Religion and Propaganda under the Great Kings of Karkemiš

This paper focuses on monumental art decorating public gates at Karkemiš, proposing to read it as a key to understanding the negotiation of political power in the period between 1200 and 950 BC. I argue that this kind of public art was first developed in Hittite Central Anatolia as a form of propaganda connected to state cults and formally bound to the centre of the Empire. After 1200, this art practice migrates south and is taken up by emerging polities seeking to perpetuate Hittite ideology. In the 12th century, Hittite- inspired public art is limited to the political milieu of the Great Kings of Karkemiš, with images centred on cult and kingship. In the course of the 11th century, the territorial influence of Karkemiš deflates and competing polities start their own Hittite-style public art projects. At Karkemiš, Hittite blueprints are forever abandoned in the first half of the 10th century, when public art shifts its focus from cult and kingship to the display of heroic force. I argue that this change of visual idiom is related to the rising political influence of a new class of governors, the Country Lords, and reflects the struggle of the Great Kings to negotiate a balance of power. By the end of the 10th century, the Country Lords reach full independence, the city’s political identity changes radically, and public art morphs into something entirely different.