Regional and Local Schools of Metalwork in Early Bronze Age Anatolia Part II

1985 ◽  
Vol 35 ◽  
pp. 25-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jak Yakar
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Central Anatolia ◽  
Western Anatolia ◽  
Rural Settlements ◽  
Monumental Architecture ◽  
Anatolian Plateau ◽  
Local Schools ◽  
Natural Catastrophes ◽  
History Of ◽  
City States

This is one of the most eventful periods in the early history of preliterate Anatolia. Urban and rural settlements in western Anatolia, in the central Anatolian plateau including the Pontus region and in the eastern highlands show signs of conflagration. Archaeological surveys carried out in north-central Anatolia and in the Konya plain suggest that in some cases permanent settlements were abandoned at different phases of the EB III. These destructions were no doubt caused by unrecorded events such as inter-regional rivalry between city-states, intruding pastoralists, incursions by foreign armies (e.g. from Mesopotamia/N. Syria), invasions by nomadic hordes and natural catastrophes (Yakar 1981a: 106–7). On the basis of field surveys and a few excavations of limited scope alone one cannot establish a pattern of destructions which could be attributed to one particular factor described above. I prefer to refer to this period as “emerging dynasties” because monumental architecture in some of the major sites points to centrally located administrative complexes (palaces?) which, taken together with unprecedented mortuary practices (e.g. Alacahöyük Royal Tombs), may confirm the existence of ruling aristocracies in Anatolia.

scholarly journals TESTING THE MIDDLE GROUND IN ASSYRO-ANATOLIAN MARRIAGES OF THE KĀRUM PERIOD

Iraq ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 79 ◽  
pp. 71-83
Author(s):  
Yağmur Heffron
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Social History ◽  
Central Anatolia ◽  
Middle Ground ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Cultural Contact ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Middle Bronze Age ◽  
Dynamic Time

Central Anatolia in the Middle Bronze Age is marked by a well-documented Old Assyrian presence during the kārum period (20th–17th century b.c.), a dynamic time of long-distance trade and cultural contact. One of the idiosyncrasies of the social history of this period is a special bigamous arrangement which allowed Assyrian men to enter second marriages on the condition that one wife remained at home in Aššur, and the other in Anatolia. In testing the extent to which a middle ground for cross-cultural compromise is recognisable in such Assyro-Anatolian marriage practices, this article considers whether the terminology used in reference to the first and second wives (amtum and aššatum respectively) can be interpreted as the crucial element of misunderstanding in middle ground formation.

scholarly journals Hittite Cuisine: fire installations, cooking pottery and foodways in central Anatolia of the Late Bronze Age

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giacomo Casucci
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Central Anatolia ◽  
Cooking Methods ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Anatolian Plateau ◽  
Major Interest ◽  
Cooking Practices ◽  
Domestic Economies

Food and cooking methods are crucial in defining group identity and social relations and in examining the domestic economies. The Poster aims to study, from a functional and typological point of view, the fire installations and the contextual kitchen pottery in the Central Anatolia during the Late Bronze Age (1650-1200 B.C.). In particular, the archaeological contexts of the main Hittite sites of Anatolian Plateau, subjects of major interest in recent years, will be examined. The analysis and the comparison of the cooking tools (fireplaces, ovens, pots and baking plates) will allow to obtain some conclusions on the “Hittite Cuisine”, namely on the cooking techniques and the types of food consumed in the heart of Hittite kingdom. Archaeobotanical and archaeozoological data will also be integrated with the aim of a better comprehension of diets and cooking methods. In addition, some ethnographic observations will be discussed, in order to compare ancient and modern cooking practices in Anatolia.

