Zoomorphic imagery and social process during the Early Bronze Age (original) (raw)
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ANIMAL FIGURINES DURING THE EARLY BRONZE AGE OF ANATOLIA: THE CASE OF KOÇUMBELİ
2019
his thesis aims to understand the use of animal figurines at the Early Bronze Age site of Koçumbeli in social context. In order to achieve this aim, 20 animal figurines from Koçumbeli have been examined in terms of their thematic representations, raw materials, production technique, color, breakage as well as their contexts. Thematic evaluations focus on the animals depicted and their sex and age, while the contextual evaluations focus on the spatiality of animal figurines in relation to domestic and burial contexts. Following this, where possible through the publications, the animal figurines discovered at other EBA sites of Anatolia are evaluated in similar terms, in an attempt to achieve a better understanding of the figurines under consideration. The thematic findings indicate that horned animals are particularly emphasized both within the corpus of Koçumbeli and other sites. Besides these, other animals can be found within the assemblages. The contextual evaluations suggest that the clay animal figurines are generally associated with domestic contexts whereas the metal figurines are associated with elite burial contexts. Based on an evaluation of these findings against the subsistence economy of the time period as well as the development of animal imagery during the prehistory of Anatolia, it is suggested that animal figurines mediate a negotiation of social identity and prestige of individuals and families with reference to beliefs and rituals of social regeneration. Their specialized production in metals and association with elite burials should be placed in context of the emerging centralization processes during EBA in Anatolia.
Through analysis of a figurine assemblage from the site of Koçumbeli-Ankara, this study aims to re-evaluate the origins, meanings and functions of the Early Bronze Age (third millennium BC) anthropomorphic figurines of Anatolia. Conventional typological approaches to figurines are often focused on their origins and sex; however, such approaches hinder an understanding of the context of the norms of production, display and discard within which the figurines become more meaningful. Following an examination of breakage patterns and the decorative aspects of the Koçumbeli assemblage, a comparative review of figurine find contexts, raw materials and abstraction scales in Anatolia is provided, so that the social concerns underlying the use of these figurines can be explored. It is concluded that the origins of the figurines are difficult to pinpoint, due to the presence of similar items across a variety of regions of the Near East from the later Neolithic onwards. The sex of the figurines is equally ambiguous; while some human sexual features can be discerned, it is difficult to decide whether these features are ‘male’, ‘female’, both or beyond classification. Alternatively, the decoration, breakage and find contexts of the figurines suggest that the imagery was embedded in more complex perceptions of social status, death and social regeneration. The need for materialisation of these concerns in the form of the figurines could be related to the development of a new social landscape of interaction leading to political centralisation by the second millennium BC. Furthermore, the figurines were produced through a meaningful linking of particular raw materials and particular abstraction scales to particular use contexts, which seems to have shifted during the centralisation process. Özet Bu çalışma, Koçumbeli-Ankara’da bulunan figürin grubunun analizi aracılığıyla, Anadolu’nun Erken Tunç Çağı (M.Ö. 3. binyıl) antropomorfik figürinlerinin kökenlerini, anlamlarını ve işlevlerini yeniden değerlendirmeyi amaçlamaktadır. Geleneksel tipolojik yaklaşımlar, çoğunlukla figürinlerin stilistik kökeni ve cinsiyetine odaklanmaktadır; ancak bu gibi yaklaşımlar, figürinleri anlamlı kılan bir düzen içinde gerçekleşen üretim, sergileme ve kullanımdan kaldırma gibi davranışların bağlamının anlaşılmasını engellemektedir. Çalışmada, Koçumbeli figürin topluluğunun kırılma kalıplarının ve dekoratif özelliklerinin incelenmesinden sonra, Anadolu’da bulunan diğer figürinlerin bağlamları, hammadde özellikleri ve soyutlanma dereceleri karşılaştırmalı olarak incelenmekte; ve böylece söz konusu figürinlerin kullanımının arka planındaki sosyal kaygılar araştırılmaktadır. Ulaşılan sonuçlara göre, figürinlerin kökenleriyle ilgili bir sonuca ulaşmak güçtür, zira benzer tarz ve temalardaki figürinler Neolitik Dönem’den itibaren Yakın Doğu’nun çeşitli bölgelerinde bulunabilmektedir. Figürinlerin cinsiyeti de aynı derecede belirsizdir; her ne kadar bazı insan cinsiyet ögeleri dikkat çekse de, bu özelliklerin ‘erkek’, ‘kadın’, her ikisi birden veya sınıflandırmanın ötesinde olup olmadığına karar vermek zordur. Diğer yandan, dekorasyon, kırılma ve buluntu bağlamları üzerinden değerlendirildiğinde, figürin imgeleminin, sosyal statü, ölüm ve toplumsal yenilenme gibi karmaşık kavramların o dönemdeki algıları ile ilişkili olabileceği gözlenmektedir. Bu kavramlarla ilgili kaygıların figürin biçiminde nesnelleştirilmesine duyulan ihtiyaç, M.Ö. 2. binyılda siyasi merkezileşmeye yol açacak olan yeni bir etkileşim ortamının gelişmesi ile ilgilidir. Daha da ilginci, figürin üretiminde, hammadde tercihleri, soyutlanma ölçekleri ve buluntu bağlamları arasında anlamlı bir ilişki kurulmaktadır; ki bu ilişki merkezileşme süreci boyunca dönüşüme uğramıştır.
