Dr. Timothy Harrison, Director of the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures, will give the 2024 William Foxwell Albright lecture titled “Portraits of a Forgotten Kingdom: The Tayinat Sculptures as a Royal Self Representation and Legitimation.” The lecture will take place on April 16, 2024 at 5:00pm in Mergenthaler 111 on Homewood Campus.

Abstract: A series of majestic sculptures have been uncovered during the ongoing excavations at Tell Tayinat (ancient Kunulua), royal city of the Neo-Hittite Kingdom of Palastin/Walastin/Patin, located in the North Orontes Valley, southeastern Turkey. These sculptures, found carefully deposited within a monumental gate leading to the Tayinat’s upper mound, or citadel, include the head and torsos of male and female figures, the latter intentionally—possibly ritually—defaced in antiquity, a winged bull and sphinx, and a magnificently carved lion figure. The sculptures date to the early 9^th century BCE, and they are identified in accompanying autobiographical Hieroglyphic Luwian inscriptions as the representations of important royal figures of the ruling Neo-Hittite dynasty at Tayinat, contemporary rivals of the Phoenicians and Biblical Israelites to the south. The discovery of the Tayinat sculptures accentuates the remarkable sculptural tradition of the Iron Age communities of Syro-Anatolia, and they highlight the innovative role these communities played in the broader cultural and political ferment witnessed in the eastern Mediterranean world during the early centuries of the first millennium BCE. This talk will illustrate the results of the ongoing Tayinat Archaeological Project (TAP) excavations and contextualize these sculptural discoveries within the broader cultural milieu of Neo-Hittite tradition.

The event is sponsored by the Department of Near Eastern Studies at Johns Hopkins University and the Harvey M. and Lyn P. Meyerhoff Foundation. It is free and open to the public.