With gaping maw and fierce fangs, this stylized lion was once used in Hittite temple ceremonies. Its function remains a mystery, although presumably wine or other liquids would have been poured into the back of the clay rhyton, or animal-shaped vessel, and then out through the spout-like neck. A common motif in Hittite art, the roaring lion may have represented the god of war. Discovered in modern Kültepe, Turkey—ancient Karum Kanesh, in Anatolia—the ritual vessel dates to 2000–1750 B.C., the period immediately following the arrival of the Indo-European Hittites in Anatolia. The Hittites brought with them a tradition of […]
