Rock reliefs form a large part of the extant artistic remains of theAnatolianHittite Empire (c.14th century BC). The reliefs that survive are often located near roads, and in mountainous terrain (over 1000 meters elevation) overlooking plains. They are often near sites with sacred significance both before and after the Hittite period, such assacred springs, "linking the [Hittite] state's official discourse with the divine beings of [those] places" (Harmanşah, 2014).[1]
AtYazılıkaya, just outside the capital ofHattusa, a series of reliefs ofHittite gods in procession decorate open-air "chambers" made by adding barriers among the natural rock formations. The site was apparently a sanctuary, and possibly a burial site, for the commemoration of the ruling dynasty's ancestors.
Herodotus, in theHistories (writtenc. 430 BC), describes theKarabel relief, which he attributes to the legendary EgyptianpharaohSesostris:
Also, there are in Ionia two figures of this man [i.e.,Sesostris] carved in rock, one on the road fromEphesus toPhocaea, and the other on that fromSardis toSmyrna. In both places, the figure is over twenty feet high, with a spear in his right hand and a bow in his left, and the rest of his equipment proportional; for it is both Egyptian and Ethiopian; and right across the breast from one shoulder to the other a text is cut in the Egyptiansacred characters, saying: “I myself won this land with the strength of my shoulders.” There is nothing here to show who he is and whence he comes, but it is shown elsewhere. Some of those who have seen these figures guess they areMemnon, but they are far indeed from the truth.[2]
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