Reassessing western and central Anatolian Early Bronze Age sealing practices: a case from Boz Höyük (Afyon)

2019 ◽  
Vol 69 ◽  
pp. 59-75
Author(s):  
Michele Massa ◽  
Yusuf Tuna
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Social Complexity ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
Central Anatolia ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Western Anatolia ◽  
Administrative Practices

AbstractThis paper presents a detailed investigation of an Early Bronze Age clay sealing from Boz Höyük, a settlement mound located along the Büyük Menderes valley (inland western Anatolia). The artefact, clearly local in manufacture, was employed as a stopper to seal a bottle/flask and impressed with two different stamp seals. These elements are compared to all other published contemporary sealings in western and central Anatolia, in order to understand the degree of complexity of sealing practices in the region. In turn, evidence of Early Bronze Age Anatolian sealing practices is discussed in relation to the available evidence regarding the degree of social complexity in local communities. It is suggested that, during the Early Bronze Age, sealings were employed for product branding rather than control over storage and redistribution of commodities, and only at the beginning of the second millennium BC did the region witness the introduction of complex administrative practices.

scholarly journals Reconstructing Socio-Political Urban-Rural Interactions Using Viewshed Analysis: The Late Bronze Age at Ramat Bet Shemesh, Israel.

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 230-244
Author(s):  
Yitzhak Paz ◽  
Michal Birkenfeld
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Historical Record ◽  
Geographic Region ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Rural Settlements ◽  
Main Research ◽  
Viewshed Analysis ◽  
Political Relations ◽  
Urban Rural ◽  
City States

Abstract The archaeological research conducted during the last two decades at the Judean Shephelah testifies for one of the most turbulent regions in the land of Israel during the Late Bronze Age. This stands in contrast to the scarce historical record that relates to it. The geographic region of Ramat Bet Shemesh encompasses important information about socio-political relations between the small rural settlements and hamlets and the city-states that dominated the area from the west. Advanced GIS modelling is one of the main research tools that enables us to reconstruct various aspects of these interactions. In this paper, the results of viewshed analyses are presented, suggesting that these interactions are defined, among other things, by a solidarity between small rural occupations that resist territorial rigid inner division of the landscape.

THE ROLE OF AMIR KHUSRAV DEHLAVI AND ALISHER NAVOI IN SPIRITUAL PERFECTION OF MANKIND

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 19-31
Author(s):  
M.S. Imomnazarov ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Spiritual Development ◽  
Primitive Society ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
City States ◽  
Theoretical Considerations

The article deals with the issue of the spiritual development of mankind as an orientalist-literary critic, and the subject is covered on the basis of new approaches that have not been seen in the scientific literature to date. For example, the history of the ancient world was divided into 3 stages - 1) primitive society, 2) city-states, 3) great kingdoms (empires), coordinated by archaeologists as "Stone Age", "Bronze Age", "Iron Age". These new interpretations have been proven based on the views of oriental thinkers. It has been proved, based on the research of world scientists, that the spiritual development of this period developed on the basis of mythical thinking. The history of the Middle Ages is considered within the framework of the Muslim cultural region, and the spiritual development of the peoples of the region is considered as a development of monotheistic thinking and its 4 stages - 1) Sunnah, 2) Muslim enlightenment, 3) Sufi teachings and irfan, 4) “Majoz tariqi” - are briefly explained. In the works of the great poets of the East, Amir Khusrav Dehlavi and Alisher Navoi, the stage of the "Majoz tariqi", which is theoretically substantiated as an independent spiritual essence of fiction, is in fact has been proved in detail by the author that the development of monotheistic thinking is the highest stage in the spiritual development of not only the peoples of the region, but of all mankind. The theoretical considerations summarized in the article are the author's books: "Stages of perfection of our national spirituality", "Fundamentals of our national spirituality", "Introduction to Navoi studies" and a number of scientific articles which are published in different years. They are reflected in one form or another, and in this text they are enriched to some extent with new interpretations

Patterns of metal procurement, manufacture and exchange in Early Bronze Age northwestern Anatolia: Demircihüyük and beyond

2017 ◽  
Vol 67 ◽  
pp. 51-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michele Massa ◽  
Orlene McIlfatrick ◽  
Erkan Fidan
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Central Anatolia ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Composition Analysis ◽  
Central Plateau ◽  
Anatolian Plateau ◽  
Chemical Composition Analysis ◽  
Prehistoric Mining ◽  
Manufacturing Techniques ◽  
Mould Casting

