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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA

Los Angeles

Architecture and Social Complexity in the Late Ubaid Period:

A Study of the Built Environment of Degirmentepe

in East Anatolia

A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the

requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy

in Archaeology

by

Bekir Gurdil

2005

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UMI Number: 3169198

Copyright 2005 by
Gurdil, Bekir

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UMI Microform 3169198
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Copyright by

Bekir Gurdil

2005

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The dissertation of Bekir Gurdil is approved.

/g 2'hcaM*
Susa.x i ^ u w u v j

Richard Lesure

Guillermo D. Algaze

k 't l ----------
Elizabeth F. Carter, Committee Chair

University of California, Los Angeles


2005

ii

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Dedicated to my parents, Mlikerrem and Qmer,

for their support and patience over so many years.

Annem ve babama,

surekli destekleri ve bunca yillik bekleyileri igin

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Table of contents

Chapter I ................................................................................................................. l
I.A- Introduction................................................................................................................. 1

I.B- Theoretical approaches to architecture and useof landscape................................... 4


B.l- Studying spatial distributions in settlement archaeology.......................................5
B.2- Analyzing the built environment.............................................................................8
B.2.a- Built environment and natural environment........................................................ 8
B.2.b- Other factors: Human knowledge, symbolsand resonance................................. 9
B.2.c- Interrelated factors in understanding spatialorganizations............................... 12

I.C- Methods for studying space.......................................................................................13


C.l-Traditional approach......................... 14
C.2- Functional Analysis................................................................................................15
C.2.a- Access routes.......................................................................................................16
C.2.b-Aid of micro-morphological studies .................................................................. 16
C.2.c- Aid from ethno-archaeological analogy.............................................................18
I.D- Analyzing activity areas at Degirmentepe..............................................................20

Chapter II: Background Setting ............................................................................ 23


II.A- History of Ubaid research.......................................................................................23
A .l- Ubaid in Mesopotamia......................................................................................... 23
A.2- Ubaid in Turkey................................................................................................... 30
n.B- Geographical Setting for the Malatya and Elazig Plains.......................................33
B.l- Altinova and Avan Plains in Elazig .............................. 34
B.2- Malatya R egion.......................... 36
B.3- Floods in the Malatya P lain .................................................................................39
B.4 - Communication R outes.......................... .............................................................41

II.C- Chronology, 14C dates, and Stratigraphy of the site...............................................44

Chapter III: Degirmentepe A rchitecture....................................................................48


IH.A- Building I . . . ........................................................................................................... 53
A .l- Basement............................................................................. 54
A.I.a- Central room I .............................. 54
A.l.a.i-Floor 3 ...........................................................................................................54
A.l.a.ii-Floor2 .................................................................................................... 55
A.l.a.iii- Floor 1 ......... 57
A.l.a.iv- F ire ...............................................................................................................57
A.l.a.v- The w alls ......................................................................................... 57
A .l.b-R oom U 58
A.l.c- Rooms AF and A G .......................................................................................... 60
A.l.d- Room K ........................................................................................................ 60

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A.l.e- Room A C .......................................................................................................... 62
A.l.f- Room A D .......................................................................................................... 63
A.l.g- Room R .............................................................................................................63
A .l.h-R oom P-L....................................................................................................... 64
A.2- The second story of Building 1 ............................................................................65
A.2.a - Above the Room I ...........................................................................................66
A.2.b - Room O ............................................................................................................69
A.2.c - Above the Room U .......................................................................................... 70
A.3 - Conclusion notes for the Building..................................................................... 70
A.4 - The south area outside the Building i ............................................................... 74

III.B. - Building B C .......................................................................................................... 78


B.l - Room B C ............................................................................................................80
B.2 - Room D H .............................................................................................................81
B.3 - Room B B ............................................................................................................ 82
B.4 - Room B M ........................................................................................................... 84
B.5 - Room E V ............................................................................................................ 85
B.6 - Area FB and the area to its e a s t........................................................................85
B.7 - Room F G .............................................................................................................85
B.8 -R o o m B D .'................................................................................................86
B.9 - Rooms DC1 and D C 2 .........................................................................................87
B.10 - Rooms AO, AU, and passage E F .....................................................................88
B .ll - Room A P ...........................................................................................................90

IH.C-Building F C .............................................................................................................91
C.l- Room F C .............................................................................................................. 91
C.2- Rooms GL and G E ...............................................................................................97
C.3- Area F M ............................................................................ 98
C.4- Rooms ER and E S ...................................................................................98
C.5- Room E T ..................... 99

ELD- Building E E ...................................................................


