religion 185
- Fragment of a basalt statue of a standing male; a remnant of the beard
survives, while the head and legs are missing; the partially preserved
arms were folded over the chest.284 - torso of a male statue, without head or legs, made of basalt; the par-
tially preserved arms were folded over the chest.285 - Double statue of basalt without heads or legs.286
- lower part of the basalt statue of a standing man found in tahtalı
pınar; 1.93 m tall. the original height was probably 3.50 m. a 23-line
inscription on the garment (Kai 215) identifies the figure as King pana-
muwa ii (ca. 740–733 B.c.).
Based on the inscriptions it is certain that the statue fragments of gerçin
are in one case (no. 1) from a statue of a god and in another (no. 5) from
that of a king. Fragments 2, 3, and 4 remain unassigned. the double statue
(no. 4) could have its counterpart in that of a seated couple in tell halaf
and is therefore interpreted as a depiction of a deceased royal couple. the
question arises, whether one statue of hadad (no. 1), the chief god, suf-
ficed for the cult area of gerçin and whether, therefore, numbers 2 and 3
could be considered fragments of royal statues. a statue of King pana-
muwa ii can be expected, based on the inscription Kai 215: 14–15.
however, even if these statues and fragments of statues were the most
striking evidence for the royal ancestor worship in samʾal and gerçin, the
practice mentioned in the inscriptions should be investigated.
King panamuwa i describes his building activities in his inscription on
the hadad statue, found at gerçin:
(14) and i [erec]ted this statue of hadad and the necropolis of panamuwa,
son of Qarli,
(15) king of Yādiya, next to the statue (in) the cham[ber]. (Kai 214: 14–15)the above-mentioned statue of the god hadad was therefore not placed
directly in the grave chamber, but probably at a central cult place on the
hilltop of gerçin.287 in the grave chamber, which is yet to be identified,
there would have been a statue of King panamuwa i, of which perhaps
some remains may be found among the surviving statue fragments.
284 cf. von luschan 1893: 52 and 44 fig. 13.
285 cf. von luschan 1893: 52 and 44 fig. 14.
286 cf. von luschan 1893: 53–55 with figs. 16 and 17.
287 cf. the map of gerçin drawn by robert Koldewey and published in Wartke 2005:
25 fig. 24 and niehr 2001.