Elif Unlu | Bogazici University (original) (raw)

Papers by Elif Unlu

Style as Representation of Political Hegemony? A View from the Edge of the Hittite Kingdom, 2022

This article investigates the question of style on a particular material culture and if one can g... more This article investigates the question of style on a particular material culture and if one can gain
perspective into a region’s changing contingencies by exploring a longue durée assessment of shifts in
pottery production traditions and consumption trends. The focus of this article is the north-east corner
of the Mediterranean; namely the plains of Cilicia and Amuq. During Late Bronze Age the so-called
‘Hittite’ pottery known from the urban centres of Central Anatolia dominates the local pottery repertoire
of these regions as they fold into the Hittite political control. This pottery is easily distinguishable by
its shape repertoire and by the fact that it has minimum surface treatment. This is in stark contrast to
the earlier Middle Bronze Age pottery tradition in the region, where painted decoration was used quite
frequently, especially on serving vessels. This continues until the disintegration of the Hittite political
territory, a period well attested in both settlements of Tarsus-Gözlükule in Cilicia and Tell Tayinat in
the Amuq. This time with the appearance of the Aegean type pottery painted decoration becomes once
again an important part of the assemblage representing a drastically different understanding of proper
tableware both in form and surface treatment, which coexists with the plain central Anatolian style
pottery indicating a complex process of acculturation and imitation.

TECHNOLOGICAL AND STYLISTIC EVALUATION OF THE EARLY BRONZE AGE POTTERY AT TARSUS-GOZLUKULE, TURKE... more TECHNOLOGICAL AND STYLISTIC EVALUATION OF THE EARLY BRONZE AGE POTTERY AT TARSUS-GOZLUKULE, TURKEY: POTTERY PRODUCTION AND ITS INTERACTION WITH ECONOMIC, SOCIAL, AND CULTURAL SPHERES Elif Unlu Dr. Tom F Tartaron This dissertation presents a technological and stylistic assessment of Early Bronze Age pottery production at Tarsus-Gozlukule, a multi-period mound settlement located in the Cilician Plain in southern Turkey. Pottery production, like all other man-made objects, is firstly a technological act. This dissertation maintains that material style (involving formal, technical, and decorative choices expressed by the artisan) of an artifact should be investigated as a whole as such an integrative study would be the most adequate way of understanding economic circumstances, social representation, and cultural boundaries. To facilitate this integrative investigation, seventy-two samples of Early Bronze Age pottery excavated from Tarsus-Gozlukule in the 1930s and 1940s.were selected fo...

AJA, 2011

Excavations at Hacımusalar Höyük in southwestern Turkey have uncovered thousands of years of occu... more Excavations at Hacımusalar Höyük in southwestern Turkey have uncovered thousands of years of occupation history, from the Early Bronze Age through the Late Byzantine era. This article offers a general survey of the Bronze Age occupation levels so far explored on
the northern and western slopes of the mound, with particular focus on two well-preserved Early Bronze II destruction levels, closely superimposed. We present selected finds and architectural features from each stratigraphic level in sequence and discuss their significance
for current theories of cultural interaction and social organization in West Anatolia in the Early Bronze Age. This new evidence indicates that Hacımusalar Höyük and the Elmalı plain were more connected with other parts of Anatolia than recent studies of Early Bronze Age cultural zones suggest but still maintained a distinctive regional character.

The Archaeology of Anatolia, Volume III, 2019

Cedrus, 2017

Öz: Konya İli Beyşehir İlçesi Fasıllar Anıtı ve Çevresi Yüzey Araştırması kapsamında yapılan çalı... more Öz: Konya İli Beyşehir İlçesi Fasıllar Anıtı ve Çevresi Yüzey Araştırması kapsamında yapılan çalışmalar böl-genin Neolitik Çağ'dan itibaren yoğun bir yerleşim için-de olduğunu destekleyen kanıtlar sunmuştur. Bu çalış-manın konusunu oluşturan, Beyşehir İlçesi sınırları için-de ve araştırma alanımız dahilinde yer alan Erken Tunç Çağı'na ait üç yerleşim; Çemçem, Karahisar ve Yazyur-du II Höyükleri çalışmamız kapsamında seçilmiştir. Bir ön rapor niteliğinde sunulan bu çalışmayla, dönem için karakteristik kap formlarını içeren merkezler üzerinden bölgenin söz konusu dönemdeki seramik geleneğinin anlaşılması amaçlanmıştır. Araştırmamızın bir diğer ko-nusunu oluşturan rotalar ve yerleşimlerin dağılımını içeren veriler de bu kapsamda ele alınarak değerlendi-rilmiştir. Abstract: Survey results in the environs of Fasıllar Monument in Beyşehir, Konya indicate that this region has been densely settled since the Neolithic Period. This article investigates three mounds with evidence of Early Bronze Age occupation located within the boundaries of our survey area in Beyşehir, namely Çemçem, Karahisar and Yazyurdu II. Characteristic ceramics are identified in order to define the Early Bronze Age pottery tradition of the region as a preliminary study. Data obtained on settlement patterns through different periods is also evaluated to elucidate the prehistoric routes utilized in the region.

