An Eternal Feast at Samʾal: The New Iron Age Mortuary Stele from Zincirli in Context

Settlement History and Urban Planning at Zincirli Höyük, Southern Turkey

“…Based on the relationship of the house blocks in the lower town to these features, we can also conclude that the fortifications and streets were constructed prior to the houses, rather than having subsequently surrounded a group of residences already clustered at the base of the citadel. Moreover, as discussed above, the individual house blocks themselves are by and large quite grand in scale, and excavated evidence, particularly the Kuttamuwa Stele (Schloen and Fink 2009;Struble and Herrmann 2009), points to the fact that even smaller houses on the periphery of the lower town were occupied by elite members of society.…”

“…Ongoing excavations at Zincirli will ultimately provide much more secure dating for many of the buildings evident in geophysical survey data, but some preliminary conclusions can be suggested already. Recent excavations by the Chicago team show several phases of use and reworking of buildings, as in the house containing a mortuary stele, the so-called Kuttamuwa stele (or more properly, 'KTMW'-- Struble and Herrmann 2009;Pardee 2009). The house is dated to the later eighth century BC and excavated portions of it and the surrounding architecture show a near perfect correspondence with geophysical data (Figure 8).…”

“…On tbe other hand, Schloen and Fink (2009: 9-11) argue that there is little reason to assume that Zincirli was occupied by Aramaean conquerors and that inscriptional evidence points instead to the development of a local West Semitic culture. Recent excavations show that despite their impressive size, even the largest buildings in tbe lower town were likely domestic structures (Schloen and Fink 2009;Struble and Herrmann 2009). Excavated rooms from the large house illustrated in Figure 5 contained stone grinders, storage jar fragments and other evidence of domestic activities.…”

“…Notably, it was in the smallest of the three excavated buildings wbere the Ghicago team uncovered the monumental (C) 40m Figure 9. Comparison of (a) a large building evident in geomagnetic data, the plan of which has been derived from magnetic data illustrated in Figure 5; mortuary stele, featuring an inscription identifying the house's resident as a high official (Struble and Herrmann 2009). The fact that even smaller houses seem to have been occupied by elite members of Zincirli society leaves us to wonder where non-elite residents lived.…”

Remembering Absalom's Death in 2 Samuel 18–19

“…43 Importantly, the framework of memory is specified in the inscription's text, and is recognizable in its archaeological context. Both name and image are etched in stone, 44 and this identity (referred to as Katumuwa's nbš) is localized in the nṣb. 45 Moreover, the nṣb is explicitly placed within a chamber called the syd .…”