Courtesy of the Georges Ricard Foundation and the California Institute of World Archaeology

ClassificationsAncient Near Eastern Art

Cultic Bull Altar

Place CreatedTurkey, Asia

CultureHittite

PeriodNeo-Hittite Kingdom

Dateearly 1st Millennium BCE

MediumStone, probably basalt

Credit LineGift of the Georges Ricard Foundation

Dimensions2 3/4 x 3 15/16 x 6 7/8 in., 1400 g (7 x 10 x 17.5 cm, 3 lb. 1 3/8 oz.)

Object number2018.010.066

Label TextSmall portable stone altars were found in cult corners in many domestic structures. A cult corner was a small area or part of an area in a larger building or courtyard that contained ritual objects such as stands for vessels and offerings, small altars, standing stones, anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figurines. In cult corners, one paid reverence to the ancestors and sought the favor of usually capricious household gods.

This rectangular stone altar is recessed to form a shallow basin. The altar rests on four legs and two roughly hewn bull heads are carved on one side.
Published ReferencesHotel des Ventes du Prado, Marseille, Objets de Fouille et de Haute Curiosite Monnaies Antiques de Bronze, Argent et or (1er Decembre 1973), lot 13.

ProvenancePurchased by Georges Ricard (1921-2012) from Hotel des Ventes du Prado, Marseille, France, December 1, 1973, lot 13. Ex coll. Musée de l'Égypte et le Monde Antique, Collection Sanousrit, Monaco, 1975-1982. Ex coll. Georges Ricard Foundation, Santa Barbara, California.

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