Image Details

Winged rosettes of royalty hover above the other symbols and figures on this fourteenth-century B.C.E. Hittite seal impression of King Suppiluliuma I and Queen Tawananna (1375–1335 B.C.E.) and this eighth-century B.C.E. Syrian funeral stela.

The Hittites were apparently among the first to use the rosette as a symbol of royalty; seal impressions with winged rosettes have also been found for King Hattusili III and Queen Puduhepa (1275–1250 B.C.E.) and King Tudhaliya IV (1250–?). Originally used by the Hittites to represent their sun god, the winged rosette may have been placed on kings’ seals to show that the king was an incarnation of the sun god.