Anatolia
Anatolia Home of Eternity
Home of Eternity Marc Waelkens Marc Waelkens [red.]
Fig. 2a (left) and 2b (right)
Decorations: on the left, an abstract linear composition and on the right, a ritual hunting scene From the cave of Öküzini (Antalya province) Epipalaeothic, 16,000 – 9000 BC
remained in use for millennia. These depictions of formulaic gestures reveal the power of intellec tual developments channelled through imagery; the tales they tell could clearly not be expressed through oral accounts alone.
Cult sites
The cave of Öküzini, occupied during the Epipalaeolithic (16,000 – 9000 BC), contains various decorations. With their dense geometric figures, these are typical of the final Palaeolithic. In the remarkably complex, abstract linear compositions (fig. 2a), abstraction and calculations (tallies?) seem to take precedence over the power of the image. Another image presents a ritual hunting scene in which a large bovine confronts a hunter armed with a spear (fig. 2b). This classic scene of Palaeolithic mythology symbolizes the challenging of nature by humans in the form of man and animal pitted against each other. It recalls a scene depicted at Lascaux and similar sites found across Eurasia. In fact, it continues right up to present-day populations, where the concept is regenerated in ritual ceremonies through such media as dance, trance or imagery. Of all the animals imbued with symbolism, the bull is certainly the most vivid and enduring.
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Prehistoric Anatolia
In mythology, it defies humans with its strength and vitality, from the ‘Minotaur’ at Lascaux to present-day bullfighting. Always represented as the animal or the symbol of a force of nature to be mastered, the bull is the embodiment of the hostile yet familiar. Ever since the Palaeolithic, the shaman has hidden behind the trappings of the bull, adopting its bearing and ostentatious horns, as if to take on its strength as well. Often, the bull is depicted upright, with only its posture suggesting the ambiguity of the image. This image appears in all religions, from the frescos at Knossos to the Christian Nativity scene, where it is an element in scenes depicting a challenge, such as that which still occurs in the streets of southern Europe (Pamplona). The bull was also a symbol of virility, which earned it countless representations in Neolithic hypogea (under ground chamber tombs) and temples. Its representation thus has a dual role: as a symbol of the challenge posed by nature, which must be vanquished, and to claim its power for the voyage in the afterlife. From the cradle to the grave, these two symbolic functions went hand in hand. The horns, when viewed head on, then lead to a new graphic association: they evoke the new moon and hence the rhythm of regen
Fig. 3
Paintings representing a horned shaman (lower left) and a group of animals about to engage in fight (upper left) From the cave of Beldibi (Antalya province) Mesolithic, 8000 – 6000 BC
eration, with which they are often associated. Their characteristic shape lends itself to infinite aesthetic manipulations, from the lyre to the sceptre, while in adorning an object the horns may be interpreted as sanctifying it. So powerful is the schematic shape of the bovine that it became the first letter in our alphabet, aleph, which is simply an inverted ox skull. Its power is both graphic and symbolic, as it initiated abstract discourse.
Sacrifices
The rock shelter of Beldibi (Mesolithic, 8000 − 7000 BC), near Antalya, contains composite scenes that depict horned shamanic figures and groups of animals about to engage in fight (fig. 3). By the end of the era of hunter societies, animal sacrifice symbolically prefigured domestication. The lithic assemblages found at the base of these paintings are associated with the last of the hunter societies, just before the domestication of animals. Here too, mythical thinking precedes the putting into practice of this thinking in the real world. The gathering and consumption of plant foods are presented in a fundamentally para doxical formula: while constituting most of
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Prehistoric Anatolia
what was nutritional and actually consumed, the procurement of plant-based foods conferred so little prestige that everyone in the community, including women and children, had the right to gather them. This is in stark contrast to the dangers faced when driving, tracking and killing big game, where the chances of survival between animals and the men hunting them hung in the balance. From this the notion of sacrifice took root, for from the outset the hunt involved suspending the sacredness of a life so similar to ours. And sacrifice did not stop there, since the human being is basically a primate with nutritional needs identical to those of other primates and motivated solely by the gratification of these needs. The consumption of plant foods is supported by abundant archaeological evidence, in the form of dental wear, fibres lodged in tooth enamel, traces of charred plant matter, and wear on the cutting edges of stone tools. Plants were wholly indispensable to the survival of the human species, and the gathering of plant foods played a major nutritional role in prehistoric societies, constituting more than 70 percent of their diet. Nevertheless, the mythical image of the ‘hunter’ lingers on in all handbooks. Really these should instead use the term ‘gatherer’ − although per-
Fig. 18
