5/12/2022

News: Early rock art discovered in Turkey

 

"Researchers are investigating a subterranean complex made up of an entrance chamber and an upper and lower gallery carved out of limestone bedrock in what is now southeastern Turkey’s village of Basbuk . . . drawings on the walls carry Assyrian religious themes, according to Selim Ferruh Adalı of the University of Ankara, but were adapted to the local Aramaean style. Aramaic inscriptions label images of Hadad, the Assyrian god of storms, rain, and thunder; Atargatis, northern Syria’s goddess of fertility and protection and consort of Hadad; Sin, the moon god; and Samas, the sun god."

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(© photo "Atargatis & Hadad", M. Onal, Antiquity, 2022)