2017 | Anatolica Volume 43 2017 ISSN: 0066-1554; 43
Immediately northeast of Sagalassos lies its Eastern Suburbium (formerly known as the Potters’ Quarter), which has been the subject of research since 1987. Since 2011, the Sagalassos Archaeological Research Project intensified its efforts within this suburban quarter in the context of several research projects. One of its foci was the site PQ 2, located at the intersection of the Roman imperial era potters’ quarter and a zone with more monumental buildings. The field work at this site could be finalised during the 2016 summer campaign, after previous campaigns executed in the period 2011-2014.
The excavations revealed a hall-like building, measuring c. 12.5 m by 10.7 m, erected around the middle of the first century AD. Its main feature was a water fountain against the centre of the back wall, opposing the main northern entrance and few other indications regarding its original purpose. The building was subsequently extended towards the south and subdivided into rooms around the turn of the century. The second-third century AD dumps of fauna and crockery outside the building bear testimony to regular communal dining practices, consisting of mainly simple meals in the style of a soup-kitchen. The almost complete remains of one final dining event could be documented inside the building, which was abandoned immediately afterwards.
Based on its suburban location, its architectural characteristics and the well-preserved find assemblages, an identification as an association hall or club house is proposed. These scholae and their associated activities are well known from ancient written sources, but there is far less archaeological data available, especially for the eastern part of the empire. — Johan Claeys and Jeroen Poblome
Although the capital cities of the Syro-Anatolian city-states (also known as Syro-Hittite, Neo-Hittite, Luwian, and Aramaean) have been excavated for generations, archaeologists have only rarely investigated their large lower settlements beyond the monumental buildings in the acropolis. The Tayinat Lower Town Project began in 2014 with the explicit goal of conducting systematic fieldwork in the lower settlement of Tell Tayinat, ancient Kunulua, the Iron Age capital of the kingdom of Patina. The first two seasons were dedicated to an intensive surface survey of the entire lower town, roughly 16 ha in size, in order to obtain as holistic a picture of the ancient city as possible before planned excavation takes place. This article presents the findings of this research, which complement and expand our understanding of urbanism in Iron Age Anatolia. — James F. Osborne and Steven Karacic
The earliest occupation at Uğurlu is characterised by the absence of pottery and the presence of flint and obsidian tools with pressure flaking technique. The site dates as far back as 6800 cal. BC and has yielded evidence of a fully Neolithic economy. There are only a few sites (Ulucak, Girmeler, Knossos, Çukuriçi) along the Western shores of Anatolia, as well as on the Aegean Islands, that are securely dated before 6600/6500 cal BC. This paper presents some preliminary results of the earliest occupation layers at Uğurlu. — Burçin Erdoğu
The excavations at the site of Hirbemerdon Tepe, in Southeastern Turkey, yielded a very well preserved architectural complex dated to the Middle Bronze Age period (1975-1782 cal. BC) in the northern side of the High Mound. The complex was a multi-functional structure in which both ceremonial and craft specialized sectors were recognized by the archaeologists. Within one of the latter, a room, most probably used as a downdraft pottery kiln, was uncovered.
The studies on this type of firing installation in the region at this date are still fragmentary, due to either the lack of archaeological data or scholars’ tendency to focus on ceremonial architecture or residential structures. Therefore, a complete regional framework of the development of MBA pottery kilns has not been established yet.
