How old was the Ankara Silver Bowl when its inscriptions were added?

Abstract

Abstract The artefact known as the Ankara Silver Bowl bears two short Hieroglyphic Luwian inscriptions, each in a different ‘handwriting’. They tell us about the origin of the bowl in the year that Tudhaliya labarna conquered Tara/i-wa/i-zi/a. Unparalleled phrasing and tantalising historical allusions make dating and interpretation problematic. The conquest mentioned is widely held to be that of Taruisa in the Troad by the 14th-century bce Hittite king Tudhaliya I/II, but epigraphy points to a Karkamiš origin for the inscriptions and probably to a post-Empire date. Treating the text as contemporary with the conquest requires either that the bowl be classed as an exceptional Empire document or that a later Tudhaliya is intended. This paper offers a new approach. It accepts a late date, offers an amended translation and proposes that the narrative be viewed as literature alluding to the past and not as contemporary chronicle. The bowl's possible status as a relic prompts questions about the transmission of history, motives for alluding to the past and the words chosen for the purpose. An interpretation of sign *273 is ventured within a speculative scenario that encompasses the bowl's various oddities.