Partial Decipherment of Arslan Kaya Monument Gives Its Goddess a Name

In the west of Turkey, in the highlands of ancient Phrygia stands a enigmatic tower of volcanic rock. Known as Arslan Kaya, it has intrigued scientists for generations.

More than two and a half millennia old, the 15-meter-tall monument is nothing short of a work of art. Carved into the surface of “Lion Rock” as it is also known are sphinxes and lions flanking a goddess figure, along with an enigmatic inscription.

Time however has not been kind to the monument and much of the surface detail has been lost to erosion. Only rounded shapes remain of the carved figures, and of the inscription there is almost nothing.

Understanding what was written on Arslan Kaya would go a long way to solving the mystery of the monument. And a new study published in Kadmos (behind paywall) claims to have done that, at least in part.

• Tell Qaramel and the Neolithic Cult of Severed Heads
• The Radioactive Guardian of the Egyptian Afterlife

Professor Mark Munn from Pennsylvania State University does not claim to have answered al the questions about Lion Rock, but his translation of the faded letters at least names the goddess to whom the monument was devoted: “Materan” the mother goddess of the Phrygians.

The text is written in Old Phrygian and the dedication certainly fits with out knowledge of this people and their religion. Worship of Materan peaked between 1,500 and 700 BC but there is evidence she exists in an earlier form in the very earliest sites in Turkey, dating back as far as the Neolithic and the sixth millennium BC.

Other rock cut monuments dedicated to this goddess are known in the area, and the cult of Materan would go on to far outstrip its Phrygian roots, Through her we have the Greek goddesses Gaia and Demeter, and the Roman mother goddess Magna Mater. Through Latin she even survives in English to this day through words like “maternal.”

The fact that Materan is also Phrygia’s only goddess, the head of the Phrygian pantheon, and in fact her patron goddess, might leave some unsurprised at the identification. But at least nobody can argue that it doesn’t make sense.

The Phrygians thrived in Anatolia, arising as a regional power out of the Late Bronze Age Collapse as one of the survivors in the new Iron Age. Their kings include Midas, who was cursed to turn everything he touched to gold, and Gordias, he of the Gordian Knot that Alexander the Great famously had no patience for and sliced through with his sword. Don’t give that man your Rubik’s Cube, that’s all we’re saying.

The heroic epics of Greek myth have the Phrygians at Troy, suggesting they were an important kingdom in the earlier Bronze Age. Reaching their greatest extent around 700 BC, their capital was sacked by invading Cimmerians only four years later. They became a client state of the successive empires to conquer Anatolia, from Alexander to the Romans, and never recovered their greatness.

All that remains of this culture today are their ruins. And thanks to this new study, we how know a little more about one of the most mysterious, and the Phrygian devotion to Materan.

Social Media Text: Arslan Kaya is an enigmatic monument in Turkey, half eaten away by time. But a new study claims to have deciphered the inscription carved in the stone, and to have identified the goddess to whom Arslan Kaya was dedicated.