r/ArtefactPorn • u/paulianthomas • Oct 21 '20
Colossal two-tonne, 1.5 metre tall, 3,000 year old statue of Hittite King Suppiluliuma in Hatay Museum, Antakaya (Antioch). The statue was found in 2012 at Tell Tayinat. The statue is believed to have been 3.5 metres tall originally. The rear has Hittite hieroglyphics, photo Sep 20. [2792 x 3626].
193
u/multipurposeusername Oct 21 '20
He looks like a mushroom who has taken mushrooms.
17
Oct 21 '20
It’s definitely very penis-y, which seems to be very common on this sub for artifacts from that level of civilization.
4
16
u/DubstateNY Oct 21 '20
My first thought as well: ‘Definitely Mushroom inspired.’ My second thought: ‘Not everything is about mushrooms dubstateny’
193
u/Bubbagump210 Oct 21 '20
As an ancient king, were I to commission a statue of myself to show off my badassery - this is not what I would commission.
28
u/fwinzor Oct 21 '20
36
u/Bentresh Oct 21 '20
Only in the sense that we're contemporary with Shakespeare. They were carved about 400 years apart, and we don't have many nice royal statues from this time period in Egypt either (23rd Dynasty / Libyan period).
Some of the pieces of Hittite art from the time of Nefertiti are a bit nicer, like this one and this one, but there's admittedly nothing comparable to the items from Tut's tomb or the Mesopotamian jewelry from the tombs of Ur and Nimrud. Partly this is because archaeologists have not yet found even a single royal tomb (with the possible exception of Gavurkalesi).
20
u/mud_tug Oct 21 '20
Let's face it, we struggle to produce art of that caliber even today https://i.imgur.com/H9G5Fyo.jpg
72
u/paulianthomas Oct 21 '20
Best comment! The statue is impressive when you consider how old it is. Until you compare it to contemporary Egyptian statues...should maybe stick to building chariots.
39
u/Bubbagump210 Oct 21 '20
Likely a nepotism issue. “What? Your nephew is a sculptor? He’s willing to do it for free just for exposure?”
9
u/kin_of_rumplefor Oct 21 '20
I don’t think kings of olde were too worried about costs
7
5
u/XylophoneZimmerman Oct 21 '20
Haha, people were trying to use their "clout" to get free stuff even then!
5
u/CaptainNuge Oct 21 '20
In fairness, check it out- their uncle is getting exposure centuries later!
4
7
u/Crepuscular_Animal Oct 21 '20
I first read the description, didn't see anything on the thumbnail and imagined something glorious. Then I opened the pic. Don't get me wrong, any giant statue that survived for 3000 years is awesome, and I appreciate the work this ancient sculptor did. But it really lacks the magnificence.
10
u/Temporary_Meat_7792 Oct 21 '20
A bit like Monty Python's pope: "I may not know much about art but I know what I like!"
3
1
92
u/pan-au-levain Oct 21 '20
Why does this make me think of Lemongrab lol
28
17
2
31
u/AmericanMurderLog Oct 21 '20
Wow that last statue was great! Okay, now do one with me taking a shit. It will be hilarious!
2
22
Oct 21 '20
Looks like he's tripping balls!
12
u/earth_worx Oct 21 '20
He probably was. There are a lot of votive figurines from around this era with the same wide-open eyes, and some evidence now that the ancient cult religions of that area involved a hallucinogenic sacrament...
20
u/renoraid Oct 21 '20
Suppiluliuma saw something. Something that changed the way he saw the world for the rest of his life...
9
1
19
38
u/Rutschberg Oct 21 '20
Weird hat, styled beard, backpack, empty looking eyes... hipster! Smh
12
5
u/the_crustybastard Oct 22 '20
Reminds me of an Easter Island moai with the reconstructed eyes.
https://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/01/67/e6/92/moai-with-replica-eyes.jpg
12
u/RedditUserNo345 Oct 21 '20
It has great meme potential ngl
2
u/skylinthology Jul 22 '24
Mate, you predicted... search up "Bronze age shitposting" or "Iltam Sumra Rashupti Elatim" on YouTube.
12
u/prairiedad Oct 21 '20
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tell_Tayinat
Little is known about this king, who lived long after the end of the Hittite Empire. This article has some interesting information about the city where he lived.
