The Netherlands Institute for the Near East

Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten  -  Institut néerlandais du Proche-Orient

Anatolica XXXVII

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Book Specifications
274 pp.

Anatolica XXXVII

2011  |  Anatolica Volume 37 2011 ISSN: 0066-1554; 37

Table of Contents

Abstracts

Neolithic Communities in the Eastern Marmara Region: Aktopraklık C

The increased amount of archaeological research in Northwestern Anatolia means that not only have many questions about the prehistoric occupation of this region been answered, but also new problems have arisen. Aktopraklık, excavated since 2004, is one of those settlements that contributes significantly to this matter . The data obtained from the strata investigated so far in the settlement shows uninterrupted occupation from the middle of the 7th millennium BC to the middle of the 6th millennium BC, including the earliest occurrence of Neolithic pottery in the region and the transition from the Early to the Middle Chalcolithic. The excavations, geomagnetic surveys, and surface scans demonstrate that the different stages of occupation at Aktopraklık were not superimposed on each other, but rather either shifted horizontally and down the slope or from one valley ridge to the other opposite (Karul, 2007: 391-392). Although this circumstance made it difficult for the excavators who started work 6 years ago to establish a reliable stratigraphy, they managed to establish a chronological sequence for each of the different site locations within the settlement called A, B, and C. At Aktopraklık C the earliest Neolithic strata of the settlement were found. This article provides an overview of the pottery that occurred in Aktopraklık C, and ends with an appraisal on the chronology and cultural links with contemporary sites. The many Neolithic and Early Chalcolithic burials from this settlement are the subject of a separate article in this volume by Songül Alpaslan Roodenberg. — Necmi Karul and Mert Bertan Avcı

A Preliminary Study of the Burials from Late Neolithic–Early Chalcolithic Aktopraklık

Aktopraklık Höyük is one of the earliest farming sites in Northwest Anatolia. Since the investigations started in 2004 a large number of the burials was uncovered in and around the settlement reaching 60 individuals in the field season of 2010. Aktopraklık is unique with its separate cemetery of Early Chalcolithic age, because from this period no other examples are known of people burying their dead together in an specially chosen area outside their settlement. In this study the number of examined burials, which were excavated until 2009, is 42 including 37 adults and 7 infants and juveniles. Twelve burials unearthed in the settlement itself belong to the Early Chalcolithic period, and 32 individuals excavated in its cemetery belong to the Neolithic and Early Chalcolithic periods.
The number of children found from both periods is surprisingly low. Life expectancy of the females and males was almost equal and most adults died at middle or slightly older age. A rather large number of the male population exhibited bone fractures. Another male, who had a flint arrow stuck in his third lumbar vertebra, was quite certainly shot dead.
The majority of the population of Neolithic Aktopraklık had rather bad dental condition – males and females at equal rate, while in the following period it was the females who had the most affected teeth. Also related to the state of the teeth in females is the occurrence of grooves in the front teeth of some of them. These grooves probably resulted from the use of those teeth as a third hand – an activity that was probably related to weaving and basketry making. This feature was already observed in the female population of contemporary villages of Ilıpınar and Menteşe, and is therefore indicative for labour division between sexes in early farming communities of Northwest Anatolia. — M. Songül Alpaslan Roodenberg

A Preliminary Report from the 2009 and 2010 Field Seasons at Uğurlu on the Island of Gökçeada

A new excavation project at the site of Uğurlu on the island of Gökçeada (Imbroz) was initiated recently with the main aim of providing new data relating to the Neolithization of Southeast Europe. This paper presents the results of the first two seasons of fieldwork. — Burçin Erdoğu

