Location: Mount Nemrut Map
Constructed: 62 BC by King Antiochus I Theos of Commagene
The Nemrut Dağı, also Nemrut Dağ or Nemrud Dağı (Armenian Նեմրութ
Nemrut, Kurdish Çiyayê Nemrûdê), is a mountain in southeastern
Turkey, not far from the upper reaches of the Euphrates. It belongs
to the Taurus Mountains and is located 86 kilometers northeast of
Adıyaman in the province of the same name. At 2,150 meters high, it
is one of the highest peaks in northern Mesopotamia. The region was
declared a national park in 1988.
This mountain should not be
confused with the Nemrut crater, Nemrut Dağı (Bitlis), a 3050 meter
high (the height information varies between 2865 m and 3300 m
depending on the source), now dormant volcano in Turkey near Tatvan
on Lake Van.
At its summit rises a monumental combination of
sanctuary and burial site. It was built by the late Hellenistic king
Antiochus I Theos (69–36 BC) of Commagene, who coined the term
hierothesion (Greek ἱεροθέσιον) for it. The sanctuary was intended
to be the center of a new religion that combined Persian and Greek
mythology. Shortly after his coronation, Antiochus himself gave
himself the suffix Theos (God), a form of self-deification that was
unusual even in the context of the Hellenistic ruler cult. In two
long Greek inscriptions, the king specified how exactly he should be
worshiped during his lifetime and after his death. He traced his
ancestry back to the Achaemenid kings Darius I and Xerxes I on his
father's side and to the Seleucids with Alexander the Great as
ancestors on his mother's side.
The place of worship was
rediscovered in 1881 by the German engineer Karl Sester. Since then,
Turkish, American and German archaeologists have carried out
excavations here. The first researchers of the Hierothesion were
Otto Puchstein and Carl Humann in 1882/83; they were followed in the
1950s and 1960s by a German-American excavation team with Friedrich
Karl Dörner and Theresa Goell from the American Schools of Oriental
Research. In 1987 the burial shrine was added to the UNESCO World
Heritage List. Since then, various groups, including the
International Nemrud Foundation and most recently members of the
Commagene Nemrut Conservation and Development Program from the
Middle East Technical University, have worked on the mountain.
The tomb consists of a rubble embankment with a diameter of 150
and a height of 45 meters above the natural summit of the mountain.
The gravel hill is surrounded by three terraces to the north, west
and east. Large statues of gods depicting King Antiochus in the
company of Greco-Persian gods can be seen on the western and eastern
terraces. There are also various rows of relief steles depicting the
king's ancestral gallery and other relatives, as well as depictions
of ritual acts. To make space for the construction of the sanctuary,
around 300,000 m³ of solid rock was moved. Processional paths lead
up the mountain from three directions.
Over time,
earthquakes, storms and numerous visitors have contributed to the
destruction of a large part of the reliefs and the once 8-10 m high
statues are now headless. The heads are placed in front of the
statues. It is believed that there was a burial chamber in the hill,
but despite many attempts to penetrate into the interior of the
hill, this has not yet been proven.
The monumental statues
with the altar and the reliefs offer an impressive picture,
especially at sunrise and sunset. The complex is considered
unfinished and no traces of cult rituals were found.
The
current Turkish name of the mountain refers to the legendary King
Nimrod, who appears in the Bible and the Koran.
Nemrut Dağı is located in the north of Kâhta County in Adıyaman
Province, Turkey. It belongs to the Ankar Dağları, the western foothills
of the Maden Dağları, which belongs to the Taurus Mountains; to the
north are the Malatya Dağları, which formed the Kommagenes border. The
latter leads to pass roads into the Malatya area, which were used
militarily and as caravan routes and some of which are still in use
today. Even though some of the mountains in the border mountains in the
northwest are higher, Nemrut Dağı is a landmark visible from almost all
directions. It overlooks northern Mesopotamia and the Euphrates Valley
to the southeast, the river Kahta Çayı (also Cendere Çayı, ancient name
Chabinas) and Adıyaman to the southwest, and Samosata, which has now
disappeared into the Atatürk reservoir, and the Euphrates crossing
atzeugma to the south. A processional route led from the southwestern
residential town of Arsameia on Nymphaios to the Nemrut Dağı.
Today you can reach Nemrut Dağı from Kahta via the D-360, from which a
signposted road branches off to the north near Narince. It is initially
asphalted, then paved in the last, steep part and leads to a parking lot
with a tourist center below the summit, from where the terraces with the
monumental statues can be reached after a climb of about 25 minutes.
The formations of the Ankar Dağları were formed from numerous
different types of rock in the course of mountain formation. Only Eocene
limestones were crucial for the summit and the surrounding area of
Nemrut Dağı. This formation process began over 35 million years ago in
the Eocene and continued in the Oligocene. The rugged landscape at the
foot of the mountain was created by weathering during this period and in
the subsequent Pliocene. The folded limestone layers emerge on the
slopes of the Nemrut in the form of breakthroughs; in the deeper zones
they are covered by topsoil. In the southeast there are typical forms of
a karst surface. These include depressions that were created by
collapsed cavities in the limestone beneath the topsoil and which the
surveying engineer in Goell's team Heinrich Brokamp, who created a
topographic map of the mountain, calls ice caves. Remnants of solidified
corn snow remain there all year round and are used for animals to drink
in the summer. In the northeast, about two kilometers down the slope,
individual layers of gray-green sandstone occur. In contrast to the
limestone slabs that are pushed on at an angle, they lie horizontally.
As a result, a spring arises at this interface between the two types of
rock, which has served as a water supply since the Hellenistic period,
but also today.
The craftsmen who created the sanctuary on the
mountain top only used stones from the immediate area. In addition to
sandstone from the area surrounding the spring, limestone was used,
which was quarried from the openings on the mountain slopes. Material
from the eroded top of the mountain may also have been processed.
The sparse vegetation of the high mountain landscape includes neither trees nor bushes. In a 2009 study by Ahmet Zafer, 250 species of seed plants were counted, including 14% composites, 10% mints, 9.2% sweet grasses, 7.6% crucifers and 7.2% legumes. The national park's wildlife includes species of bears, wolves, jackals, foxes and badgers. Among the bird species that can be observed are the white-throated warbler, the wheatear, the middle wheatear and the rusty-rumped wheatear, as well as the snowfinch, the lark and the curlew pipit.
The Nemrut Dağı was mapped in the early 19th century by Helmuth von
Moltke, who was a military advisor in the Ottoman Empire. Although he
paid close attention to the evidence of antiquity and used the mountain
as a landmark in his land surveys, he had missed the sanctuary on the
summit. In 1881, the road engineer Karl Sester reported in a letter to
the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin about Assyrian
monuments on the mountain. The archaeologist Otto Puchstein was then
commissioned in 1882 by Alexander Conze, the general secretary of the
German Archaeological Institute, on behalf of the academy to travel with
the engineer to the Nemrut Dağı. On May 4, 1882, they arrived on the
mountain for the first time, which they found still covered in deep
snow. Puchstein still found the Greek inscription on the back of the
statues and began copying it. Because of the weather, which hampered
their investigations, they soon left and Puchstein returned in June of
the same year. On October 19, he gave a report to the academy's
philosophical-historical class. The following year, Carl Humann traveled
to the Nemrut Dağı on behalf of the academy, accompanied by Puchstein
and Felix von Luschan. From June 8th to 23rd, 1883, they created
drawings and photographs of the monuments and brought numerous plaster
casts to the Royal Museums in Berlin. On their way they also visited and
explored other Commagene sites, including the Hierothesia of Karakuş and
Sesönk, Samosata, Perrhe and the late Hittite sites of Sakçagözü and
Zincirli. The Turkish archaeologist Osman Hamdi Bey, who had heard about
the venture and also wanted to get to know Kommagene, was already on the
mountain in May, accompanied by the sculptor Osgan Efendi, and carried
out research work despite heavy snow. The Imperial Ottoman Museum,
founded by Osman Hamdi Bey, published its report Le tumulus de
Nemroud-Dagh: Voyages, description, inscriptions in the fall of 1883.
