçmişi ve etkileri üzerine bazı yorumlarla birlikte, bu yazıtların ilk tam yayınını da sunmaktadır. he cult of the Storm-God of Aleppo was one of the assumed the role of head of a widening pantheon, as Tmost prominent and enduring of the Ancient Near attested in the documents of Alalah and Mari (Schwemer East, on a level with those of Ištar of Nineveh and the 2001: 211–19), and his temple as his seat will have been Moon-God of Harran. It is attested as important already built and adorned in a manner befitting the cult-centre of in the Ebla tablets, ca 2500 BC, where it enjoyed the the region. The defeat of Aleppo by the Hittites under patronage of the kings of that city, as also from Early Hattusili I and Mursili I led to the eclipse of the city and Dynastic Mari (Schwemer 2001: 108–11). With the rise doubtless to the plundering of the accumulated wealth of to prominence in north Syria of the Amorite kingdom of the cult. However, the old Semitic Storm-God Addu Yamhad with its capital at Aleppo, the city’s patron deity exerted his influence on the conquering newcomers, both 35 Anatolian Studies 2011 the Hittites of the Old Kingdom and then the Hurrians of under the modern city. It was generally assumed that the Mittanni, who adopted and assimilated him to their own temple would be at least archaeologically inaccessible if Storm-Gods under the names Tarhunna (Hittite) and not destroyed. Teššub (Hurrian). There is no reason to think that under Thus the news in the late 1990s of its discovery and Mittannian, then Hittite domination the Aleppo temple of progressive revelation was an archaeological sensation, this now widely worshipped deity was not treated with and high expectations were not disappointed as the north the customary care and devotion. side of the cella with its ‘pedestal wall’ of 26 reliefs was Thus when Suppiluliuma I had mastered Syria, he gradually uncovered (Kohlmeyer 2000). The only appointed his sons, Telipinu ‘the Priest’ and Piyassili, as inscriptions found with this wall were two relief kings of Aleppo and Karkamiš respectively, in effect as epigraphs identifying the central figures in this row, the ‘archbishop’ and ‘viceroy’ of Syria. We even have one of Storm-God himself in his iconic chariot and his supporter the earliest known Hieroglyphic Luwian inscriptions, that the Stag-God (inscription designated ALEPPO 4). of Talmi-Šarruma, son and successor of the Priest, which Following the kind invitation of Kay Kohlmeyer, I survives bizarrely built into the wall of a mosque and visited the site in September 2003. At this time the records the king’s construction of the lesser temple of excavations were descending through Hellenistic fill in Hepa-Šarruma (the inscription ALEPPO 1; Laroche 1956: search of the cella’s east wall, and Kohlmeyer said to me: 131–41). The cult of the Storm-God of Aleppo remained ‘It is a pity that you did not come a fortnight later, we popular at Hattusa throughout the Empire period (Klengel have not yet found the inscription’. During my stay, 1965: 88–93), and the particular icon of the god represents however, the excavations encountered a Hellenistic him in a distinctive posture, half-kneeling in his eagle- cistern which on entry proved to have incorporated the chariot drawn by bulls (Hawkins 2003). preserved angle of the east and south walls. After the fall of the Hittite empire, nothing was I duly returned to England, and, sure enough, in known of Aleppo in the dark age ca 1200–1000 BC until October I received a call from Kohlmeyer saying: ‘Come the discovery of the Aleppo temple and its inscriptions. at once, we have found the inscription’. I came. He had By the ninth to eighth century BC the city had lost uncovered the magnificently preserved figures of the god political primacy, being part of the Aramean tribal state of and the king in the middle focal point of the east wall, the Bit-Agusi ruled from Arpad, but clearly it remained the god accompanied by a relief epigraph identifying him as important cult-centre of the region. Thus, for example, the Storm-God of Aleppo (ALEPPO 5) and the king by an Shalmaneser III records visiting it to sacrifice in 853 BC 11-line incised inscription identifying him as Taita, King while en route from Pitru on the river Sajur against the of Padasatini (now read Palistin) and recording his forces of Hamath and Damascus (Grayson 1996: A.O. dedication of the temple to the Storm-God of Aleppo 102.2, ii 86–87). (ALEPPO 6). I made a tracing of the inscription on A little information on Aleppo in this period may be polythene and Kohlmeyer made a latex squeeze. gathered from Hieroglyphic Luwian inscriptions. The In the seasons of 2004 and 2005, the south entrance of Babylon stele with inscription BABYLON 1, though the cella was cleared, revealing portal figures on its excavated at Babylon, is thought to have come from the preserved west side: a fish-man and a lion protome in Aleppo temple and been carried off by Nebuchadnezzar II. situ, then fragments of a sphinx protome and a lion figure It records the author’s dedication of his daughter and facing outwards bearing between them parts of a broken estate to the Storm-God of Aleppo and dates to the tenth inscription, ALEPPO 7. I visited again in May–June century BC (Hawkins 2000: 391–94). A similar origin is 2008 to work on this inscription. At that time the sphinx assumed for the two stone bowls bearing inscriptions and lion figures with the parts of their inscription were BABYLON 2 and 3, dating to the eighth century BC. still in fragments, roughly assembled and not yet restored, Yariri, a ruler of Karkamiš, records tantalisingly that an because there was, and still remains, the hope of finding Assyrian king (probably Adad-nirari III) did something additional fragments by some further excavation that may (hostile?) to the Storm-God of Aleppo, who did something be permitted. (retaliatory?) to Assyria (Hawkins 2000: 135–36). I have delayed publication of these Aleppo inscrip- tions up to the present in this hope of further fragments of The excavations (fig. 1) ALEPPO 7. But enough time has elapsed since the With attestations of its central role spread over some two original discoveries and I feel that I must now make these millennia, clearly the temple would be expected to appear important inscriptions fully available to the scholarly as an imposing building, and its location has long been a world. If further pieces of ALEPPO 7 are subsequently subject of speculation, whether on Aleppo’s prominent found and render the present publication obsolete, so citadel under its medieval fortifications or elsewhere much the better. 36 Hawkins Fig. 1. Aleppo temple plan (K. Kohlmeyer) 37 Anatolian Studies 2011 The temple, phases of construction considers that this relief along with most of the other Before turning to the inscriptions themselves, I sculptures of the ‘pedestal wall’ as found were executed summarise briefly the phases of the temple’s construction in this latest period.