2018 | Anatolica Volume 44 2018 ISSN: 0066-1554; 00
This paper concerns the results of two seasons of work at Kuriki Höyük on the left bank of Batman Çayı, in SE Turkey. Architecture and materials provide information on a little known period in the region, comprising the second half of first millennium BC to the first centuries of Common Era. Focusing on pottery sherds, a few objects and architectural remains, contextual analysis enable us to define aspects of the local material culture, main phases of occupation at the site and the regional links. On the whole, more attention has been paid to interpreting all the evidence collected, although fragmentary, framing it within a general chronological grid, and summarising the main historical events that could have had consequences on the sequence of occupation. — Anacleto D’Agostino and Elif Genç
Survey and excavation in northern Hatay and Smooth Cilicia (Adana and Osmaniye) have largely failed to find Palaeolithic and Aceramic Neolithic sites. The author here reports two seasons of a survey focused specifically on and around basalt landforms in Ceyhan (Adana), Erzin (Hatay) and Hassa (Hatay). The survey succeeded in finding Palaeolithic and Aceramic Neolithic, and later prehistoric, chipped stone. These results are presented and some of the implications of the results are discussed. — Bakiye Yükmen Edens
Through the combined study of the Hittite cuneiform texts and the archaeological data, we try to draw a map of the Hūlaya river land, a Luwian-speaking area of the Hittite kingdom. The philological inquiry focuses on two diplomatic treaties that were established by the Great King of Hatti and the king of Tarhuntašša, whose territory was closely connected to the Hūlaya river land. The archaeological inquiry summarizes several survey campaigns performed in the region, including the surveys that we performed in the vicinity of Fasıllar (province of Beyşehir) between 2012 and 2015. Our methodology is based on reconstructing the ancient roads of the region, in order to restitute the urban network of the Hittite period. — Yiğit Erbil and Alice Mouton
This paper presents the results of three excavation campaigns at a burial compound in the Eastern Necropolis of Sagalassos (SW Anatolia). The enclosed burial plot was located in the far eastern part of the city’s Eastern Proasteion and was used as such between the end of the 1st-beginning of the 2nd century AD and the beginning of the 5th century, with a hiatus around the middle of the 3rd century. Sometime at the end of the 5th century AD the compound lost its funerary function, after which it was looted and used as a dump site in the 6th century. Finally, the area was covered by stone refuse resulting from quarrying activities higher up the ridge. Nine tombs could be attributed to the original burial phase, while 30 graves dated to Late Roman times. By presenting the history of the compound and through a discussion of different archaeological and bioarchaeological data, the paper aims to shed light on the funerary practices at Sagalassos during Roman Imperial times and uncover some of the actors behind these mortuary and non-funerary activities. — Sam Cleymans, Peter Talloen, Bas Beaujean, Katrien Van de Vijver and Jeroen Poblome
This article presents results from the fifth and final season of the Lower Göksu Archaeological Salvage Survey Project (LGASSP), which was started in 2013 to document the major archaeological sites and monuments in the valley before the construction of the Kayraktepe Dam (Mersin Province, Southern Turkey). This season marked the end of the project in its current form, and the transition to a new project that examines the landscapes of the entire Göksu River Basin in the context of the wider Taşeli Peninsula and the Karaman Plain. Therefore, the season of two weeks did not only focus solely on the Lower Göksu Valley but our team also conducted initial investigations along the Mediterranean coast from Anamur to Silifke and in parts of the Karaman Plain surrounding Karadağ. This article presents a summary of the results of this transitional field season together with a brief presentation of our digital photogrammetry subproject, and a discussion about the regional land routes and settlement patterns. The fifth season of the LGASSP, which is a collaborative project of Bitlis Eren University and the University of Leicester, was once more funded by the British Academy through a Newton Advanced Fellowship. — Tevfik Emre Şerifoğlu, Naoíse Mac Sweeney and Stuart Eve
Excavations at the site of Uşaklı Höyük, on the central Anatolian Plateau, have revealed traces of a lengthy occupation ranging from the Early Bronze Age to the Late Roman periods. In particular, they have provided sound confirmation of the importance of the centre during the Late Bronze Age, when it was probably to be identified with the sacred Hittite city of Zippalanda. The Late Bronze Age monumental structures uncovered on the lower terrace and on the high mound had been markedly affected by later building activities, but a perfectly sealed sequence of materials has been revealed in a test sounding below monumental Building II, in Area A.
After an overview of the different contexts brought to light between 2013 and 2017 at Uşaklı Höyük, the paper discusses the Late Bronze Age ceramic evidence in the frame of the long sequence of occupation of the site and against the background of central Anatolian cultural horizons.
The analysis focuses on the materials from the Area A test sounding, which provide a reference post quem for the construction of the monumental Building II. — Valentina Orsi
The cult practices of the Hittites have long been of interest, particularly in terms of the bronze statues, stone reliefs, and iconic representation and discussion of the ritual feeding of the wooden, stone, or metal statue of a Hittite deity. Too often, scholarship overlooks religious and magical practices that involve the use of figurines in less precious materials, and therefore could have been practiced by more members of society than just the elite. Such practices are visible in the production of clay anthropomorphic figurines from Seyitömer in western Turkey to Alişar Höyük in central Turkey to Tell Mardikh in Syria; yet until now, these figurines have received little attention due to their crude and unstandardized manufacture and the lack of contextual information that often accompanies their publication. This paper begins to address this inconsistency by contextualizing the Middle Bronze Age figurines from the site of Alişar Höyük using a synthesis of findings from archival research and past publications, highlighting the value of examining the primary source materials of archaeology. — Shannon Martino
The Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878 is generally recognised as the most calamitous of the several wars fought by the ‘modernised’ Ottoman Army of the late 19th century as it ended with the Russian army at the gates of Constantinople in the west, and in occupation of Erzurum in the east. The only major Ottoman feat of arms in that campaign was the ‘Plevna delay’, where between July and December 1877, the garrison of Plevna, under Nuri Osman Paşa, resisted two major attacks by Russian forces and a third with their Romanian allies, thus preventing the Russians from advancing on Constantinople until the following year. The successful defence of Plevna was to a great extent due to the defensive earthworks built there by the Ottoman garrison and which resisted all attempts at destruction through artillery fire. But the main factor in the ‘Plevna delay’ was the wholescale employment by the Ottoman garrison of the Peabody-Martini rifle, a weapon that had only recently entered the Ottoman infantry inventory. While the story of the Siege of Plevna itself within the wider context of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878 is well known among those interested in the military affairs of the period, the history and nature of the rifle that played so significant a role there – its biography, as it were – is not well known outside of specialist military reference works, a vacuum this article seeks to fill. — Julian Bennett
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