Page 154 - The Art & Architecture of the Ancient Orient_Neat

ASIA MINOR AND THE HITTITES

25 .NfJiTRES
90 FEET

Figure 51. Plan of Yasilikaya

placed before it has no equivalent elsewhere; it may have been an altar. The analogy
with other temples would suggest a Holy of Holies on the south-east side, opposite
the entrance. But the colonnade through which one usually reached it was here on the
north-cast (left) of the court (4), and through it one descended a few steps into the main
gallery (5) between the rocks. Here a huge gathering of the gods confronts the visitor.
On the walls two great processions, numbering seventy figures, converge from either
side to the wall at the back. Gods approach from the left, goddesses from the right.
Where die rock face was broken, masonry supplied the basis for die carving. One
is reminded of a phrase which often occurs in the texts: ‘ the thousand gods of the
realm of Hatti (i.e. of the Hittites)/
The large panel at the back of the main gallery shows die meeting of the supreme god
and goddess and their nearest relatives (Plate 130c). The curious symbols which they
appear to grasp are the hieroglyphs with which their names are written. In the same way
a deceased Hittite king is identified (Plate 13ib, left). Deified after death, he appears in
the procession of gods under the ‘winged disk* which denotes royalty.30
The composition of the reliefs is simple, even naive; yet, as figure follows figure, a
setting is created to which die central panel achieves a climax. And within this panel the
chief persons stand out. Behind the god two deities bestride mountain peaks. Teshub,

125