Humann and Puchstein's research results appeared in 1890 under the title
Travels in Asia Minor and Northern Syria.
In 1938, the German
ancient historian Friedrich Karl Dörner set off on a research trip
through the Commagene landscape with the building researcher and
architect Rudolf Naumann and visited the sanctuary, but was initially
unable to continue his planned work due to the outbreak of the Second
World War. It was not until 1951 that he traveled there again with the
intention of exploring the possibilities of excavations on the Nemrut
Dağı. On the way from Kahta to the town of Horik, which was supposed to
be the base station for the work on the Nemrut Dağı, he received
information about an image stone from a resident in a village. This led
to the discovery of the Commagene residence city of Arsameia on
Nymphaios with the Hierothesion and the large cult inscription there.
The American archaeologist Theresa Goell had also studied the Nemrut
Dağı in 1939 and visited it for the first time in 1947. In 1951, with
the support of the American Schools of Oriental Research, she was on her
way there again, together with the German ancient orientalist Albrecht
Götze, without meeting Dörner. When Goell and Dörner found out about
each other, they decided, after two years of correspondence, to carry
out the investigations in Kommagene together. After Dörner received
permission from the Turkish Republic to excavate in Arsameia in 1953,
Goell worked as an architect in Arsameia from 1953 to 1956, while Dörner
was involved in the research at the summit as an epigraphist. The
excavations continued until 1964. Afterwards, Goell returned a few more
times, for example in 1967, measuring and photographing work was carried
out and in 1973 the main altar was restored. Radar surveys of the
tumulus and the rock beneath the gravel were planned for 1976 by the
Stanford Research Institute with the aim of finding the king's burial
chamber, but they failed due to funding problems.
Friedrich Karl
Dörner returned to Nemrut Dağı in 1984 to carry out restoration work on
the west terrace, but was unable to continue the work for health
reasons. Under the leadership of Dörner's students Sencer Şahin, Jörg
Wagner and Elmar Schwertheim, who later headed the Asia Minor research
center founded by Dörner, the German-Turkish Nemrut Dağı project worked
from 1987 to 1991 to research and secure the monuments. In 1998, the
Dutch architect Maurice Crijns founded the International Nemrud
Foundation (INF) in collaboration with Herman A. G. Brijder from the
University of Amsterdam. She dedicated herself to working on the
mountain until 2003. The Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism
withdrew the INF's excavation permit in 2004 and in 2005 the Commagene
Nemrut Conservation and Development Program was launched at the Middle
East Technical University in Ankara under the direction of architect
Şahin Güçhan. The aim of the project is not only further archaeological
investigation and maintenance of the sanctuary, but also the improvement
of the tourist and general infrastructure in the area of the national
park around Nemrut Dağı. The plans also include building a museum below
the summit. According to Sencer Şahin's suggestions, it should contain a
tumulus simulation under a domed structure, where the monuments will be
placed, protected from the dangers of the weather. On the mountain
itself, the originals are to be replaced by replicas.
The historical landscape of Commagene lies in today's southeastern Turkey in the angle between the Euphrates in the east and the Antitaurus with the Malatya Dağları in the northwest. In the south it extends to the Euphrates crossing atzeugma, near today's Birecik, and to Doliche near modern Gaziantep. After the end of the Iron Age Luwian kingdom of Kummuḫ, the country was an Assyrian, later Babylonian province, until the conquest of Babylon by the Persian Achaemenid Empire in 539 BC. After two centuries of belonging to the Persian Empire, the rule of Alexander the Great, the Armenians and finally the Seleucids followed. In 163 B.C. In the 4th century BC, the governor Ptolemy broke away from the Seleucid Empire and founded the independent kingdom of Commagene. During the reign of his successors Mithridates Kallinikos and his son Antiochus I, Commagene lay between the areas of interest of the Roman Empire in the west and the Parthians in the east. Influences from this prehistory and the current situation in an area of tension were decisive for the royal cult that Antiochus introduced, and thus also for the design of the hierothesion that he probably founded towards the end of his rule in the second half of the 1st century BC. BC on which Nemrut Dağı was built.
After beginning his reign in 69 BC. In the 4th century BC, Antiochus
I significantly expanded the Commagene royal cult that his father had
already introduced and initiated a syncretic artificial religion. In
numerous places in his empire he built or expanded hierothesia or
temene, which served the practice of this cult and thus his veneration.
According to Friedrich Karl Dörner, hierothesia were “sepulchral places
of worship”, i.e. shrines in connection with the gravesites of members
of the ruling family. Temene referred to smaller places of worship
without graves. In addition to the Nemrut Dağı, sanctuaries existed,
among others, in Arsameia on Nymphaios with the grave of Antiochos'
father Mithridates Kallinikos, in Arsameia on the Euphrates (today's
Gerger) for his grandfather Samos II, on Karakuş, where Antiochos' wife
Isias and other females were probably Relatives are buried in Sesönk,
another burial mound, in which the grave of a high-ranking family,
possibly also Mithridates II, the son of Antiochus, is suspected, as
well as at Sofraz Köy,zeugma and Samosata. Inscriptions were found at
all locations in which he gave some very detailed instructions for
practicing his cult. Furthermore, conclusions can be drawn from the
texts about the development of the cult and the accompanying religion.
The population of the country of Commagene at the time consisted of
an Iranian upper class who followed the Persian tradition, but also of a
Greek elite who had come to the country as part of Alexander's
Macedonian conquests. The country also lay in the tension area between
the Roman Empire in the west and the Parthian Empire in the east.
Antiochus wanted to unite these two western and eastern cultural trends
in the cult of himself and in the art religion that he created for this
purpose. On the one hand, he traced his ancestry on his father's side
back to the Achaemenids up to Xerxes I and Darius I, and on his mother's
side via the Seleucids up to Alexander the Great. On the other hand, he
positioned himself as a god in the company of other divine figures,
which he represented as syncretic associations of oriental and
Hellenistic gods, and added the suffix Theos (Greek θεός for god) to his
name.
The supreme god, corresponding to the Greek Zeus, bears the
name Zeus-Oromasdes (Ζεύς Ώρομάσδης), after the ancient Persian sky god
Ahura Mazda, a high god in the Zoroastrian religion, whom Darius had
chosen as his personal patron god.
He united the Greek Apollo with
three other gods to form Apollo-Mithras-Helios-Hermes (Ἀπόλλων Μίθρας
Ἥλιος Ἑρμῆς). Mithridates had already introduced the combinations
Mithras-Apollon and Helios-Hermes, with a sun god represented in both
combinations. On the one hand, the Greek sun god Helios is linked to the
Hellenistic messenger of the gods Hermes, and on the other hand, Apollo
is linked to Mithras, the latter referring to the ancient Persian Mitra.
This developed in the Achaemenid period from the guardian of human
relationships to the sun god, who had an outstanding function in ancient
Persian religion.
The third god is Artagnes-Heracles-Ares (Ἀρτάγνης
Ἡρακλῆς Ἄρης). While Heracles is the Greek hero who was admitted to
Olympus and Ares is the well-known god of war, Artagnes is the Greek
rendering of the ancient Iranian god's name Verethragna. Artagnes does
not appear in Achaemenid sources, only in a few scattered writings are
Heracles or Ares mentioned as an interpretatio Graeca of a god in the
western Iranian area, so it can be assumed that he played at most a
subordinate role in Achaemenid religion. His appearance in a prominent
place in Commagene can probably only be explained by a later surge in
popularity that he also experienced in Khuzistan, where he was also
identified with Heracles.
The only female deity in Antiochus'
pantheon is the all-nourishing Commagene (παντρόφος Κομμαγηνή), the
national goddess. She is identified with the Greek goddess of fate
Tyche, although the name is not explicitly mentioned in the inscription
on the back of her monumental statue.
What is striking here is
that the Persian (Eastern) component of the names of the male gods only
forms one of several components; the female deity is only referred to by
her Greek name. The multiple names also only appear where the deities
are to be made known to the visitor; in other places in the text only
the Greek (Western) name is given. From this it is concluded that the
intellectual starting point of the religion remains Greek-Hellenistic,
the oriental part is only an addition.
