The Başbük divine procession panel contains a baby or fetus on or in the belly of Queen Consort Astarte/Atargatis/Ishtar/Ishara/Asherah/ʿAțtart, a flower on the genital region of King Hadad/Haddu/Haddad/Adad/Iškur/Ebla/Hadda/Teshub/Pidar/Rapiu/Baal-Zephon/(later “Yahweh”), and a vessel in which the flowers have come or are being placed.
The King is planting perhaps tulips as symbolic of having impregnated his wife. It may be that the pregnancy may be symbolic of their creation of the entirety of nature. They are followed by the moon god Sîn; and the sun god Šamaš.
It may be that people being conditioned to the King’s theology were led up those stairs toward the outside, influenced by the mural and the explanation of it, and then welcomed into the “Kingdom”, outside.
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While Turkey is the modern country which contains what was described as the “Garden Of Eden”, the region that Başbük is in is not a contender as having been the fount of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers.
Original Image credit: photographs by Y. Koyuncu and M. Önal; interpretative drawings by M. Önal, based on laser scan by Cevher Mimarlık; Antiquity Publications Ltd
