Uploaded March 2022 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
00:00 - Introduction and condolences message for Gina Coulthard, Anatolian Studies Executive Editor (2001-2022)
05:09 - An Anatolian Studies Virtual Seminar with Murat Akar (Hatay Mustafa Kemal University).
A New Perspective from the recent findings at Toprakhisar Höyük, Hatay.
This talk will focus on the developing supra-regional trends in magico-ritual objects through a mould-made lead figurine in the form of a foundation peg found in a disturbed EBIVB-MBI transitional deposit at Toprakhisar Höyük (Altınözü, Hatay). The stylized object is interpreted as a bull standing atop a peg pointing to hybridized technological, iconographic and apotropaic values of Syro-Anatolia and Mesopotamia. It is suggested to be ritual paraphernalia likely in relation to the cult of the Storm God and proposed to have been used in a foundation ritual. Together with this peculiar product of metalworking, the presence of multiple magico-ritual objects that point to Northern Mesopotamian connections at a small hinterland site, Toprakhisar Höyük, on the outskirts of the Amuq Valley are discussed to be the possible material reflections of new groups in the region, including Hurrians and Amorites, contributing to the unity and regionality of the cults and rituals of Syro-Anatolian communities of the Middle Bronze Age.
Find out more via the BIAA website: biaa.ac.uk/event/virtual-seminar-syro-anatolian-magico-ritual-lead-figurines-of-the-middle-bronze-age
00:00 - Introduction and condolences message for Gina Coulthard, Anatolian Studies Executive Editor (2001-2022)
05:09 - An Anatolian Studies Virtual Seminar with Murat Akar (Hatay Mustafa Kemal University).
A New Perspective from the recent findings at Toprakhisar Höyük, Hatay.
This talk will focus on the developing supra-regional trends in magico-ritual objects through a mould-made lead figurine in the form of a foundation peg found in a disturbed EBIVB-MBI transitional deposit at Toprakhisar Höyük (Altınözü, Hatay). The stylized object is interpreted as a bull standing atop a peg pointing to hybridized technological, iconographic and apotropaic values of Syro-Anatolia and Mesopotamia. It is suggested to be ritual paraphernalia likely in relation to the cult of the Storm God and proposed to have been used in a foundation ritual. Together with this peculiar product of metalworking, the presence of multiple magico-ritual objects that point to Northern Mesopotamian connections at a small hinterland site, Toprakhisar Höyük, on the outskirts of the Amuq Valley are discussed to be the possible material reflections of new groups in the region, including Hurrians and Amorites, contributing to the unity and regionality of the cults and rituals of Syro-Anatolian communities of the Middle Bronze Age.
Find out more via the BIAA website: biaa.ac.uk/event/virtual-seminar-syro-anatolian-magico-ritual-lead-figurines-of-the-middle-bronze-age
