#Divine Procession

[xtruss]

The ghostly profiles of ancient gods emerge from a ca. 3,000-year-old rock carving in Turkey. Police tracked looters to the subterranean complex, likely built during a time when the Assyrian Empire was expanding in the region in the 8th century B.C. Photograph By Y. Koyuncu and M. Önal , Aantiquity Publications Ltd

Secret Tunnel Reveals Procession of Ancient Gods

Assyrian Deities of Thunder and the Moon were Revealed by Archaeologists in an Underground Chamber Originally Discovered by Looters.

— By Tom Metcalfe | May 10, 2022

The Divine Procession ls led by Hadad, Mesopotamian God of Storms (Far Right, Clutching a Trio of Lightning Bolts); the Moon God Sîn; the Sun God Šamaš; and Atargatis, the Region’s Goddess of Fertility, all Identified using local Aramaic Inscriptions. Photograph and Drawing By M. Önal, Based On Laser Scan By Cevher Mimarlik, Aantiquity Publications Ltd

Archaeologists have discovered rare ancient carvings of Assyrian gods in an underground complex in southeastern Turkey—an unprecedented find that may point to the use of “soft politics” in a frontier region of the world’s most powerful empire almost 3,000 years ago.

The carved scene depicts at least six gods, including Hadad, the Mesopotamian god of storms; the moon god Sîn; the sun god Šamaš; and Atargatis, the region’s goddess of fertility. It is described in an article published in the journal Antiquity.

The nature of the discovery is also unusual: police found the subterranean complex in 2017, after following a secret passage to it from a modern two-story house in the village of Başbük, about 30 miles from the city of Şanlıurfa.

Article co-author and philologist Selim Ferruh Adalı of the Social Sciences University of Ankara says it seems the complex was first unearthed when the house was being built several years earlier. But the discovery wasn’t reported to authorities, as Turkey’s law requires; instead, looters crafted a tunnel from the house to the underground passages. The looters were eventually caught, and they do not appear to have damaged the carvings.

Mehmet Önal, the article’s lead author and head of archaeology at Harran University in Şanlıurfa, first saw the underground carvings by the flickering light of a lamp.

“I felt as if I was in a ritual,” he recalls. “When I was confronted by the very expressive eyes and majestic, serious face of the storm god Hadad, I felt a slight tremor in my body.”

Imperial Style, Local symbolism

The subterranean complex consists of hundreds of feet of passages, staircases, and galleries hewn from the bedrock. Both the complex and the carvings seem unfinished, and the researchers speculate construction unexpectedly stopped, likely early in the 8th century B.C.

An inscription beside the carvings shows a partial name, which the researchers think reads ��Mukīn-abūa.” He may have been the Mukīn-abūa listed in Assyrian records around 2,700 years ago as governor of the provincial capital of Tušhan, about 90 miles to the east of modern Başbük.

If the reading is correct, Adalı suggests, it could be that Mukīn-abūa had ordered the subterranean complex built and the carvings made, only to have work cease when he was no longer governor.

The ancient gods are depicted in procession across a 12-foot-wide panel of rock wall. Six faces can be seen, and four of the gods are identifiable—the storm god Hadad, for example, is carrying a trio of thunderbolts. Each delicately carved portrait, the largest of which is over three feet in height, shows the head and upper body of a god with lines of the image highlighted in black paint, possibly as a guide as the artists cut more stone away to show the figures in relief.

Adalı notes that although some features of the gods are distinctly Assyrian—such as their rigid poses, and the particular style of their hair and beards—many details of the carvings show strong influences from the local Aramaic culture. Arameans had lived in the region for centuries before they fell under the rule of the rapidly expanding Assyrian Empire in the ninth century, coming under the control of kings who lived far to the east in northern Mesopotamia.

Adalı also notes that the inscriptions beside the carvings are written in Aramaic and give the Aramaic names of the gods, rather than their Assyrian names. “It’s primarily Aramaic symbolism that we find, melded with Assyrian style,” he says, adding that the deliberate mix may have been an attempt by the distant Assyrian rulers to integrate with local leaders, rather than rule by force.