D .l-R oom E E ............................................................................................................ 105
D.2- Rooms GN, CC, and E G ....................................................................................108
D.3- Area H A .............................................................................................................108
D.4- Room E H ............................................ 108
D.5- Room E A ................................................................ 109
D .6-R oom EB ........................................................................................................... 109
D.7- Room E C ........................................................................................................... 109
D.8- Room D F ................ 113
D.9- Peripheral rooms and a re a s ............................................................ 113
D.9.a - Room D G ..............................................................................................114
D.9.b- Rooms CV, CU, and C T ......................................................................... 116
D.9.c- Room D B ...................... 116
D.9.d- Area D D .............. 117
D.9.e- Area G Z ................................ 118
D.9.f- Surrounding W all............................................................................................ 118

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HLE- Building E L ........................................................................................................... 121
E.l - Room E L ........................................................................................................... 121
E.2 - Area E l .............................................................................................................. 123
E.3 - Rooms EO and E P .............................................................................................123
E.4 - Room E N ........................................................................................................... 123
E.5 - Room F P ............................................................................................................ 124
E.6 - Rooms FR and F S ............................................................................................. 124
E.7 - Area E U ................................. 125

ID.F- Building G K ...........................................................................................................126


F .l - Room G K ...........................................................................................................127
F.2 - Rooms CH, CY and F L .....................................................................................128
F.3 - Room C M ...........................................................................................................129
F.4 - Rooms GF and G G ............................................................................................130
F.5 - Rooms GH and G I ............................................................................................ 131
F.6 - Additional rooms in the south...........................................................................131

m.G- Building DU and its north a r e a ............................................................................134


G .l-R oom D U ........................................................................................................... 135
G.l.a- Upper Floor Level of the Early Phase...........................................................135
G. Lb- Early Floor Level of the Early Building P hase........................................... 138
G.2- Room E K ............................................................................................................138
G.3- Room D V .......................... 139
G.4- Room B E ............................................................................................................139
G.5- Rooms AY, DZ, and A T .................................................................................... 140
G.6-Rooms AV a n d B F ............................... 141
G.7- Rooms FZ and G A ..................................................................................... 141
G.8-RoomCE ...... 142
G.9- The rooms to the north.......................................................................................143
G.9.a - Room B Y 1 ..................................................................................................... 143
G.9.b- Room C O ..................................... 144
G.9.C- Room B Z ......................................... 144
G.9.d-RoomCG ................................................................................................... 145
G.9.e- Area CZ ............ 145
G.9.f- Area B O ................. 145
G.6.g- Area B H .......................................................................................................... 145
G.9.h-RoomB A ............................................. 146

III.H- Building F D ................................................ 147


H .l-R oom F D ........................ .148
H.2- Room G P ........................................................................ 150
H.3- Rooms HH and G M ........................................................................................... 150
H.4- Room F T ................ 150
H.5- The outside area ................. 150

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m .I- Building F N ........................................................................................................... 151
1.1-RoomF N .............................................................................................................151
1.2- Room G O ............................................................................................................ 151
1.3- R oom FO ............................................................................................................ 152
1.4- Room HL.............................................................................................................152
1.5- Room H K ........................................................................................................... 153
1.6- Reconstructing the buildings p la n ....................................................................153

HIJ- Building A S ...........................................................................................................155


J.l- Room A S ............................................................................................................ 156
J.2- Room A R ............................................................................................................157
J.3- Room Z ...............................................................................................................157
J.4- Area A E ............................................................................................................. 157
J.5- Single Room DA in Trench 16 J .......................................................................158

ffl.K- Partially preserved structures and Sounding in 12 J ......................................... 159