Hacettepe University, Journal of Faculty of Letters, 2017

A survey Project in the Environs of Fasıllar Monument is being carried at the Beyşehir district i... more A survey Project in the Environs of Fasıllar Monument is being carried at the Beyşehir district in Konya since 2012 under the auspices of Hacettepe University encompassing an area of 40 km. in diameter around the Fasıllar Monument. The objective of this survey is to locate Hittite Period settlements within the designated area and to obtain information on the historical geography of the region.
The geological structure of Beyşehir and its surrounding is karstic and therefore contains abundant fresh underground water sources. Beyşehir Lake is a result of the accumulation of these waters and is further connected to Manavgat through a complicated underground water systems. Therefore, the region is very fertile and suitable for agriculture. Undoubtedly, that is the reason why the area has been a place of settlement since the Neolithic Period. However, the settlement and archaeological records belonging to the Late Bronze Age which constitute the subject of this study have been introduced by a limited number of archaeological surveys. The lack of archaeological work in progress or any systematic excavation in the region is the reason for the inadequate recognition of material that belong to the period.
The survey also aims to elucidate ancient road systems connecting Fasıllar and its environs. For this purpose Late Bronze Age settlements within the survey area have been recorded and geographically mapped. In this article, ceramic samples collected from the settlements that date back to the Late Bronze Age in the immediate vicinity of the Fasıllar monument are examined and presented as a preliminary report. The aim of this study is to understand the local ceramic industry during the Late Bronze Age along with nding out the interaction networks and differences between the survey area and its neighboring regions by investigating stylistic comparisons.

Keywords: Konya – Beyşehir, Late Bronze Age, ceramics, Hittite

Connecting Cultures, 2019

The third millennium is a formative period for eastern Mediterranean where many settlements start... more The third millennium is a formative period for eastern Mediterranean where many settlements start becoming urban centers. An important aspect of the urbanization process is the transformation of the agricultural base from subsistence production to creating value added foodstuffs. In eastern Mediterranean the two very important agricultural commodities are wine and olive oil as it is evidenced within the textual corpus from later periods. Employing agriculture not only for subsistence, but also to produce value added foodstuffs transformed economic, demographic, and cultural spheres in these regions. The latter is especially affected since foodstuffs have a profound impact on a society’s customs. One important method of understanding these changes is through studying ceramics which reflect the eating and drinking habits of a society to a great degree.
Tarsus-Gözlükule, located on the fertile alluvial Cilician plain, has a hinterland very suitable for agriculture and is also strategically positioned at important trade networks connecting central Anatolia, Syro-Anatolia, and eastern Mediterranean. Therefore, it makes a good candidate to understand the changes taking place as the settlement transforms itself from an agrarian village to a small urban center with specialized production and organized spatial layout. At Tarsus-Gözlükule it is possible to trace these transformations within both the local ceramic repertoire and through the imports. This article aims to evaluate this formative period in eastern Mediterranean by assessing the Early Bronze Age ceramics from this point of view.

