This basalt Stele of Laramas I was first mentioned by Otto Puchstein in 1882 in a modern day cementary in Maraş. Later stele was in the possession of Rev. Henry Marden of the American mission in Maraş, who handed the stele to the NY Metropolitan Museum over. Stele is ca 1.10 m heigh and 0.56 m wide. The relief depicts the ruler of Late Hittite kingdom of Gurgum i Larama I c. 950 BC, son of Muwatalli I ,and the grandson of Astuwaramanza . The text in the 7-line hieroglyphic Luwian inscription covering entire surface of the stele revords the king`s activities of rebuilding the vcity of Gurgum. Stele is approximately dated to the 10th century BC. W. Orthmann`s B/16.
See:
- Trevor Bryce: The World of the Neo-Hittite Kingdoms; A Political and Military History. Oxford, New York 2012, p. 305.
- John David Hawkins: Corpus of hieroglyphic Luwian inscriptions. Vol 1. Inscriptions of the Iron Age. Part 1: Text: Introduction, Karatepe, Karkamiš, Tell Ahmar, Maraş, Malatya, Commagene. de Gruyter, Berlin 2000, pp. 252 ff, pls. 106-107
- Winfried Orthmann: Untersuchungen zur späthethitischen Kunst. (= Saarbrücker Beiträge zur Altertumskunde Bd. 8) Habelt, Bonn 1971
