Karaören

The basalt block with Hieroglyphic Luwian inscription had been in the yard of a house in the village of Karaören, which is located just to the north of Mount Karacadağ. Reportedly, the rectangular block was previously used as building material in a medieval period structure. The block has been missing since 2014. The visible line must be the last line of a longer inscription, since traces of signs of another line are visible at the bottom of the upside-down standing block. It must have been part of a monumental structure. The place name VITISx.REGIO is repeated twice in the inscription. It is also attested in Yalburt and SÜDBURG inscriptions in the context of campaigns to western Anatolia by Tudhaliya IV and Suppiluliuma II, respectively. Based on that and its paleography, the inscription has been dated to the second half of the 13th century BCE.

In 2020 another inscribed block was located during a survey by Dr. Çiğdem Maner as built into the wall of a building in the village. The rectangular block is 88 cm in length, 44 cm in heigth, and 23.5 cm in thickness. It bears two lines of inscription on the front and right side and apparently was part of the same monumental inscription as the first block. It has been moved to the Konya Ereğli Museum.


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