AbstractThis paper adds a new interpretive layer to the already extremely well-investigated site of Demircihüyük, a small Early Bronze Age settlement at the northwestern fringes of the central Anatolian plateau. It presents a reassessment of the evidence for prehistoric mining in the region, as well as a new programme of chemical composition analysis integrated with an object functional and technological typology of the site's metal assemblages. The results reveal complex manufacturing techniques (such as bivalve mould casting, plating and lost wax) and the co-occurrence of several alloying types, including the earliest tin bronzes in the region. Object typology further indicates that the Demircihüyük community was at the intersection of two distinct metallurgical networks: one centred on the western Anatolian highlands, the other spanning the northern part of the central plateau. Additionally, several strands of evidence suggest that the beginning of interregional exchanges, linking central Anatolia to northern Levantine and Mesopotamian societies, may have started at an earlier date than the commonly assumed ca 3000–2800 BC.

scholarly journals The earliest transverse grooved stones of Eurasia: Near Eastern distribution, types and chronology

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Irina Usacheva
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Near East ◽  
Morphological Characteristics ◽  
Central Anatolia ◽  
Necessary Condition ◽  
Northern Eurasia ◽  
Forest Steppe ◽  
Scientific Publications ◽  
Anatolian Plateau ◽  
Western Asia

Transverse grooved stones (TGS) believed to be used as shaft straighteners, first made their appearance at Epipalaeolithic sites in the Near East from where they spread to the Mediterranean coasts of Africa and Europe, but mostly to Northern Eurasia (the steppe, forest-steppe, and semi-desert zones). It has been discovered that the spread of TGA has been carried out along different paths.  Moreover, grooved stones along each of these transmission routes can be distinguished by their unique decorative and morphological characteristics. The aim of this paper is to clarify the circumstances and the date of appearance of the first TGS, localization of their initial areas, and identification of their respective decorative and morphological features. This is a necessary condition for identifying the starting points of the subsequent transit carriers of TGS' tradition and tracing the directions of interaction in Eurasia during the end of the Pleistocene – the first half of the Holocene period using TGS as markers. The initial database was formed on the basis of the scientific publications on the Near East. The following is a presentation of the analytical review of at least 200 grooved stones and 80 sites in their starting area in south-western Asia. The analysis used a systematic approach with emphasis on chronology, environment, petrography, morphology, functional-typological data where such were available, and TGS’ decor.  But first of all, the study pays attention to the distribution of TGS and their cultural and chronological boundaries in this region.  For this purpose, it was performed the mapping of findings in two chronological levels – up to 8000 thousand BCE and after, with the marking of decorated products. The results enabled us to detect that the geographical spread of grooved artefacts of this type is limited in the Near East to the area of central Anatolia and Fertile Crescent, with a boundary along the desert-steppes. At least three concentrations can be clearly distinguished: the Levant, Zagros Mountains, and Upper Mesopotamia - central Anatolia, where the products are characterized by specific features of decorative and morphological design and in one case (Levant) an additional observed petrographic specificity. Currently, the earliest cases are recorded in Early Natufian contexts in the Levant and in Epipalaeolithic contexts of the Anatolian plateau since the 13th millennium cal BCE. Thus, one can confidently state that the introduction of TGS in the Middle East is generally linked to the Epipalaeolithic sites (Natufian, Harifian, and Western Zarzian) and is definitely associated with hunter-gatherers. The heyday of TGS falls on the PPNA and lasts to the beginning of the early Bronze Age, when they finally disappear.

Early Bronze Age burial customs on the central Anatolian plateau: a view from Demircihöyük-Sarıket

2014 ◽  
Vol 64 ◽  
pp. 73-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michele Massa
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Central Anatolia ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Funerary Practices ◽  
Anatolian Plateau ◽  
Burial Customs ◽  
Complex Picture ◽  
Selection Of

AbstractThis paper focuses on the analysis of the cemetery of Demircihöyük-Sarıket, for which exists one of the largest Early Bronze Age funerary datasets published to date in Anatolia. The size and quality of the sample allow the dataset to be approached quantitatively, to determine both normative and anomalous funerary practices, and to detect distinct patterns of burial treatment for different segments of the population represented in the cemetery. Despite the small size of the community (ca 100–130 people), the results suggest a rather complex picture, in which the choice of specific burial containers, the relative wealth of grave assemblages and the selection of particular sets of items were dependent on differences in the age, gender, occupation and achieved status of the deceased. Comparison with other contemporary funerary assemblages helps to place Demircihöyük-Sarıket and these community-scale observations within their wider cultural context in central Anatolia.

