TÜRKÇE
Double Horse Statue Base
The basalt statue base shows a pair of horses carved in relief on its sides. It was first noted in 1883 and apparently was still present during the excavations of the German Oriental Society in 1888-1902. It was believed to have been lost subsequently, but in a picture taken in 2019 in the village of Zincirli, the rear right corner of the base can be seen as used in the garden wall of a house. It is likely that in the early years of the 20th century the base was broken into smaller pieces and used as rubble. The hollow section at the top must have been used to erect a statue on the base. Although double-bull and double-lion statue bases are commonly encountered in the Late Hittite art, this is probably the only one with horses. It is suspected that the base and its statue were erected as a monument just outside the Hilani II building. No dimensions were provided by von Luschan other than noting that it was enormous in size. It is uncertain whether the two horse head statue fragments found in Zincirli were part of this monument or not. A date around the late 8th to early 7th century BCE has been suggested.