Real size copy of a T-shaped ‘pillar’ decorated with a bull, a fox and a stork From Göbekli Tepe, round cult building A Urfa museum H.: 316 cm; W.: 103 cm; Th.: 40 cm Limestone Pre-Pottery Neolithic B, second half of the 9th millennium BC
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Prehistoric Anatolia
Fig. 19
T-shaped ‘pillar’ decorated with a lion From Göbekli Tepe level 1, from a rectangular cult building Urfa museum Limestone Pre-Pottery Neolithic B, second half of the 9th millennium BC
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Prehistoric Anatolia
Fig. 40
Fig. 41
From Tomb T’ at Alacahöyük Ankara, Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, inv. no. 18777 H.: 15 cm; W.: 13.5 cm; Th. 0.6 cm Bronze 2300/2200 – 2000 BC
From Tomb E at Alacahöyük Ankara, Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, inv. no. 7128 H.: 27.5 cm; W.: 31 cm Bronze 2300/2200 – 2000 BC
Top of a standard shaped like a sun disk with simple grid pattern
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The Bronze Age
Top of a standard shaped like a sun disk with complex geometrical design
Fig. 85
Sirens or Harpies as attachments on a bronze cauldron From the Great Tumulus MM at Gordion, made in northern Syria Ankara, Museum of Anatolian Civilizations Bronze Mid-8th century BC
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The Cultic World and its Representation in Early Iron Age Anatolia
Fig. 140
Statuette inspired by the Tychē of Antioch but with a diadem instead of a mural crown. She is holding a pomegranate in the right hand while aboard a ship From Emirdağ (Amorion) / Afyon Museum, inv. no. E. 7658 H.: 44 cm; W.: 18 cm; Th.: 10 cm / Docimian marble 4th century AD
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The Classical World
Fig. 198
Frieze, during the restoration of the so-called Temple of Hadrian at Ephesus (most likely between 383 and 387) reused in the pronaos; it depicts a foundation legend of the city and opposes Theodosius I and members of his family among a panoply of pagan gods and mythological founders of Ephesus; on the right fragment that was shortened to incorporate it in the pronaos, from left to right: Hercules, Flavius Theodosius (the father of Theodosius I) wearing a crown, Theodosius I, a goddess (according to M. Waelkens the Tychē of the city whose appearance seems to be assimilated with that of Artemis Ephesia), Aelia Flacilla (wife of Theodosius I), the imperial couple’s eldest son, Arcadius (in 383 appointed as co-ruler) and Athena Selçuk Museum inv. no. 716 H.: 57 m; L.: 1.62 m; Th.: 21 cm Marble / Late 4th century AD, most likely 383-387
represented in this way too (fig. 200). In the Middle and Late Byzantine periods, the majesty of the emperor and empress were expressed visually in their clothing, with lavish use of pearls and gemstones (figs. 201 –203); the wearing of silk robes with symbolic motifs (figs. 162 – 164), each of which represented one of their virtues; and their various attributes (figs. 164, 201 – 202). The bejewelled crown and costume we find in an image of St Eudokia – shown in the characteristic orans pose associated with saints and with a halo around her head (fig. 203) – mean that this is probably a representation of Eudokia, daughter of Emperor Constantine VIII.
Imperial ideology and ceremonial life Peter Va n Deun Imperial ideolo gy
Byzantine court ceremonial perfectly reflected the prevailing imperial ideology. The emperor was viewed, after all, as a sacred figure,
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elevated far above his subjects – an exalted position that had, in fact, already been introduced by Diocletian during the Tetrarchate (late third – early fourth century). Byzantine imperial ideology was shaped by that of the Roman emperors, the Hellenistic ruler cult, and by influences from Christianity. From the earliest Roman imperial period, emperors had claimed or even demanded divine honour, and the various forms of their identification and assimilation with the gods formed the basis of an imperial cult – a complex of rituals through which the population honoured their ruler. The emperor’s unusual status also translated into court ceremonial: he was greeted, for instance, by a proskynèsis, a genuflection or deep bow. When it came to affirming the divine nature of their rule, the Byzantine emperors took a different approach to their pagan predecessors, giving rise to a new imperial ideology. The emperor was viewed as the man of divine providence, predestined to rule the temporal empire here on Earth in God’s name.
From Early Christianity to the Fall of the Byzantine Empire
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New People, New Rulers and a New Religion
Fig. 223
Rahle (lectern) decorated with palmettes and other floral motifs framed by inscriptions in Thuluth script on the supports, and similar inscriptions on the interior of the boards; the centre has gold-laquered decoration derived from textile on a red background From Anatolia Konya Museum, inv. no. 333 W.: 99 cm; H.: 37 cm 13th century, in decoration and shape very similar to another rahle in the same museum (inv. no. 332), dated to 1279
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New People, New Rulers and a New Religion
Fig. 224
Qur’an written by Yakut El Mustasimi From Anatolia Konya Museum, inv. no. 16 W.: 19.5 cm; H.: 14 cm Leather-bound paper Seljuk, 12th century
Fig. 257
Hanging lamp from a mosque Anatolia Konya, Konya Museum, inv. no. 516 Diameter lamp: 21.5 cm Silver and glass / Ottoman
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Religion and Mysticism in the Ottoman Period