Pictures & images of the ancient Hittite monumental relief orthostat sculpture artefacts from the Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin. The Hittites were a Bronze Age civilisation that ruled large parts of Mesopotamia from 1680-1180 BC and rivalled Egypt in its power. When the Hittite Empire collapsed small independent principalities formed in Syria and Anatolian Turkey known as Neo Hittites or Syro-Hittites. Tell Halaf is one of the Syro Hittite Principalities. Situated in north east of Syria. Tell Halaf is in the fertile valley of the Khabur River. Its ruins were discovered in 1899 by Baron Von Oppenheim, who was surveying the area to build the Bagdad Railway from 1911 to 1913, excavated Tell Halaf. The resultant finds revealed the Syro Hittite orthostats that are exhibited in the The Vorderasiatisches Museum (Near East Museum) Berlin. Sam’al, Known in Hittite as Yadiya, was a Hittite and Aramaean city located at Zincirli Höyük in the Anti-Taurus Mountains of modern Turkey's Gaziantep Province. Sam'al was excavated between 1888 and 1902 by the German Oriental Society led by Felix Von Luschan and Robert Koldewey. The excavations on the citadel recovered large numbers of relief-carved Syro Hittite orthostats which were returned to the Pergamon museum. The Syro Hittite orthostats in the Pergamon Museum are typical of the Neo Hittite style orthostats found at the old Hittite cities all over Anatolia and Northern Syria. Made between 100-800BC these late Bronze age artworks depict mythical animals and gods from the vast pantheon of Hittite Gods. The on going translation of clay cuneiform tablets from the Old Hittite Kingdom capital of Hattusa, in Northern Anatolia, have revealed that the Hittites had a God for nearly everything. Every animal had a God version as did inanimate objects and certain places had specific Gods associated with them. When the Hittites conquered new territory they took on the local Gods of the peoples they subjugated. The Hittites venerated a vast pantheon of deities and the art they produced to venerate the Gods reveals how creative Hittite artists imagination was. The Orthostats were used as wall decorations in the Temples, Gateways and Palaces of the Syro Hittite cities.

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