Yunus Höyük

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Coordinates: 36 ° 50 ′ 5 ″  N , 38 ° 0 ′ 48 ″  E

Relief Map: Turkey
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Yunus Höyük​
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Turkey

Yunus Höyük (pronunciation [junus højyc]; Turkish for "dolphin hill") is a settlement mound in southeastern Turkey on the Syrian border, Gaziantep province , Karkamış district just outside the walls of the ancient city of Karkemiš . Ceramics from the Halaf culture were found in Yunus Höyük .

Excavation history

During the excavation in Karkemiš in 1913, painted hand-made ceramics were found by Gregori Antoniou and Leonard Woolley during an inspection in the neighboring village of Yunus. These finds caught the attention of excavators, as very little was known about prehistoric painted ceramics up to that point.

As a result, a 20 × 12 m area was opened at the highest density of shards in order to recover more ceramics. When enough pottery was found for evaluation, Woolley ended the dig in Yunus. With the beginning of the First World War , no further excavations could be carried out nor the material stored on site could be processed.

Dating

Already during the excavations in 1913 Woolley suspected a prehistoric dating from the pottery. Its main arguments were the technique of manufacture and the repertoire of shapes: the pottery was hand-formed, so must have been made before the invention of the potter's wheel, and the most common shape was the bowl, which Woolley characterized as the most primitive form of pottery. The stratigraphic location of comparable pottery in Karkemiš was for Woolley a further indication of the relative time, since the pottery in Karkemiš was found in the lowest and therefore oldest layers.

In the 1970s, Steven A. Leblanc and Patty Jo Watson classified Yunus Höyük in the Halaf culture in a comparative study of Halaf period ceramics, which was absolutely between 5900 and 5500/5000 BC. Is dated.

Finds and Findings

Ovens

During the brief dig, round and rectangular structures made of adobe and rammed earth were found, which Woolley interpreted as kilns as they all contained large amounts of ash and pottery shards. The structures have been designated with consecutive letters from A to M, with the letter I omitted. B, G, E, F, H, J, L and M were round structures, A, D and K were rectangular. The structures partially overlapped. Woolley interpreted these structures as disposable ovens that were torn down after each firing process in order to extract the ceramic. However, Watson and Leblanc partly question Woolley's interpretation. Based on the present plans, some of the round structures could also have been small tholoi , i.e. possibly living rooms.

Stone artifacts

The stone-made artifacts are divided into cut and cut stone artifacts. The beaten ones were mainly made of flint , and to a small extent also of obsidian . The range of tools is determined by flint and obsidian blades. But there were also scrapers as well as chips and cores that consist only of flint. The cut stones were mainly shoe last wedges , perforated stones interpreted as spindle whorls and geometric shapes of no discernible meaning.

Ceramics

The ceramics are typical Halaf ceramics. It was hand-formed without a potter's wheel and is divided into coarse and fine ceramics based on its leanness. The coarse pottery consists mainly of bowls, while the fine pottery also includes cups and jugs. The fine ceramics are mostly painted, sometimes decorated with incisions; the motifs are symmetrical, symbolic and naturalistic.

Remarks

  1. ^ Woolley: The Prehistoric Pottery of Carchemish, 1934, p. 146.
  2. ^ Woolley: The prehistoric Pottery of Carchemish, 1934, pp. 146-147.
  3. ^ Woolley: The Prehistoric Pottery of Carchemish, 1934, pp. 151-154.
  4. ^ Woolley: The Prehistoric Pottery of Carchemish, 1934, pp. 157-162.
  5. ^ A b Leblanc, Watson: A Comparative Statistical Analysis of Painted Pottery from Seven Halafian Sites, 1973, pp. 119-120.
  6. ↑ Campbell: Rethinking Halaf Chronologies, 2007, pp. 128-132.
  7. ^ Woolley: The Prehistoric Pottery of Carchemish, 1934, pp. 147-149.
  8. ^ Woolley: The Prehistoric Pottery of Carchemish, 1934, pp. 149-151.
  9. ^ Woolley: The Prehistoric Pottery of Carchemish. 1934, pp. 151-157.

literature

  • Stuart Campbell: Rethinking Halaf Chronologies. In: Paléorient, Volume 33, Number 1, 2007, 103-136 ( online ).
  • Steven A. Leblanc, Patty Jo Watson : A Comparativ Statistical Analysis of Painted Pottery from Seven Halafian Sites. In: Paléorient, Volume 1, Number 1, 1973, pp. 117-133 ( online ).
  • C. Leonard Woolley : The Prehistoric Pottery of Carchemish. In: Iraq, Volume 1, Number 2, 1934, pp. 146-162.