The Goddess on the Vezirhan Stele

The stele from Vezirhan (Istanbul Archaeological Museum, inv. 6219+71.27) is best known for its Old Phrygian and Greek inscriptions (B-05). However, its reliefs also pose an interesting challenge. They include a boar hunt, a ritual banquet scene, and a human figure, commonly identified as a goddess, with lions, birds, and a palmette-like motif “sprouting” from her head. The stele is dated to the late 5th–early 4th century BC. The hunt and banquet scenes clearly belong to this time (and find many parallels on votive and funerary reliefs and seals of Hellespontine Phrygia). The image of the goddess, however, continues a different tradition, one that possibly stems from an earlier period. The Vezirhan goddess doesn’t have a singular prototype, but displays connections to a wide variety of iconographical schemes and details. Most are found in the 7th–6th centuries BC arts of Anatolia and the Aegean. By examining this corpus, with special focus on the Potnia theron iconographic type, we understand that the Vezirhan goddess is related to other deities attested in Anatolia (in fact, her name might have been a variation of Artemis, according to line 3 of the Phrygian inscription). Yet, she cannot be identified with any of them directly. For all matches, there are also differences. A certain creative effort was made to distinguish the goddess from her peers, possibly to reflect her local cult. In my talk, I would like to unfold this synthetic image, examine its components, and try to put them back together – and hopefully gain some insight into how the Vezirhan goddess’ iconographic scheme came to be.

La representación de la danza en las tumbas tebanas privadas del Reino Nuevo egipcio

The representations of dance in the private Theban tombs of the Egyptian New Kingdom (1550-1070 BC) can be categorized into three different groups: the first one would be that of dance within banquet scenes; the second one, that of dance performances within funeral processions; and the third one would include other dance scenes that cannot be classified within the previous groups. The first two have very defined characteristics that have been understood thanks to the comparison of the scenes. However, the third group is not homogeneous, although certain representations can be related to each other, with those of the other groups or with scenes found in other places, such as temples. This paper aims to summarize these representations, and analyse their main characteristics, by their comparison, to know their identification and symbology (related to Egyptian religious and funerary belief) and thus, understand the important role of dance in the Egyptian New Kingdom

Syro-Hittite iconography and food in practice

Figure 1. Map of Syro-Hittite kingdoms (Niehr, Herbert. The Aramaeans in ancient Syria. Leiden: Brill, 2014.)Alongside the rise of the independent Syro-Hittite kingdoms in the 1st millennium BC, a distinctive category of banquet scenes also developed in the northern Syria/southern Anatolia region. Iron Age Sam’al—modern Zincirli Höyük—was one such kingdom. This talk will explore how these scenes relate to the archaeology of food and identity by addressing the following concepts:Stylistic elements and local/regional identityLimitations of iconographic interpretationFood-related practices and archaeological correlates from Zincirli

Hapax Legomena in Esther 1.6: Translation Difficulties and Comedy in the Book of Esther

Containing one of the highest counts of hapax legomena for the length of text in the Hebrew Bible, the book of Esther has posed certain challenges to translators. Three of these hapax legomena (טהב, רד, תרחס) have been particularly difficult and unsatisfactorily translated as kinds of stone as adornments to the banquets in the palace in Susa. Various commentaries offer differing translations of different kinds of stone, whilst arguing such translations. This paper argues that these hapax legomena describe royal carpets that, in line with motifs from Greek literature, function as a comedic device in the Hebrew text of Esther. Translating טהב, רד, and תרחס to refer to carpets best fits the etymological evidence and literary style of the banquet scenes.

Food culture in UrartuUrartu’da yemek kültürü

In this article food culture in Urartian State that was founded in centrally Van Lake Basin between 9th-7th centuries has been studied. This study has been carried out in the light of food remainings, utensils uncovered by excavations until today, kitchen buildings, store rooms discovered by excavations, written sources and depicted works. We get information about food products, kitchens, store rooms, utensils, personnel, banquet scenes and feasts of that period by archaeological data. Additionally it is understood by archaeological data that social and religious banquets were arranged in the Urartian State. It can be said on the basis of utensils related to food culture and banquet scenes described on depicted works that there is also a class discrimination in the Urartian society related to this issue. ÖzetBu makalede M.Ö. 9-7. yüzyıllar arasında Van Gölü Havzası merkez olmak üzere kurulmuş olan Urartu devletinde yemek kültürü çalışılmıştır. Bu çalışma bugüne kadar kazılardan ele geçen besin kalıntıları, kap kacaklar ile yine kazılarda ortaya çıkarılan mutfak yapıları, erzak depoları ile yazılı kaynaklar ve tasvirli eserler ışığında yapılmıştır. Arkeolojik verilerden dönemin besin ürünleri, mutfakları, erzak depoları, kap kacakları, personeli, ziyafet sahneleri ve şölenleri hakkında bilgi edinmekteyiz. Yine arkeolojik verilerden Urartu devletinde sosyal ve dini içerikli ziyafet yemeklerinin yapıldığı da anlaşılmaktadır. Yemek kültürü ile bağlantılı olan kap kacaklar ile tasvirli eserlerde işlenmiş ziyafet sahnelerinden yola çıkılarak Urartu toplumunda bu konuyla bağlantılı olarak bir sınıfsal farklılığın da olduğu söylenebilir.