210 dominik bonatz
increasingly opened up to foreign influences in ways that accorded with
their specific interests.
2.1 SamʾalGiven the special stylistic features of the sculptural works from samʾal
(modern-day Zincirli), which were created over a 250-year period between
the second half of the 10th and the early 7th centuries B.c., a rough dis-
tinction can be made between two main phases: an older phase, lasting
until the end of the 9th century, marked by a strong orientation toward
hittite-Luwian visual traditions, and a younger one, extending up to or
shortly before the conquest by esarhaddon in 671/670 B.c., in which mon-
umental art developed a local court style that was clearly influenced by
the assyrians.
In the vicinity of samʾal there is a second site at which a large number
of monumental sculptures from a gate structure and a palace entrance
(orthostat reliefs and portal figures) were excavated.18 this site—
sakçagözü, situated 21 kilometers to the northeast—has tentatively been
identified as Lutibu, a fortress on the territory controlled by hayyan,
the king of samʾal, and mentioned by shalmaneser III in 858 B.c.19 But
the sculptural works from sakçagözü differ from the art in samʾal in terms
of their iconography and pronounced assyrianizing style. It has therefore
been suggested that they originated around 712/711 B.c., when sargon II
placed a number of cities, including Melid and sakçagözü-Lutibu, under
the control of the anatolian vassal state Kummuḫ.20 On the other hand,
a number of the reliefs, particularly the “hunt relief ” with a chariot scene
and lion slayers, display stylistic and thematic similarities to the north-
west syrian ivories that were recovered from room sW 7 in Fort shalma-
neser in nimrud and date to the second half of the 8th century B.c.21 For
this reason, the sculptural works from sakçagözü may be the result of
a later development of the regional style of samʾal art. they will not be
treated at greater length in this survey due to their strong affinity with
assyrian art.
18 Ussishkin 1966a; Orthmann 1971: 79–82; sakçagözu a/1–13; B/1–3.
19 sader 1987: 173 n. 57 and Lipiński 2000a: 237.
20 Lipiński 2000a: 237f.
21 Winter 1976b: 32–38; for the ivories, see below, section 4.2.