there. The statue could have been that of a god. But could it
alternatively have been a statue of the king, set up in the place
where he was buried? We have already noted other strong
associations between the sanctuary and Tudhaliya. And we know
that Hittite kings were buried in stone houses, calledhekur-houses.
No stone structure, either natural or built, has yet been identified as
a royal tomb. But it is quite possible that Yazılıkaya did provide
such a tomb–a tomb on a grand scale for one of the last Hittite
kings, who sought in other ways as well to impress his subjects with
the monuments he had built to mark his reign.
So Yazılıkaya would have been a place of both death (the niches
and crevices in rocks on the path between Hattusa and Yazılıkaya
contained the remains of a number of burials, both inhumations
and cremations) and new life. A close nexus between death and
renewed life is common to many religious beliefs, as illustrated by
Egyptian and Christian notions of death and resurrection. In the
cyclic pattern of things, death and decay are followed by new
beginnings, new life. Yazılıkaya may have been the Hittite world’s
most prominent expression of this notion.
Afinal word on the sanctuary. Mountains and outcrops of rock
were closely associated with gods in the Hittite world. They had
special mystical powers and were indeed considered the dwelling
places of gods. This gave them great significance in Hittite religion.
Mountain gods, depicted with human upper torsoes whose lower
torsoes were represented by mountains,figure prominently among
the deities of the Hittite pantheon, though often fairly low down in
the divine pecking order. But rocks and mountains were places
from which gods could be summoned to participate in the festivals
held in their honour. And Yazılıkaya was a prime place for
summoning forth the gods.
If you visit the site today, you may need a lot of time and patience
to see clearly everything there. Many of the sanctuary’s reliefs were
shallow whenfirst carved, and are now very worn. Depending on the
hour of the day and the season of the year, some of them, including
the great parade of deities in Chamber A and the demons at the
entrance to Chamber B, can be difficult to see. At other times, they
stand out clearly.Figure 24.1illustrates a midway stage. As the light
HATTI’S DIVINE OVERLORDS 247