Beyond gender: Approaches to anthropomorphic imagery in prehistoric central Anatolia
Gender transformation in prehistoric and archaic societies, 2019
Prehistoric anthropomorphic figurines are probably one of the most widely discussed and possibly the most poorly understood archaeological objects of all. The engendering of Anatolian prehistory using figurines and visual representations of people has not progressed much beyond defining which figure is male or female or, in most cases, which figure represents a god or goddess. This article aims to take apart the Mother Goddess theory and discuss how it was created and why it is problematic for feminist scholarship. Many interpretations of figurines have been proposed in previous decades; they incorporate such concepts as embodiment, materiality, and gender. As a case study, this paper concentrates on Köşk Höyük, a central Anatolian Late Neolithic and Chalcolithic site, with the aim to have a broader look at the visual imagery. The anthropomorphic representations on relief-decorated pottery and the figurines found at Köşk Höyük have typically been interpreted as representations of gods and goddesses, despite ongoing critiques of the Mother Goddess theory. This paper analyses representations of gendered identities, based on visual media, in order to gain a better understanding of the function and use of such representations. Keywords: Neolithic, Chalcolithic, Anatolia, figurines, Mother Goddess, performativity, gender
– Karina Croucher Exchanges of Identity in Prehistoric Anatolian Figurines
2016
This paper examines exchange imagery and ideology of the human body manifested through figurines from prehistoric (7 th –6 th millennia BC) Anatolian contexts. These figurines document local, regional and interregional communication of identity, use of materials, ideologies and skills. Taking a new approach to understanding the assemblages, this paper suggests four key themes of analysis: materials and materiality; fractured bodies; gender spectrum; and ambiguities and relationships.
Figurines, Fertility, and the Emergence of Complex Society in Prehistoric Cyprus
Current Anthropology, 1996
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Anatolica, 2021
This work offers an assessment of a small assemblage of anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figurines from the Early Chalcolithic (phase II) and the Middle Chalcolithic (phase III) settlements at Gülpınar in northwestern Anatolia. The main goal is to place the figurine assemblage from both phases within its wider context and try to understand the repercussions of choices made in Gülpınar regarding the making and use of these objects. The assemblage from both phases II and III at Gülpınar complements the general discussions on the use and meaning of figurines within a wide geographical area that includes western Anatolia, Aegean, and the Balkans.
The agency of 'things' in social networks has been the topic of several previous studies. This paper focuses on archaeological things, or artifacts, and exemplifies with three case studies how certain factors complicate the modern understanding of the past human-thing networks that these artifacts are involved with. These factors include the bygone nature of the networks and the involvement of time and culture-specific beliefs, such as magic, that determined the social processes. As the main factor of complication, this paper proposes a certain agency attributed to artifacts, here named the “imagined” agency, which could be thought of as an extension of primary agency, but differs from it in the sense that the thing was “imagined” to act in now-lost social processes. When combined with the intrinsic material qualities of the thing, imagined agency results in a problematic comprehension in multiple layers; once, when the artifact was imagined to be something that it is not; second, when its own material agency acts; and third, when it is interpreted by the archaeologist. As a result, the treatise on an ancient artifact may end up being several times removed from reality, when imagined agency is added to or clashes with the intrinsic material quality of the artifact.