A Perso-Macedonian Sanctuary on a Syro-Anatolian Model: Nemrud Da? and Hellenistic Emulation of Iron Age Art (20 min)

Presenters

Daniel T. Newgarden, Brown University

Abstract

In this paper I explore the architectural and sculptural program at Nemrud Dağ, reevaluating the site’s layout and the idiosyncratic realization of elements common to other dynastic sanctuaries—namely the ancestor galleries and statues of deities. I argue that the form of a court walled by figural reliefs and anchored by monumental, seated statues results from the deliberate emulation of Syro-Anatolian ruins likely visible in Hellenistic Samosata, capital of Commagene. In doing so, I nuance the understanding of artistic continuity in northern Syria between the Iron Age and the Hellenistic period by demonstrating that Iron Age art managed to directly influence art produced centuries after its decline.

Over the last decade, scholars have highlighted the commonalities between the religious and artistic program of Antiochos I, king of Commagene, and those of other rulers throughout the contemporary Near Eastern, Hellenistic, and Iranian worlds. I, by contrast, highlight aesthetic choices unique to Nemrud Dağ—such as the execution of the ancestor galleries in relief stelae rather than statuary—and show their similarities to monumental art central to Iron Age Syro-Anatolian cities, including Kummuḫ, the site of later Samosata.

As finds from Ancoz, Boybeypınarı, and Dülük Baba Tepesi show, the monarchs of Hellenistic Commagene—including Antiochos I—were intensely interested in cults and buildings originating in the Iron Age. Though Nemrud Dağ shows no evidence of pre-Antiochan use, such an interest in Iron Age remains suggests the possibility of a Syro-Anatolian stimulus for the planning of Nemrud Dağ. Finally, though any Iron Age monumental court at Kummuḫ/Samosata would have been lost in the flooding caused by the Atatürk Dam, the spoliation of Hieroglyphic Luwian inscriptions and Iron Age art in the Hellenistic palace at Samosata demonstrates the existence and visibility of such remains in Antiochos’s time.