/tarus-/, /tarud-/

This lexeme is attested 25 times in inscriptions from Karkamiš, Tell Ahmar, the Amuq, Commagene, Tabal and Maraş, dating maximally from the late 10^th to the late 8^th century BCE.

[A.P.]

nom./acc. sg.	/taru=sa/	(STATUA)ta-ru-sá	KARKAMIŠ A7, §6 (Karkamiš)
		(“STATUA”)tá-ru-sa	KARKAMIŠ A25a, §7 (Karkamiš)
		(“STATUA”)˹ta˺-ru-sa	KARKAMIŠ A18e, §4 (Karkamiš)
		(“LIGNUM”)ta-ru-sa	ALEPPO 2, §8 (Tell Ahmar)
		STATUA-ru-sà	KIRÇOĞLU, §2 (Amuq)
		STATUA-ru-sà	TELL TAYINAT 2, l. 3, §11.ii (Amuq)
		STATUA-ru-sa	KARKAMIŠ A1a, §28 (Karkamiš)
		“STATUA”-sa	KARKAMIŠ A27mm, l.2 (Karkamiš)
		STATUA-sa	MALPINAR, §§15-16 (Commagene)
		STATUA	KARKAMIŠ A31+, §4 (Karkamiš)
dat. sg.	/tarudi/	(“STATUA”)ta-ru-ti	MARAŞ 14, §7 (Maraş)
		ta-ru-ti-i	KULULU lead strip 2, §2.12 (Tabal)
		ta-ru-ti	KULULU lead strip 2, §3.14 (Tabal)
		STATUA-ru-ti-i	KARKAMIŠ A1a, §31 (Karkamiš)
		STATUA-ru-ti-i	MALPINAR, §5 (Commagene)
		STATUA-ru-ti-i	MALPINAR, §26 (Commagene)
		STATUA-ti	KARKAMIŠ A15b, §24 (Karkamiš)
dat./loc. pl.	/tarudanza/	ta-ru-tà-za	KULULU lead strip 2, §3.17 (Tabal)
unknown	/…/	STATUA-x-x	ÇALAPVERDİ 1, §5 (Tabal)

The above table offers a representative selection, omitting broken attestations.

Even though it is tempting to assign the spelling involving the logogram LIGNUM (sign *382) to the lexeme /taruwi(ya)-/ ‘of wood, (sbst.) wood’ instead, the context at ALEPPO 2, §8 does not support that interpretation, cf. the remarks by Hawkins 2000a:238.

[A.P.] [AH.B.]

The meaning of this word was first elucidated by Bossert 1959b:34 as ‘statue, likeness’ and has been followed by scholars since. In the case of the KULULU lead strips, the identification of the lexeme was doubted by some due to the unclear context (cf. e.g. Meriggi & Poetto 1982a:105f.), but accepted by others, e.g. Morpurgo Davies 1980b:97, Hawkins 2000a:512. The meaning is borne out e.g. by MARAŞ 14, §7: a-wa/i [z]a-a-ti-i ^Iá-sa-ti-wa/i-su-sá-na (“STATUA”)ta-ru-ti za-a i-zi-i-ia-tara/i-za-a sa-tu, approx. /a=wa zatti Astiwasussan tarudi za izziyadaran=za astu/, meaning ‘This offering shall be to this statue of Astiwasu’ (cf. Hawkins 2000a:266).

Regarding the type of statue, Aro 2003a:327 notes that the word can be used to reference likenesses of deities and of human rulers alike, mostly in the form of free-standing sculptures, but at least once as images on inscriptions as well.Although the latter may simply be the depiction of a free-standing statue that did not survive the ages. The statues still in existence are made of stone, but as noted by Payne 2015a:118 and others, the word /tarud-/ belongs to the family around Luw. /taru-/ ‘wood’, indicating that the statues at least used to be made of wood.

[AH.B.]

The word is a neuter gender derivative in /-d-/ from the noun */taru-/ ‘wood’, likely unattested in HLuw., but found in Hittite and CLuw. ^GIŠtāru- ‘wood’, cf. e.g. Rieken 2006a:288.

Because of the general loss of final stops in Luwian prior to the addition of the neuter particle (see e.g. Melchert 2003b:182, and earlier the tentative approach by Hawkins & Morpurgo Davies 1988a:176), the attested nom./acc. sg. forms of the present lexeme became difficult to distinguish from the very closely related */taru-/ ‘wood’, whose corresponding form would likewise have been /taru=sa/; the latter was probably replaced with the substantivization of the adjective /taruwi(ya)-/ ‘wood’.

[AH.B.]

This lexeme is found in ritual of Puriyanni and in the Great Ritual of Kuwattalla & Šilalluḫi.

[D.S.]

nom./acc. sg.	ta-a-ru-uš-š[a]	KBo 29.10 ii 3’	(CTH 760, MS?)
	[t/d]a-a-ru-uš-ša	KUB 35.54 iii 35	(CTH 758, MS)
	[ta-a-ru-u]š-ša	KUB 35.48 ii 16´	(CTH 760, NS)
	da-a-ru-u[š-ša]	KUB 35.43 iii 2’	(CTH 761, NS)
	d[a-a-ru-uš-ša]	KUB 35.19, 9’	(CTH 761, MS?)
	ALAM-ša	KUB 35.45 ii 22	(CTH 760, NS)
		KBo 29.37, 5’	(CTH 763, NS)
nom./acc. pl.	[d]a-a-ru-ša	KUB 35.54 iii 28	(CTH 758, MS)
	[(GIŠ)t/da-(a)-]ru-ša	KBo 29.38, 16´	(CTH 759, MS?)
erg. nom. sg. c.	˹ta!˺-ru-ša-an-ti-iš	KUB 35.54 iii 1	(CTH 758, MS)
erg. nom. pl. c.	[ta-ru-ša-]an-ti-in-zi	KUB 35.53 iii 10´	(CTH 758, NS)

For the context of [^GIŠt/da-(a)-]ru-ša, see CLuw. tāru-. CLL:218 and EDHIL:849 assign it instead to the lexeme tāru- ‘wood’, which would then have to be a nom./acc. sg. n. with enclitic =ša.

Contra Starke 1985b:69, [ta-]˹ru˺-uš-ša can be better read as [t/d]a-a-ru-uš-ša.

[D.S.]

Checked against the photographs in the Konkordanz (Mainzer Fotoarchiv).

[D.S.]

The Luwian lexeme tāruš- n. is sometimes rendered with the logogram ALAM ‘statue, image’, which is also used in Hittite context to represent the Hittite word ēšri- n. ‘statue, image, figure’ (Otten 1953a:103, DLL:94, Starke 1990a:114, CLL:218). In the Luwian rituals, tāruš- is used to signify the shape or the figure of the lord of the ritual (Otten 1953a:103, Poetto 1995b:31, Rieken 2019c:216).

[D.S.]

CLuw. tāruš- is a neuter s-stem built directly onto the u-stem (Starke 1990a:114, CLL:218, Melchert 1994a:244), tāru- n. In Hieroglyphic Luwian (or Iron Age Luwian), the s-stem was transferred to a d-stem, i.e. /tarud-/ n. (contra Starke 1990a:115). Note that a d-stem does not work for the CLuw. attestations (contra Yakubovich pers. comm.), which would have to show only one -š- in the nom./acc. sg., i.e. tāruša (← *tārud- + ša); cf. stems CLuw. in -id-. Moreover, the d-suffix would have to surface in the ergative in -ant(i)-.

[D.S.]

For the lemma head see CLuw. tāru-.