Köşk Höyük
Coordinates: 37 ° 50 ′ 51 ″ N , 34 ° 36 ′ 44 ″ E
Köşk Höyük is a settlement mound northeast of the village of Bahçeli near Kemerhisar , the ancient Tyana in today 's Niğde Province , Turkey ( Cappadocia ). It is located on the Bor plain, south of the Melendiz Mountains, near a spring.
Structure and research history
The hill consists of limestone and was terraced for settlement purposes as early as the Neolithic . This settlement had external dimensions of around 100 × 90 meters and left cultural layers up to 6 meters high. The uppermost layer (I) dates from the early Chalcolithic (about 5000–4750 BC), the lower four strata (II-V) belong to the ceramic Neolithic and were determined by radiocarbon determinations between 6300 and 5600 BC. Dated. Parts of the settlement were damaged between 1989 and 1995 when a reservoir was built. Köşk Höyük was discovered in 1961 by M. Ballance, in 1964 R. Harper and M. Ramsden visited the site again. Uğur Silistreli from Ankara University led the first excavations from 1981 until his death in 1991 . Aliye Öztan and Süleyman Özkan have continued the excavations since 1995.
Findings
In the uppermost Chalcolithic stratum, a workshop for copper processing with a furnace was uncovered. In all Neolithic layers, the houses have a trapezoidal to square floor plan and two to four rooms. In these houses there is at least one clay platform and a fireplace, and in almost every room there are also storage vessels. Some buildings had extensions. Several houses form a parcel between which there was a narrow, winding road network with a few squares. A wall painting in Layer III (6000–5600 BC) depicts a hunting scene.
Burials
Graves are known from Layer III and Layer II above. Children and infants were more likely to be buried under the houses in the floors, while adults found their final resting place outside the settlement. Without exception, the dead were buried in a crouched position and given gifts.
Some skulls were over-modeled with clay or plaster, partly painted red and black and placed on the above-mentioned clay benches. Together with a skull from Çatalhöyük , these are the only skulls from Anatolia that have been modeled so far, while the custom in the Levant is widespread in the PPNB , for example in Jericho and ʿAin Ghazal . In Köşk Höyük, a child's skull from Layer III (Kş 1985) was over-modeled and painted red, which is an important argument against the interpretation of modeled skulls as evidence of ancestors . A total of eleven over-modeled skulls were examined anthropologically. One belonged to a child, the other to adults, two men and three women, the gender of the remaining individuals could not be determined. Young adults predominate. There are no traces of cuts, so the skulls were probably only reshaped after the flesh had rotted. Kş 1990: 1 shows imprints of a reed mat.
Finds
Figurines made of burnt clay or stone come from both the houses and the graves. Figurines to be identified as male are shown dressed and with headgear, while figurines to be identified as female are all shown naked.
Köşk Höyük's ceramics are monochrome with a polished coating. Occasionally there are also vessels in animal or human shape. Some vessels are painted and decorated with reliefs. Among the obsidian finds there are some blade cores that have been extracted using printing technology.
Lost property
The finds are exhibited in the Niğde Archaeological Museum . The reconstructed interior of a house by Köşk Höyük is also presented there.
literature
- Aliye Öztan, 2002. Köşk Höyük: Anadolu Arkeolojisine Yeni Katkılar. TÜBA-AR 5, 55-69.
- Aliye Öztan: Köşk Höyük . In: The oldest monuments of mankind. 12,000 years ago in Anatolia . Karlsruhe 2007, p. 129. ISBN 978-3-937345-17-8 .
- Aliye Öztan 2007. Köşk Höyük: Niğde-Bor Ovasında bir Yerleşim. In: Mehmet Özdoğan, Nezih Başgelen (ed.), Türkiye'de Nepolitik Dönem . İstanbul: Arkeoloji ve Sanat Yayınları, 223–235.
- Uğur Silistreli, Pınarbaşı ve Köşk Höyükleri. Kazı Sonuçları Toplantısı 5, 1984, 81-85.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Mihriban Özbaşaran, The Neolithic on the plateau. In: Gregory McMahon, Sharon Steadman (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Anatolia: 10,000-323 BCE. Oxford, Oxford University Press, Online Publication Date: Nov 2012 [DOI: 10.1093 / oxfordhb / 9780195376142.013.0005].
- ↑ Geoffrey D. Summers, The Chalcolithic Period in Central Anatolia, the Fourth Millenium BC In: Petya Georgieva (Ed.), Proceedings of the International Symposium Nessebar . Sofia, New Bulgarian University 1993, 29-48.
- ↑ Aliye Öztan 2007 Köşk Höyük: Nigde-Bor Ovasında bir yerleşim. In: Mehmet Özdoğan and Nezih Başgelen (eds.), Türkiye'de Nepolitik Dönem , İstanbul, Arkeoloji ve Sanat Yayınları, fig. 8th).
- ↑ Metin Özbek, Remodeled human Skulls in Köşk Höyük (Neolithic Age, Anatolia): A new appraisal in view of recent Discoveries. Journal of Archaeological Science 36, 2008, 379-386.
- ^ Ian Hodder and Lynn Meskell, The smbolism of Çatalhöyük in its regional context. In: Ian Hodder, (Ed.), Religion in the emergence of civilization, Çatalhöyük as a case study . Cambridge, Cambridge University Press 2010, 41
- ↑ Michelle Bonogofsky, A bioarchaeological study of plastered skulls from Anatolia: new discoveries and interpretations. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 15, 2005, 134, doi : 10.1002 / oa.749
- ↑ M. Bonogofsky, A bioarchaeological study of plastered skulls from Anatolia: new discoveries and interpretations. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 15, 2005, 130, doi : 10.1002 / oa.749
- ↑ Michelle Bonogofsky, A bioarchaeological study of plastered skulls from Anatolia: new discoveries and interpretations. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 15, 2005, 132, doi : 10.1002 / oa.749
- ↑ M. Bonogofsky, A bioarchaeological study of plastered skulls from Anatolia: new discoveries and interpretations. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 15, 2005, 133, doi : 10.1002 / oa.749
- ↑ M. Bonogofsky, A bioarchaeological study of plastered skulls from Anatolia: new discoveries and interpretations. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 15, 2005, 133, doi : 10.1002 / oa.749
- ↑ Mihriban Özbaşaran, The Neolithic on the plateau. In: Gregory McMahon, Sharon Steadman (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of ancient Anatolia (10,000-323 BCE) . Oxford, Oxford University Press, Online Publication Date: Nov 2012 [DOI: 10.1093 / oxfordhb / 9780195376142.013.0005].
