Tell Fekheriyeh Inscription
Creators: name: Ottobre, Morganne
Publisher: name: Database of Religious History (DRH)
Year: 2023

description: Tell Fekheriyeh is an archeological site identified as the ancient city of Sikan (located in modern day Syria); an Aramean city thought to be an important cult site for the storm god Hadad. Sikan (and neighboring sites) fell under Neo-Assyrian control around the first half of the 9th century BCE. In February 1979, the Tell Fekheriyeh statue was discovered accidentally by a farmer in the southwest corner of Tell Fekheriyeh and today the statue stands at the National Museum of Damascus. Although the precise date of the statue is debated, most scholars agree the statue most likely dates around the late 9th or early 8th centuries BCE. The Tell Fekheriyeh statue was carved from basalt and depicts a life-size man, standing roughly 1.65 meters tall. Inscriptions on the statue identify the man as Had-Yithi, an Aramean governor/king. To the untrained eye (aka non-art historians) the iconography and style of the statue appears to be firmly Neo-Assyrian. While there are some strong connections between the styles, there are some distinct variations that differentiate the Tell Fekheriyeh statue from statues we find in the heart of the Neo-Assyrian Empire (compare the 9th century statues of Ashurnasirpal II and Shalmaneser III). The man at Tell Fekheriyeh is carved with curly shoulder-length hair and a long curly beard. He is wearing a short-sleeve tunic with a fringe shawl that comes over his left shoulder and tucks into a fringe belt at his waist. The bottom of his tunic is lined with a similar fringe on the hem. His feet are carved with incredible detail (down to the cuticle) and his sandals are tied neatly with thongs. His hands are empty but come together across his chest in a benedictory pose. Unlike 9th century Neo-Assyrian iconography, the man does not wear any jewelry nor a headdress, and his tunic lacks ornamentation. However, down the man’s skirt is a lengthy bilingual inscription: an Akkadian text down the front, written in a vertical orientation, and an Old Aramaic translation written horizontally on the back. The Old Aramaic inscription is one of the oldest and most complete Aramaic texts, making it an invaluable resource for understanding the vocabulary, grammar, and syntax of the Old Aramaic language. The Akkadian inscription is also interesting, as this is the only example of a vertically oriented cuneiform text in the first millennium. The dress is completely covered in text from the fringe of the belt to the fringe of the hem. The genre of the inscription is understood as a dedicatory inscription that commemorates the dedication of the statue to the Aramean god, Hadad. Hadad was at the top of the Aramean pantheon and likely had a temple or cult center at Sikan. Hadad was a storm deity worshiped among various groups in both Mesopotamia (as Adad) and Syria since the second millennium BCE. The inscription suggests that Had-Yithi dedicated this statue to evoke the protection and blessing of Hadad over his life and his reign. The inscription also includes a lengthy list of curses against any who deface the statue or remove Had-Yithi’s name from upon it. While the cultic (or religious) function of the statue is unknown, the dedication and curses suggest the statue may have been a votive statue, meant to stand in for Had-Yithi at a temple of Hadad. While much remains unknown about the actual function of the statue and its inscription, the statue itself embodies a blending of Assyrian and Aramean traditions that likely reflects the reality of 9th century Sikan.