K .l- Multi-room buildings........................................................................................161
K.l.a- Rooms to the south of Building G K ..............................................................161
K.l.b- Rooms to the SE of Building DU...................................................................162
K.l.c- Rooms to the S of Building D U .....................................................................163
K.l.d- Rooms to the south of Building I ..................................................................164
K.2- West of Building B C .........................................................................................165
K.3- Areas V and Y ................. 166
K.4- Rooms in grid 16 J ........................................ 167
K.5-Grids 15 J and 151............................................................................................167
K.6- Grid 14 J ............................................................................................................ 167
K.7- Trench 13 J and deep sounding in 12 J ............................................................168

DLL- Sounding in Trench 13 F ......................................................................................172

DI.M- Revisiting the stratigraphy of Degirmentepe.....................................................175

ID.N- Open areas, movement, and communication routes within the village.............183

m.O- Conclusion for architectural evidence................................................................186

Chapter IV: Spatial organizations and activities at Degirmentepe....................... 187


IV.A- Introduction ............. 187

IV.B- M eth o d ............... 188


B .l- Factors distracting the functional analysis: Site disturbances........................ 188
B.2- Obstacles particular to Degirmentepe.......................................... 190
B.3- The analysis.................... 191

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IY.C- Activities and functions........................................................................................196
C.l- Building I ........................................................................................................... 196
C.2- Building B C .......................................................................................................201
C.3- Building F C ........................................................................................................205
C.4- Building E E ....................................................................................................... 208
C.5- Building E L ....................................................................................................... 211
C.6- Building G K .......................................................................................................213
C.7- Building D U .......................................................................................................217
C.8- Building F D .......................................................................................................220

IV.D- Conclusion............................................................................................................221
D .l- Functional patterns of the buildings.................................................................222
D.2- Population and household ty p e ........................................................................ 228

Chapter V: Conclusion................................................................................................234
V.A- Built environment and projections for social organization of Degirmentepe.... 234
A .l-H o u ses........................................................................................................... 237
A .l.a-Basem ents.......................................................................................................242
A.l.b- Second stories............................................................................................. 243
A.l.c- Roofs and communication routes................................................................... 244
A.2- Open courtyard at the NE quadrant.................................................................. 246
A.3- The village......................................................................................................... 247
A.4- Population and household ty p e......................................................................... 250
A.5- Desertion of the s ite .......................................................................................... 251

V.B- Elazig-Malatya region.......................................................................................... 252


B.l- Pirot Hoyiik........................................................................................................ 252
B.2- Arslantepe.......................................................................................................... 253

V.C- Emerging Complexity: The larger picture........................................................... 256


C.l- Cultural identity and hybridization................................................................... 256
C.2- Communication with the south and the seasonal use of routes........................259
C.3- The level of complexity: Was Degirmentepe a chiefdom?............................. 261

APPENDIX - 1: Excavation history of the site................................................269


1.1- Salvage Projects and location of the site ............................................. 269
1.2- Recording Procedures................................................................................. 269
1.3- Artifacts of Degirmentepe ................................. 273
1.3.a- Pottery ............................................................................................273
1.3.b- Stone and Bone Tools and Other Finds...................................................276
1.3.c- Chipped stone industry ........................................................................ 277
1.3.d- Metallurgy................................................................................................ 281
1.3.e- Burials................................... 283
1.3.f- Zoo-archaeological and Archaeo-botanical remains.............................. 285
1.3.g- Esins explanations of Degirmentepe .............................................. 286

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APPENDIX II: Activities, functions, and artifact types.................................. 287

APPENDIX IH: Artifact types from Degirmentepe ....................................292

P lates...................................................................................................................361

References.......................................................................................................... 425

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List of figures

Figure 1.1: Levels of analyzing space in settlement archaeology...............................7


Figure 1.2: Interrelations in meaning and function of sp ace......................................11

Figure 2.1: The map of the floodplain in M alatya..................................................... 37


Figure 2.2: Hydro-geological drawing of Malatya and the locationof some sites
on the riverbank..........................................................................................40
Figure 2.3: Stratigraphy of Degirmentepe.................................................................. 45
Figure 2.4: 14C dates from Degirmentepe....................................................................46

