232 dominik bonatz
to suggest a rendering of the storm-god in the Late Bronze age tradition
of the smiting Baʿal Ṣaphon. however, the dedication inscription on this
monument addresses, not the storm-god, but the healing god Šadrafa, a
syro-phoenician deity of the persian period. If this inscription was a later
addition,119 we can assume that the stele was erected in the 9th century B.c.,
appropriated at some later date, and still used in the 5th century B.c.
a second monument from the territory of amurru is the stele from
Qadbun, a sanctuary in the hinterland of tartous in the alawi Mountains.120
It probably shows the god Baʿal being worshipped in one of his mountain
shrines (pl. XIII).121 he strides over a lion with a spear in his left hand and
a figure-eight shield in his right. as on the amrit stele, the egyptianizing
tendency of this representation can be seen in the god’s head covering, a
kind of atef crown with a horn in front and a long band whose curved end
hangs down from the top. these elements have much in common with
the artistic vernacular of Late Bronze Ugarit and to some extent appear
anachronistic in an Iron age monument. they make it likely that the
monument originated no later than the 10th century B.c.122
the last three examples demonstrate that, despite different regional
characteristics and syncretic forms, almost all of the surviving stelae with
representations of an anthropomorphic deity center on the storm-god.123
this god’s prominence in the images and inscriptions can be explained
by the protective and legitimizing function he apparently performed for
the monarchy. the cult of the storm-god of aleppo, which emerged in the
2nd millennium B.c., probably exerted a special influence on the transfor-
mation of this god into a divinity of transregional political significance.124
119 Gubel 2000: 187.
120 concerning the site of Qadbun, see Bounni 1997.
121 abou-assaf 1992 and Bounni 1992.
122 abou-assaf 1992: 252; Gubel 2000: 186, contrary to Bounni 1992: 145 (late 9th or
early 8th centuries B.c.).
123 the goddess Ištar is portrayed on a stele from til Barsib (Börker-Klähn 1982: n. 252;
Green – hausleiter 2001: 150–160 fig. 8). although this stele was probably produced locally,
the iconography of the goddess as a warrior and astral deity surrounded by a wreath of
stars and standing on a lion is clearly neo-assyrian. according to the inscription by the
high-ranking assyrian official aššur-dur-pania, the stele was consecrated to Ištar of arbela.
according to Galter (2004b: 181), it therefore demonstrates that the cult of Ištar in Bit
adini had been imported from assyria. a temple of Ištar was located in the city of hadattu.
It was built under the reign of tiglath-pileser III and contained a cult image of the goddess
that is mentioned in written sources (Galter 2004b: 180).
124 Luwian and aramaic texts testify to the worship of the “storm-god of aleppo” (hut-
ter 1996: 118). the city of aleppo was ruled by the Luwian dynasty until the 9th century,
and it was not until the 8th century that it was ultimately integrated into the territory of