religion 149
right hand is a cup for receiving libations.91 the head of the statue was not
found. it is dated to the first half of the 8th century B.c. and thus repre-
sents the most recent example of this type of statue. Kammaki was prob-
ably a member of the royal family of guzana.92 By means of this statue he
was able to have his descendants bear his position in remembrance and
assure his claim to the appropriate ancestor cult.
other sitting statues from the kingdom of Bit Baḫiani can only be sum-
marized here.93 these are statues not of members of the royal family, but
only of members of the upper class, who emulated in many respects the
customs of the royal family. one of these comes from Bozhöyük northeast
of guzana, three more from girbel further to the northeast. these four
sitting statues are in the Mardin Museum. even though they were found
in secondary contexts current scholarship assumes these statues fulfilled
a function in the ancestor cult.
there is not much archaeological evidence of burials or mortuary cults
of the aramaeans in sikani.94 instead, the inscription on the votive statue
of haddayisʿi found here proffers a clue. the inscription ends with the
following curses, lines 16–18:
(16) Whoever removes my name from the furnishings (17) of the house of
hadad, my lord: May my lord hadad not accept his food and water (18) from
his hand. May my lady Šuwala not accept food and water from his hand.
(Kai 309: 16–18)it is important to note that bread and water are not offerings for the gods
but are rather gifts for the deceased within the funerary cult representing
the so-called kispum. 95 the inscription thus implies that a future ruler
will conduct the ancestor cult under invocation of the deities hadad and
Šuwala. common sacrifices to the god hadad and the royal ancestors are
also attested in samʾal.96
if the deities refuse to accept the gifts, because the new king ordered
a damnatio memoriae on his predecessor by erasing his name, then this
91 published in röllig 2003.
92 cf. röllig 2003: 428; niehr 2006: 132; Dornauer 2010: 64.
93 cf. schachner – schachner – Karabulut 2002.
94 For the inhumations in tell Fekheriye cf. e.g., pruß – Bagdo 2002: 321 and Bonatz –
Bartl – gilibert – Jauss 2008: 98–100, 109f, 113f.
95 cf. greenfield – shaffer 1985: 51–53; van der toorn 1996: 165f; niehr 2010a: 228f.
96 cf., below, section 3.6.