Figure 3.1: Introductory chart for Building I and its room s........................................ 53
Figure 3.2: Mud-brick bins from East A natolia.......................................................... 68
Figure 3.3: Hand made mud-brick bins from East A natolia.......................................68
Figure 3.4: More bins from East Anatolia with applique designs.............................. 69
Figure 3.5: Introductory chart for Building BC and its room s.................................... 78
Figure 3.6: Photograph from Southern Anatolia showing the use of different sized
wood beam s................................................................................................83
Figure 3.7: Introductory chart for Building FC and its room s.................................... 91
Figure 3.8: Introductory chart for Building EE and its room s................................... 103
Figure 3.9: Introductory chart for Building EL and its room s................................... 121
Figure 3.10: Introductory chart for Building GK and its room s..................................126
Figure 3.11: Introductory chart for Building DU and its north a re a s ................ 134
Figure 3.12: Introductory chart for Building FD and its room s...................................147
Figure 3.13: Introductory chart for Building FN and its room s...................................151
Figure 3.14: Introductory chart for Building AS and its rooms................................... 155
Figure 3.15: Introductory chart for partially preserved structures and sounding 12 J..159
Figure 3.16: Stratigraphy of the sounding in grid 13F................................................. 173
Figure 3.17: Reconsideration of Degirmentepe stratigraphy......................................178

Figure 4.1: Artifact distributions by building............................................................. 194


Figure 4.2: Legend for the artifact types incorporated in the studyand the quantity
of each artifact type ...................................................................... 195
Figure 4.3: Artifact types and their distribution in Building I .....................................197
Figure 4.4: Artifact types and their distribution in Building B C .................................201
Figure 4.5: Artifact types and their distribution in Building F C ................................. 206
Figure 4.6: Artifact types and their distribution in Building E E .................................208
Figure 4.7: Artifact types and their distribution in Building E L .................................211
Figure 4.8: Artifact types and their distribution in Building G K ................................ 213
Figure 4.9: Artifact types and their distribution in Building D U ................................ 218
Figure 4.10: Artifact types and their distribution in Building F D .................................220
Figure 4.11: Indications of rituals inside the houses...................................................227
Figure 4.12: The calculated actual floor area of the houses.......................................231

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Figure 4.13: Actual usable floor areas of houses given in m2 ..................................231
Figure 4.14: Population estimate per h o u se..............................................................232
Figure 4.15: Distribution of number of individuals by house....................................232

Figure 5.1: Houses with two-stories based on the evidence................................... 241


Figure 5.2: The suggested scheme for the hybridization process of the Ubaid
groups in Anatolia with the indigenous groups................................... 259

Figure A ll: Malatya Basin and the location of Degirmentepe............................... 270


Figure AI.2: A sample of flint engravers...................................................................278
Figure AI.3: Distribution of the flint assemblage by layers...................................... 279
Figure AI.4: Distribution of the Degirmentepe obsidian assemblage bylayers 280
Figure AI.5: Some of the metal-related items found inside the buildings.................282
Figure AI.6: Human burials from Degirmentepe...................................................... 284
Figure AI.7: Infant skulls showing deformation........................................................285

Figure All. 1: A list of activities and possible artifacts associated with them that may
be found at a late prehistoric site excavation...................................... 291

Figure AIII.l: Artifact types recorded during the excavations and their English
translations............................................................................................ 292

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List of Plates

Plate 1: Map of Mesopotamia and Eastern A natolia................................................362


