religion 161
the find of a bronze disc with a relief also points to the god hadad.153
it has, together with an old aramaic inscription, three bosses and a buc-
ranium at the center. this disc, with a diameter of 25 cm, was used as the
plating on a shield and names a captain of the guard as its owner. the disc
comes from samʾal or the surrounding region according to the inscription
and comparison with a similar object. the bucranium stands for hadad,
the chief god, in his capacity as the weather-god.
the sepulchral stele of the vassal Kuttamuwa (pl. xx), found in samʾal
in 2008, expanded our knowledge of the cult of the god hadad as two pre-
viously unknown manifestations of the god occur therein.154 thus, line 3 of
the inscription mentions a hdd qrpdl (“hadad of Qrpdl”). this is perhaps a
local manifestation of the god. this explanation, however, suffers from not
knowing the exact place name. as an alternative, the aramaic version of
a luwian title “companion” (from harpatalli) has been adduced.155 line 4
of the inscription has a hdd krmn, i.e., a “hadad of the Vineyards.” this
manifestation of the god hadad can be explained by means of contem-
porary inscriptions naming the tarḫunzas of the vineyard156 as well as by
using weather-god representations, especially from tabal, that depict the
god tarḫunzas with grapes or with vines in his hand.157
second in the hierarchy of the deities of samʾal is the god el (Kai 214:
2.11.18; 215: 22). that the worship of el in samʾal came by way of the phoe-
nicians or the aramaeans is doubtful, given the very sparse evidence of
this god in phoenician and aramaic inscriptions.158 especially in the case
of the god el a direct legacy of Ugarit in the northern syrian–anatolian
borderland can be assumed as with the god Baʿal Ṣemed. strictly speak-
ing, this cannot be proven.159 But it has to be considered a possibility, in
view of the once high prominence of the god el in Ugarit, 350 years before
the destruction of the city. that the cult of a formerly mighty god contin-
ued to be practiced by the descendants of his worshippers, who had fled
abroad, is not a singular phenomenon.
153 cf. Krebernik – seidl 1997 and gubel 2012.
154 cf., below, the text in 3.6.
155 see Yakubovich 2010: 396f.
156 cf., among others, the inscription sUltanhan in hawkins 2000: 463–467.
157 cf., among others, the reliefs of ivrız, niğde, and ereğli; also aro 1998: 223–225, 281
with pl. 84 B 126; ead. 2003: 317–320, 335f with pls. xxxVii, xxxix; hutter 2003: 224, 276f;
Bunnens – hawkins – leirens 2006: 58f, 163.
158 cf. on this röllig 1959 and Yakubovich 2010.
159 But cf. also the archaeological finds indicating the existence of refugees from Ugarit
in the region of samʾal; cf. pruss 2002: 172f.