3,000-year old monumental gate unearthed in Turkey

Archaeologists uncover 3,000-year-old lion adorning citadel gate complex in Turkey

TORONTO, ON – Archaeologists leading the University of Toronto's Tayinat Archaeological Project in southeastern Turkey have unearthed the remains of a monumental gate complex adorned with stone sculptures, including a magnificently carved lion. The gate complex provided access to the citadel of Kunulua, capital of the Neo-Hittite Kingdom of Patina (ca. 950-725 BCE), and is reminiscent of the citadel gate excavated by British archaeologist Sir Leonard Woolley in 1911 at the royal Hittite city of Carchemish.

The Tayinat find provides valuable new insight into the innovative character and cultural sophistication of the diminutive Iron Age states that emerged in the eastern Mediterranean following the collapse of the great civilized powers of the Bronze Age at the end of second millennium BCE.

"The lion is fully intact, approximately 1.3 metres in height and 1.6 metres in length. It is poised in a seated position, with ears back, claws extended and roaring," says Timothy Harrison, professor of near eastern archaeology in the Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations and director of U of T's Tayinat Archaeological Project (TAP). "A second piece found nearby depicts a human figure flanked by lions, which is an iconic Near Eastern cultural motif known as the Master and Animals. It symbolizes the imposition of civilized order over the chaotic forces of the natural world."

"The presence of lions, or sphinxes, and colossal statues astride the Master and Animals motif in the citadel gateways of the Neo-Hittite royal cities of Iron Age Syro-Anatolia continued a Bronze Age Hittite tradition that accentuated their symbolic role as boundary zones, and the role of the king as the divinely appointed guardian, or gatekeeper, of the community," says Harrison. The elaborately decorated gateways served as dynastic parades, legitimizing the power of the ruling elite.

The gate complex appears to have been destroyed following the Assyrian conquest of the site in 738 BCE, when the area was paved over and converted into the central courtyard of an Assyrian sacred precinct.

"The stylistic features of the lion closely resemble those of a double-lion column base found in the 1930s in the entrance to one of the temples that formed the Assyrian sacred precinct," says Harrison. "Whether reused or carved during the Assyrian occupation of the site, these later lion figures clearly belonged to a local Neo-Hittite sculptural tradition that predated the arrival of the Assyrians, and were not the product of Assyrian cultural influence as scholars have long assumed."

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/f9e038ed9b71.jpg[/atsimg]

A cool find from the Neo-Hittite period, from one of the kingdoms that emerged after the collapse of the Hittite empire from the invasions and wars with the Sea Peoples.

They haven't mentioned finding a second lion, usually the Hittites "Sphinx Gates" were bracketed by a pair of these.

reply to post by Blackmarketeer


very cool thanks for posting... it is amazing to me that perhaps one man or many chizeled that monster out of stone 3,000 years ago and to this day we can appreciate their craftsmanship... that is leaving your mark folks weather we know the name of the artist or not his work is now floatin in the air and traveling across the world in these photos.

What i never understand about these things is how do they know how old the artifact is? how do we know its not from 50,000 years ago?

This probably adorned the entrance to a clan leader's enclave back in ~1000bce. Great stuff, & i wouldnt be too shocked if theres more finds in the area. Afterall, it was paved over... lol

The Bavarian pyramids are close to these no? Who knows what will be unearthed next!

Originally posted by BIack
What i never understand about these things is how do they know how old the artifact is? how do we know its not from 50,000 years ago?

Carbon dating i think. They can test the oxidation of carbon atoms in anything that contains..carbon. Right?

Lions.

Is it that they were the king of the jungle, so they are representative of power?

Or is it something completely different and strange?

Maybe,

Lion people descended from the heavens on their chariots.

hmm

lol

reply to post by survival


You can only carbon date things that were once alive. Determining when exactly a statue was made can almost always only be done by context and circumstance.

Says here radio carbon dating is accurate up to 50,000 years plus or minus forty years.

Wiki carbon dating

In my opinion these people have never seen a real lion. Just look at that thing. It is similar, but it looks like it could have been some ancient lost creature.

I found a gate once... i had to hide it from some theifs and told them to get a life.. instead they took of-fence and ran off.

Originally posted by emaildogs
Says here radio carbon dating is accurate up to 50,000 years plus or minus forty years.

