LOT 0216

Syro-Hittite Silver Amulet

CIRCA 14TH CENTURY B.C.

1 1/8 in. (3.9 grams, 29 mm).

Amulet of a deity in human form wearing a pointed cap and pleated kilt, hands placed on the chest supporting coiled serpent (or staff), ledge to rear; possibly Tarḫunna, the Hittite weather-god.

From the Bavarian private collection of F.U., Germany, before 2000.
Acquired Gorny & Mosch, 17 June 2015, lot 246.
Property of a French collector.

Accompanied by a copy of the relevant Gorny & Mosch catalogue pages.
This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by a search certificate number no.12123-214885.

Cf. Tait, H. ed., 7000 Years of Jewellery, 2006, p.201, fig.487; Guidotti, M.C., Pecchioli Daddi, F., La battaglia di Kadesh, Ramesse II contro gli Ittiti per la conquista della Siria, Firenze, 2002, p.136, for a statuette in similar style.

The proper name of the weather god is not known, as it was expressed with an ideogram in the texts; his name was probably Tarhunna, from Hattic Taru. Among the Luwians he was called Datta and Tarhunt. The Hittite province of Tarhuntassa, south of the heartland of the Hittite Empire, took its name from the latter: 'land of the weather god'.