Sakçagözü

The ruins of the Late Hittite settlement are located at Coba Höyük near the village of Sakçagözü (Sakçegözü), about 50 km west of Gaziantep. The original name of the city is not known. The site was first noted by Karl Humann and Felix von Luschan in 1883 and first excavations were carried out in 1908 and 1911 by John Garstang of the University of Liverpool. A large palace complex with a gateway decorated with orthostats and statues was uncovered. Several other orthostats found mostly near the surface in secondary locations are believed to be part of an outer wall/gate structure. The finds have been dated to the 8th century BCE. In 1939 most of them were transferred to Ankara, where today they are displayed at the Anatolian Civilizations Museum. The Lion Hunt orthostat (first image at the bottom row) is in the Pergamon Museum.


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The gateway during excavations

The left wing of the gateway


Double sphinx columnbase


The right wing of the gateway


Lion hunt othostat
Relief is a representation of a lion hunt. The three-piece basalt orthostat was first noted in 1880 as built into the courtyard wall of a house in Sakçagözü, and were reportedly brought from a nearby höyük. Altogether it is about 1.16 meters in height and 2.65 meters in length, and originally about 0.50 meter in thickness before the blocks were trimmed down to 15 cm and transferred to Berlin by Humann and Puchstein. The archer on the chariot might be the king, as suggested by the winged sundisk above his head. It is dated to around 750 BCE and currently in Pergamon Museum, Berlin.


Other orthostats