The aim of this paper is thus to provide a thorough analysis of the kiln found at Hirbemerdon Tepe by investigating topics related to the pottery production at the site and the firing processes involved. Furthermore, in order to clarify kiln features and their typology during the second millennium BC, a comparison will be provided with other pyro-technological structures discovered at sites in neighbouring regions. — Lorenzo Crescioli and Sergio G. Russo
The Lower Göksu Archaeological Salvage Survey Project (LGASSP) continued with a short season in 2016; aiming to document more archaeological sites and monuments in the valley before the construction of the Kayraktepe Dam (Mersin Province, Southern Turkey). The 2016 season focused mainly on the Kurtsuyu River Basin and the area surrounding the village of Evkafçiftliği, resulting in the discovery of several sites that had not been previously documented. Further investigations were conducted around the multi-period mound of Damtepe, and the Keben Çolakkız rock relief; in order to better understand the relationship of these archaeological sites with their immediate vicinity. This article presents a summary of the results of the field season, followed by discussion of settlement patterns in the valley in the light of these new data. LGASSP is jointly conducted by Bitlis Eren University and the University of Leicester, and is currently funded by the British Academy through a Newton Advanced Fellowship. — Tevfik Emre Şerifoğlu, Naoíse Mac Sweeney and Carlo Colantoni
The Black Sea coastal region remains one of the most poorly understood areas of Anatolia. Chronological controversies surrounding the best-excavated site of İkiztepe have resulted in difficulties in interpreting the site’s cultural sequence with regard to its place within the larger Anatolian world. While the earlier part of the sequence at this site, located on Mound II (spanning primarily the late 6th-5th millennia BC), has been widely discussed in terms of its chronology, the Mound I sequence has not received the same attention. This article thus aims to create a chronological framework for the Late Chalcolithic-Early Bronze Age periods in this area of northern Anatolia, by examining the 4th-3rd millennium sequence excavated on Mound I at the site of İkiztepe. — Lynn Welton
The Turco-Italian Archaeological Expedition at Karkemish has provided new evidence for the Late Bronze Age period at the site. An extensive Late Bronze I occupation has been brought to light in many excavation areas, such as the Water Gate (Area H), the South Gate (Area D), and areas A, B and G. This variety of contexts provides the basis for future studies dealing with functional interpretations of spaces and material culture. This paper analyses the Late Bronze I and II archaeological data from Karkemish, with the aim of better understanding the role of the city within the Middle Euphrates valley during the age of the first empires and internationalism. — Sara Pizzimenti and Giulia Scazzosi
The Caucasus has long been seen by western scholars as marginal to developments in the Near East. However, recent discoveries in the region have rapidly and significantly begun to show that the Caucasus was much more deeply integrated into the Near Eastern world in ways that are yet to be explored. In regard to the Neolithic period, studies in Georgia have the potential to contribute significantly to our overall understanding of the Neolithic process of the Near East, examining the development of different horticultural and agricultural products that will eventually comprise of the ‘Neolithic package’ and the evolution between human groups and their environment during the Holocene period of the greater Near East. Because of this geographical situation, the excavations of Gadachrili Gora and Shulaveris Gora (Kvemo Kartli Region) offer new opportunities to contribute to the debate on the neolithisation of the Caucasus, focusing on the of understanding of the development of the Shulaveri-Shomu Culture, its settlement organization and economy, and its relationship to other late Neolithic cultures in the greater Near East. Since 2006, a team of researchers from the Georgian National Museum, working in close collaboration with international colleagues, has been engaged in archaeological investigations at the site of Gadachrili Gora, which revealed the exceptionally well-preserved remains of a succession of settlements spanning the terminal parts of the Neolithic Period (ca. 6000-5000 BC).
This preliminary report provides an introductory background to the Neolithic Shomu-Shulaveris Culture of eastern Transcaucasia and describes the result of the initial season of the joint Canadian-Georgian initiative: The Gadachrili Gora Regional Archaeological Project (GRAPE). — Stephen D. Batiuk, Mindia Jalabadze, Andrew Graham, Irakli Koridze, Khaled Abu Jayyab, Cristina Savulov
The Çadır Höyük mound is located in the Yozgat Province, approximately 16 km from the modern town of Sorgun. The site has been under excavation by members of the present team since 1994, following an intensive surface survey in 1993. The earliest documented occupation of the mound dates to 5200 cal. BC; the site was abandoned at some point in the 12th-13th centuries CE. Since 2012 the Çadır team has investigated virtually every period represented on the site, from the Late Chalcolithic through the Byzantine periods. The 2015 and 2016 seasons of work, the focus of the present article, continued this trend of complete coverage, with particular focus on the prehistoric (Late Chalcolithic) and Byzantine occupation. The second and first millennia BCE were also investigated, and an overview of some of these results are offered here.
The last two seasons have been particularly helpful in allowing us to carefully phase the Late Chalcolithic town, which has manifested into an “upper” and “lower” component. The settlement phases demonstrate a changing strategy of town planning over the course of the fourth millennium. These two seasons have also yielded substantial results in our Byzantine occupation, allowing a better understanding of the architecture associated with the defensive wall that rings the mound summit, and insight into the occupation of the site in the centuries spanning the early second millennium CE. — Sharon R. Steadman, T. Emre Şerifoğlu, Stephanie Selover, Laurel D. Hackley, Burcu Yıldırım, Anthony J. Lauricella, Benjamin S. Arbuckle, Sarah E. Adcock, Katie Tardio, Emrah Dinç, Gregory McMahon, and Marica Cassis
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