Plate 2: Elazig and Malatya plains in Eastern Anatolia........................................... 363
Plate 3: Legend for plans and cross section drawings.............................................. 364
Plate 4: Master plan of Degirmentepe...................................................................... 365
Plate 5: Section views of the settlement...................................................................366
Plate 6: Plan of the basement of Building I ..............................................................367
Plate 7: Cross section views of the basement of Building I .....................................368
Plate 8: Cross section view of east wall (120)......................................................... 369
Plate 9: Wall painting found on the east wall (120) of room I ................................370
Plate 10: Wall painting found on the east wall (120) of room I ................................371
Plate 11: Cross section views of the north wall (229) and the east wall (517).........372
Plate 12: The east wall (110) in room K .................................................................... 373
Plate 13: The east wall (127) and west wall (110) in room A D ................................374
Plate 14: The south wall (126) in room R ...................................................................375
Plate 15: Plan of the second story of Building i .......................................................... 376
Plate 16: South exterior area of Building 1 ..................................................................377
Plate 17: Plan of Building B C ...................................................................................... 378
Plate 18: South and west walls of room D H ................................................................ 379
Plate 19: The east walls of the rooms BB and A U .................................................... 380
Plate 20: The east and north walls of the room B M ...................................................381
Plate 21: The east, west, and north walls of the room B D .......................................... 382
Plate 22: Plan of Building F C .......................................................................................383
Plate 23: South wall of the room FC and the south wall (678) of the room G E 384
Plate 24: The south wall and the north wall of the room E R ...................................... 385
Plate 25: The east wall (704) of the rooms ER and ES, and the north wall of the
room E S ......................................................................................................... 386
Plate 26: The west wall (700) and the north wall (703) of the room E T ...................387
Plate 27: Reconstruction of the floor plan of the room F C ......................................... 388
Plate 28: Plan of Building E E ...................................................................................... 389
Plate 29: North wall (532) of the room E E ................................................................. 390
Plate 30: Wall painting found on the wall (529) in room E E ..................................... 391
Plate 31: East wall (525) and the door........................................................................ 392
Plate 32: East wall (526) and the sealed door............................................................ 393
Plate 33: East wall (527) and west wall (528) of room E C ....................................... 394
Plate 34: North wall of room DG and area D D ........................................................... 395
Plate 35: An ethnographic example of a mud-brick house from east Anatolia in
1970s ...........................................................
Plate 36: Plan of room D B ........................................................................................... 397
Plate 37: Plan of Building E L ......................................................................................398
Plate 38: West wall (543) of Building EL and the two doors.....................................399
Plate 39: Plan of Building G K ..................................................................................... 400
Plate 40: Wall painting found on the east wall (466) in room G K ............................. 401

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Plate 41: Cross section view of the wall (464) in room C M ....................................... 402
Plate 42: Plan of the early building phase of Building DU and Building BY 1 to the
n o rth ............................................................................................................... 403
Plate 43: Wall painting found at the south wall (506) in room D U .............................404
Plate 44: The east wall and the south wall (506) in room D U ....................................405
Plate 45: South section of grid 17 G showing rooms DU, BE, AY, and A T ............... 406
Plate 46: Cross section views of the rooms BR and A V ..............................................407
Plate 47: Plan of Building F D ........................................... 408
Plate 48: Plan of Building F N .......................................................................................409
Plate 49: A reconstruction of the north portion of Building F N .................................. 410
Plate 50: Plan of Building AS and the single room DA to the south...........................411
Plate 51: Multi-room buildings at the south end of the settlem ent............................. 412
Plate 52: Wall painting found on the interior of the west wall of room B l................. 413
Plate 53: Estimated location and size of the earliest occupation of the site............... 414
Plate 54: Distribution of artifacts found in Building i ................................................. 415
Plate 55: Distribution of artifacts found in Building B C ............................................. 416
Plate 56: Distribution of artifacts found in Building F C ..............................................417
Plate 57: Distribution of artifacts found in Building E E ..............................................418
Plate 58: Distribution of artifacts found in Building E L ..............................................419
Plate 59: Distribution of artifacts found in Building G K .............................................420
Plate 60: Distribution of artifacts found in Buildings DU, BY1, FA, and F K ............. 421
Plate 61: Distribution of artifacts found in Building F D ...............................................422
Plate 62: Location of houses with platforms.................................................................423
Plate 63: An experimental reconstruction of the village..............................................424

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List of abbreviations:

14C Radiocarbon
ca about
cm centimeter
E East
EBA Early Bronze Age
Fig Figure
Figs Figures
m meter
N North
NE northeast
NW northwest
S South
SE southeast
SW southwest
PI plate
Pis plates
TL Thermoluminescence
W West

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Conducting dissertation research and earning a doctoral degree is more than a full time

learning experience. This task would have been impossible without the assistance and

support of others who deserve respectful thanks. The first of these individuals is Dr.

