A Propos de Trois Bas-Reliefs de Cilicie Trachée

Abstract

In a book about rock reliefs in Rough Cilicia, published in 1989, S. Durugönül presents three of them depicting, in the same style, warriors with sword and shield: two from the upper Lamus valley and one from Olba. She dates them to the very late Hellenistic period and considers them as funerary. Emmanuelle Goussé proposes to date these three reliefs to the Achaemenid period (end of Vth-IVth cent. B.C.), and thinks that their funerary function is not sure: one in the Lamus valley is close to a probable contemporary aramaic inscription mentioning the hunt of Wašunaš, probably a local potentate. So, these three reliefs should be more political than funerary. Moreover, the relief from Olba could be one of the vary rare pre-Hellenistic documents from the ancient Cilician city.