In various inscriptions,
including from Sofraz Köy, Arsameia am Nymphaios and the Nemrut Dağı,
Antiochus stipulated that his subjects should hold the cult celebrations
in his honor on the 10th and 16th of each month, the dates of his
accession to the throne (10th Loos). and his birthday (16 Audnaeus).
Public meals also took place on these occasions. From the ruler's
possessions, Antiochos donated lands, called χῶραι, and entire villages,
κῶμαι, were used to care for the sanctuaries. Hierodules, musicians, who
were the property of the deity and therefore could not be enslaved, were
appointed as the staff of the Hierothesia. This regulation also applied
to their descendants, so that the staffing of the places of worship
should be secured “in perpetuity”. Through the dense network of
Hierothesia and Temene spread across the empire, he ensured that every
resident had the opportunity to regularly take part in the celebrations.
In 1973, Helmut Waldmann put forward the thesis in his book The
Commagene Cult Reforms under King Mithradates I Kallinikos and his son
Antiochus I that religious syncretism had already been introduced by
Antiochos' father Mithridates. The discovery of the stele and the
inscription of Sofraz Köy by Jörg Wagner in 1974 refuted this theory.
The inscription can certainly be classified as the earliest known of
Antiochus, among other things because he describes himself as king
(βασιλεύς) and not, as was later common practice, as great king
(βασιλεύς μέγας). In addition, only the Greek gods Apollo and Artemis
are mentioned in the inscription, without additional Iranian names.
Therefore, it does not seem likely that the West-East art religion
existed at this early time.
After Antiochus' death, the cult lost
much of its importance. Sencer Şahin pointed out in 1991 that the shrine
was not completed and, in all likelihood, Nemrut Dağı celebrations never
took place. There are no planned statues on the north terrace as well as
tables described in the inscription and the head of the monumental
statue of the king on the east terrace is unfinished, but above all
there are no small finds that would certainly be expected after the
regular holding of cult activities.
Above the summit of the limestone mountain is a tumulus made of gravel stones with a diameter of around 150 meters and a height of 45 meters. Below this are three artificially created terraces in the northeast, southwest and northwest, briefly referred to as the east, west and north terraces. The east terrace is approximately rectangular, its central courtyard measures approximately 21 × 26 meters, including all monuments and the large altar it is approximately 50 × 50 meters. The west terrace, which is approximately ten meters lower, has overall dimensions of 50 × 30 meters and is partially artificially underpinned to the west in order to create space for the equipment. According to geologist Hans-Gert Bachmann's calculations, around 300,000 tons of rubble must have been moved to create the tumulus. Some of this was probably incurred when the terraces were carved out of the mountain; it is uncertain whether the summit itself was worked for this purpose. The monumental statues, the guardian animals and the bases of the steles are also made of local limestone; traces of quarry work can still be seen on the southeastern slope below the eastern terrace. Greenish sandstone was used for the relief steles of the ancestors, which was obtained from a spring northeast of the mountain, about an hour and a half away on foot.
The west and east terraces had almost the same equipment. There were
each:
The series of monumental seated statues of the gods Antiochus,
Commagene, Zeos-Oromasdes, Apollo-Mithras-Helios-Hermes and
Heracles-Artagnes-Ares, plus the guardian animals lion and eagle on each
side.
Two rows of pedestal reliefs of ancestors, 15 ancestors on the
paternal Persian side and 17 on the maternal Greco-Macedonian side.
Among the latter there are also female ancestors.
A series of
dexiosis reliefs showing Antiochus shaking hands with the gods, next to
the lion horoscope. This row is also framed by (smaller) guardian lions
and eagles.
Two short rows of three reliefs each of contemporary
members of the royal family, behind the ancestral galleries. Remains and
bases were only found on the east terrace. However, the discovery of
another relief on the west terrace, which according to the inscription
can possibly be attributed to Antiochus' son and successor Mithridates
II, shows that such rows may have been present there too.
A series
with further reliefs, called the investiture group.
The
arrangement of the statues, steles and the associated small altars
varies depending on local conditions. A large, tiered altar is only
present on the east terrace. There the Dexiosis reliefs are placed on a
second podium below the colossal statues, on either side of which a
staircase leads up to the monumental guardian animals. In between there
is a block altar in front of the statues and reliefs, which probably had
a counterpart on the west terrace.
The monumental seated statues of the gods stood with their backs to
the tumulus and overlooked each terrace. They were composed of limestone
blocks in seven layers about one meter high. The top layer consisted
only of a block 2.5 to 3 meters high, which formed the figure's head.
The figures thus reached a height of over eight meters. The base area of
the thrones, including the footstool in front of them, is just over
three meters square. The Zeus figure occupying the central space, which
also exceeded the others in height at 8.75 meters (west terrace 9.65
meters), also has the largest base at 3.82 × 3.32 meters. The bottom
layer formed the base of the throne and the footstool, the next three
formed the feet, lower legs and thighs of the figure. These layers
consisted of a multi-part, rectangular frame, the hollow interior of
which was filled with rubble stones up to a height of two meters. Layers
5 and 6 formed the god's torso and shoulders, with most having the
shoulder layer as just one block. The head sat on top of this, and in
some cases the upper part of the headgear was formed from a further,
eighth layer.
The order of the gods from left to right is
Antiochus, Commagene, Zeus-Oromasdes, Apollo-Mithras-Helios-Hermes and
Heracles-Artagnes-Ares. They are flanked on both sides by a
larger-than-life eagle and on the outside by a lion.
The clothing
of the male gods consists of a cloak that is thrown over the east
terrace and is held together on the right shoulder by a plate brooch.
The coats are on on the west terrace. Underneath, the figures wear a
long-sleeved robe, the fabric of which forms folds down the sides from
the legs, as well as trousers. The feet are covered with double-laced
boots with a tongue. On their heads sat a Persian tiara, a conical
headgear derived from the Phrygian cap, the tip of which is bent
forward. Ear and neck protection hang down to the shoulder layer. In
contrast, Antiochus is the only one to wear an “Armenian” tiara. This is
flattened on the sides and tapers towards the top, with five ray-like
triangles visible at the top edge, of which only four remain today. The
ears and neck parts are folded up. Over the tiaras, the gods wear a
diadem about 15 centimeters wide, which is tied together at the back. On
the front of the headgear, a ribbon with round discs runs from the
bottom to the top as a decoration. Apollo, Zeus and Antiochus hold a
barsom, a bundle of twigs tied together, in their left hand on their
lap. Heracles holds an upright club in his left hand that reaches to his
shoulders.
Kommagene wears a cloak (himation) over his shoulders,
which covers half the back of the head, leaves the upper body and arms
free and is gathered again on the lap and probably held with the left
hand. The hem runs clearly over the lower legs. Her undergarment is a
chiton that falls down the sides of her legs and is belted with two
straps under her breasts. The footwear is difficult to interpret due to
its poor state of preservation; it is probably sandals. Dörner and the
art historian John H. Young interpret the cylindrical headgear as a
calathos, while the Near Eastern archaeologist Bruno Jacobs believes
they recognize a wreath made of fruits and ears of wheat. In her left
hand the goddess holds a cornucopia which, when standing upright,
reaches to shoulder height.
The pairs of guardian animals on both
sides of the row of gods are also composed of several layers; there are
five on the east terrace and six on the west terrace. The animal figures
standing on a common base are between 4.5 and 5 meters tall, the lion
towering over the eagle by a few centimeters. The hollow interior of the
body is filled with gravel stones. The heads are made from one piece.
The figure of the eagle is simply made; it has a powerful head with a
strong upper beak, wide-open eyes and bushy eyebrows. The wings are
folded against the body and the shoulders are stretched forward. The
claws are spread into a semicircle. The lion is depicted sitting. The
raised front paws have a stripe of fur on the back. The mighty mane
consists of numerous tufts of hair lying one on top of the other. The
nostrils are deeply cut above the slightly open mouth. The eyes are wide
open and have knotty brows. Above this, a strip of finer hair can be
seen in front of the base of the mane. The ears are only shown as holes
in the mane. Theresa Goell sees clear similarities to Assyrian and
Hittite, but also Achaemenid lion figures in these small ears, the
symmetrical, flame-like mane, the schematic representation of the mouth,
nose and whiskers and other features.
