Archaeologists Find 3,000-Year-Old Stone Lion Sculpture in Turkey
Posted on August 9, 2011
Archaeologists leading the University of Toronto's Tayinat Archaeological Project in southeastern Turkey have unearthed the remains of a stone lion sculpture. The sculpture was part of a monumental gate complex adorned with multiple stone sculptures. The gate complex provided access to the citadel of Kunulua, capital of the Neo-Hittite Kingdom of Patina (ca. 950-725 BCE).
The lion sculpture is 1.3 meters (4.3 feet) in height and 1.6 meters (5.25 feet) in length. A second piece discovered nearby depicts a human figure flanked by lions.
Timothy Harrison, director of U of T's Tayinat Archaeological Project (TAP), says, "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."