Book Specifications
IV, 342 pp.
softcover
2021 | Anatolica Volume 47 2021 ISSN: 0066-1554; 47
Controlling access to an important ford of the Upper Euphrates River in southeastern Anatolia, Titriş Höyük, was one of the many city-state capitals that emerged across Upper Mesopotamia in the Mid to Late Early Bronze Age, roughly dated to the second half of the third millennium BC. Like many other such capitals at the time, Titriş consisted of a central citadel surrounded by an extensive lower city. Millennia of later accumulation made exposures of the city’s EBA citadel impracticable. However, much of the lower city was never reoccupied after the end of the Early Bonze Age and broad horizontal exposures and remote sensing surveys of this sector of the city help us understand the nature of urbanism at the site in its Late Early Bronze Age phase, dated to the last quarter of the third millennium BC. In what follows, we place the ebb and flow of the Mid to Late EBA city at Titriş in the context of wider contemporary regional and climatic developments. Additionally, we clarify aspects of the production of commodities at scale in the city during its initial Mid EBA Phase. Finally, we explore several aspects of the nature of the city in its final Late EBA incarnation, including (1) what is known about its physical layout at that time, (2) the diet of its inhabitants, and (3) the distribution of crops, animals, and material wealth within city households outside of its citadel. — Guillermo Algaze, Haskel Greenfield, Mette Marie Hald, Britt Hartenberger, Benjamin Irvine, Timothy Matney, Yoko Nishimura, Jennifer Pournelle, Steven A. Rosen
Excavations at Kinet Höyük, on the Mediterranean coast at the east end of the Gulf of Iskenderun, revealed an Early Bronze Age sequence dating from c. 2800 to 2000 BC with levels assigned to eleven periods (Periods 29-19). A major change in most aspects of the material culture occurred at the end of Period 25, at c. 2600 BC. In Periods 29-25 pottery and other finds suggest connections primarily to the northeast (the Islahiye area), and in Periods 24-19 to inland Syria, via the Amuq Plain, reflecting increased use of the route over the Belen Pass. Located beside a natural harbour and on the north-south road up the coast, Kinet appears to have been a trading town. Imports from the west reached Kinet, but throughout the whole sequence Kinet was primarily oriented eastward rather than towards western Cilicia, as exemplified by the site of Tarsus. In the Early Bronze Age Cilicia was not culturally homogeneous. — Christine Eslick
This work offers an assessment of a small assemblage of anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figurines from the Early Chalcolithic (phase II) and the Middle Chalcolithic (phase III) settlements at Gülpınar in northwestern Anatolia. The main goal is to place the figurine assemblage from both phases within its wider context and try to understand the repercussions of choices made in Gülpınar regarding the making and use of these objects. The assemblage from both phases II and III at Gülpınar complements the general discussions on the use and meaning of figurines within a wide geographical area that includes western Anatolia, Aegean, and the Balkans. — Turan Takaoğlu, Stratos Nanoglou
The phenomenon of statue-stelae is widespread throughout the Eurasian continent. The chronological arc covered by these particular archaeological finds is as wide as the geographical area, ranging from the Eneolithic to medieval times. They have been terminologically defined in different ways e.g. kurgan-stelae, Scythians-stelae or more commonly Balbals. Statue-stelae generally appear to be associated with funerary contexts although they often present interpretation and dating problems linked to the lack of a primary archaeological context. They belonged to cult contexts and memory of ancestors; it may be hypothesized that for the communities that created these statue-stelae they may have had a sacral and/or apotropaic function. The statue-stelae of Hakkâri belong to this tradition, although with undoubted peculiarities regarding both their symbolic and iconographic representations and the fact that the discovery of a group of statue-stelae allows a comparative analysis. This paper reconsiders this group in the frame of the more general statue-stela phenomenon and also presents a new analysis of their decorative elements. This paper aims to provide a new interpretative perspective on the iconography of Hakkâri’s statue-stelae, as well as advancing new proposals related to their chronology. — Andrea Cesaretti, Roberto Dan
On the steeper slopes in the northern parts of the Eastern Necropolis of Sagalassos excavations were conducted in 1990-1991 and 2011-2012, uncovering a series of man-made terraces (Site F). Erected from Late Achaemenid times onwards, the terracing most likely originally served horticultural and arboricultural purposes. From the Middle Hellenistic period onwards, the terraces at Site F were gradually occupied by funerary practices. During the 1st century CE, the higher terraces remained in use as burial grounds, while the lower ones were reorganized in order to accommodate at least one potter’s workshop. Whereas the workshop itself was short-lived, artisanal activities seem to have continued as indicated by dumping practices of ceramic refuse. Burial practices too continued until the end of the 4th century CE after which the area fell in disuse. This long history of interments, from Hellenistic to Late Roman times, provides a unique insight into the changing mortuary traditions at Sagalassos. This paper will present a chronological overview of Site F and the activities that took place there through a discussion of various archaeological, environmental, and bioarchaeological data. — Sam Cleymans, Johan Claeys, Katrien Van de Vijver, Jeroen Poblome