Archaeologist Davide Nadali of Rome’s Sapienza University agrees that the unique artistic mix of Assyrian and Aramaic features in the carvings sheds interesting political light on the relationship between the powerful empire and one of its key territories.

“The inscriptions in Aramaic emphasize the intention to have a dialogue with local communities, [while] the use of Assyrian figurative style shows the need to interact with the Assyrian political power,” he says in an email.

[canisalbus]

Well, after some several hours i finally finished this. I used the "Kermes" art as a reference. Im doing another, but that im wanting to change thr colors. The sun was something that i wanted to draw because of your arts that has some red background. dunno why, but my first idea was drawing machete with Dante's clothes or Vergil.... i hope you liked it :)

.

[julijbee]

girlbossing too close to the sun.

[nellasbookplanet]

Downfall has only just started, but already I'm deeply curious what Bells Hells reaction will be to seeing it play out. I've mentioned before that I suspect the dislike or outright disdain some of the party feels for the gods - most notably Ashton and Laudna, but also Imogen at times - is in part a product of the gods being so distant as to not feel like real people to them, and therefore being easy scapegoats.

It’s easy to see the mortal victims of Ludinus and the Vanguard as just that: victims. The Hells have met them, have been them. They have not seen or felt the gods suffer in the same way. Laudna even went so far as to blame the gods for mortal deaths and suffering after the solstice, even as the gods are the ones under attack. They feel uniquely abandoned by the world, and it's easy to blame these distant, powerful figures for their hardship. Certainly much easier than to see the mortal systems that enabled their harm, or to actively seek improvement on their own.

But to see the gods now, not just as people but as mortals, with all the flaws and vulnerabilities and fears of any of the Hells, with loved ones of their own and the same desperate sense of self-preservation as any living thing, will they be able to hold onto the disdain that they’ve clung to for so long?

[euphorictruths]

Jake Foreman

[beresaad]

quick painting of my inquisitor and her future-divine bestie while i get used to clip studio on ipad

[gingermintpepper]

Writing Apollo-as-a-young-deity is fun because sometimes it involves completely making shit up based on the loose outline of a story told through old poems, prayers and plays and other times it involves researching the totally legit and well documented ancient art of studying sheep livers to make sure your statesmen don't accidentally piss off Jupiter.

In completely unrelated news, if anyone has any recommendations for books about bird augury, that'd be wonderful.

[buqbite]

Halo

[opens-up-4-nobody]

For eggtober :-P

[i-really-like-phrogs]

Work In Progress of my latest painting

(Oh come on, it’s been a while since the last Bettyjuice. My hand deserves a treat!)

Fun fact: A great portion of Betty’s design is inspired by the 80’s drag queen, Divine! Her stage persona reminds me painfully of Betty, particularly her character’s pride in being “cheap” and “absolute filth”. To me… it’s just perfect! The energy, the era, the figure… (It also earns my artwork a lot of comparison to Ursula since she was inspired by Divine too… It can sting a little, but I understand where it comes from and I am always happy to add on to it! It’s a connection to another piece of media they adore, and I am always on board with that. Am I making any sense? Probably not… but that is alright.)

[artharakka]

So, how was your weekend? Rhiam met a shapeshifting god of forests who transed her gender 🌷

[abyssal-ilk]

posting that sketch yesterday made me remember just how much i love my taashath so i did another doodle <3

[liusia-piu]

[euphorictruths]

Everything that is meant for me is already on it's way.

✨

[newyorkthegoldenage]

Former Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia died in his sleep on September 20, 1947, of pancreatic cancer. He was 64. His funeral procession left the Cathedral of St. John The Divine on September 22. Although LaGuardia's father was Catholic and his mother Jewish, he himself was an Episcopalian.

Photo: Irving Haberman via IH Images/Getty Images

[pocketgalaxies]

"don't let him get into your head. he does not tell the truth."

"don't let him get into your head. he only tells the truth. it's just rotting."