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The Stele of King Tudhaliya

The basalt stele was found on the surface by Woolley in the Lower Palace area as broken into pieces. Since then, many of the fragments were lost, and today only the top section of the stele and a small fragment remain in the Anatolian Civilizations Museum in Ankara. On the front at the top, there are the reliefs of a round star(?) and crescent, and below them a winged sun-disk (for a similar design, see the stele of Suhi I). Below that is an 11-line Hieroglyphic Luwian inscription that continues on the left side and perhaps on the already destroyed right side of the stele. Although highly damaged, the beginning of the stele has been read as "Great King Tudhaliya, hero, king of the land of Karkamış...". If he is the same King Tudhaliya mentioned on the Kelekli stele, it may date to the 10th century BCE.


The stele and a copy of the inscription - L. Woolley, 1921 (Drawing from P. Meriggi, 1975) B. Bilgin, 2022 J. D. Hawkins, 2000


Literature:
Hawkins, J. D. Corpus of Hieroglyphic Luwian Inscriptions, Vol 1, Berlin, 2000: 82–83 and plt. 2. (KARKAMIŠ A16c)
Meriggi, P. Manuale di eteo geroglifico II/3, Rome, 1975: 327 and plt. XVI. (No. 185)
Peker, H. Anadolu Hiyeroglif Yazılı Belgeler 1: Geç Hitit Karkamış Krallığı Yazıtları, Bologna, 2022: 10–11.


Image sources:
Bora Bilgin, 2022.
J. David Hawkins, 2000.