(Photo by Lynn Welton)
Looking a bit angry—perhaps because he's being unceremoniously
hoisted aboveground by a crane—this
3,000-year-old stone lion has much to tell archaeologists
about the Iron Age in the eastern Mediterranean
(1200-550 B.C.) The sculpture was probably originally buried
by the destruction of the monumental gate on which he sat
guarding the citadel of Kunulua, the capital of the Hittite
Kingdom of Patina, in 738 B.C.
According to Timothy Harrison, director the University of
Toronto's Tayinat Archaeological Project,
the lion and the site in southeastern
Turkey where he was found will
provide valuable new insights
into the character and cultural
sophistication of the small
states that emerged in
the eastern Mediterranean
following
the collapse of the
great Bronze Age
powers at the end
of the second millennium
B.C.
