BASBUK, TURKEY – Archeologists have documented an unfinished rock carving found in the village of Başbük, Turkey, that dates back nearly 3,000 years to the time of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. The rock carving appears to depict a procession of deities, beginning with the storm god Hadad and also including Atargatis, a widely worshiped Syrian goddess similar to Ištar, Sîn of Harran, a moon god, and Šamas, a sun god. Four other figures follow behind, but their identities are unclear, though one of the figures may correspond to Nusku, a god of the new moon attested as the son of Sîn.
The Başbük divine procession panel with superimposed interpretative figure drawings (photograph by M. Önal; interpretative drawings by M. Önal, based on laser scan by Cevher Mimarlık)
The carvings were found by police in an underground complex discovered beneath a two-story building in the center of the village in 2017, as noted in an article published this week in the journal Antiquity. It appears that an entrance to the underground complex was cut open during the construction of the building, but the find was not disclosed to the government, as required by law. Looters may have used the tunnel to smuggle antiquities.
The complex was filled with sediment, some of which was removed in 2018, revealing the carvings. Due to the instability of the site, excavations were halted until the tunnels could be reinforced, at which point they will be turned back over to the scholars for study.
The carving is especially interesting for what it tells us about the cultural exchange between the Neo-Assyrian Empire and the Aramaic-speaking people who lived in the area of Anatolia around modern Başbük.
Between 900 and 600 B.C.E., the Neo-Assyrian Empire began to take control of previously independent city-states in Anatolia. The carving demonstrates how some of that power was exercised early in the process of the area coming under Assyrian control. There may be a reference to a “Mukīn-abūa” in the carving, who was known to be the Assyrian governor of the Tušhan region in 794 B.C.E. If the reference can be confirmed, once the site is open for further excavation, it would provide a more firm dating for the carving.
Although the carvings are broadly in the Assyrian style, says Selim Ferruh Adalı of the Social Sciences University of Ankara, one of the paper’s co-authors, they have many distinctive features of the local culture. “It’s primarily Aramaic symbolism that we find, melded with Assyrian style,” Adalı told National Geographic. He noted that the inscriptions are in Aramaic, and use the Aramaic names for the deities.
Interpretative drawings of the divine procession scene at Başbük (above) with photographs of the figures (below) (photographs by Y. Koyuncu and M. Önal; interpretative drawings by M. Önal, based on laser scan by Cevher Mimarlık)
Adalı and the other authors, including the lead author Mehmet Önal (Archeology, University of Harran, Turkey), Celal Uludağ, and Yusuf Koyuncu (both of the Şanlıurfa Museum), interpret this mixture of Assyrian and Aramaic elements as showing the “soft power” of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, blending the dominant imperial culture with the local culture as a means of creating authority and maintaining peace.
“By illustrating a local cohabitation and symbiosis of the Assyrians and the Arameans in a region and period under firm Assyrian imperial control,” says the study, “the Başbük panel gives scholars studying the imperial peripheries a striking example of regional values in the exercise of imperial power expressed through monumental art.”
Throughout the carving, there is a recurring motif of ears of corn – Sîn, Šamas, and potentially the other unfinished figures have corn in their headdresses, and even the chief deities, Hadad and Atargatis, are holding another ear of corn. This suggests that the relief may be connected to fertility practices in the region, especially as Sîn and Hadad, as gods of the moon and storms respectively, have attested ties to fertility practices elsewhere.
The carving of Atargatis is notable as being the first Aramaic attestation of the goddess. Frequently also known simply as “the Syrian Goddess” in Greek and Roman sources, she is a mother-goddess and also tied to fertility. She is part of a group of Mesopotamian goddesses, alongside Ištar and their Sumerian antecedent Inanna, who share similar iconography, including lions. During the Neo-Assyrian period, Atargatis/Ištar was identified as Hadad’s consort; in other contexts, she is identified as his sister.
It is difficult to say why the project was begun but not completed. Even the most developed figure, Hadad, only occupies about half the space of the wall, and it appears there was room to carve the rest of his body. The other figures are significantly less finished than that. The authors suggest the regional unrest or a change in power – such as, potentially, Mukīn-abūa losing his position – might explain why the project was started but later abandoned.
The carving is found in an upper gallery of the subterranean complex, with stairs leading down to a lower gallery; it is likely that, after the structure is made more stable, further discoveries will be made at the site. In the meantime, even in its unfinished state, the carving is a powerful piece of the religion and culture of one of the great empires of the ancient world.
“I felt as if I was in a ritual,” said Önal to National Geographic, recalling the moment when he first laid eyes on the carving. “When I was confronted by the very expressive eyes and majestic, serious face of the storm god Hadad, I felt a slight tremor in my body.”
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