On the head parts of all
large statues, both gods and animals, square transport holes with a
diameter of around 5–6 centimeters can be seen on the sides. They give
rise to the assumption that the heads, unlike the bodies, were not
finished on the object itself, but on the ground and only then placed on
it.
Some of the thrones of the large sculptures have been preserved up to shoulder height on the east terrace; on the west terrace only the three lower layers are still in situ. The heads have all fallen down and lined up in front of the seats. The head of the eastern Commagene was the only one still in its place when Goell and Dörner began their investigations in 1953, but it also fell between 1961 and 1963 as a result of a lightning strike and was damaged. Most of the heads are missing the tops of the headgear, the tops of the tiaras are missing from the male deities, and the kalathos or basket is missing from Kommagene. Only the head of Antiochus on the west terrace has been preserved apart from cuts at the corners. Noses and lips are usually broken off due to the fall. Due to the uniformity of the fall, Otto Puchstein assumed that the destruction had occurred at the same time and therefore attributed it to an earthquake. Hans-Gert Bachmann, on the other hand, is of the opinion that weather influences over the centuries could have been enough to trigger the current situation.
On the back of the thrones on both terraces there is the large cult
inscription of Antiochus. After a heading given by the king himself, it
is called the Nomos inscription (Greek Νόμος, German law). On the west
terrace it includes two of the limestone blocks; on the east terrace the
design is somewhat more monumental and fills the lower three of the
blocks that form the throne of the gods. In terms of content, the two
texts are identical, apart from individual letters; the western version
is better preserved, so that smaller missing parts of the eastern text
could be supplemented with it.
Antiochus first introduces himself
in the inscription with his lineage and all titles and epithets:
«[Βασιλεύς μέ]γας ᾿Αντίοχος Θεὸς
Δίκαιος ᾿[Επιφ]αν[ὴς] Φιλορώμαιος
καὶ
Φιλέ[λλ]ην, ὁ ἑκ βασιλέως Μιθραδά-
του Καλλινίκου καὶ
βασιλίσσης Λαο-
δίκης θεᾶς Φιλαδέλφου τῆς ἐκ βασι-
λέω[ς] Αντιόχου
᾿Επιφανοῦς Φιλο-
μήτορος Καλλινίκου ἐπὶ καθω-
σιομένων βάσεων
ασύλοις
γράμμασιν ἕργα χάριτος ἰδίας εἰς
χρόνον ἀνέργραφεν
αἰώνιον»
“The great King Antiochus, God, the Just, Epiphanes,
friend of the Romans and Hellenes, son of King Mithradates Kallinikos
and Queen Laodice, goddess, the brother-loving, daughter of King
Antiochus Epiphanes, the mother-loving, victorious, signed on sacred
throne bases words of one's own favor in imperishable letters - for
everlasting times."
– Antiochus I: Translation of the Greek text
according to Helmut Waldmann
Below he describes his life,
emphasizing above all his constant piety, which he considers “his most
faithful defense and his inimitable joy.” For this reason he builds his
tomb and a place of worship “around the summit of the gorges of Tauros”.
He then gives instructions in the Nomos for carrying out the cult
activities in the Hierothesion. The priest appointed by him should wear
Persian robes on the designated holidays and crown his assistants with
golden wreaths. Sacrifices of herbs, incense, wine and food should be
made on the altars. The gathered crowd should be warmly welcomed and
provided with food and drinks and entertained with music at an enjoyable
festival. He further stipulates that the people he has designated for
the celebrations may not be enslaved or otherwise sold by anyone for all
time. The villages responsible for providing for the festivities, “which
I have consecrated as the inviolable possessions of the gods,” must not
be attacked or harmed. He concludes with the threat of the implacable
wrath of the gods and the deified ancestors for anyone who violates this
order. Likewise, the obedient should be assured of the eternal favor of
the gods.
The classical philologist Eduard Norden describes the
inscription as “the most important monument of Greek prose from a time
from which almost nothing else has survived”.
A row of five steles was located to the east in front of the monumental statues on a podium, in front of which stood a 0.85 meter high altar block measuring 2.50 × 1.50 meters. In the west, the corresponding sculptures adjoined the seated statues to the right (north). The first relief does not show the typical Dexioseis hand-out; rather, the goddess of the land extends her rights to the king with the fruits of the land. The next three are real dexiosis reliefs that show the builder Antiochus shaking hands with his fellow gods. The fifth, right stele is known as the Leo Horoscope. Like the large statues, the row is flanked by a lion and an eagle. Only a small number of small fragments of the steles and figures have been preserved on the eastern terrace, while in the west almost complete steles or at least more and larger fragments were found. The following description accordingly refers to the western reliefs. The steles were not visible in 2011, with the exception of a small part of Zeusdexiosis at Nemrut Dağı. All personal reliefs have an inscription on the back that names the king with his title and the deity depicted.
The first relief shows King Antiochus with the local goddess
Commagene. It is about 2.65 meters high and 1.50 meters wide. The upper
body of the king standing on the left is shown frontally, the head
turned to the right in profile. Commagene's body is slightly turned
towards him, the head is shown to the side. She stretches out her right
hand and offers him the fruits of the land; in her left she holds her
cornucopia. Antiochus wears the Armenian tiara, which is decorated with
a lion surrounded by fruits, flowers and leaves and whose upper part is
missing. The tilted ear flaps are also florally decorated, and the
diadem worn over the tiara shows several striding lions. The upper body
is dressed in a cloak, which is held on the right shoulder by two
heart-shaped brooches decorated with an eagle. Below you can see an
armor consisting of diamonds decorated with six-pointed stars. It is
open at the front and is held together with strings. A shirt can be seen
on the arms, a sash wrapped around the waist holds a skirt that extends
to the Persian boots and is typical of Commagene rulers' clothing. Below
you can see pants tucked into boots. On the right side the king carries
his sword, the scabbard of which is decorated with four-leaf rosettes.
Of the scepter held in the left hand, only the egg-shaped upper part,
which is wrapped with leaves, has survived.
The goddess wears a
chiton that reaches down to her knees and a himation on top. This leaves
the right breast exposed and is tied in a knot over the left. From the
combed back hair, curls fall over the ears and down to the shoulders.
Above it she carries a heavy wreath of fruit, including grapes, apples
and lemons, and a calathos rises above it. In her left arm she holds her
cornucopia, which tapers downwards and fruit spills out of the top.
Part of the relief, which contains the body of the king and the head
and top of the cornucopia of the Commagene, is in the Berlin museums. It
was brought there by Humann and Puchstein, the first two Western
archaeologists to explore the mountain, after they found the relief
badly damaged a year after their first visit in 1882. Further parts,
including the torso of the goddess and feet of Antiochus, were found and
assembled by Goell and Dörner in 1954.
The relief, which is approximately 2.30 meters high, has largely been
preserved apart from a strip between the two depicted figures; the
handshake that was undoubtedly present is missing. The tiara is complete
here, showing the five tips of the Armenian variant, each decorated with
a ball at the top. The tips are decorated with palmettes, the tied side
flaps with bundles of laurel. The sword is carried here on the left so
that only the handle can be seen. The king holds the long scepter in his
left hand. Its upper end, which can be seen behind his right shoulder,
is decorated with a ball, and the lower end, in front of Apollo's feet,
has pearl-like ornaments. The rest of the clothing and equipment is
roughly the same as on the first Dexiosis.
Apollo's headgear is
the Persian tiara with a tip tipped forward and hanging neck and side
protection, decorated all over with stars. The diadem above has
alternating circles and diamonds as decoration. Behind the head you can
see a halo with a diameter of around 50 centimeters, which makes his
function as a sun god clear. Some of the rays extend beyond the edge of
the relief. His clothing consists of a tight-fitting shirt with a cape
thrown over him, which is held together in front of the right shoulder
by a round brooch. It leaves the chest exposed and is visible again
between the legs up to ankle height. Pants and boots correspond to those
of the king. There is a braided collar around the neck and a bracelet
can be seen on the left wrist. The left hand holds the barsom.
