2016 | Anatolica Volume 42 2016 ISSN: 0066-1554; 42
A motive for writing this article was a recent DNA study revealing close genetic similarities between individuals from neolithic Menteşe and Barcın in the eastern Marmara region of northwest Anatolia and early farmers in central Europe. On the basis of these data the author evaluates certain assumptions that hitherto have accompanied the debate on the neolithisation of Europe, and proposes a model that explains how Anatolian agriculturists in a time span of one millennium may have migrated into the heartland of the continent. Confirmation of the author’s initial postulate that northwest Anatolia was a plausible passage way for the spread of early food production into the continent is a significant conclusion. — Jacob Roodenberg
This article presents the results of the 2015 season of the Lower Göksu Archaeological Salvage Survey Project, which has run since 2013 in the Mersin Province of southern Turkey. This year, the team continued documenting archaeological sites and monuments in the valley before the construction of the Kayraktepe Dam, which will submerge the heritage and the landscape. The 2015 season was almost totally devoted to intensive surveys conducted in two alluvial plains with relatively rich archaeological deposits: one in the area where the Kurtsuyu River joins the Göksu River; and the other where the Ermenek River meets the Göksu River. These intensive surveys were accompanied by geophysical studies and aerial photography. This article presents a summary of the field season, a discussion of the different fieldwork methods that were applied and tested, the results of the intensive surveys, and a fresh consideration of the local settlement patterns and their temporal development in light of the findings. The 2015 season of this Bitlis Eren University project, which is conducted in collaboration with the University of Leicester, was funded by the British Academy through a Newton Advanced Fellowship. The survey project will continue in 2016 with the generous support of the British Academy and we hope to start excavating the site of Çingentepe in 2017 in collaboration with the Silifke Museum. — Tevfik Emre Şerifoğlu, Naoíse Mac Sweeney, Anna Collar, Carlo Colantoni and Stuart Eve
Early examples of lead figurines and trinket moulds are dated to the last quarter of the Early Bronze Age. This group of finds is known mainly from North Mesopotamia, North Syria and Southeast Anatolia. The Trojan EBA lead figurine was, until recently, the only excavation find of its kind which came from the western part of Anatolia. From the two trinket moulds with the negatives of such figurines, one was bought in Izmir. Therefore, the provenance is unknown. The other one is said to have come from Akhisar (Manisa). However, similar finds have recently been recovered in the stratified layers of ongoing excavations at Küllüoba (Eskişehir) and Seyitömer (Kütahya). The lead figurine introduced here was found at Küllüoba in 2012. This lead figurine – together with the Küllüoba and Seyitömer trinket moulds – proves beyond doubt that this group of finds spreads as early as the EB III period in western part of Anatolia. Both the trinket moulds and the lead figurines found in this region not only support Turan Efe’s ‘Great Caravan Route’ theory and J.V. Canby’s thesis, that ‘these molds were distributed over large areas by smiths who travelled along with caravans’, but they also make an important contribution to the establishment of a more reliable chronology of these finds. — Fatma Şahin
Small anthropomorphic representations of lead, cast in open moulds to resemble openwork plaques, are a very distinct category of objects appearing for over six centuries, beginning with approximately 23rd century BC, throughout a vast territory of the Near East, from western Anatolia, through northern Syria to north-eastern Mesopotamia. What singles them out as particularly interesting among other iconographical sources of supra-regional dispersal, is their attribution to popular culture. This association is indicated foremost by the find contexts of such plaques, suggestive of their functioning within a household rather than official or public setting. Moreover, simple technical requirements and the material of which they were crafted made them easily available. Finally, their iconography, the repertoire and character of the represented figures, point to their considerable independence from the official, or elite, culture. Lead plaques are therefore an invaluable source for studies on the development of supra-regional patterns within popular culture, a phenomenon as yet poorly recognized in the Ancient Near East. This article aims at analyzing the degree of convergence of particular features throughout the plaques’ area of distribution, especially as regards the repertoire of representations, and at establishing the cause for their popularity over such a vast territory. An attempt will be made at placing these observations in a wider context – of trends observable at that time in the popular culture of the ancient Near East – by comparing them to the closely related Mesopotamian terracotta plaques. — Maciej Makowski
The present paper provides a critical analysis of the proposed identifications of Allumari, king of Malatya mentioned by Tiglath-pileser I with a ruler of Malatya attested in the local Hieroglyphic Luwian sources. Based on recent advances in Luwian philology it will be argued that Allumari is to be identified with PUGNUS-mili II, whose name is to be read as *Allumalli and thus the Assyrian spelling provides its regular rendering. — Zsolt Simon
This report provides a preliminary archaeological assessment of the city mound of Qaladze (Qala Diza), a major site in the plain of Pizhdar (Sulaymania Governorate). The assessment is based on a survey carried out in September 2013 jointly by the Directorate of Antiquities and Museums of Sulaymania Governorate, the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands Institute for the Near East, and the University of Florence (Italy). — Anacleto D’Agostino, Jesper Eidem, Deborah Giannessi, Stefania Mazzoni, Valentina Orsi and Kamal Rasheed Raheem
The Upper Agora of the Pisidian city of Sagalassos represented the beating heart of the local community, in providing the stage for the familiar fusion of commerce, politics, administration and cult that characterised urban life in antiquity. The current state of the agora, as it has been unearthed by archaeologists, is the product of centuries of monumental accretion, re-arrangement, make-over and removal, making it an excellent platform for the diachronic study of urban development. In this sense, the Upper Agora constitutes an architectural manifestation of processes of urbanisation and community formation that occurred at this ancient settlement.
In 2014, a two-year programme of control excavations was initiated in order to complete reconstructing the chronology of origin, construction and changes to the public square, as well as to finalise the excavation and study of the surrounding public buildings and monuments. It is the aim of this paper to present the preliminary results of these targeted small-scale excavations conducted during the campaigns of 2014 and 2015 in a sequence of seven chronological phases, representing the occupation history of the square and its immediate surroundings between the 3rd century BCE and the 7th century CE. — Peter Talloen and Jeroen Poblome
The Roman province of Asia was one of those grouped by some ancient authors as being among the inermes provinciae of the Roman Empire. In fact just like all the others in this group of ‘unarmed provinces’ it contained a garrison of auxiliary soldiers, there to help maintain internal security. This article catalogues and discusses the limited evidence available for the garrison of Asia province in part to correct the still common if often un-stated view that it lacked any form of regular Roman military garrison, but also to help in understanding the overall Roman ‘Order of Battle’. In addition, it highlights the importance of Eumeneia as one of the very few sites in Asia Minor identifiable as the location of a purpose-built Roman fort. — Julian Bennett
This paper will examine a Middle Byzantine reliquary cross found in a cemetery at Barcın in the western Marmara region and try to examine the significance of reliquary crosses in their archaeological and linguistic contexts. Byzantine reliquary crosses represent an important aspect of the material culture of the medieval period, not simply in the Byzantine world, but also in the lands beyond its borders, where such reliquary crosses were viewed as a desirable luxury object. Despite their clear importance within and without Byzantine culture, however, reliquary crosses have received less attention than one might expect. Further, they are generally not analyzed except as objects denoting the spread of Byzantine culture amongst its neighbors or as signs of a Christian population in an archaeological record otherwise devoid of such signs of religious affiliation. — Tasha Vorderstrasse
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