Double Bull Basin and Portal Lions

The large double bull-shaped basin was academically first noted by Gerhart Bartsch in 1930. Apparently in a secondary location, it was situated near the top of a höyük overlooking the Kızılırmak River by the Dokuz village in the Savcılı district, about 50 km west of the city of Kırşehir (the first photo below). In the 1950s, as the village and the höyük were to be flooded during the construction of the Hirfanlı Dam, the monument was moved by the dam engineers to a location near the Hirfanlı village. In 2008 it was moved to the nearby museum of the Japanese Institute of Anatolian Archaeology in Kaman. It is carved of granite and measures about 2.80 meters in length, 1.85 meters in width, and 1.20 meters in height. The basin at the top has two drain holes that lead to the mouths of the bulls. It is likely to have been used for ritualistic purposes. A date in the Hittite Empire period has been suggested, but more specific dating remains speculative.

Recent findings indicate that the rock of the bull basin possibly originated from a nearby granite hillside that served as a quarry during the Hittite period (M. Gözen Sevinç, Arkeoloji ve Sanat). The location known as Sivrikale (also called Güneş Çöğü) is a hillside covered with massive granite blocks between the villages of Savcılıebeyit and Savcılıkışla. A couple of unfinished gate lions were found at the same site. The second row of the pictures below shows one of them in situ, next to the rock from where it was cut. Both lions are about 2.5 meters in length and 1.7 meters in height and are currently decorating the museum entrance at the Japanese Institute of Anatolian Archaeology.


Click on the pictures for larger images.

The Double bull basin at Hirfanlı

Unfinished Gate Lions


At their current locations