The relief is relatively flat and the faces are noticeably smooth. A
similar depiction of Antiochus with the same deity was found in Arsameia
on Nymphaeus, but there the god is referred to as
Mithras-Helios-Apollo-Hermes.
At over three meters, the Zeusdexiosis clearly towers over the row of
relief steles. It has broken through to about a quarter of the total
height, and there is a gap between the top and bottom parts. The
surfaces of Zeus' body and Antiochus' face have largely broken away. On
the left, the picture shows Antiochus standing and frontally, his head
turned to the right, while Zeus sits on a throne, also shown frontally,
turning his head towards the king and extending his hand. The depiction
of the royal figure largely corresponds to that of the other Dexioseis.
Differences can only be seen in the decoration of various items of
clothing and equipment; the tiara and the diadem here are decorated with
winged lightning bolts, and oak leaves and branches also often appear as
ornaments. The scepter held on the left can be seen behind the shoulder
in a good condition. The sword is hanging here on the right side; on the
scabbard, Humann and Puchstein could see lion heads in addition to oak
decorations.
Zeus's clothing is more difficult to reconstruct,
but the forward-tilting, star-decorated Persian tiara and the diadem
decorated with lightning bolts can be clearly recognized. The oak leaves
described by Antiochus appear again here. While the headgear is more
reminiscent of the ancient Persian Ahura Mazda, the outer clothing is
clearly Greek. It is made of chiton and himation, with fitted trousers
and boots underneath, again featuring the oak leaf motif. He sits on a
throne with a footstool in front of it. The legs of the throne are
depicted below as lion's paws, which end in a curly mane and lion heads
at the top of the arms. The pillars, which are visible to the right and
left of the backrest, are decorated with the obligatory oak leaves and
are each crowned by an eagle, which sits upright with outstretched
wings. The two birds turn their heads towards one another. In his left
hand the god holds a scepter that stands on the footstool. The top end
resembles that of the king.
The last Dexiosis has a height of 2.17 meters. It is quite well
preserved, parts are missing between the two people, the right arm of
Heracles and the left of the king as well as the handshake. The face of
Antiochus has disappeared, but is known from a photo by Hamdi Bey. Small
parts of Heracles' face are missing. Antiochus' clothing is comparable
to that of the other reliefs. Here again, as with the Commagene and
Apollo reliefs, the tiara is decorated with striding lion figures, as is
the diadem. The cape, shirt, trousers and footwear correspond to the
patterns described. There are also no noticeable differences between the
scepter and the sword; the scabbard is decorated with flowers.
Heracles stands out from all the figures depicted in that he is
completely naked. He has a bunch of vine leaves on his head and he wears
his famous lion skin cloak over his left arm. The lion's drooping head
and paws are worked out in great detail. In his left hand the god holds
an upright gnarled club that rises to the height of his head. The body
is muscular, the face is bearded.
There is no complete clarity about the meaning of the dexiosis reliefs. From numerous examples that have existed since the 9th century BC. It is known that the main weight lies with the right person. This person has to give something to his counterpart with the handshake. Since in the Commagene reliefs it is always the deity who stands on the right, she seems to bestow her favor on the king, perhaps granting him his rule. These are certainly greeting scenes. Puchstein sees this as a sign of the king's apotheosis, as he is one by one welcomed by the gods as one of their equals and thus accepted into their ranks. Helmut Waldmann, who reworked and published the Commagene royal inscriptions in 1973, sees Antiochus in the role of the greeter, who announces through the Dexiosis reliefs in the country that he greets these very gods and with them forms the circle of gods of his religion. Theresa Goell sees parallels, among other things, to the older Hittite reliefs of Tudhalija IV in the embrace of his patron god Šarruma in Yazılıkaya or of King Warpalawa of Tuwana in İvriz, who faces the god Tarḫunna. In connection with the king's wish expressed in the inscriptions to be eternally accepted into the heavenly spheres, it therefore tends to be interpreted as an apotheosis.
The last relief in the Dexioseis series is the Leo horoscope. Only
fragments of the stele on the east terrace have been found; it is
estimated to be 2.32 meters wide and 1.70 meters high. The monument on
the west terrace was found by Humann and Puchstein in almost undamaged
condition; it measures 2.40–2.42 meters wide and 1.75–1.84 meters high.
They took a print that is now in the State Museums in Berlin. The
relief, which has been more severely damaged since then, was no longer
installed on site in 2011, like the Dexiosis reliefs.
The picture
shows a lion striding to the right, its head facing the viewer. In
particular, the head and the strong, muscular legs protrude far out of
the relief like a sculpture. The tongue hangs from the open mouth
between two fangs over the chin, above which whiskers are engraved on
the upper jaw. A massive mane surrounds the head above the wide-open
eyes, and tufts of hair can also be seen on the legs and stomach. The
tail hangs down on the right hind leg and curls up again. The entire
body and parts of the background are covered with eight-pointed stars,
and there is a crescent moon on the chest. Above the animal's back there
is a row of three stars with 16 rays, which are named in inscriptions
above.
The 19 stars distributed over the lion's body undoubtedly form the
constellation of the lion. With one insignificant difference, it
corresponds to the description in Eratosthenes' catasterisms (star
formation legends). The crescent moon on the chest is therefore close to
the main star Leonis α. called Regulus (Greek Βασιλίσκος, German little
king) of the constellation, which is called the king star. The three
stars above the lion's back are labeled as follows:
The left star is
called Πϋρόεις ῾Ηρακλέους, “the fiery one of Heracles”, a name for the
planet Mars. Since Mars is the Roman name of the war god Ares, the
relationship to the god Artagnes-Heracles-Ares can be seen here.
On
the middle star you can read the inscription Στίλβων ᾿Απόλλωνος, "the
shining one of Apollo", which refers to the planet Mercury and is
represented by the Greek name Hermes of the Roman god Mercury in the
Commagenic god's name Apollon-Mithras-Helios-Hermes.
The inscription
on the third star in the series reads Φαέθων Διός, “the shining one of
Zeus”, pointing to the planet Jupiter and the main god Zeus-Oromasdes.
This leads to the unanimously held opinion that the relief depicts a
star constellation in which both the moon, which was equated with the
goddess Hera and later with the personification of the country
Commagene, as well as the planets Mars, Mercury and Jupiter in the
constellation of the lion and thus pass the royal star Regulus. Which of
the possible times and which associated event should be presented here
by Antiochus is controversial. Humann and Puchstein had the astronomer
Friedrich Tietjen in Berlin and his colleague Paul Lehmann provide the
possible dates in the first half of the 1st century BC. Lehmann kept
July 17, 98 BC “for astronomical reasons”. Humann and Puchstein agreed
with this assumption. Since July 17th could not match the birthday
stated in the cult inscription on Audnaeus 16th (around
December/January), they assumed the date of conception was the date
shown. They thus placed the birth year at 97 BC, which was included in
numerous publications for a long time. Friedrich Karl Dörner stated that
Antiochus would then have been born as a seven-month-old child. In
addition, it was unusual to publish the birth charts of rulers, as they
provided the astrological key to calculating the end of life. During a
recalculation commissioned by the excavation team in 1959, the
astronomers Otto Neugebauer and H. B. van Hoesen found that the planets
rose shortly before the sun on the assumed date and were therefore not
visible in the sky. They therefore chose July 7, 62 BC. BC, when the
group could already be seen shining brightly in the evening sky. Dörner
and Goell agreed with this vote, as did the philologist Heinrich Dörrie.
In their assessment, they also included the days before and after the
calculated time on which Mars, Mercury, the Moon and Jupiter passed the
royal star Regulus and thus recreated the king's greeting shown in the
Dexioseis. The two astronomers assumed that the reason for this was a
treaty between Antiochus and Pompey regarding a reorganization of the
territory, which, however, is not otherwise mentioned by Antiochus in
any of the numerous inscriptions. Therefore, Dörner and Goell instead
assume that the relief should be interpreted as the founding horoscope
of the hierothesion on Nemrut Dağı. In 1999, the Dutch architect Maurice
Crijns, head of the International Nemrud Foundation (INF), which worked
on site to research and preserve the monuments from 1998 to 2003,
proposed July 14, 109 BC and considers this date to be the coronation
day of Mithridates I, Antiochus' father, possible. This dating also
remains controversial.
