religion 139
akkadian part mentions the weather-god hadad residing in guzana
(line 7). Behind this expression stands the ancient near eastern theologi-
cal notion of the temple as a residence of the gods, which was a prerequi-
site for establishing a votive statue before a deity.
there is archaeological evidence of offerings. several altars were found
in front of the façade of Kapara’s palace. a central altar made of glazed
bricks stood on the terrace before the divine statues of addu/hadad, Šala/
ištar, and a younger male deity. other altars were placed in front of cer-
tain relief panels of the palace, for instance, an altar in front of the relief
of two bull-men carrying the sun-god (no. 2). remains of a sacrificial dove
were found on this altar. likewise, an altar stood before the relief of the
weather-god (no. 13) and another before the sphinx figure to the left of the
entrance. one panel (no. 171) even depicts a sacrificial scene in which a
man with raised hands stands next to an offering table and a cultic pillar.
regardless of all this, however, it cannot be concluded that Kapara’s
palace was a temple, just as it was not a residential palace either. rather,
the building has to be interpreted as a political-cultic center in the service
of the monarchy and realm.
the object with the oldest known aramaic inscription to date is not an
altar. palaeography dates the object to the end of the 10th or the begin-
ning of the 9th century B.c. it is a pedestal with an inscription, whose first
part reads: “this is the image of.. .” (Kai 231). Based on this understand-
ing the object is the base of a statue, possibly a votive statue, which was
placed before a deity in a temple in guzana.57
the excavations in tell halaf have uncovered the so-called “city tem-
ple” in the western part of the city, which dates from the assyrian period.
Beneath this building are the remains of an older construction, identi-
fied as a temple for the weather-god, which dates to the time of Kapara.58
the assyrian city temple was also a temple for the weather-god. this is
demonstrated by 8th- and 7th-century-B.c. texts dealing with judgments
spoken by the weather-god. such texts presuppose an appearance of judi-
cial priests before the divine statue in the weather-god’s temple; likewise,
the economic texts highlight the economic function of the weather-god
temple.
57 First edition in Friedrich 1940–1967; cf. now Dankwarth – Müller 1988 and lipiński
1994: 15–18.
58 thus Müller 1950: 349f.