156 herbert niehr
no major written sources exist to provide the names of the deities of ʿain
Dara. Because of this the temple’s iconography (pl. xl) must be utilized.128
of the many individual finds from the temple area several objects
are worth mentioning, the relief of a striding goddess, for example. on
the basis of typological comparisons, she can be identified as ištar or
Šauška. this relief (96 cm tall, 68 cm wide, 50 cm thick) is dated to the
12th or 11th century B.c. and stands in the mixed northern syria–hittite–
Mesopotamian tradition. it was found on the south wall in the ante-cella
and thus can hardly be the central cultic image of the temple.129
Furthermore, a fragment of a relief depicting a striding man was found
13 meters from the left side of the temple’s main façade in the corner of a
house. it is 30 cm tall, 80 cm wide, and 36 cm thick, and dates to the first
building phase of the temple (between 1300 and 1000 B.c.). the fragment
is part of an image depicting a deity or king. however, there are three
parallel lines immediately below the missing outstretched right hand.
a. abou-assaf interprets these as the remains of a thunderbolt, making it
the representation of a weather-god. Due to its provenance and rendition
in relief this image also cannot be the main cultic image of the temple of
ʿain Dara.130
another group of finds is the orthostat facing of the cult pedestal (e 1–e 7)
in the temple’s cella. each panel depicts a representation of a weather-god
flanked by two hybrid creatures. all figures have their hands raised and
thus carry, like atlases, the potential cultic image on the cult pedestal.131
the final important finds are the fragments of the cultic plinth. this
was originally set in front of the cult pedestal in the cella. all four sides
show a relief frieze of various mythological creatures. regarding the plinth
in the order of sides a, D, c, and B results in the sequence of mountain-
gods, lion-men, mountain-gods, bull-men, bird-men, lion-men. Because
the cultic plinth stood before the cult pedestal it was not used as a base
for the cultic image of the temple. it probably held a cultic installation
that served as an altar or table. such an object was presumably made of
wood with a metal coating and would have fallen victim to the sack of
the temple.132
128 on the temple of ʿain Dara, cf. especially abou-assaf 1983; id. 1990; id. 1993; id. 1994;
id. 1996; Kohlmeyer 2008; novák 2012; and M. novák’s contribution in this volume.
129 cf. abou-assaf 1983.
130 cf. abou-assaf 1992.
131 cf. abou-assaf 1990: 28, 57f with plates 43–46.
132 cf. Weippert 2003.