This study considers and discusses some cases of houses of the Geometric period, a time when it would seem the direct knowledge of environments that constitute the internal/external living space is more apparent, through the echo of the rhapsodic tradition expressed in the Homeric poems. In order to accomplish this task, some salient passages, taken above all from the Odyssey and limited only to the descriptions of such spaces, are appropriately translated here presented. In terms of its geographical area, this study focuses on the physical space from the Greek peninsula to the insular areas as far as Crete. — Girolamo Sofia
The article presents the results of the Konya Regional Archaeological Survey Project (KRASP) 2019 and 2020 fieldwork, including the analysis of all major Bronze and Iron Age sites within the survey area as well as the largest fortified hilltop sites. These data are analysed to discuss the processes of urbanization and state formation in the Konya Plain between the Early Bronze and the Iron Ages. — Michele Massa, Christoph Bachhuber, Fatma Şahin, Hüseyin Erpehlivan, Anthony J. Lauricella
Huwa-Sarruma, king of Karkamiš mentioned in the Hieroglyphic Luwian inscription KARKAMIŠ A18d is usually dated to the Iron Age, although this is historically problematic. This paper critically discusses the possibilities and argues that an identification with […]-Šarruma, Hittite viceroy of Karkamiš, son of Šarri-Kušuḫ (cautiously proposed already by R. Barnett in 1952, but subsequently neglected in the research) is the most probable one. — Zsolt Simon
Rescue excavations in 2019 at Murat Höyük, Solhan district of modern Bingöl province, produced a large number of finds of Middle Iron Age date. These included a range of metal artefacts, some of which were grave gifts, that show the local impact of Urartian Period metalwork, and which constitute the subject of this study. The items we present here are of importance in terms of showing the effects of Urartian art and aesthetic understanding on metalwork in local settlements. — Rafet Çavuşoğlu, Abdulkadir Özdemir and Ayşe Özdemir
Anatolia has witnessed many important cultural developments in human history. The developments that took place in Anatolia are closely associated with the climatic, geographical, and geomorphological conditions of this special region. Copper deposits are found close to the surface in some regions resulting in the first documented use of native copper in the Neolithic Age, and extensive use of metals and early mining activities were documented here in the Bronze Age. Gold deposits are also abundant in Anatolia; however, archaeological investigations so far indicate that this metal was used later than in neighboring regions such as the Balkans.
Recent excavations at İnönü cave, a site situated in the western coastal Black Sea Region of Anatolia, revealed important evidence for the early use of gold. Gold beads were found in a small ceramic pot in layer V (4300-4000 BC) which have chronological and typological parallels with early examples from the Balkans. Thus İnönü cave provides the earliest evidence that gold was used in the Chalcolithic Age in Anatolia.
In this paper we offer a preliminary evaluation of the gold beads from İnönü cave and describe their place in the history of metal use and metallurgy in Anatolia. Additionally, it was aimed to obtain some preliminary information about the production processes of the beads by P-XRF and SEM analyses. — Ünsal Yalçın, F. Gülden Ekmen and Hamza Ekmen
This paper represents a preliminary report of the results obtained from a sounding at the mouth of the Girmeler Cave in 2020. In addition, it also re-evaluates the data derived from the trail trenches previously opened in the same area. Girmeler is the only site in Western Anatolia that elucidates the transition from the late Pleistocene to the early Holocene. In Girmeler, radical changes were determined in the chipped stone industry between the late Pleistocene and the early Holocene, which reveals differences from the Antalya region and Central Anatolian. The late Pleistocene layers, characterized by geometric microliths, were replaced by a flake and bladelet based industry without geometric microliths and bears general similarities with the chipped stone industries from the Aegean islands sites of the early Holocene. The cave was likely inhabited by semi-sedentary hunter groups engaged in selective gathering and some agriculture, which lived in wattle-and-daub huts with lime plastered floor. — Burçin Erdoğu, Taner Korkut, Turan Takaoğlu, Levent Atici, Nurcan Kayacan, Denis Guilbeau, Müge Ergun, Turhan Doğan
Evidence for the so-called “Uruk Expansion” into northeastern Iraq and western Iran is rapidly growing and serves to revisit this important, but still opaque phenomenon. In this article we present tantalising new evidence from the Rania Plain (Kurdish Region of Iraq), from the sites of Araban and Mullah Shell, located on the east bank of the Lower Zab river (present Lake Dokan). The evidence portrays the contours of very extensive, but today elusive LC 4-5 activity spanning long stretches of the valley terrace, and which may have played a significant role in the “expansion” locally, as well as its further extension. — Jesper Eidem and Deborah Giannessi
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