Relief fragment

This fragment of a relief depicts a scene with three human figures. The relief is broken vertically, and much of the left side is missing, leaving only the legs and feet of the largest figure, who is shown seated and wearing a long robe and shoes. A smaller figure is shown on the right, facing the larger seated figure and offering a goblet in his right hand while holding a palm frond or feather in the left. The smaller figure is beardless and can be identified as male by the garments he wears, which have short sleeves, a decorated belt, and a short skirt allowing for freedom of movement, worn with ankle-high boots. He wears his curled, shoulder-length hair held back by a plain headband. A cross-legged table between the two figures holds several stacked objects that may be dishes, atop which is a duck with its head turned back across its body. The scene may represent offerings being made to a seated deity, represented by the large seated figure at left. An element at top resembling a pole from which is suspended a loop of rope is broken at the left side and may originally have been an attribute of this figure, although the missing areas of the relief make it difficult to understand. Below the two figures, a smaller figure holds a spear with the left hand and leads a horse by the bridle with his right, facing toward the right edge of the scene. This area of the relief is heavily worn, but the details of the horse’s musculature at the shoulder and eye remain vivid. Although carved from basalt, a rough volcanic stone, the details of the relief in areas that are less damaged by wear are remarkably fine and skillfully carved. The artisan has created a composition in which almost no empty space remains, and elements are fitted together without a sense of spatial perspective. The figures are stocky and powerful, and together with the crowded composition they present a strikingly dynamic image.

The subject matter, the distinctive style of the carving, and the use of basalt, indicate that this relief can be classified as a Neo-Hittite work. The Neo-Hittite kingdoms were located in southeastern Turkey and northern Syria, regions that had been ruled by the powerful Hittite and Mitanni empires from about 1600-1200 B.C. After the collapse of the great imperial powers at the end of the Late Bronze Age, these lands were divided into small states ruled by local populations as well as by nomadic groups from the Syrian-Arabian steppe who had migrated north. These small kingdoms produced a wealth of carved stone steles (freestanding monuments) and orthostats (slabs which covered the interior or exterior wall of a structure), which borrowed from the distinctive imagery and styles of their Hittite and Mitanni predecessors.