Northern Syria (Hittite), 9th century BC

Under Turkish regulations all finds at the Carchemish excavations were the property of the Imperial Ottoman Museum. The British Museum was, nevertheless, keen to use this opportunity to acquire antiquities for its own collection. Woolley and Lawrence were therefore encouraged to make contacts with local dealers and to scour the villages around about for suitable acquisitions. In the interests of the Ashmolean, Hogarth had arranged that while the British Museum should have exclusive rights to any antiquities purchased within ten miles of Carchemish, the Ashmolean would have first choice of anything bought outside this limit.

E. Wallis Budge, Keeper of the Department of Egyptian and Syrian Antiquities at the British Museum, was particularly keen to acquire a large Hittite monument of some kind. Lawrence was therefore pleased to discover a rectangular base for a statue or stele in the village of Yusuf Beg, seven miles south-west of Carchemish. The stone is inscribed on the front and right side in archaic characters, with a rayed sun or star on the left.

(W. A. 125008)

Black basalt carved in bas relief, 48 x 81 x 35

Provenance: Purchased by T. E. Lawrence at Yusuf Beg for the British Museum, 1911.