Excavations at Ziyaret Tepe, Diyarbakır Province, Turkey, 2009-2010 Seasons

This article presents the results of the 2009 and 2010 excavation and geophysical survey seasons at Ziyaret Tepe, the Late Assyrian city of Tushhan, in southeastern Turkey, as well as the preliminary results of post-excavation analyses. Particular attention is given to the continuing excavation of a palace on the citadel, a large public administrative building, and a city gate in the lower town, and to the completion of a full-coverage magnetic gradiometry survey across the lower town. Geophysical survey recovered the location of three substantial buildings in the southeastern corner of the lower town; these will be investigated further in future seasons. Specialist reports on the zooarchaeological and paleobotanical reports add significant detail to our understanding of the architecture and excavated archaeological contexts and help to identify room function within the Assyrian buildings. Important epigraphic finds from the palace and lower town excavations are briefly treated, and chipped stone and phytolith analyses are also discussed. Finally, a brief summary is provided describing our conservation activities in conjunction with the regional Diyarbakır Archaeological Museum in preparing an important collection of ivory and bronze artifacts from the palace for long-term storage and display. The 2009 and 2010 seasons were a joint undertaking with a collaborative partnership between the Universities of Akron (US), Cambridge (UK), Mainz (Germany), and Marmara (Turkey). — Timothy Matney, Tina Greenfield, Britt Hartenberger, Chelsea Jalbrzikowski, Kemalettin Köroğlu, John MacGinnis, Anke Marsh, Martin Willis Monroe, Melissa Rosenzweig, Kristina Sauer, and Dirk Wicke

Downsizing a Ceremonial Center. A brief overview of the Late Bronze Age period at Hirbemerdon Tepe (SE Turkey)

The Upper Mesopotamia’s Late Bronze Age (LBA) is a period of dramatic socio-economic change that resulted in new forms of social organization and political control, which in turn led to the establishment of the Mitanni kingdom. In the upper Tigris river region, this phase is not well documented and only with the discovery of new data will it possible to compare this area with others of northern Mesopotamia. At Hirbermerdon Tepe, this phase is found in a clear context located above the architectural complex of the Middle Bronze Age.
This article will thus investigate the architecture and pottery available from the LBA contexts and try to set a possible standard for future research towards a better understanding of the communities that inhabited the region during this important chronological phase. — Lorenzo Crescioli and Nicola Laneri

Tell Tayinat in the Late Third Millennium. Recent investigations of the Tayinat Archaeological Project, 2008-2010

The Third millennium BCE witnessed the emergence of urbanism and the development of state-ordered society in Syro-Anatolia. Despite the considerable effort that has been expended documenting this rise of socio-cultural complexity, however, local cultural sequences and precise chronological frameworks are still lacking for much of the region. The Tayinat Archaeological Project (TAP), conceived within the framework of the Amuq Valley Regional Project (AVRP), seeks to address this problem for a pivotal area, refining the cultural sequence first established during the pioneering work of the Syro-Hittite Expedition in the 1930s on the Plain of Antioch (or Amuq Plain) in southeastern Turkey. This long-term research initiative will result in a cultural sequence capable of facilitating more focused multi-scalar regional analyses of the developments that occurred during this formative era. This report presents the preliminary results of the ongoing TAP investigations of the late third millennium levels at Tell Tayinat. They indicate that Tayinat was an important site, if not the central settlement, in the Amuq Plain during the latter part of the Early Bronze Age (or EB IV more specifically; ca. 2500-2000 BCE), and provide support for the possibility that Tayinat was the center of an early historical polity, as inferred by contemporary historical sources. — Lynn Welton, Stephen Batiuk, and Timothy P. Harrison, with contributions by David R. Lipovitch and Mairi Capper

In the Shadow of Ararat. Intensive surveys in the Araxes river region, Naxçivan, Azerbaijan

This paper presents the results of intensive archaeological surveys carried out at the confluence of the in Arpaçay and the Araxes Rivers, in the province of Sharur (Şərur), in the region of Naxçivan, Azerbaijan. The goals of the project were threefold. First, the survey team’s intention was to conduct an intensive pedestrian survey of the agricultural fields around the important Iron Age fortress of Oğlanqala in an effort to locate and record small sites within its immediate environs. Second, we set out to map and make systematic archaeological collections of a number of Middle Iron Age fortresses known to exist in the hills surrounding the Arpaçay River. Our third objective was to map and make systematic archaeological collections from eight Early Transcaucasian (ETC) sites identified in the region. — Bradley J. Parker, with assistance from Lauren Ristvet, Veli Baxşəliyev, Səfər Aşurov and Alex Headman

