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Chapter 1.2: Anatolia before 4000 B.C.
Note 1: covers the VII (b) chapter of CAH
Note 2: all dates are BC, unless
otherwise indicated
Note 3: All references outside CAH are
referred to in the text
Note 4: with the new discoveries
made every day, this and the following chapters may be somewhat out of date
on certain points, they will be updated with further readings later on as
soon as possible
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Generalities
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The term “Anatolia” covers Turkey and Cilicia up to the Amanus and the Eastern Taurus
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It extends as much as a line drawn
between Calais and the Russian border
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Most of this highland country lies 600m
or more above sea level
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It was mostly covered with forests at
the time
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It is limited north and south by
mountainous ranges and has few coasts; communication was thus limited
mainly to the west-east axis. It is particularly true between the high plateau
and the west coast, with four main roads. On the high plateau itself,
communication is quite easy.
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The mountains must have been inhabited
both by nomads and settled inhabitants, although no remains of houses have
been found so far
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Neolithic Anatolia
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Anatolia was one of the centers of
evolution from food-gathering to food-production in the 8th and
7th millennia, yet it wasn’t a uniform process over the region. Antalya presents an uninterrupted
sequence from Upper Paleolithic to Neolithic (about 7000). Blades were
found on different levels, and pottery and obsidian appear at the top
levels at some sites. The occupation stopped in favor of that of the Cilician plain afterwards, since the latest offered
agricultural possibilities the rocky forest-covered Antalya couldn’t.
South Anatolia developed differently,
partly thanks to the trade of obsidian with Syria and Palestine as early as 8300 circa,
which was exchanged there with tabular flint. There has been no evidence of
Upper Paleolithic found so far, even though the remains found at Avla Dag preceded
those of Catal Hüjük
(6700-5700). The earliest permanent settlements known are those of Suberde (6850) and Hacilar
(7000).
There were no architectural remains in the first levels of Suberde, but mud-bricks houses appear later on; the
same, on stone foundation are found on 7 levels at Hacilar.
They were built one against the other for both less labor and more
protection.
Both economies relied on hunting, although agriculture was known for sure
at Hacilar. Few artifacts have been found so far,
although remains of skillfully made pottery have been found in the later
levels (around 5000) .
Our knowledge of Catal
Hüjük
(or Catalhöjük, Catal Hoyuk) –the first real city with its thousands of
inhabitants-
and its 14 levels (6700-5700, it will then be moved across the river) is
far greater. Its economy relied on hunting, advanced agriculture,
stock-breeding and trade. The
diet there was the most diversified in the Near East during Neolithic. The use of
stones coming from as far as north Syria and the Red Sea proves the existence of trade
between those regions, and the city is actually labeled as a trade
center. Metals like lead and copper were used since circa 6500. Pottery
is known, but barely used until 5900. About 100 years later, attempts to
decorate the cream ware are made; meanwhile, basketry and wooden vessels
are heavily used. As for clothes, fur, felt and fine textiles have been
found, along with bone accessories. The stone industry was greatly diversified,
although flint was rare and microlith unknown.
The one-roomed rectangular houses
of plastered mud-bricks walls with adjoined storeroom were grouped in
quarters and entered from an opening part-way up the wall, accessed to by a
ladder. The
houses also had usually one or two platforms. Each such complex had its own
building reserved for cult. The shrines were adorned with religious
decoration and cult statues of great refinement and diversity, as well as
plaster reliefs. Wall-painting is common from
level X, as well as symbolic representations from everyday life. The Mother
Goddess and the fertility cult were at the center of the religion at
the time, and may be considered a precursor to the cult of Cybele later on.
Also to be noted at that time, the importance of a male deity,
represented either as a child, adolescent or father figure, that of the
leopard, either associated with the male deity or the Mother Goddess, and
very remarkable wall-paintings representing death.
copyright©Architecture Audio-Visual Resources
The settlements developed at Mersin and in the Amuq plain (Syria) were probably off-shots of
the Catal Hüjük
culture, which origins remain unexplained.
Late Neolithic is represented at Hacilar, occupied then (5700-5600) by newcomers under Catal Hüjük influence. Hunting,
and therefore, flint industry and the place of man in the cult, declined
steadily, replaced by a gritty cereal-based diet. The cult became
domestic, as now each home has its own statues. The arrangement of
houses is new, around open courtyards and following narrow alleys, and
the settlement is surrounded by a defensive wall.
While the chipped stone industry
diminishes, those of polish stone, bone and shell flourish. The pottery
continues its development from that of Catal Hüjük, with new forms and richer decoration, while wood
ware is receding. This pottery is well distributed in west Anatolia.
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Early Chalcolithic
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The early Chalcolithic
seems to be a continuation from late Neolithic, although some changes
occur, especially the receding of the monochrome ware present till
then in favor of a polychrome one, and of the chipped industry as a
result of the appearance of metal. Of this period, only 3 sites are known: Mersin,
Hacilar and Catal Hüjük, and are contemporary with Hassunah
(circa 5600-4800).
The most complete
picture from this period comes from Hacilar
(level II). The settlement was surrounded by a very thick fortification
wall provided with salients and small
buttresses, as well as 3 doorways at least. There were one-roomed houses
with an ante-room and some were topped by another story. There were also specialized
buildings such as a granary, three potter’s workshops, a well and a
shrine. It was probably destroyed by fire.
Those who came after (5250 circa) built
a bigger fortress by leveling the lower slopes. Blocks of rooms were built
around a 100 meters large open space. Yet even its thick wall (up to 4
meters) couldn’t contain those who burned and killed in the early 5th
millennium.
During this time, no changes are witnessed
from late Neolithic in either economy or stone industry. However, advances
are made in pottery, especially at Catal Hüjük West, where forms are more varied, and reserve
patterns occur; these are generally richer than those of either Mersin or Cilicia. But the best example is
found at Hacilar, so good that even its
successors will not reach such a quality, not just because of the clay
used, but mostly thanks to the talent and imagination of the potters in the
decoration that is more reminiscent of that found in Peru than elsewhere in
the Near East.
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Late Chalcolithic
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All the settlements quoted in “Early Chalcolithic” were either burnt or deserted forever,
and it is therefore difficult to establish a complete sequence up to the
beginnings of history.
If one would be hard pressed to identify
a “middle Chalcolithic” outside the region of Cilicia, at least a “late Chalcolithic”
is represented by the 25 levels at Beycesultan,
the pottery itself being divided into four stages, late Chalcolithic
I-IV. The end of the 2nd stage has been dated as circa 4300, as
is the beginning of southern ‘Ubaid. Also at that
point, copper seems to have become common and in use in nearly every
household.
Late Chalcolithic
I-II was contemporary to the Mersin culture XIX to XVIa,
where Halaf pottery was first
imported and then imitated, until level XVII that shows a new type of
pottery, characteristically a cream-slipped ware, seemingly confined to Mersin with no likeness to that of Mesopotamia. The same can be said for architecture,
with again traces of a fortress, smaller in size than that of Hacilar, and one-storied, but the walls were flancked by two projecting towers, as well as other
architectural advances compared to the older one (which is logical,
considering that they are separated by almost a millennium).
So far it is unclear whether Mersin XIX-XVII is due to newcomers or to increased
contact with Halaf, as proofs found tend to lead
to contradictory conclusions, at least in the east. But in the south-west,
at Beycesultan, there is a clear break between Hacilar I and Late Chalcolithic,
probably due to a movement from the north of “barbarians” with a far less
advanced culture, as the remains of a much simpler pottery than its
predecessor indicate.
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