On the west terrace, north of the Dexiosis row, approximately at
right angles to it, another row of probably five pedestals was found.
The associated steles have only been preserved in parts. In addition to
two reliefs with presumably female figures, which occupied lateral
positions in the row of bases and of which mainly the contours can be
seen, more of the central stele has been preserved. This was found in
fragments by Humann and Puchstein and brought to Berlin. On the east
terrace there was a similar row of bases at the southern end below the
row of monumental statues, west of the maternal ancestral gallery, where
the excavation team led by Goell and Dörner found a comparable relief.
The Western image shows two male figures facing each other in the usual
posture, their bodies facing the viewer and their faces facing each
other. The right figure wears the Armenian tiara, a cape over the
breastplate, a shirt with a sash and boots. On the left there is a sword
hanging in its scabbard. The surfaces of the clothing and equipment are
not finished or decorated, meaning that the depictions have not been
completed. The head, both arms and parts of the chest are missing from
the left figure. Clothing and equipment, as far as can be seen,
correspond to the right person. On the eastern counterpart you can see
that the figures stretch their right hands towards each other and hold a
diadem together. From this it can be concluded that it is an investiture
scene, with the figure on the left being given royal dignity by the
figure on the right. It cannot be clarified whether this is Antiochus I,
who is introduced into office by his father Mithridates I, or whether
Antiochus himself makes his son Mithridates II king. No traces of an
inscription were discovered. One can only speculate about the identity
of the female figures on the side.
Because of the diadem held
together by the two people, the investiture scene is also referred to as
“Stephanophoros” (crown bearer).
On both terraces there are two rows of relief steles, one showing the
paternal Persian ancestors and the other the maternal Seleucid ancestors
of King Antiochus. On the east side, both rows are set up at right
angles to the monumental statues, facing each other, the Persian
ancestors in the north and the Greek ancestors in the south. Due to the
space available, the Persian line of ancestors is also set up at right
angles to the thrones of the gods on the west side, in the south of the
terrace, but the Macedonian line is in the west, facing the large
statues. In front of each ancestral relief there was a small altar made
of three stone blocks, two of which were placed side by side and the
third on top, creating an approximate cube with an edge length between
0.75 and 1.0 meters. The back of each stele bore an inscription
consisting of the name Antiochus in the nominative case with nicknames,
titles and parents and the name of the person depicted in the accusative
case along with the name of the father. All figures look to the left as
viewed by the viewer, the first, oldest ancestor is at the left end. The
sequence of paternal ancestors includes 15 people and that of maternal
ancestors 17 people. Contrary to Puchstein's opinion, the eastern and
western ancestral lines correspond completely to one another. The first
excavators had missed a completely buried base in the northern row of
stelae on the east terrace, which is why they mistakenly assumed only 14
ancestors here. The later excavation team in the 1950s was able to
uncover the missing base and correct the error.
Only a few of the
somewhat larger-than-life reliefs have survived. Contrary to what the
name ancestral gallery suggests, the pictures do not show any
individual, portrait-like features, but are rather structured
schematically with only minor deviations. The first five of the Iranian
ancestors represent Persian great kings. They wear the Persian tiara
decorated with stars with the tip tipped forward and neck flap, and a
diadem above. They are dressed in an ankle-length, long-sleeved Persian
cloak (kandys), which is held together across the chest with ribbons and
brooches. A full beard and a mustache can be seen on the face. With his
right hand the king drinks from a round phial decorated with a four-leaf
rosette. In his left hand he holds the barsom. A particularly beautiful
example is the image of Darius I on the east terrace, which clearly
shows the combination of Greek and oriental features. Theresa Goell
describes the relief as follows:
“His face is modeled in superb
Greek fashion suggesting cameo or goldsmith work. The style and
technique is an excellent example of the eclecticism of the art of
Antiochus, combining exquisite neo-classical Greek workmanship into face
and calm expression with Persian raiment and twisting mustache.”
“His face is designed in an excellent Greek manner, reminiscent of cameo
or goldsmith work. The style and technique are an excellent example of
the eclecticism of the art of Antiochus, combining the extraordinary
neo-classical Greek execution quality of the face and calm expression
with Persian garb and twirled beard.”
– Theresa Goell
The
following ten portraits initially show satraps, from the ninth stele
onwards kings of Armenia and finally from 13 to 15 Commagenian rulers.
As far as can be seen, they all wear the usual Commagen costume. This
includes the pointed, non-tilted tiara with diadem as headgear. The
upper body is dressed in a leather armor with a diamond pattern, over it
a shirt and a cloak, which is held on the shoulder by brooches. There is
a sash around the waist and a skirt underneath. The figures hold a
scepter vertically in their left hand and a pointed object in their
right, probably a dagger. Its sheath is attached to the sash on the left
side of the body. The footwear is boots.
Of the Seleucid-Greek
ancestors on the mother's side, the first 12 or 13 are male, and for the
most part only very fragmented remains remain. As far as can be seen,
they are bareheaded and beardless. The eighth stele on the west side,
Seleucus IV Philopator, is in the best condition. It is preserved from
knee to shoulder and provides the most information about the clothing
and equipment of the male ancestors in this series. The person depicted
wears a smooth leather armor that merges into flap-like stripes at the
hip or into a military skirt. A chiton appears underneath, with a coat
(himation) above it, which is held together by a brooch on the shoulder.
The feet are dressed in sandals. The left hand holds the scepter, the
right brings the libation from a rhyton, and a sword hangs in its
scabbard on the left side of the body. A 13 centimeter wide decorated
strap runs diagonally from the right shoulder across the upper body.
What is notable is a medallion at waist level. It is round, has a
diameter of 16 centimeters and shows a finely crafted portrait bust of
Heracles, the deity Atragnes-Herakles-Ares. The god can be clearly
identified by the club in his left hand. A corresponding piece was found
from the next stele, Antiochus IV Epiphanes, here a young man with curly
hair is depicted on the brooch. Since Heracles was undoubtedly the
person depicted at Seleucus, it is assumed that Apollo, i.e. the deity
Apollo-Mithras-Helios-Hermes, can be seen here. There are few usable
remains of the other male Greek ancestors.
The last four or five
of the ancestral reliefs show female figures. They are also dressed in
chiton and himation. The chiton falls in folds to the floor, the coat
above hangs to knee height and is pulled over the head like a headscarf.
Above this there is a simple wreath (Stephane) on the forehead. The
female ancestors hold a scepter in their left hand; unlike the male
ancestors, it is held slightly at an angle. The right arm is bent, the
hand rests at chest level. A pear-shaped earring and some locks of hair
appear on the side. Sandals can be seen on the feet.
The figures have few individual features, so a direct assignment to
historical people can only be made via the inscriptions on the back.
Since only parts of these have been preserved, additional sources must
be consulted. Initially it was assumed that a sequence from
father/mother to son/daughter could be assumed. The problem arose that
the time periods available could not be reconciled with the number of
people. There are around 450 years between Darius I and Antiochus, which
would result in a generational average of 30 years that is too large for
15 people depicted. The Seleucid ancestors have 17 generations available
over a period of 300 years, which seems extremely long. Friedrich Karl
Dörner based himself on various possible solutions. On the one hand, he
concluded from the known dates of reign of the Persian kings that the
father-son principle had been observed for the first five, omitting
Xerxes II, who reigned for only 45 days. After that, once between steles
5 and 6, it is passed on to the father-in-law instead of the father. For
the others, Dörner either inferred the name of the previous ruler from
the father's name on a stele if the inscription had not been preserved,
or he reconstructed the Achaemenid ancestry from historiography.