Wiki carbon dating

In my opinion these people have never seen a real lion. Just look at that thing. It is similar, but it looks like it could have been some ancient lost creature.

edit on 10-8-2011 by emaildogs because: (no reason given)

it was on ats once before,

that carbon dating is WRONG, cant be trusted, reason being scientists have recently discovered mystery particles being emanated from the sun which slow down and also speed up at varying rates, the decay rate of carbon 14,

news.discovery.com...

www.abovetopsecret.com...


i understand this particular find did not make use of carbon dating but just posting this because i see a few posters here were not aware that carbon dating is not as accurate as it was once believed to be

reply to post by survival


carbon dating only works on things that were once alive..

Originally posted by emaildogs
Says here radio carbon dating is accurate up to 50,000 years plus or minus forty years.

Wiki carbon dating

In my opinion these people have never seen a real lion. Just look at that thing. It is similar, but it looks like it could have been some ancient lost creature.

edit on 10-8-2011 by emaildogs because: (no reason given)

that is complete inaccurate it does not say that at all here is the quote you maybe referring to I suggest you read it again:

Plants take up atmospheric carbon dioxide by photosynthesis, and are ingested by animals, so every living thing is constantly exchanging carbon-14 with its environment as long as it lives. Once it dies, however, this exchange stops, and the amount of carbon-14 gradually decreases through radioactive beta decay with a half-life of 5,730 ± 40 years.

what the wiki article does say is that radiocarbon dating can be used to date as far back as 58,000 - 62,000 years ago

reply to post by iforget


news.discovery.com...

www.abovetopsecret.com...

snippet from that link i posted..

....the decay rates of radioactive elements are changing. This is especially mysterious as we are talking about elements with "constant" decay rates -- these values aren't supposed to change. School textbooks teach us this from an early age.

This is the conclusion that researchers from Stanford and Purdue University have arrived at, but the only explanation they have is even weirder than the phenomenon itself: The sun might be emitting a previously unknown particle that is meddling with the decay rates of matter. Or, at the very least, we are seeing some new physics.

Many fields of science depend on measuring constant decay rates. For example, to accurately date ancient artifacts, archaeologists measure the quantity of carbon-14 found inside organic samples at dig sites. This is a technique known as carbon dating....

...In another moment of weirdness, Purdue nuclear engineer Jere Jenkins noticed an inexplicable drop in the decay rate of manganese-54 when he was testing it one night in 2006. It so happened that this drop occurred just over a day before a large flare erupted on the sun.

reply to post by pryingopen3rdeye


Hi I am not arguing about this I was annoyed with the poster I replied to who misquoted wiki to imply that inorganic artifacts could be radiocarbon dated.

Regarding your information all that I can say is that this discovery is so new and poorly understood that it is hard to speculate on the ramifications for carbon dating. I don't disagree that this is reason to question what was until recently thought to be an extremely accurate dating method

reading the linked article... the dating was the result of deduction & knowing the history of the region:

The gate complex appears to have been destroyed following the Assyrian conquest of the site in 738 BCE, when the area was paved over and converted into the central courtyard of an Assyrian sacred precinct.

 

"The stylistic features of the lion closely resemble those of a double-lion column base found in the 1930s in the entrance to one of the temples that formed the Assyrian sacred precinct," says Harrison. "Whether reused or carved during the Assyrian occupation of the site, these later lion figures clearly belonged to a local Neo-Hittite sculptural tradition that predated the arrival of the Assyrians, and were not the product of Assyrian cultural influence as scholars have long assumed."...

now the statement that the carved lion(s) belonged to the neo-hittite sculpture tradition....is probably correct in Academia...
but i see a Chineese flavor to the carved stone icon of a Lion... i also note that the face of the Lion is black, or significantly different from the rest of the sculptures coloring...(One must click the link in the OP to see the image i refer to)

i sense that is of importance... both the face color and the ancient China style of the lion image, as i see it....


interesting

reply to post by survival


There's a process called Optical Dating that might be able to be used.

i see a hello kitty compared to the spinx

great find but there is a difference.

reply to post by iforget


I don't think my post implied that the statue could be accurately dated using radio carbon method.

I simply linked to a Wiki article on Radio Carbon Dating. That's all.

Thank you for the correction up to 60,000 not 50,000. Don't get all worked up.

Originally posted by survival

Originally posted by BIack
What i never understand about these things is how do they know how old the artifact is? how do we know its not from 50,000 years ago?

Carbon dating i think. They can test the oxidation of carbon atoms in anything that contains..carbon. Right?

You cant carbon date stone, only metals,textiles,pottery (if theres glaze or paint on it), bones, wood etc.
People 50,000 years ago couldnt even wipe their own asses let alone carve a stone lion, they didnt have the technology or the brainpower to make carvings like that.

Truly amazing. To think our ancestors had not much to offer is baffling, I personally believe they have as much skill as people today and even more worth.