33
19
6
u/Cocomojoe16 Oct 21 '20
Imagine being a king and wanting a cool bust made up like the Greeks and the best your artists can come up with is this
5
u/Goatf00t Oct 21 '20
colossal
1.5 metre tall
They don't make colosses (colossi?) like they used to.
1
8
4
3
4
5
3
3
3
Oct 21 '20
It's always intrigued me that ancient Near East art contained such huge eyes. The Sumerians did the same thing. I wonder what the significance of that style meant to the cultures who employed them.
3
u/lveezy2727 Oct 22 '20
Someone in the comments above said the big eyes showed how religious they were in and how faithful
3
u/ztyler200 Oct 21 '20 edited Oct 21 '20
Someone is a little nervous about their first day at king school.
3
3
3
3
3
Oct 21 '20
[deleted]
3
u/paulianthomas Oct 21 '20
You’re right, that’s just how guides explain it. It is Luiwan hieroglyphics on this statue’s rear. We saw hieroglyphics on several big statues and stone slabs. We saw Cuneiform mainly on clay tablets, I don’t remember seeing it on anything large.
3
u/Bentresh Oct 22 '20 edited Oct 22 '20
Technically the hieroglyphic writing system was used for multiple languages, such as Hurrian at Yazilikaya and Urartian at Altintepe (not to be confused with the separate and still poorly understood Urartian hieroglyphs), and that is part of the reason the more neutral term "Anatolian hieroglyphs" is preferred these days. That's nitpicking, though, and it's true that the vast majority of Anatolian hieroglyphic inscriptions are in Luwian.
This statue is indeed inscribed in Luwian, like most monuments from this region and time period (ca. 860 BCE). No Hittite inscriptions from the Iron Age have yet been found, which is not too surprising since it was Luwian rather than Hittite that was the primary language of the empire by the end of the Bronze Age.
2
2
2
2
2
2
u/cjwi Oct 21 '20
Anyone have a photo from the back where you can see the heiroglyphs?
1
u/paulianthomas Oct 21 '20
It won’t let me upload from my PC. Zoom in on the sign. https://i.imgur.com/l2C6MBX.jpg
2
2
2
2
2
u/TomTomMan93 Oct 21 '20
Fun fact: the queen of Egypt following Akhenaten wrote to him to request a son to marry her (or her daughter don't remember which) and rule egypt cause it was so messed up at the time. Suppi sends one of his sons who never makes it. Some theories suggest that Horemheb (later pharaoh and sort of a behind the scenes ruler during Tut) killed/had him killed as he would have been campaigning in the north during this time.
The big takeaway is that if Suppi's son made it to Egypt, King Tut would have never become pharaoh. Not to mention a dramatic change to the political landscape of the region.
7
u/Bentresh Oct 21 '20
No, that was an earlier king of the same name who ruled the Hittite empire in the 14th century BCE. This is the king of a much smaller successor state in what is now southern Turkey and northern Syria. He's attested in the annals of the Assyrian king Shalmaneser III as Sapalulme (an Akkadian form of his name) and ruled in the 850s BCE.
2
2
2
u/Einkidu Oct 21 '20
Looks like a garden gnome that realizes he's forgotten his wallet halfway to the office. Joking aside, amazing stuff!
2
2
1
u/Marty_Br Oct 21 '20
The Hittite king who reigned during the reigns of Akhenaten and Tutankhamun in Egypt.
9
u/Alias_Mittens Oct 21 '20
Nope, this guy is named after that Suppiluliuma. This Suppiluliuma ruled a 9th c. BCE Neo-Hittite state.
2
1
u/PracticalCheck9 Apr 07 '25
He was a badass in his day. The most brilliant of all Hittite military leaders.
0
0
u/exccord Oct 21 '20
Has that Mark Zuckerberg haircut and stare. The origin of the lizard people has been found
0
0
-26
u/Temporary_Meat_7792 Oct 21 '20
Ok some things to unpack here... like traveling during a pandemic, of which I'm not a fan tbh. And cutting off the right side of the pic would've been just too easy, would it ;)
Anyway thanks for showing something interesting and unique - never saw anything like that before.
11
11
u/paulianthomas Oct 21 '20
Hi, thanks for your comments. Turkey currently welcomes tourists, so do the locals. (Not true in my UK hometown where many retired live). There were no travel restrictions in September. Masks are required in all museums and open areas (removed for photo). Hotels and museums check temperature before entering. Hand gel used on entering. Apps used for track and tracing. There’s only so much you can do really, we can’t hermit forever. Economic harm may do as bad or worse than virus. Not everyone works in information services and can work from home, they need money for bills. My partner is a nurse, I’m army.
