Early “Feather Headdress” from MB Anatolia!

The “Feather Headdress” of the Sea Peoples (as seen in the Medinet Habu reliefs) has been pointed out as a well-known attribute of the Philistines and other Sea Peoples. This has been discussed extensively (recently, see: Van de Moortel, A. 2020 Sea Peoples from the Aegean: Identity, Sociopolitical Context, and Antecedents. Pp. 318–35 in Nomads of the Mediterranean: Trade and Contact in the Bronze and Iron Ages: Studies in Honor of Michal Artzy, eds. A. Gilboa and A. Yasur-Landau. Leiden: Brill), with parallels being brought from the Middle Bronze Aegean.

A fascinating, and perhaps earlier parallel to this (and possible additional ones) can now be found from early Middle Bronze Anatolia, from the fantastic stone relief from Harput, Turkey. This relief, which was briefly published a few years ago, has now been comprehensively published in a great article that I just received (much thanks to one of the authors, Dr. Eşref Abay):

Abay, E., Demir, B., and Sevin, V. 2021. The Relief of Harput: A New Page in the Art History of Ancient Anatolia. Altorientalische Forschungen 48(1): 1–25.

In this quite astounding relief, dating to the Middle Bronze Age, there is a beautiful depiction of a siege of a city, including a finely detailed siege tower.

But for the topic of this post what is particularly interesting is the depiction of a snake goddess, in the right center of the relief, who has a feather headdress! And in addition to this, the authors note several additional examples of such headdresses from other MB Anatolian depictions!

So, clearly, the “Sea Peoples” feather headdress has a very long and complex history. Not only from the Aegean and Italy (as others have noted), but from early Anatolia as well!

Something new, everyday…

Here is a drawing of the relief (taken from Abay et al. 2021: 13, fig. 15):