Bronze age carving from a Hittite rock sanctuary depicts twelve identical male gods carrying sickle-shaped swords. Yazilikaya, Turkey © Luwian Studies.
The Sun, the Moon, and the Gods in Bronze Age Anatolia
GETTY VILLA
Auditorium
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The rock sanctuary of Yazılıkaya is one of the most fascinating archaeological sites in the world, containing more than 90 figures carved in stone around 1230 B.C. Located in today’s central Turkey, the sanctuary was one of the holiest places of the ancient Hittites. For almost two centuries, scholars have attempted to decipher the meaning of the site and its impressive procession of deities. In this lecture, geoarchaeologist Eberhard Zangger shares his latest research and a new interpretation of the site as a lunisolar calendar that could still be used today. Edwin C. Krupp, director of the Griffith Observatory and an expert in the field of archaeoastronomy, introduces the talk.
Eberhard Zangger is president of the Luwian Studies foundation in Zurich and an expert in the reconstruction of archaeological landscapes. He earned his PhD in geology from Stanford University and was a senior research associate at the University of Cambridge's department of earth sciences. Zangger has worked on archaeological excavations and surveys in the countries around the eastern Mediterranean, and his landscape reconstructions include the Late Bronze Age palaces of Mycenae, Tiryns, Pylos and Iolcos. His recent interpretation of Yazılıkaya was discovered with archaeoastronomer Rita Gautschy.