Akanthou-Arkosykos

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As Akanthou-Arkosykos (in Turkish literature also Tatlısu-Çiftlikdüzü ) is an archaeological site on the literature of Cyprus referred to in the west of Karpas is -Halbinsel on a 15 meter high cliff. It is assigned to the early akeramischen Neolithic of the island and to the time between 8200 and 7800/7700 BC. Dated. The settlement there consisted of six houses and is considered a distribution center for obsidian from central Anatolia .

The site has been known since 1931. Archaeologists George Anastasiou and Porphyrios Dikaios from the Cyprus Museum recorded the site west of Akanthou village in 1945 and 1946. They noticed Neolithic objects, including a stone ax . In addition there were vessel fragments, flint blades , flakes and obsidian blades, but also bones of the Mesopotamian fallow deer ( Dama dama mesopotamica ), sheep, pigs and goats as well as pierced shells. In 1972 and 1973 Nicholas Stanley-Price investigated the site and contributed other finds. Muge Şevketoğlu first committed the site in 1996 and discovered other pieces of obisidian.

In a first excavation in 1999, the students involved found 420 pieces of obsidian under the guidance of Muge Şevketoğlu. Rescue excavations began in 2000 in order to protect them from interference due to agricultural use and construction work. A poultry yard illegally dug 38 pits to bury rubbish there. The site is now under legal protection. Despite some plow damage, the site is in excellent condition.

Five strata could be distinguished (A – E). The remains of six stone and mud brick buildings with round and rectangular structures were found, along with painted and paved walls and floors. In order to get an idea of ​​the construction technology of the time, a Neolithic house was reconstructed at the site that is to be open to visitors.

A large moat surrounds the settlement in the south. It contained several hundred objects that individual individuals had placed there. On the basis of these finds, conclusions can be drawn about the everyday life of one of the oldest settlements on the island, as well as the use of marine resources. There are also domesticated plants as well as domestic animals and partially domesticated animals. In addition, there were bone needles, fish hooks and the remains of fish, dogs and cats, foxes and finally turtles. The cattle bones come from a species that is otherwise not found on the island, so it must have been brought by the settlers.

A human skull and phalanx were found, but no grave or cemetery has yet been discovered.

More than 5000 obsidian finds - the largest number of such objects on the island - originally come from Central Anatolia. Apparently they were brought to the island as finished products across the Mediterranean Sea, i.e. over a distance of more than 60 km. The large number of obsidian pieces becomes clear when compared with other Cypriot sites: 14 pieces were found in Khirokitia, 24 in Klepini-Troulli, which corresponded to 0.5 and 2% of the lithic finds respectively. At Cape Andreas Castros there were 13 obsidian pieces (0.15%), in Kallavassos-Tenta 32 (0.03%), in Parekklisha-Shillourokambos near Limassol there were at least 217 pieces (2%). In 95% of the cases it is obsidian blades and daggers. The total number of obsidian blades exceeds the number at the Parekklisha Shillourokambos site of the same age by a factor of ten, and that at other pre-ceramic Neolithic sites on the island by a factor of 100. Ten obsidian blades were examined at the Institute for Prehistory and Early History and Archeology of the Middle Ages at the University of Tübingen. It turned out that nine blades came from the eastern Göllü Dağ , one from the Nenezi Dağ near the archaeological site of Aşıklı Höyük in Central Anatolia.

Overall, the enormous number of blades and the fact that no cores were found could indicate that the settlement was an important distribution center in the eastern Mediterranean. It is unclear whether the blades conferred a certain status on the wearer or whether they were used as exchange value themselves.

literature

  • Muge Şevketoğlu, Ian Hanson: Akanthou-Arkosykos, a ninth Millenium BC coastal settlement in Cyprus , in: Environmental Archeology: The Journal of Human Palaeoecology 20.3 (2015) 225-238.
  • Muge Şevketoğlu: Early Settlements and Precurement of Raw Materials - New Evidence Based on Recent Research at Akanthou Arkosykos - Tatlısu Cıftlıkduzu , in: Türkiye Bilimler Akademisi arkeoloji dergisi 11 (2008) 63–72.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Porphyrios Dikaios: Khirokitia Final Report on the Excavation of a Neolithic Settlement in Cyprus on Behalf of the Department of Antiquities 1936-1946 , Oxford University Press, Oxford 1953.
  2. ↑ Nicholas P. Stanley-Price: Early Prehistoric Settlement in Cyprus: A Review and Gazeteer of Sites c. 6500-3000 BC , in: British Archaeological Report, International Series 65, Oxford 1959.
  3. ↑ Muge Şevketoğlu: Early Settlements and Precurement of Raw Materials - New Evidence Based on Recent Research at Akanthou Arkosykos - Tatlısu Cıftlıkduzu , in: Türkiye Bilimler Akademisi arkeoloji dergisi 11 (2008) 63–72, here: p. 64 f.
  4. ↑ Muge Şevketoğlu: Early Settlements and Precurement of Raw Materials - New Evidence Based on Recent Research at Akanthou Arkosykos - Tatlısu Cıftlıkduzu , in: Türkiye Bilimler Akademisi arkeoloji dergisi 11 (2008) 63-72, here: p. 67.