27 May 2025 The Future is the Product of the Past

Lost Phrygian Inscription on Arslan Kaya Monument Deciphered

Professor Mark Munn of Pennsylvania State University has deciphered part of the inscription on the legendary Arslan Kaya Monument (also known as “Lion Rock”), a heavily damaged inscription that has been difficult to decipher for centuries.

The Arslan Kaya monument is carved into a volcanic rock formation approximately 15 meters high in the Phrygian highlands in present-day western Türkiye, near Lake Emre Gölü.  The 2,600-year-old monument, features figures of sphinxes, an image of the goddess flanked by lions, and a nearly erased inscription written in the Old Phrygian language.

Professor Mark Munn claims to have deciphered it, saying it spells out ‘ Materan,’ referring to a Mother goddess of the Phyrgians, whose worship flourished between 1200 and 600 BC.

This goddess, known to the Phrygians simply as “Matar Kubilea or Mother” was later revered by the Greeks as the “Mother of the Gods” and by the Romans as “Magna Mater” or “Great Mother.”

In April, Professor Mark Munn had a chance to photograph the previously indecipherable inscription on Arslan Kaya, in western Türkiye. After analyzing his imagery, Munn has published his conclusion that Arslan Kaya honors the Mother goddess Materan, the leader of the Phrygian pantheon.

This finding confirms the mention of Materan —an ancient name of the Mother Goddess, or the Mother of the Gods— on the monument, suggesting a precise dating to the first half of the 6th century BCE.

The research has been published in the journal Kadmos, a platform for pre-Greek and Greek epigraphy.

Archaeologists have been fascinated and frustrated by the text at the base of the Arslan Kaya pediment since the 19th century. Nearly all evidence of this inscription has been lost due to rock erosion, looting, and vandalism.  The surface has suffered natural wear from centuries of exposure to the elements, further aggravated in recent decades by treasure hunters using explosives, damaging the surface and fragmenting the goddess’s image in the niche Munn, however, used the mid-morning light, when shadows play on the last remnants, to photograph the inscription’s letters and compare them to earlier images dating back to the 19th century.

Famous archaeologist William Mitchel Ramsay discovered Arslan Kaya in 1884. He identified the site’s heritage based on the tall, narrow letters inscribed upon the base of its pediment, beneath two sphinxes. Throughout the next century, specialists visited Arslankaya to decipher its worn inscription, which was once a part of a much longer phrase that might have revealed the monument’s creator. French linguists Claude Brixhe and Michel Lejeune asserted in a frequently cited study 1984 that the inscription would never be read.

A view of the Arslankaya inscription at the Monument in Afyon, Turkey. Photo: Ingeborg Simon/CC BY-SA 3.0

Professor Munn asserts that the key to comprehending the monument’s religious significance is the word Materan. This term is used in a number of Phrygian inscriptions to refer to the Mother Goddess, the central deity and protector of Phrygian cosmology who is also highly esteemed in Lydia, a nearby region.

Given that Materan would be the object of the inscribed phrase in this instance and appear in the accusative declension, it is possible that the monument was dedicated to the goddess, demonstrating her significance and veneration in this area. The name or title of the person who dedicated the monument or, alternatively, an invocation of protection to prevent damage to the structure—a common practice in ancient monuments—may have been included in the text, according to Munn’s analysis.

Munn’s research suggests that the Arslan Kaya monument may have been created at the height of the Lydian Empire, when Lydia, which also revered the Mother Goddess, dominated Phrygia.

Munn, Mark. The Phrygian inscription W-03 on the Arslan Kaya monument Kadmos, vol. 63, no. 1-2, 2024, pp. 79-92. doi.org/10.1515/kadmos-2024-0005

Cover Image Credit: Ingeborg Simon/CC BY-SA 3.0

Related Articles

Mystery of the ‘Deserted Castle’ Unraveled: Austria’s First Roman Bridgehead Fort Discovered

18 April 2025

18 April 2025

Researchers have identified the first confirmed Roman bridgehead fort in Austria, located near Stopfenreuth on the Lower Austrian Danube floodplains....

2.3-meter sword found in 4th-century tomb in Japan

27 January 2023

27 January 2023

The largest bronze mirror and the largest “dako” iron sword in Japan were discovered at the Tomio Maruyama burial mound...

Farmer was Discovers 2600-year-old Stone Slab of Pharaoh Apries

19 June 2021

19 June 2021

The Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities announced that a farmer in Ismailia, Egypt, uncovered a 2,600-year-old stone monument erected by Pharaoh...

Madagascar’s Enigmatic Rock-Cut Architecture may have been of Zoroastrian origin

13 September 2024

13 September 2024

An international team of researchers found an enigmatic rock-cut architecture at Teniky, a site in the remote Isalo Massif in...

In Peru, Archaeologists Discovered an Ancient Dance Floor that can Imitate Rumbling of Thunder

21 July 2023

21 July 2023

Archaeologists have discovered an ancient “sounding” dance floor in Peru that was designed to create a drum-like sound when stepped...

5700-year-old monumental Menga Dolmen reveals it as one of the greatest feats of Neolithic engineering

6 December 2023

6 December 2023

A new investigation tracing the source of the gigantic stones that make up the Menga dolmen in southern Spain reveals...

A New Hypothesis Tries to Explain What Triggers People’s Big Brains

14 March 2021

14 March 2021

The big brain is the decisive feature of our species. Not only are they the most complex organs in the...

Archaeologists discovered floor mosaics with early Christian designs in Roman town of Marcianopolis, in Bulgaria

16 January 2024

16 January 2024

Archaeologists discovered floor mosaics with early Christian designs and nearly 800 artifacts in the archaeological reserve of Marcianopolis in Devnya,...

Tombs of Queens of Commagene Detected

23 September 2021

23 September 2021

The graves built by Commagene King Mithritades II (36-21 BC) for his mother Isias, his sister Antiokhis, and Antiochis’s daughter...

Archaeologists have discovered sandstone blocks belonging to a pharaoh’s temple covered with hieroglyphs in Sudan

2 March 2023

2 March 2023

Polish archaeologists have discovered sandstone blocks belonging to a pharaoh’s temple covered with hieroglyphs during excavations at Old Dongola in...

Magical Roman Phallus Wind Chime Unearthed in Serbia

15 November 2023

15 November 2023

Archaeologists have unearthed a Roman phallus wind chime known as a tintinnabulum, during excavations at the ancient city of Viminacium...

Declassified CIA Satellite Spy Program Reveals Lost Ancient Roman Forts

26 October 2023

26 October 2023

Archaeologists have discovered “massive” ancient Roman forts that redraw the borders of the ancient empire using images from a declassified...

‘Mysterious’ inscription on ancient Dacia sphinx is deciphered

3 January 2024

3 January 2024

The mystery of the inscription on the bronze sphinx statue discovered in the early 19th century was solved 200 years...

Nearly 300-million-year-old Oldest known fossilized reptile skin found in Oklahoma cave resembles that of modern crocodiles

17 January 2024

17 January 2024

Paleontologists say they’ve identified and described the oldest fossilized reptile skin ever found. A team of paleontologists from the University...

Philippines Cagayan Cave Art 3500 Years Old

29 June 2021

29 June 2021

A depiction depicting a human-like figure on a cave wall in Penablanca town, Cagayan province, is Southeast Asia’s first directly...