Readers of the Bible probably know the Hittites as a people who were a source of land and wives for Old Testament patriarchs including King David, who ordered the beautiful Bathsheba into his bed and then arranged for the death of Uriah, her inconvenient Hittite husband. But Hittites were not always ill fated bit players in someone else's story. According to information provided at "Three Great Civilization in Turkey," an art exhibit at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Hittites had their time in the sun from the 20th to 13th centuries B.C. They were the first people to use iron, and they controlled an area that corresponds with present day Turkey and Syria.
Of the subsequent empires and kingdoms to flow across what is now Turkey, two more are featured in this show: the Byzantine and Ottoman empires.
Those three empires are presented in chronological order, with the art of the Hittites coming first. The items on display include many tiny figurines. A few are so small that magnifying glasses are provided to look at them.
Most of these figurines depict animals, gods or people, and they are executed with varying degrees of skill in a variety of materials. Two 8.2 centimeter bronze pieces, each called Statuette of a Reclined Bull, are nearly mirror images of each other; one facing left and one facing right, with matching patterns of loose skin folded around the shoulders and above the eyes.
In contrast, the tiny Ivory Statuette of a Dancing God is less realistic but far more expressive. Striking a cross-legged, spread -armed pose reminiscent of the Hindu goddess Shiva, the deity has a hefty knife tucked into the belt of his tight wraparound skirt, and he sports a beehive hairdo from which cinnamon-bun curls fall onto his shoulders. With his chin tucked down and his eyes bugged out, he glares at the viewer as if to warn, “Don't bother me when I'm dancing, mortal.”
But Hittite artists did not work exclusively in miniature.
Daisuke Yoshida, a researcher at the Middle Eastern Culture Center in Japan, explained: “We don't see any large-scale metal statues amongst the Hittites, not because they didn't make any - there are occasional references to them in documents - but because it appears they were plundered and lost during the fall of the kingdom, particularly in the case of large statues made with precious metals.
The exhibition also includes ceremonial vessels, official seals, and 22 clay writing tablets, some with portions of their text translated into Japanese. They include letters, legal codes and instructions on how to train horses or conduct birth rituals.
These tablets are written in cuneiform, which Yoshida described as an abstract system that was mastered only by educated elite, but the Hittites also used hieroglyphics. These -often give visual clues as to their meaning and it seems that the general populace was also quite familiar with them,- Yoshida said, adding that they were often used for official seals and, -relief inscriptions and stone monuments where they would have been widely seen.-
A few such pieces are on display, including a stone panel depicting the climax of a lion hunt.
Centuries passed, and the former Hittite lands were absorbed by the Roman Empire. During that time the Emperor Constantine moved the capital from Rome to Byzantium, which was renamed Constantinople (and later Istanbul ). In 395, the empire split in two with capitals in both Constantinople and Rome. The western empire fell in 476, but the Byzantine Empire thrived for another millennium.
The exhibition includes art from before and after the split. The earlier items are heavy on marble statues, many unfortunately in fragments. One, the forward half of a centaurs torso, is a successful effort to meld human and equine musculature in a natural way.
As Constantine was the first Christian emperor, many of the later works have Christian themes. He also introduced a gold coin called a solids, which was used until the end of the Byzantine era. Portraits of emperors appear on one side of each of the 22 on display, and religious motifs often appear on the other.
After the earth tones of the Hittites- art and the marble whites of the Byzantines-, the art of the Ottoman Empire is an explosion of color. This is partly because Ottomans were more recent, having ruled Turkey and surrounding regions from the 15th century until 1922. Textiles and woodwork from the earlier empires are rare or nonexistent, but the Ottomans left us bright kaftans and carpets, intricately embroidered tents and wooden items inlaid with hundreds of tiles of ebony, ivory, tortoiseshell and mother of pearl.
The wide scope of world trade in the Ottomans -day can be seen in the variety of materials used, including jade and rhinoceros horn. One 18th century leader owned stirrups that must have flashed blindingly as he rode -they are encrusted with gold, silver, enamel, diamonds, emeralds, rubies and a gem called tourmaline.
The list of “ingredients” for one exquisitely ornate flintlock rifle -ebony, ivory, gold, diamonds and steel-is enough to show it to be a thing of beauty and danger, a description that fits several decorated weapons in the show.
Strangest among them is the emerald studded dagger that is featured on the show's promotional posters. The cap of its hilt pops open to reveal a built in pocket watch. The owner must have wanted to hint to visitors that it was time to leave.
(By Tom Baker, Daily Yomiuri Staff Writer)