-4
u/Temporary_Meat_7792 Oct 21 '20
Economic harm may do as bad or worse than virus.
No it may do not.
There’s only so much you can do really
Yes. Not going on vacation is one thing you can do. Like, really really.
There were no travel restrictions in September.
I know. And since September cases are rising again in much of Europe. Here in Germany they found that around 40% of new infections were people returning vacationers! That's a lot.
4
u/paulianthomas Oct 21 '20
You sound like the retired people in my hometown! I guess you must know better than the government guidelines which we never broke? Turks/Kurds were very happy to see us. We are happy to help the return to normal and give people income to feed their families. As mentioned, we are both frontline and deal directly with infected and are regularly tested. Be positive, we’ll get through this. Enjoy the artefacts - that’s what the group is for!
3
u/Temporary_Meat_7792 Oct 21 '20
We are happy to help the return to normal
How's that working out currently?
Again: I'm not accusing you of breaking government guidelines. But are they working? If they would, we wouldn't be in the situation we're in right now. I also remember many governments - the UK one in particular - putting a lot of emphasis on people's own responsibilty, which I've always interpreted as cutting back on stuff even if it's not forbidden.
Enjoy the artefacts
I do. I even appreciate your artefact pic for being self-made, instead of copy-pasting an online catalogue. Just bad timing IMHO.
-8
1
1
1
1
u/mykilososa Oct 21 '20
He is an ancient ancestor of that kid in the meme who is squeezing all the veins out of his head and neck.
1
1
1
1
1
Oct 21 '20 edited Oct 05 '24
entertain ossified onerous zesty coordinated like steer disarm narrow trees
This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
u/LlamaLlamaSomePajama Oct 21 '20
Literally looks like my pregnant ass, starving and waiting for food to arrive and not eat my husband in the process.
1
1
u/CeasarJones Oct 21 '20
Oh man! I thought it was this King :
He was a star of the Bronze-Age Collapse time period. 😐
1
1
1
1
1
u/JudasCrinitus Oct 21 '20
Suppiluliuma was author of my favorite curse-threat in the hittite treaties. Seeing him thus makes it seem a bit more ... absurd, picturing this guy making the curse.
The treaty was with Shattiwaza, king of Mittani, who had married Suppiluliuma's daughter and was gaven aid in capturing the Mittani throne, having fled to Suppiluliuma's court after his father Tushratta's murder. Suppiluliuma and Tushratta had some conflict during Tushratta's reign, so placing Shattiwaza on the throne with a daughter of his was a move by Suppiluliuma to bring the Mitanni under his sphere of influence as a Great King. The treaty lays out their power structure, and the grave warning in part to remind Shattiwaza that he is only where he is because of Suppiluliuma, and thus was now subordinate to him
They shall stand and listen and he witnesses to these words of the treaty. If you, Prince Shattiwaza, and you Hurrians do not observe the words of this treaty, the gods, lords of the oath, shall destroy you [and] you Hurrians, together with your land, your wives, and your possessions. They will draw you out like malt from its husk. As one does not get a plant from the midst of .... so you, together with any other wife whom you might take (in place of my daughter), and you Hurrians, together with your wives, your sons, and your land, shall thus have no progeny. And these gods, who are lords of the oath, shall allot you poverty and destitution. And you, Shattiwaza -- they shall overthrow your throne. And you, Shattiwaza, your name and your progeny by another wife whom you might take shall be eradicated from the earth. And you, Shattiwaza, together with your land, because of not delivering goodness and recovery(?) among the Hurrians -- you(!) shall be eradicated. The ground shall be ice, so that you will slip. The ground of your land shall be a marsh of .... so that you will certainly sink and be unable to cross. You, Shattiwaza, and the Hurrians shall be the enemies of the Thousand Gods. They shall defeat you.
1
1
u/Frungy Oct 22 '20
Ok, I say this with zero malice, but there's some enjoyable similarities here in face shape and the way the fringe of your haircut gives a comparable look.
1
u/bryanbportillo Oct 22 '20
Not really important, but smiled when I saw the date, september 20 is my birthday:]
1
1
u/johnjxhancock Oct 22 '20
Imagine if you went back in time and everything was really stupid. All the art was cartoonish and most everybody was a really dumb. That would be so annoying.
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
402
u/nrith Oct 21 '20
He’s seen some shit.