Image Details

The Art Archive/Dagli Orti (A)

The open-air shrine of Yazilikaya (shown here, compare with photo of 10-foot-high relief) shows a diminutive Tudhaliya in the embrace of the god Sharruma. Tudhaliya commissioned many of Yazilikaya’s carvings, which probably depict the gods and goddesses of the Hittite pantheon witnessing a sacred marriage between heaven and earth—thus justifying ideologically the rule of the Hittite royal family.