The Seleucid line of ancestors begins with Alexander, who is given the
nickname “the Great” for the first time in the known epigraphic and
literary tradition. This fictional descent of the Seleucid family goes
back to Seleucus I. The next three reliefs can be identified by their
inscriptions, of the following only two directly and one by the father's
name of the next. Dörner assumes that the stele of Antiochus VIII
Grypos, which Puchstein assigned to the 12th base, is in 13th place. The
following monuments depict female ancestors of Antiochus. When
determining the missing names, Dörner takes into account the legitimacy
and importance of the known rulers and deletes all usurpers and their
descendants. Thomas Fischer, on the other hand, points out that after
conflicts among the Seleucids the dynasty was split into an older and a
younger line and only takes into account those who afterwards counted
Antiochus VIII Grypos among his legitimate predecessors. Like Puchstein,
he puts the latter in 12th place and thus assumes 13 female ancestors
from the stele onwards. The following list includes both interpretations
of the male family tree.
The name Cleopatra can be seen on stele
14 on the west terrace, and the inscription Isias Philostorgos on stele
16 can also be read. It is unclear whether this is identical to Isias,
the wife of Antiochus, who is mentioned in an inscription to a Dexiosis
at Karakuş. Dörner adds Tryphaina from the king's family tree for stele
15 and Antiochus' mother Laodice for 17. Bruno Jacobs published a
different interpretation of the female figures, both of which are shown
below.
On the east terrace, another three-part row was found behind both
rows of ancestors. There were no altars in front of these reliefs. It is
believed that living relatives of the king were depicted on it. Humann
and Puchstein were able to find two partially preserved sculptures in
the northern, paternal ancestral gallery. Goell and Dörner conclude from
the depictions of two younger, beardless men in Commagene costume and
from a few inscription fragments found that they are two sons of King
Antiochus I, possibly Antiochus II and Mithridates II. From the third
stele and the corresponding one In the southern row there are only
sparse fragments that do not allow any conclusions to be drawn about the
people depicted.
It is not clear whether such reliefs were also
present on the western terrace. Humann and Puchstein found a stele with
a partially preserved inscription near the southern ancestral gallery on
the west terrace, which they assigned to the end of this series. From
the inscription it was possible to deduce a Mithridates, whom they
interpreted as the king's father. However, since the title of Antiochus
here did not correspond to that on the other steles in the series, and
Mithridates' nickname Kallinikos was missing, it is possible to conclude
that this stele belongs to a second series, which, analogous to the
eastern terrace, depicts members of the royal family living here perhaps
Mithridates II, the son and successor of Antiochus.
On the eastern edge of the eastern platform, in the direction of the monumental statues, there is a stepped platform measuring 13 × 13 meters. During their excavations, Humann and Puchstein dug a trench from west to east through the base in search of an entrance to the king's suspected burial chamber. In 1973, Goell's excavators were able to restore the truncated pyramid from existing sandstone blocks. It had five steps made of sandstone blocks on four sides and rose at least 1.50 meters above the surface of the courtyard. The second, wider step from below merged into the rock of the courtyard on the west side and thus formed a path that ran around the altar platform on all sides. A wall that Humann and Puchstein found on the east side of the slope and thought to be free-standing connects directly to the lowest step and forms a retaining wall. On the west side, towards the courtyard, they discovered two more walls that ran parallel for a few meters towards the hill. There was uncertainty about its function; they thought it was a later addition. The excavators in the 1950s then received information from their Kurdish workers that it was a trap set up in modern times for quail hunting and tore down the walls. On the surface of the platform stood an altar block, possibly a Persian fire altar, flanked by lions and eagles. The graves found one of these animals, a 1.78 meter high sitting lion, at the northwest corner of the dais and placed it there. Further guardian animals, a total of two lions and two eagles, came to light in fragments in the rubble around the platform that had been left behind by the first excavators' excavation work. The animals probably stood to the right and left of the fire altar. Some blocks with sloping surfaces were found among the rubble, which leads to the assumption that the altar may have had a gable. Goell and Donald H. Sanders, who published the collected research results in 1996, see similarities between the altar and depictions on the facades of the rock tombs of the Achaemenid kings Darius I, Darius II, Xerxes and Artaxerxes I in Naqsh-e Rostam. There is a stepped pyramid with a fire altar on which a king stands under a winged god Ahura Mazda.
The northern terrace differs from the other two mainly in the absence
of sculptural decoration. The main feature is an approximately 86 meter
long row of stone bases, which delimits a wedge-shaped area 56 meters
long and 32 meters wide between the tumulus and the slope towards the
east terrace and, further to the west, a rectangle measuring 5 × 28
meters. This is followed by the gravelled path to the west terrace. The
bases are without gaps except for a few places. Some of them are carved
from the rock, the majority are made of sandstone blocks, some of which
are underlined due to the unevenness of the terrain. Next to them are
fallen orthostats with pegs that, like the ancestral and dexiosis
reliefs, fit into a hole in the base. They are smooth and show no traces
of reliefs or inscriptions.
There is no clarity about the
function of the resulting wall. Humann and Puchstein assumed that the
orthostats had never been erected and assumed that it was possible that
they should either be decorated with images or serve as protection from
northern storms. Based on traces of mortar in the bases, the excavators
led by Goell and Dörner concluded that the stones actually used to stand
there and were toppled by the same destructive force - vandalism or
earthquake - as the other monuments. Since the stones are only an
average of 30 centimeters thick and therefore, in their opinion, hardly
suitable for reliefs, they considered the wall to be purely a
demarcation of the northern terrace and the processional path
surrounding the hill from the northern slope. Bruno Jacobs, on the other
hand, thinks it is more likely that the row of pedestals was intended
for further sculpture. Since the width of the stones is different, he
suggests a procession of gods or a sacrificial procession with chariots,
teams or sacrificial animals as motifs.
About 28 meters from the
western end of the row of bases there is a passage almost one meter
wide. To the north of this, a ramp can be seen on the slope, which forms
the end of a northern access from the valley below. Remains of walls can
be seen on both sides of the ramp, and on the eastern side there are
traces of a wedge-shaped platform measuring roughly 3 × 3 meters. The
excavations also uncovered fragments of an eagle figure that had stood
here, similar to that at the eastern entrance.
Both Hamdi Bey and Humann and Puchstein expressed their surprise that
Antiochus, who expected numerous visitors to his place of worship, had
not created any access routes. However, excavations in the 1950s and
1960s showed that three processional paths, called Propylaia Odos (Greek
προπύλαια ὁδός), led to the summit from different directions. To the
east, two routes that came from Arsameia on the Euphrates (Gerger) and
from the source of Nymphaios (Kahta Çayı) met at another source about an
hour and a half's walk northeast of the summit sanctuary. From there the
path, partly natural and partly carved into the rock, led uphill to the
east terrace. About 300 meters below the Hierothesion, a base with a
fallen inscription stele was found at the staircase. In the detailed and
well-preserved text, Antiochus first introduces himself with ancestry,
nicknames and titles and then warns the newcomer. Anyone who enters the
place by mistake should turn back and purify themselves in a temple.
Anyone who approaches the sanctuary with hostile intentions will be
threatened with the unfailing arrows of Apollo and Heracles in his evil
heart and with bitter pain within his being, which hates all that is
good. The path continued past the stele to the northeast corner of the
eastern terrace, where the entrance to the courtyard finally lay between
the tiered altar and the paternal ancestral gallery. It was guarded by a
sitting eagle on a platform, of which only the smallest fragments
remain, apart from the outline of the talons on the base.
A
second processional route came to the west from the Hierothesion of
Mithridates Kallinikos in Arsameia on Nymphaios. He approached the
summit from the southwest and passed the location of a corresponding
stele, which was found in 1955, about 100 meters below the western
terrace. Despite its very fragile condition, Dörner was able to
determine that the text of the inscription was similar to that of the
eastern Propylaia Odos. From there the path swung to the northwest and
ran beneath the retaining wall of the Greek ancestral line, then led to
the terrace with a bend at its northern end. At this entrance, a larger
fragment of a seated, three-headed lion over two meters tall was
unearthed, which probably stood there as a guardian figure.
A
recognizable Propylaia Odos also led up to the north terrace from the
valley of Kahta Çayı. Especially in the last part before the entrance,
as described above, it was clearly expanded and flanked by walls and a
platform on which a guardian animal, here the eagle, also stood. A
little below the entrance area, another stele was found in 1955 and a
corresponding base not far from it. It showed no traces of inscription,
but according to Goell and Sanders the site would be the logical place
for a Propylaia inscription.
