Arslan Tash

Arslan Tash is located in northern Syria, about 30 km east of the Euphrates near the Turkish border. Its ancient name is known as Hadattu from Assyrian documents. The first excavations at the site were carried out by François Thureau-Dangin in 1928, although the site had already been noted by others in the past, and some of the reliefs had been moved to Istanbul by Osman Hamdi Bey in the 1880s. Although Hadattu is an Aramaic word ("new"), traces of the settlement's Neo-Hittite/Luwian past can be seen in its art as well as Luwian inscriptions, even after it came under Assyrian occupation by the mid-9th century BCE.

The basalt double-bull statue base, which is very similar to other Neo-Hittite examples from Karkamış and Kabahaydar, may be dated to the late 10th century BCE. The base is about 1 meter high, 1.08 meters wide, and 1.50 meters in length, and is currently in the Aleppo Museum. Likewise, a 1.45-meter-high basalt stele that depicts a spear- and bow-holding warrior (Istanbul Ancient Orient Museum) and a 2-meter-high basalt statue (Aleppo Museum) of a ruler from the nearby Ain al-Arab stylistically have been dated to around the 9th century.

Numerous orthostats and three pairs of portal lions that once decorated the city gates and temple entrances mainly date to the Assyrian period in the 8th century, although they display the north Syrian workmanship. Two pairs of basalt portal lion pairs of the east and west gates were roughly the same size with a height of 2.6 meters and a length of 3.6 meters. The East Gate lions bear inscriptions in three languages—Aramaic, Assyrian, and Hieroglyphic Luwian—on their rear flat side surfaces that once stood against the wall. The West Gate lions were found in multiple fragments and had inscriptions in Aramaic and Assyrian carved on their bodies. All texts report on the construction of Hadattu's city walls and the erection of the gates with lions by Ninurta-bel-usur, the Assyrian governor of the city Kar-Shalmaneser. Kar-Shalmaneser was the Assyrian name of Til-Barsip (see Tell Ahmar), which was renamed after its conquest by King Shalmaneser III of Assyria in 856 BCE. In the Luwian text, the city name is written as Hatata, and the name of the governor is broken, but his title is given as the "Masuwarean Country-Lord," which interestingly refers to Kar-Shalmaneser/Til-Barsip with its original Luwian name Masuwari. In the early 1980s, the north side lion of the East Gate was moved to the Aleppo Museum. Around the same years, south side lions of both the East and West Gates were erected in a park in the city of Raqqa with reconstructed parts. During the Syrian civil war in 2015 both of the lions in Raqqa were bulldozed into pieces. A few smaller parts of these and other fragmentary lions were in Aleppo and Raqqa Museums. In 2020, parts of one of the destroyed lions were transferred to Arslan Tash.

One of the pair of lions from the temple was excavated largely intact, which is about 1.56 meters in height and 2.40 meters in length. This and the fragments of the pairing lion are currently in the Aleppo Museum.

Two basalt portal bulls from the entrance of the Ishtar temple were found almost intact and in situ. They bear an Assyrian inscription of King Tiglath-Pileser III and are today in the Louvre. Several other orthostats and steles are in the Ancient Orient Museum of Istanbul, the Louvre Museum, and the Aleppo Museum.


Click on the pictures for larger images.

Pre-Assyrian period finds

Assyrian period
East gate lions


West gate and temple area lions


West gate orthostats


Orthostats of tribute bearers


Portal bulls and others