AN ASSESSMENT ON THE OLD HITTITE RELIEF VASES IN THE LIGHT OF RECENT RESEARCH AND MATERIALS

Early Hittite relief cult vases have provided important information on the art and iconography of the Old Hittite period in terms of style, technique and composition. Three cult vases found at Inandik and Huseyindede are magnificent artifacts, which represent the early period of Hittite art, the first relief art of Hittite culture and the details of the ritual concepts in written sources. Besides the relief ceramic sherds found at Bitik, Eskiyapar examples have also gained an importance and new scenes have been added to the inventory of the relief art of this period. Apart from these, the pieces from Bogazkoy, Alisar, Eskiyapar, Kalehoyuk, Elbistan, Kabakli and Selimli provided valuable information although it is not clear what they actually represent. The male figure with a broken head on an unpublished piece from Amasya Museum should be a similar figure to the Eskiyapar bull-man. Another relief sherd has been found at Eskiyapar in 2012. In light of the recent finds, new ideas and approaches came up on the use of the registers, the scenes, production techniques, functions and iconographic features of the relief vases.