Ufuk Esin, one of my professors during the early phase of my archaeological education.

When I was searching for a dissertation topic, she kindly suggested that I study the

architecture of Degirmentepe and allowed me access to the raw data. It was an honor

to study such an important site and I owe many thanks to Dr. Esin for providing this

opportunity and placing her trust in me.

The second of these individuals is Dr. Elizabeth Carter. She served as my committee

chair and she is one of my mentors. I am thankful to her for her guidance during the

years I spent at UCLA. My other committee members, Dr. Susan Downey, Dr. Richard

Lesure, and Dr. Guillermo Algaze, were very understanding and helpful both before

and during the writing process of the dissertation. I appreciate them so much and feel

fortunate that they served on my committee.

Considering my first years at UCLA facing the challenges of using the academic

English language, the patience and faith of the other professors I met at the Cotsen

Institute of Archaeology should be acknowledged here. The classes I took from them

and the other experiences I had through their support changed my views of archaeology

dramatically and prepared me for critical thinking about the societies of the past. For

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my part, it was a significant preparation for the future and this dissertation could not

exist without their guidance during this education process.

Special thanks go to faculty members of the Prehistory Section at Istanbul University,

who provided access to the facilities during the study I conducted. Among those, I

especially thank Dr. Mehmet Ozdogan, Dr. Mihriban Ozbaaran, and Dr. Sava

Harmankaya, for sharing their ideas with me on Degirmentepe and the Ubaid in

Anatolia. Rukiye Eryaar, a student at Marmara University, made the ink drawings of

the architecture remains. I think we both learned a lot about how to make architectural

drawings of an archaeological site.

My new family here has always been a strong emotional support for me since the

beginning, and this surely boosted my performance. Among them, I wish to thank my

wife Tania, the most important person of my life. Her patience and endless

encouragement could never be repaid.

Almost eleven months of fieldwork, including study visits to archaeological sites and

museums, became possible with the generous support of American Research Institute

in Turkey (ARIT), Dissertation Research Fellowship and American Schools for

Oriental Research (ASOR), Mesopotamian Fellowship. Additionally, the Dissertation

Year Fellowship of UCLA supported the writing stage of this thesis.

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VITA

1967 Bom, Istanbul, Turkey

1987-1993 Archaeological Fieldwork,


Eastern and Northwestern Turkey,
Istanbul University excavations and surveys

1993 B.A., Archaeology


Istanbul University
Istanbul, Turkey

1994-1995 Archaeological Fieldwork,


Southeastern and Central Turkey,
UC San Diego and University of Cambridge
excavations and surveys

1997 M.A., Archaeology


Istanbul University
Istanbul, Turkey

1994-1998 Archaeological Fieldwork,


Southeastern Turkey,
UCLA excavations and surveys

1999 - 2002 Teaching Assistant, five quarters


Department of Anthropology
UCLA

2001 American Research Institute in Turkey (ARIT)


Dissertation Research Fellowship
Research conducted in Turkey

2002-2003 Research Associate


Near Eastern Languages and Cultures
UCLA

2003 American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR)


Mesopotamian Fellowship
Research conducted in Turkey and Syria

PUBLICATIONS AND PRESENTATIONS

Gurdil, Bekir.
2002. Systematic Surface Collection from Nevruzlu: A Late Halaf site in the
Kahramanmara Valley: Anatolica XXVUI. pp. 137-158.

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ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION

Architecture and Social Complexity in the late Ubaid Period:

A Study of the Built Environment of Degirmentepe

in East Anatolia

by

Bekir Gurdil

Doctor of Philosophy in Archaeology

University of California, Los Angeles, 2005

Professor Elizabeth F. Carter, Chair

The studies conducted so far show that the Ubaid material culture spread to each comer

of Mesopotamia and beyond by the second half of the fifth millennium BC. More

importantly, the societies of these times were in the process of progressive social,

economic, and political changes, the outcome of which was the first state in the Late

Uruk. Egalitarian values were shifting and the societies, either individually or inter-

communally, were modified toward increasingly unequal socio-economical and socio

political relationships. It appears that the Ubaid chiefdoms existed, but the components

of these chiefdoms are still not well understood due to lack of investigation. Thus far,

xviii

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Stein (1994) suggested a feasible explanation for South Mesopotamia by bringing the

idea of staple finance economy to the fore. However, the other regions bearing Ubaid

components are difficult to integrate into this scheme, not because the material cultures

of these areas can not fit into his model, but because the existing research is too limited

to consider using his model.

