Ivriz

The Hittite rock relief of Ivriz is located in the former village of the same name (now Aydinkent ) about 17 km south-east of Ereğli in southern Turkey on a steep wall in the source area of ​​Ivriz Suyu, the water was dammed in the area of the relief in recent times.

It is the best preserved of the numerous Hittite rock art, is 4.2 times 2.4 meters tall and dates from the second half of the 8th century BC, the time of the Late Hittite -Aramaic principalities. You can see right Warpalawas King of Tuwana standing on a boulder with possibly raised in greeting or prayer hands. Opposite him is on the left, shown considerably larger, the God Tarhunzas. He can be seen as vegetation donor to the mature ears of corn and grapes, which up to his feet reaching stalks or vines he holds in his hands. A sickle at his waist indicates the time immediately prior to harvest. The location of the reliefs on the steep wall of the Ivriz Suyu suggests that the basis of fertility, not shown in the rare rain, but the best all year emerging from the rock is water. Therefore, the relief could have been part of a source sanctuary. Before the face of the deity and behind the back of King's three-line inscription in Luwian hieroglyphs, on which the two figures are named. Another, possibly two-line inscription at the foot of the cliff is largely weathered.

When construction on the dam in 1986 two other finds were unearthed. This is on the one hand a fragment of a stele of Tarhunzas, according to the hieroglyphic inscription erected by Warpalawas and provided with a Phoenician bilingual, on the other hand to a head fragment of a larger than life statue in the round, which probably represented also Tarhunzas. The findings give rise to the assumption that there was a of Warpalawas built, feature-packed sanctuary of Tarhunzas here. South of the rock reliefs bifindet in the mountains in the valley of Ambar Deresi, near the Byzantine monastery ruins Kızlar Sarayı, another relief, which is a copy of the first. It's not worked out so well and never quite completed, the hieroglyphs are missing.

37.40972222222234.1725Koordinaten: 37 ° 24 '35 " N, 34 ° 10' 21" E