id: 146146 accession number: 1971.45 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1971.45 updated: 2020-11-14 10:01:44.483000 Priest-King or Deity, c. 1600 BC. Hittite, North Syria, early 17th Century BC. Basalt with bone eyes (left, ancient; right, restored); overall: 87.6 cm (34 1/2 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Fund 1971.45 title: Priest-King or Deity title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: c. 1600 BC creation date earliest: 1605 creation date latest: 1595 current location: 102A Ancient Near East creditline: Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Fund copyright: --- culture: Hittite, North Syria, early 17th Century BC technique: basalt with bone eyes (left, ancient; right, restored) department: Egyptian and Ancient Near Eastern Art collection: Near Eastern Art type: Sculpture find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS --- measurements: Overall: 87.6 cm (34 1/2 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Year in Review: 1971 opening date: 1971-12-28T05:00:00 Year in Review: 1971. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (December 28, 1971-February 6, 1972). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS --- PROVENANCE Mrs. Maguerite Mallon, Sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art date: ?-1971 footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 1971- footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: The left eye of the sculpture is the original bone inlay while the right eye is a modern restoration done after the piece was damaged. digital description: wall description: The Hittites migrated into Anatolia in the 3rd millennium BC and spoke an Indo-European language, a group that includes Greek, Latin, Persian, Sanskrit, English, and most modern European languages. They were the first ancient people to use iron for weapons. From about 1600–1200 BC their empire was at its peak, extending from central Anatolia to Syria, and south along the eastern Mediterranean. Their vast empire and interest in commerce enabled the Hittites to spread Mesopotamian ideas and culture throughout the ancient Mediterranean world. This large basalt sculpture is exceptionally rare in depicting a Hittite god or priest-king wearing a horned conical crown, false beard, and long robe. He holds a bowl in his right hand and once held something in his left, perhaps a staff or sword. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Kozloff, Arielle P. "A Hittite Priest-King Figure." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 59, no. 2 (1972): 56-62. page number: pp. 56-62 url: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25152417 Gazette Des Beaux Arts vol. 79, no. 227 (February 1972). page number: p. 66, fig. 227 url: Spaeth, Eloise. American Art Museums: An Introduction to Looking. New York: Harper & Row, 1975. page number: p. 339 url: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. page number: Reproduced: p. 2 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1978/page/n22 Spycket, Agnès. La statuaire du Proche-Orient ancien. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1981. page number: p. 266, note 187 url: Merhav, Rivka, "The Stele of the 'Serpent Goddess' from Ell beit Mirsim and the Plaque from Shechem Reconsidered," The Israel Museum Journal vol. 4 (Spring 1985). page number: pp. 29-30, pl. V, 1A, aB url: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1991. page number: Reproduced: p. 3 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1991/page/n19 Cleveland Museum of Art. Interpretations: Sixty-Five Works from the Cleveland Museum of Art. 1991. page number: no. 1 url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1971.45/1971.45_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1971.45/1971.45_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1971.45/1971.45_full.tif