In this study, I investigate the exceptionally well-preserved architecture of the Ubaid

site Degirmentepe in East Anatolia, which presents the opportunity to delve into the

nature of Ubaid social organization in the Anatolian highlands. Founded on the

architectural study, a functional analysis of the material culture is undertaken to shed

light on the ways in which the community was organized. In addition, this analysis

assists in considering the identity of the inhabitants as well as the possible reasons that

the community spread to Anatolia. Analyses at the end of this study suggest a model for

this expansion: a process of hybridization for the inhabitants of Degirmentepe. Both the

newcomers, who are the inhabitants of the site, and the local Anatolian communities

interacted closely and exchanged values either consciously or subconsciously. I propose

that the end product of the process was the emergence of an identical Late Chalcolitic

cultural sphere in the coming centuries, which was not Mesopotamian but adopted

some of the Mesopotamian values strongly. I conclude that the case of Degirmentepe

indicates a society that did not place emphasis on status, but probably belonged to a

chiefdom with at least one tier hierarchy.

xix

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Chapter I

LA- Introduction: -

This dissertation research concentrates on the social organizational aspects of the

Ubaid period and their representation in East Anatolia, the highland region beyond the

northernmost fringes of North Mesopotamia. The research will focus on the

architectural remains recovered in salvage excavations at a site called Degirmentepe

in the Malatya province of Turkey, exploring social organization through the spatial

arrangements and the identification of activity areas that gave shape to this particular

society. Investigating the use of space through the archaeological record is one means

of revealing social organization of the Degirmentepe village.

There is little information known about the Ubaid period, despite the fact that its

existence was recognized from the early decades of the twentieth century (Hall and

Woolley 1927). Research investigating the earliest domestication of animals and plants

in early sedentary societies as well as the emergence of the first complex societies in

cities has tended to overshadow the study of Ubaid social organization in Mesopotamia.

When compared with the Neolithic and Late Uruk, the Ubaid period lacks observable

social or cultural revolutions, a perception that perhaps contributed to the neglect of

the socio-economic and political organizations of the Ubaid period even today,

although there are some ongoing Ubaid studies.

However, based on the data available to us, the significant changes occurring in the

material culture of the Ubaid period cannot be ignored. Distinct from the Neolithic, the

patterns in social and economic trends during the Ubaid are manifested in the

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appearance of new settlement patterns, pottery, architecture, mortuary practices, and

small artifact types. For instance, the use of seals and seal impressions in the societies

intensifies dining the Ubaid. Even though such developments are observable in the

Ubaid data coming from the different parts of Mesopotamia, the Ubaid material

remains awaits detailed, thorough analyses.

In a very general sense, the characteristics of the Ubaid are the reflections of the long

term adaptation processes, and the human experiences during these processes must

have promoted the formation of newer cultural developments in the subsequent

centuries: the first state societies. Therefore, answering the processual questions about

why and how the changes occurred in North Mesopotamia throughout the fifth

millennium B.C. and which aspects of the Ubaid way of life contributed to the

emergence of a state society should be one of the major undertakings to focus on in the

Near Eastern archaeology.

The rich dataset coming from the salvage excavations at Degirmentepe emphasizes the

importance of this site and promotes answers to these questions from the Anatolian

highlands, a region adjacent to North Mesopotamia cultural sphere. The exceptionally

good preservation of the building remains and the wide horizontal exposures makes the

study of the architecture from this site particularly rewarding. Analysis of these

building remains will offer a better understanding of the Ubaid phenomenon to the

north, and add critical information for characterizing societies, Ubaid or otherwise.

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This chapter presents the theoretical and methodological background of architectural

analyses in archaeology to provide a basis for the approach used for the current

research. Thus, the effort is made to achieve a sound scientific and systematic

foundation for studying the architecture from this site.