Die Nihrīya-Schlacht; Vorher und danach

Die Erkenntnisse, die zur Gleichsetzung von Urhi-Teššub mit dem trotz zahlreicher auffälligen Hinweise bisher merkwürdig-konturlos gebliebenen König von Zulapa geführt haben, zwingen zu einer Neubewertung der geschichtlichen Umstände der Schlacht von Nihrīya. Es gibt zahlreiche Gründe Urhi-Teššub länger in die Regierungszeit Tudhalijaš IV. hineinwirken zu lassen – eine logische Herausforderung für jedes frühe Datum der Nihrīya-Schlacht.
Ein wesentlicher Grund für die bisherige Annahme eines assyrisch-hethitischen Konfliktes, der der Periode des Dūr-Katlimmu Archivs vorausgegangen sein musste, war die Wahrnehmung darin belegter friedlicher Beziehungen. Diese Grundannahme beweist sich nach einer sorgfältigen Analyse als falsch. Eine neue Untersuchung des Archivs und verwandter zeitgenössischer Texte, wie RS 34.152, bevorzugt stattdessen das Bild sich schnell deteriorierender Beziehungen zwischen den zwei Reichen.
Die späte chronologische Platzierung der Schlacht ließe sie als Folgeerscheinung und Abschluss des 7-jährigen assyrischen Interregnums in Babylon aussehen. Dessen Schlussjahr, das Eponym Ina-Aššur-šumi-išbat bedeutet zugleich auch das Ende des Dūr-Katlimmu Archivs. Die Usurpation des babylonischen Throns durch einen nur VAT 17202 bekannten halb-hethitischen König namens Nabu-apal-iddina beendet dieses Interregnum. Die Usurpation eines „Nicht-Sohns des Kudur-Ilil“ ohne Namensangabe ist auch in anderen Quellen angedeutet. Dieser kann mit einiger Plausibilität der Ehe Kadašman-Turgus mit einer Tochter Hattušilis III. entsprungen sein. Die auf hethitisches Antreiben entstandene Situation erklärt sowohl das Ende der assyrischen Herrschaft über Babylon, wie auch den Zwang unter dem eine anfängliche Kooperation der kassitischen Eliten unter Adad-šum-usur, dem übergangenen Erben Kaštiliašus, und Tukultī-Ninurta I. entstand.
Die verspätete Intervention Tudhalijaš IV. scheitert im selben Jahr vor Nihrīya. Dort muss sie einer zufällig in Dūr-Katlimmu entstehenden assyrisch-kassitischen Truppenkonzentration begegnen, ursprünglich zum Einsatz gegen Babylon entstanden. Für die anfänglich hervorragenden Beziehungen Tukultī-Ninurtas I. und Adad-šum-usurs steht die Nennung eines līmu nach dem gefangenen Kaštiliašu. Dieser līmu gehört in die Zeit nach dem Dūr-Katlimmu Archiv und daher auch nach dem assyrischen Interregnum in Babylon. — Michael Bányai

When were the fortifications of the Upper City of Hattuša built?

The date of the fortification walls of the Upper City of Hattuša is still an unsolved problem. After critically discussing the earlier suggestions, the reign of Hantili I (presumably the last third of the 16th c.) is proposed as their construction date. This can be supported not only by philological, but also by archaeological evidence (the structure of the wall, the general history of the Upper City) and fits into the general pattern of the changes of the Central Anatolian settlements of this period (cf. Kuşaklı). — Zsolt Simon

The regular Roman auxiliary regiments formed from the provinces of Asia Minor

Knowing the recruitment patterns and the areas of service for the auxilia, the auxiliary units of the Roman Imperial Army, helps us better understand overall developments in Roman strategic thinking. In this regard the establishment of auxiliary units from the provinces of Asia Minor is of interest in pointing to Roman military thought and practice with regard to the Eastern provinces as a whole. This paper examines the history of those auxiliary units raised from Asia Minor in the light of these matters. It shows that until the emperor Trajan made heavy demands on this region for new units in connection with his Parthian War, the provinces concerned contributed very few locally raised units of Roman auxilia, and explains why this might be so. — Julian Bennett

Full text of Anatolica articles available online at Peeters Online Journals (€ 14 per article).