KAZI SONUÇLARI TOPLANTISI 1. CİLT 40 , 2019

Report of the Tarsus-Gözlükule Excavations 2017 season in Cilicia, Turkey

AJA, 2019

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, a... more JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

by Mirko Novák, Aslı Özyar, Anna Lucia D'Agata, Marie-Henriette Gates, Charles Gates, Özlem Oyman Girginer, Eric JEAN, ekin kozal, Gunnar Lehmann, Fatma Şahin, Elif Unlu, Christine Eslick, and Tülay Özaydın

Altorientalische Forschungen, 2017

This article presents a preliminary comparative stratigraphy of excavated sites in Plain Cilicia ... more This article presents a preliminary comparative stratigraphy of excavated sites in Plain Cilicia and one in Rough Cilicia. It is the outcome of three workshops held in 2014, 2015 and 2017. Plain Cilicia at the junction of Anatolia, Syro-Mesopotamia and Cyprus is one of the most fertile regions of the Ancient Near East. In recent years, archaeological research in the region has intensified, reopening questions of chronology. The comparative stratigraphy discussed in the workshops is presented here in form of a gazetteer of the participating sites and a chart. This is to be understood as a first step towards a more comprehensive chronology.

Founded in the Neolithic Period on the banks of the Kydnos/Berdan River, the settlement mound of ... more Founded in the Neolithic Period on the banks of the Kydnos/Berdan River, the settlement mound of Gözlükule in Tarsus, Cilicia took its present shape over the course of more than eight millennia. The site continued to be used for monuments and habitation in the Ottoman and following Turkish Republican period. During the 19 th century European diplomats and travelers in the region began to pay attention to the mound as the locus of remains associated with classical Tarsos and dug sondages in search of antiquities (Goldman 1950: 297-8). Some of these antiquities are today in the collections of the British Museum and the Louvre. It was not until pioneering female archaeologist Hetty Goldman and her team began to excavate the mound in search of settlement remains during the early years of the Turkish Republican period, with an official permit, that the longevity of habitation at the site was realized. Their expedition started in the years before World War II and concluded shortly after. The project was mainly sponsored by Bryn Mawr College, still home to the Goldman excavation archives, and partly by the Fogg Museum of Harvard University and the Archaeological Institute of America. The results of fieldwork were published in a series of preliminary reports; for a bibliography see Goldman 1950: v-vi. These were followed by a final analysis in three volumes of text accompanied by three volumes of plates documenting the exposed depth of stratification and associated finds down 1 This section provided by Aslı Özyar.

Eds.): Questions, Approaches, and Dialogues in Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology. Studies in Hono... more Eds.): Questions, Approaches, and Dialogues in Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology. Studies in Honor of Marie-Henriette and Charles Gates Alter Orient und Altes Testament 445 © 2017 Ugarit-Verlag -Buch-und Medienhandel Münster w w w . u g a r i t -v e r l a g . c o m A l l r i g h t s r e s e r v e d . N o p a r t o f this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, e l e c t r o n i c , m e c h a n i c a l , photo-copying, recording, or otherwise, w i t h o u t t h e p r i o r p e r m ission of the publisher. P r i n t e d i n G e r m a n y I S B N 9 7 8 -3 -8 6 8 3 5 -251-1

Fermented drinks have been socially and economically important since their advent, not only becau... more Fermented drinks have been socially and economically important since their advent, not only because they are functionally significant in preserving calories, but also as value-added foodstuffs incorporated into symbolically important ceremonies and feasts to increase the social value of an individual or a group's status. Towards the end of the third millennium BC, just as wine was becoming an important commodity, the manifestation of this emphasis on the communal consumption of alcoholic beverages can be observed in the material culture of Anatolia and the Aegean with the so-called 'west Anatolian drinking set' consisting of drinking cups with characteristically oversized handles and beak-spouted pitchers. Against the backdrop of the socioeconomic reasons for the distribution of this particular drinking set over a wide geographical area, the focus of this article is on their impact upon the prevailing local pottery traditions and the local adaptation of these vessels into the traditional repertoire where the importance of the oversized handles is recognized.

The transition from the LBA to the EIA in the eastern Mediterranean is one of the most debated pe... more The transition from the LBA to the EIA in the eastern Mediterranean is one of the most debated periods in archaeology marked by the collapse of regional powers, a shift from urban and centralized organization to a more rural one, migrations, and an overall heterogeneity in material culture. New excavations and reevaluation of old excavations conducted in the last two decades confirmed that the narrative of the so−called ‘Dark Ages’ is more nuanced and multifaceted. This article contributes to this discussion by investigating a local painted pottery style spanning the LBA and EIA periods in the northeastern region of Mediterranean. The focus of this study is the mound of Tarsus−Gözlükule in Cilicia, but a regional perspective is provided by tying in other settlements from Cilicia and the Amuq. The aim is to synthesize new and old information in order to create a more fine−tuned stratigraphy and to understand the processes of both change and continuity for this period.