art 227
statue of the storm-god from the cult room of tell halaf is notable among
these pieces because it comes from an architectural context with unmis-
takably sacred connotations. Like this statue of stone, other statues of
gods made of precious materials were doubtless among the furnishings
of shrines and temples, but none has survived. testifying to their existence
are only a few inscriptions96 and a relief of the assyrian king tiglath-
pileser III that shows statues of the gods being deported from the phi-
listine city of Gaza.97 By contrast, in the case of the colossal sculpture of
hadad in Gerçin, there exist two parallel works from the Luwian regions
in the northwest of samʾal. One is the statue of Baʿal/tarḫunzas from
Karatepe, which bears a phoenician inscription (KaI 26), and the other is
a statue of the storm-god from Çineköy near adana, which shows a hiero-
glyphic Luwian-phoenician bilingual on its base.98 since both of these
statues were found with a double-bull base, it must be assumed that the
statue of hadad from Gerçin once stood on a comparable base. additional
double-bull bases from carchemish, Maraş, and Domuztepe (across from
Karatepe) confirm that colossal statues of storm-gods were widespread.99
Based solely on the fact that the statue from Gerçin was referred to as
the aramaean god hadad, it must be accorded a special status among
these works.
3.1.2 Stelae
the number of stelae with divine representations far exceeds the number
of sculptural works in the round. however, it is difficult to interpret the
function of these stelae from an architectural perspective because none
were found in situ. the places where they once stood—temples, palaces,
city gates, and even public spaces—remain hypothetical. the inscriptions
indicate that the monuments were generally dedicated to a deity and often
served to legitimize a ruler and give an account of his achievements. the
stelae erected for the storm-god in his various regional and transregional
forms stand out due to their numbers alone. his strong visual presence
96 e.g., the mentioning of a cult image for the goddess Ištar in the temple of hadattu
(Galter 2004b: 180).
97 Uehlinger 2002: fig. 5; for a critical review of the assyrian sources on the deportation
of gods, see ibid. 112–115.
98 Çambel – Özyar 2003: 114f pls. 218–220 and aro 2003: 288, 327. For a discussion of
the bilingual on the statue from Çineköy, see tekoğlu – Lemaire 2000.
99 summarized in Çambel – Özyar 2003: 138.