Collapse or transformation? Regeneration and innovation at the turn of the first millennium BC at Arslantepe, Turkey (original) (raw)
Related papers
2015
B. Horejs – Ch. Schwall, New Light on a Nebulous Period – Western Anatolia in the 4th Millennium BC: Architecture and Settlement Structures as Cultural Patterns?, in: S. Hansen – P. Raczky – A. Anders – A. Reingruber (Hrsg.), Neolithic and Copper Age between the Carpathians and the Aegean Sea. Chronologies and Technologies from the 6th to the 4th Millennium BCE, Archäologie in Eurasien 31 (Bonn 2015) 457–474. The Late Chalcolithic period in Western Anatolia and the Eastern Aegean islands can be described as poorly investigated. In recent decades, however, the number of excavated sites dating to the 5th and 4th millennia BC has increased. Based on new excavation results from Çukuriçi Höyük, a site on the central Anatolian Aegean coast, in context with previously published studies of other sites, this contribution aims to shed new light on the Late Chalcolithic period in Western Anatolia. Our approach focuses on architectural remains and settlement structures which may point to cultural patterns in this region. It can be demonstrated that different construction techniques of Late Chalcolithic buildings are observable as local patterns. Stone socles and probably walls built entirely of stone are recorded in addition to walls built of mud bricks, or wattle-and-daub constructions. For the superstructure of these socles, walls of mud brick or of simple wattle-and-daub construction are known. From the architectural structures excavated so far, we categorize four principle types of domestic buildings in 4th millennium BC Western Anatolia: rectangular buildings, apsidal/elliptic buildings, circular structures and stone row structures. Solid building techniques with storage facilities as a general pattern in the Late Chalcolithic seem to indicate permanent settlements as the main living strategy. The closed character of the settlements – attested by enclosures or the villages’ spatial organisation – reflects some complex social organisation, even if monumental buildings have thus far not been identified.
Between the Aegean and the Hittites: The Western Anatolia in Second Millennium BC - FULLTEXT
STAMPOLIDIS, N. – Ç. MANER – K. KOPANIAS (eds.): NOSTOI. Indigenous Culture, Migration and Integration in the Aegean Islands and Western Anatolia during the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age (Istanbul 2015) 81‒114., 2015
Western Anatolia played a more or less prominent role in a number of archaeological and historical scenarios over the years, notwithstanding the fact that, despite more than a century of research, we still largely know only the coastal sites. The vast area between the coast and the Anatolian plateau is known only from surveys, with the sole exception of Beycesultan. It is therefore necessary to develop a new chronological periodisation and cultural scheme, appropriate to the fragmentary survey material and lacking stratigraphies. Both will be proposed in this paper. Using the latest information on Troy, Liman Tepe, Bademgediği Tepe, and Miletus together with firsthand knowledge of material from both East Aegean littoral islands and the West Anatolian inland sites, the article discusses the available settlement structure, makes use of some basic GIS applications, draws eventual cultural boundaries based on pottery distribution, and attempts to compare the thus gained archaeological groupings with the currently valid so-called Hittite political geography for Western Anatolia. Finally, it proposes some lines of thought concerning the identity of the population in the individual archaeologically identifiable cultural groupings.