The Chalcolithic on the Plateau

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ulf-Dietrich Schoop
Keyword(s):  
Central Anatolia ◽  
The Black Sea ◽  
Western Anatolia ◽  
Sea Of Marmara ◽  
Lake District ◽  
North Central ◽  
Anatolian Plateau ◽  
Black Sea Coast ◽  
The City ◽  
Sea Coast

This article outlines the present state of knowledge about the Chalcolithic sequence on the Anatolian plateau and in western Anatolia. Because archaeological knowledge is not represented continuously over the whole area, it will be treated in the context of seven larger regions: the central Anatolian Plain (including Cappadocia, with occasional references to Cilicia), the southwest Anatolian Lake District (a mountainous region around the city of Burdur), the Aegean coast (extending north into the Troad), the area around the Sea of Marmara, the Porsuk region (around the city of Eskişehir), the Black Sea coast (between the cities of Sinop and Trabzon), and north-central Anatolia within the bend of the Kızıl Irmak River. The discussion identifies the main archaeological traditions and their chronological relationships. It also offers an overview of the chronological arguments and contentious issues. All dates are given in calibrated radiocarbon values.

scholarly journals Thermal history of the western Central Taurides fold-thrust belt: Implications for Cenozoic vertical motions of southern Central Anatolia

Geosphere ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (6) ◽  
pp. 1927-1942 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter J. McPhee ◽  
Douwe J.J. van Hinsbergen ◽  
Stuart N. Thomson
Keyword(s):  
Surface Expression ◽  
Early Miocene ◽  
Central Anatolia ◽  
Thrust Belt ◽  
Current Position ◽  
Anatolian Plateau ◽  
Marine Sedimentation ◽  
Southern Central ◽  
History Of ◽  
Central Turkey

Abstract The modern physiography of central Turkey is dominated by the 1-km-high Central Anatolian Plateau and the Central Tauride mountains that form the southern plateau margin. These correspond to a Cretaceous–Eocene backarc extensional province and forearc fold-thrust belt, respectively. The extent to which the morphology of the Miocene plateau was inherited from the physiography of the Cretaceous–Eocene subduction zone that assembled the Anatolian crust has not been tested but is important if we are to isolate the signal of Miocene and younger subduction dynamics in the formation of the modern plateau margin. There is no known stratigraphic record of the post-Eocene pre-Miocene evolution of the Taurides. We therefore collected rock samples across the Taurides and used zircon (U-Th)/He (ZHe), apatite (U-Th)/He (AHe), and apatite fission-track (AFT) low-temperature thermochronometers to constrain cooling; we interpret these thermochronometers to signal erosional exhumation. We use inverse thermal modeling to aid interpretation of our results and find that: (1) thermochronometers across the Taurides were reset as a result of heating by the emplacement of the Antalya and Bozkır nappes; (2) AFT and ZHe Eocene cooling ages are related to structurally driven uplift and erosional exhumation on major thrust culminations; (3) dispersed AHe ages record low rates of Oligocene–early Miocene cooling and hence low rates of erosional exhumation; and (4) fast rates of cooling were determined for samples along the margin of the Köprüçay Basin. We interpret that early Miocene cooling is a signal of active erosion of the western Central Taurides at a time of marine sedimentation in the Mut Basin on the southern Central Taurides, and these differing histories may reflect evolution above the Antalya and Cyprus slabs. Our thermochronological data, the enigmatic development of the Antalya Basin, and thrusting within the basin may be explained as the surface expression of stepwise delamination of the Antalya slab from the Tauride hinterland to its current position below the Gulf of Antalya since early Miocene time over a distance of ∼150 km.

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