2012 | Anatolica Volume 38 2012 ISSN: 0066-1554; 38
The Turkish Government is currently implementing a substantial development program for southeastern Anatolia (the Güneydoğu Anadolu Projesi) that has already seen the building of a number of dams on the Euphrates and Tigris rivers and their tributaries. Another dam is now being erected just a few kilometers north of the modern town of Cizre. When completed, the dam’s reservoir will rise to the 409.4 m level and flood an area of ca. 21 square kilometers. Additionally, its water will be used to irrigate as much as 121,000 square hectares in the nearby Cizre-Silopi plain area. Spurred by these development plans, a multi-year effort was mounted between 1988 and 1990 to document the range of archaeological and historical sites that could be destroyed or damaged by these plans.
What follows is the final report of surveys in the areas affected by the Cizre Dam and its associated irrigation schemes. This report supersedes, and in many cases corrects, earlier preliminary reports of our work in the Cizre-Silopi region. Additionally, parts of it also complement new work conducted by Dr. Gülriz Kozbe (2008) and her team over much of the same area. Fieldwork took place over the course of 6 weeks, spread out between 1988 and 1989, and was made possible by the Department of Monuments and Museums of the Turkish Republic and the Salvage and Investigation of Historical and Archaeological Finds (TEKDAM) of Middle Eastern Technical University in Ankara. Research funds were obtained from a variety of private and governmental research foundations in the United States. — Guillermo Algaze, Emily Hammer, and Bradley Parker (with contributions by Ray Breuninger and James Knudstad)
The evidence for settlements of the Late Chalcolithic period in north-western inland Anatolia is extremely scarce. The excavations at Demircihüyük in the 1970ies yielded for the first time a substantial body of pottery material of this period, but with very limited stratigraphic information. Later on, the Late Chalcolithic cemetery excavated at Ilıpınar produced a large group of vessels similar to the shapes from Demircihüyük, but still difficult to evaluate. Now, after the publication of similar material from nearby Barcın Höyük, further clues have become evident. The purpose of this paper is a re-evaluation of the Demircihüyük material in the light of the new evidence, leading to an attempt at better differentiation of the pottery assemblages at the various sites. At the same time, a summary of the dispersed information available on the Late Chalcolithic settlement remains at Demircihüyük, including radiocarbon datings, is provided. — Jürgen Seeher
In the article a group of ceramic vessels, called the Jazirah Burnished Ware, from Tell Arbid (NE Syria) is discussed, based on archaeological examination and laboratory studies. They differ from local pottery of north-Mesopotamian tradition both in shape and technological aspects. Pottery of this type occasionally appears at sites in the Upper Khabur region alongside Ninevite 5 pottery with late excised decoration (EJ II). The Jazirah Burnished Ware from Tell Arbid takes the form of bowls (grey burnished carinated bowls, orange hemispherical bowls with ridged profile and rounded bowls with beaded rims), pot stands (some arrow-fenestrated and white-inlaid) and jars. Apart from their burnished surfaces, the vessels’ distinguishing features are their fabric, clay sources and firing conditions. Some characteristics of the Jazirah Burnished Ware, such as their shiny surface and specific color, could have made them transmitters of cultural information on their users and/or manufacturers. In search of the origins and affiliations of the Jazirah Burnished Ware, its relations with Anatolian and Transcaucasian pottery traditions are pointed out, based on the common traits of burnishing and white inlays. The presence of Jazirah Burnished Ware at sites in the Upper Khabur region can be regarded as a product of interregional relations between the Jazirah and the Upper Euphrates and Tigris founded on exchange of Eastern Anatolian resources (obsidian and metal) and on seasonal nomadic wanderings. — Anna Smogorzewska
The ANDAVAL stela represents one of the typical Neo-Hittite monuments in which hieroglyphic writing signs and iconographic elements complement each other. Since its rediscovery on June 25th 1890, many scholars have dealt with either the bas-relief of the male head or the Luwian hieroglyphic inscription, both depicted on the ANDAVAL lithic surface. The aim of this paper is to show how only a complete analysis of iconography, palaeography and content may suggest a plausible dating hypothesis for the monument. Such an all-accomplished investigation implies comparative studies especially among the Neo-Hittite monuments coming from Tuwana, Southern Cappadocia which are datable to the 8th century B.C. According to its “archaic” iconographic and palaeographic characteristics, the ANDAVAL stela may have been one of the first monuments realized in the Neo-Hittite kingdom of Tuwana. A dating of the piece to the 9th-very early 8th century B.C. is highly probable. — Silvia Balatti
Shortly before the publication of the cuneiform edition Keilschrifturkunden aus Boghazköi 60 (1990), the final volume of this series, all Boğazköy tablets bearing the siglum “Bo” were transferred from the Staatliches Museum in Berlin to the Museum of Ancient Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara in 1987. In this article the first results are presented of the research on some unpublished fragments from the range between Bo 9536 and Bo 9736. — Oğuz Soysal
During the preparations of the publication of the stelae of Arsuz (Iskenderun), which had been transferred from their original find spot in the grounds of the Naval Base to the garden of the Archaeological Museum of Hatay, we determined that some new hieroglyphic Hittite seals had been acquired by the museum since our last publication of the collections stored in the same museum in the year 1983. — Ali Dinçol, Belkıs Dinçol and Hasan Peker
This paper deals with the words pertaining to the names of metals in the Hittite texts. It aims at looking over the different words used in Hittite, from the semantic, morphological and etymological point of views, as well as concerning loanwords from different languages (Indo-European Luwian, or non Indo-European Hattian, Hurrian, Akkadian, Sumerian). — Sylvie Vanséveren
This paper is an inquiry on the cultic and ritual functions of the metallurgist in the Hittite religious ceremonies. Three main cultural areas are considered: the Kizzuwatna (Southern Anatolia), the Hattian heartland and the Luwian realm (Western Anatolia). In Kizzuwatna, the metallurgists create a new divine body for the deity whereas in the Hattian area, they are sometimes engaged in a contest. — Alice Mouton
The city of Emar is located along the Euphrate River where several civilizations have come in contact, some originating from the Levant region and Mesopotamia and others even from the Hittite Empire which ruled during the Late Bronze Age.
My research deals with the kind of cultural influences that can be found at Emar by studying the commercial routes as well as the metal artifacts excavated on the site and dating back to the end of Late Bronze Age. — Isabelle Weygand
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