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Karakuyu (Torbalı) Stele

This limestone block was discovered at the Karakuyu village of Torbalı in İzmir province in 2006. It depicts the relief of a male figure holding a spear and carrying a bow, but the surviving piece shows only a part of the lower body of the figure. The dimensions of the block are about 1.3 meters in height and 1 meter in width, although originally it must have been at least twice the current size. The right side of the block has the badly damaged remains of a Luwian inscription. If the suggested "Land of Mira" reading is right, like the Karabel monument, this would be a monument of the Kingdom of Mira. The relatively clear "litigation" reading in the center may indicate that this section is a typical protective/curse formula that warns against damage to the monument. The stele is currently in the İzmir Archeological Museum.


Click on the pictures for larger images.

E. Ünlü, 2009 M. Gander, 2012 M. Gander, 2012 M. Gander, 2012 Inscription - Işık et al, 2011 Inscription - R. Oreshko, 2013 Inscription - A. Müller-Karpe, 2019


Literature:
Hawkins, J. D. Corpus of Hieroglyphic Luwian Inscriptions, Vol 3, Berlin, 2024: 76–77 and plt. 50.
Işık, F., M. Atıcı and R. Tekoğlu, "Die Nachhethitische Königsstele von Karakuyu beim Karabel-Pass," in E. Schwertheim (ed.), Studien zum antiken Kleinasien VII 2011: 1–33, Tables 1–11.
Müller-Karpe, A. "Herodot und die Hethiter: Die Reliefs von Karabel und Karakuyu-Torbalı," MDOG 151, 2019: 295–321.
Oreshko, R. "Hieroglyphic Inscriptions of Western Anatolia," Luwian Identities, 2013: 345–420 (373–86).
(List of Abbreviations)


Image sources:
Evren Ünlü, 2009.
Max Gander, 2012.
Işık et al. 2011.
Rostislav Oreshko, 2013.
Andreas Müller-Karpe, 2019.