religion 183
these are rites for the demonstratio ad oculos accompanying the treaty’s
conclusion ceremony. that they were actually conducted is shown by the
expressions “this wax” (line 37) and “(this) bow and these arrows” (line 38).
these rites using wax effigies and weapons are a legacy of hittite magical
practices, which passed into the aramaean sefire treaties by way of the
luwians.275
3.6 Funeral and Mortuary Cultthe oldest evidence for a royal mortuary cult in samʾal is given by the
statue of a ruler (Zincirli 63) that was found at the palace of Zincirli (pl. xV).
this statue was erected outside the southeastern wall of palace J, not
within the area of the royal tombs. the king’s statue was standing on a
base formed by two lions, which were tamed by a hero depicted in a kneel-
ing run (Zincirli 64). Because such bases were used as pedestals for divine
statues the divine status of the king, represented as a royal statue, can be
assumed. this impression is reinforced by the cuplike holes embedded
in the heads of the lions and of the hero that served to receive libations.
the statue dates to the time before King Kulamuwa, i.e., in the first half
of the 9th century B.c. thus, it is one of Kulamuwa’s predecessors who is
represented here, perhaps even the founder of the dynasty, King gabbar.276
every visitor to the palace had to pass this cult site.
Felix von luschan, who excavated samʾal, had already realized that
the statue was oriented toward the rising sun, the same direction toward
which the grave next to the hilani i and the stele of Kuttamuwa were
oriented. the same situation is also found in guzana (tell halaf ), where
the two grave shrines and the so-called sanctuary point east.277 the solar
component in the mortuary cult is explicitly acknowledged in the stele of
Kuttamuwa, which faces east and lists the sacrifice of a ram to the sun-god.
a new epigraphic analysis of the sepulchral stele from Ördekburnu278
by a. lemaire and B. sass in april 2008 indicates that the first royal necro-
polis existed south of samʾal during the reigns of the kings Kulamuwa
275 on the construction of ritual effigies and their usage in magic, cf. haas 2003: 569–
613.
276 cf. von luschan 1911: 362–369; niehr 1994b: 58 with references in n. 5; Bonatz
2000a: 14, 24–27, 76–78, 154 and pl. ii a 6; hawkins 2008: 604; gilibert 2011: 76–79, 83f.
277 cf. von luschan 1911: 363; niehr 2006: 112, 127, 129–131; Kutter 2008: 302–307. For
the actual situation, cf. orthmann 2009.
278 cf. on the stele von luschan 1911: 329f with fig. 239; Bonatz 2000a: 21, 59, 68 and
pl. xix c52.