A gravel processional path led
around the entire hill. In front of the two main terraces it divided and
led both to the courtyards where the cult activities were to take place
and behind the monumental statues where the large Nomos inscription
could be read.
It is clear from the large cult inscription of Antiochus that his
body was to be buried on the summit of Nemrut Dağı. However, despite
numerous attempts, his burial chamber has not yet been found. During
their investigations, Humann and Puchstein found traces of previous
excavation attempts at various parts of the tumulus. They suspected the
entrance outside the gravel mound and opened the step altar on the east
terrace, digging a trench from east to west through the platform in
search of a dromos (entrance corridor). In 1956, Friedrich Karl Dörner
successfully uncovered the large rock passage at Base II in Arsameia
with the help of mining engineers from Siemens. Under their guidance,
workers began to drive a tunnel into the hill behind the monumental
statue of Zeus Oromasdes on the east side, but soon came across the
overgrown rock. Excavation attempts at numerous other locations on the
tumulus were also unsuccessful.
In 1963 and 1964, various
geophysical methods were used in the search. First, the geologist and
geophysicist Maurizio Girelli from the Fondazione Ing. C. M. Lerici del
Politecnico di Milano examined the mountain peak using refraction
seismic and geoelectrical resistance measurements. The next year,
geophysicist Jeremy R. Hutt, with the support of DynaMetric Inc. of
Pasadena, California, made further measurements, now regarding the
earth's magnetic field and gravity, as well as seismic measurements
again, this time under different conditions, and finally using metal
detectors. Only the gravity and magnetic field measurements showed an
anomaly in the area of the eastern terrace. However, during test
drilling it turned out to be of natural origin. Although the seismic
investigations provided an image of the rock that had grown under the
piled gravel, there was no evidence of a dromos or a burial chamber.
Radar surveys planned for 1976 were not carried out due to lack of
funds. Sencer Şahin's Nemrut Dağı project conducted renewed geophysical
surveys in the late 1980s, which yielded further information about the
structure of the peak, but again no indication of the chamber sought.
With the renewed review of the geophysical data in connection with the
interpretation of architectural features, the geophysicists Tomm Utecht
and Volker Schulz-Rincke, together with Adolf Grothkopf, were able to
show in the early 2000s that the entrance to the burial chamber can be
assumed to be in the gravel field on the south terrace. The burial
chamber itself can most likely be found in the solid limestone 25 meters
below the west terrace.
In the depictions of gods and people there are numerous iconographic
elements that can be assigned to the Achaemenid or Iranian culture on
the one hand and to the Macedonian, Greek or Seleucid culture on the
other. These elements include clothing, equipment, weapons and jewelry.
Some of these characteristics can be attributed to both Western and
Eastern culture at the same time. This includes, for example, the diadem
worn by almost all people, male and female, rulers and gods. Differences
can be seen in the ornamentation; the Iranian rulers used eagles, lions,
bundles of lightning or simple discs as decoration, while the Seleucid
and Hellenistic diadem, also known from coins, is smooth. The Persian
tiara is worn over the tiara, while the Western one is worn directly on
the hair or forehead. In all cases, the Heracles knot is used to fasten
the back of the head. The sash around the stomach also appears in both
cultures, decorated with, among other things, oak leaves for the
Persians and unadorned for the Seleucids. The scepter, like the sword,
is found among both the Greeks and the Persians, although the latter has
decorative engravings and decorated handles among the Seleucids.
The Persian style of clothing includes boots, a cloak, the Persian
tunic, trousers, tiara and armor. The simple boots, sometimes decorated
with oak leaves by the gods, are of Achaemenid origin and are known from
numerous images from Persepolis. The cloak used by the first five
ancestors, the ancient Persian kings, was the Achaemenid cloak known as
Kandy. The later ancestral figures as well as the monumental statues on
the east side wear a heavy cloak, which is possibly based on Hellenistic
models. The Persian tunic worn underneath by the seated statues on the
east terrace is difficult to see, as are the trousers tucked into the
boots. Headwear is the Persian tiara, with ears and neck flaps hanging
down. It is usually decorated with star patterns. In the first five
Achaemenid ancestors and the gods, the tip of the cap is tilted forward;
in the later Iranian ancestors, the headgear is, as far as can be seen,
straight. Antiochus is the only one wearing an Armenian tiara, which
ends in five pointed triangles at the top. He is also depicted with it
on coins and all other depictions. The Persian tiara is known from
images from Persepolis and was a symbol of Persian royal dignity for the
Greeks. The armor that the paternal ancestors wear from Stele 6 onwards
is made of leather and completely decorated with stars or diamonds, and
occasionally floral ones.
The Iranian side's jewelry and weapons
consist of brooches, neck rings, a simple bracelet, phials and a dagger.
The brooches hold the cloaks together and are usually present in
duplicate, except in the western monumental statues. In the Old Persian
ancestors (Stela 1 to 5) they are round or oval without ornament, in the
later ones (6 to 15) they are heart-shaped and decorated with lightning
bolts and eagles. Several Persian ancestors wear a neck ring (torques)
that is open at the front. A similar piece of jewelry can be found with
the Achaemenid king Darius III. can be seen on the Alexander mosaic from
Pompeii. The oldest five Persian rulers hold a phial in their right
hand, as is known from numerous finds, from which they offer libations.
The later ones, as far as they survive, instead hold a dagger, the
sheath of which hangs on the right hip. The final oriental element is
the barsom, which comes from the Zoroastrian religion, a tied bundle of
branches that the five ancient Persian ancestors hold in their left
hands, as do the male god statues except Heracles, who holds his club.
Of the pieces of equipment that can be assigned to the western
culture, some are Macedonian from the time of Alexander. Of the items of
clothing, the armor should first be mentioned. It is a close-fitting
piece made of leather that flows into a military skirt made of leather
strips in several layers below the belt. The cloak worn over it is very
similar to the Persian one. The Seleucid ancestors commonly wore sandals
as footwear, with several strips of leather braided from the sole
extending halfway up the lower leg. The most striking element of these
depictions is a bandolier-like, wide belt running diagonally from the
shoulder to the belt, which is held by a strikingly decorated brooch.
The two surviving reliefs that show this brooch show artistic portraits
of Heracles and Apollo respectively. All Seleucid rulers probably wore a
belt with a buckle around their waist.
Purely Greek elements
include the chiton, himation, belt and sandals on the female figures,
the diadem, the corona and the kalathos on the head, and finally
drop-shaped earrings and bracelets as jewelry. All the men, including
the gods, also wear the chiton, although it is hardly visible under the
armor. In place of the Phiale for the Achaemenid rulers, the Rhyton is
used by the Greeks, from which libation is made. The most striking Greek
attributes are the cornucopia of Commagene, according to John H. Young a
variation of the rhyton, and the club of Heracles.
The 4th century Bishop Gregory of Nazianzus, one of the three
Cappadocian Church Fathers, called “the huge tomb built on high” the
eighth wonder of the world. The philologist Reinhold Merkelbach and the
epigraphist Louis Robert are of the opinion that Gregor meant the Nemrut
Dağı. Stones from the complex were later used to build a church.
As part of a documentary by a French television team in 1958, the
Turkish-Armenian photographer Ara Güler came to Nemrut Dağı, where he
took numerous pictures. These were published in over a hundred domestic
and foreign art magazines, especially in Germany and France. The
sanctuary was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1987. On
December 7, 1988, the Turkish government declared the area around Nemrut
Dağı, including the hill of Karakuş, Arsameia at Nymphaios and the Roman
Chabinas Bridge, a national park. At the 2000 World Exhibition in
Hanover, copies of the Dexiosis reliefs and the Leo horoscope were
presented in the Turkish pavilion. In the same year, the World Monuments
Fund placed Nemrut Dağı on its list of the 100 most endangered cultural
monuments. After a restoration and rescue program was launched by the
International Nemrud Foundation in association with scientists from the
Middle East Technical University, the entry was withdrawn in 2002.