Excavations led by University of Toronto archaeologists in southeast Turkey near the Syrian border have unearthed a beautifully carved head and upper torso of a female figure. The remnants are largely intact, although the face and chest appear to have been intentionally – possibly ritually – defaced in antiquity.
The preserved remnants are made of basalt and measure 1.1 metres long and 0.7 metres wide, suggesting the full figure of the statue would have been four to five metres high. The lower body is missing. The statue was found within a monumental gate complex that would have provided access to the upper citadel of Kunulua – later Tayinat – the capital of the Iron Age Neo-Hittite Kingdom of Patina (ca. 1000-738 BCE). The site is approximately 75 kilometres west of the Syrian city of Aleppo.
“Her striking features include a ring of curls that protrude from beneath a shawl that covers her head, shoulders and back,” says Timothy Harrison, professor of near eastern archaeology in the Department of Near & Middle Eastern Civilizations at the University of Toronto (U of T) and director of U of T’s Tayinat Archaeological Project (TAP). Since 1999, TAP researchers have been documenting Tayinat’s exceptional cultural record to advance understanding of early social complexity and the rise of state-ordered societies in the ancient world.
3,000 year-old female statue found at citadel gate complex in southeast Turkey
4/
5
Oleh
reis-inet
