It is from the late Hittite kingdom of Tabal during the time of king Wasusarmas. Stela stands on a rectangular block base which is also covered with the text. It is a dedication to the Stormgod and asking for a better harvest.

The stela comes from Sultanhanı (45 km northeast of Kayseri, and 20 km from Kültepe).
It was found in several parts: the base in 1928, during the construction of the Kayseri-Sivas railway, and the stela itself in 1939 by chance by a villager. Excavations at the archaeological mount of Sultanhanı Hüyüğü in 1971-’72 supplied several smaller fragments of the stela, which could be reconstructed almost completely.

Luwian is an ancient language or group of languages of the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family. The two varieties of Luwian are named for the scripts that they were written in: Cuneiform Luwian (CLuwian) and Hieroglyphic Luwian (HLuwian). As to whether these were one language or two, there is no consensus. Luwian is closely related to Hittite.

Luwian hieroglyphs are an indigenous logographic script native to central Anatolia, consisting of some 500 signs. They are typologically similar to Egyptian hieroglyphs, but do not derive graphically from that script. As in Egyptian, characters may be logographic or phonographic - that is, they may be used to represent words or sounds. The number of phonographic signs is limited; they are predominantly from the CV-type (consonant sound followed by a vowel sound). A large number of these are ambiguous as to whether the vowel is a or i. Words may be written logographically, phonetically, mixed (that is, a logogram with a phonetic complement), and may be preceded by a determinative. Unlike Egyptian hieroglyphs, the lines of Luwian hieroglyphs are written alternately left-to-right and right-to-left. This practice was called by the Greeks boustrophedon, meaning "as the ox turns" (as when plowing a field).

Correspondent: J.M.Criel, Antwerpen
Sources: ‘Inscriptions of the Iron Age’ (J.D.Hawkins) & Wikipedia.