The second chapter presents essential background information, including data

regarding the topography and geography of the region, as well as the stratigraphy and

the absolute dates of the site. The data from the architecture will be deliberately

omitted in this chapter since the following chapter addresses it in detail. A brief history

of the excavation and the recovered material culture other than architecture is given in

Appendix I.

Accordingly, the third chapter will describe the architectural remains of the site with

every detail recovered during the excavations. The buildings will be the major

description units followed by the incomplete building plans and room clusters. The full

presentation of the architecture will complete the detailed description of Degirmentepe,

from which a functional analysis will emerge. Therefore, the focus of Chapter IV will

be a spatial analysis, emphasizing how these buildings were used, where the activity

areas were, and how an individual could have moved within and around the settlement.

Based on the data, the roof types, population, and household types will also be

discussed.

Chapter five summarizes the conclusions made in Chapters three and four, emphasizing

the social organizational aspects of the site. Based on these conclusions, a brief

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discussion concerning group identity and the place of Degirmentepe within the other

contemporary settlements known in East Anatolia and Northern Mesopotamia will be

presented to provide a larger picture.

As a result, the ultimate goal of this study is twofold. The first objective is to carry out

an architectural analysis using the available data and tackle the questions in

understanding the building functions and use of space at the site. The second objective

is to introduce an Ubaid site from the East Anatolian highlands and place it into the

Ubaid world on the basis of its architecture. In addition, demonstrating the temporal

and spatial processes that occurred during the Ubaid period may present clues that led

the society towards the first clear emergence of social complexity in the following

periods of the Near East.

I.B- Theoretical approaches to architecture and use of landscape:

If the goal of archaeological research is to demonstrate the relationships between

material culture and human social behavior as the products of humans adaptation to

their environment, then the built environment is one of the key material culture types to

be investigated. Architecture functions as the physically limiting and regulating

medium between humans and the environment. For the inhabitants, the architecture is

also inbred with meaningful spatial arrangements, defining and regulating their

patterns of life. Since architectural remains can be recovered abundantly in field

research, whether in poor or good condition, they become a useful tool to understand

humans spatial adaptations to their environment and the meaning given to these

spaces.

4'

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The simple need for protection from the extremities of nature is the driving force

behind architectural endeavors. The vulnerable structure of the human body within

harsh surroundings, such as extreme temperatures or wild animals, necessitates shelter.

Thus, out of this essential need, human beings have been reorganizing natural space to

create new and secure places to improve their chances of survival. As this use of

architecture for protection continued over the millennia, humans have embedded

cultural aspects of their life into the formats of defined spaces (Rapoport 1969; 1976;

1982). As the result, structures are the spatial organization of culture, reflecting social

adjustment and enabling inhabitants to cope with both physical and cultural concerns

(Willey 1956; Rapoport 1986; 1990). Structures participate in human survival and

become a medium for human interactions, providing a dimension to represent cultural

organization.

B.l- Studying spatial distributions in settlement archaeology:

The subject of settlement archaeology is to study man-made spatial distributions and

their impacts on culture. Settlements, portraying the long-term occupation areas where

the regular tasks of daily life occur, constitute one of the units of analysis in it. In this

sense, architecture is entwined with the other material types, all of which together

comprise the settlement. Scholars in the sixties and seventies outlined the general

framework for studying various scales of humans cultural patterns in settlement

archaeology. The concern was to provide a basis for how the aspects of the human life

could be understood within any given unit of space. Theoretically, the issues in

analyzing settlement patterns, ecology, subsistence, environmental conditions and

exploitation strategies, political structures, and so on were explored by applying the

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best possible sampling strategy. Despite the emphasis on extensive geographic regions,

the methods of studying smaller scales of research units were also debated (Trigger

1967; 1968; Struever 1969). Trigger, on the basis of such research questions, had

formulated three levels of analysis:

Household level analysis of space: Identifying the roles of individuals and


households in a site that shapes the culture,
- Intra-site level analysis: This is the community size layout, which investigates
cultural patterns through materials to provide insights on the relationships
between the households,
- Inter-site level analysis: Focusing on the regional scale, the goal is to determine
economic structures, exploitation strategies for natural resources, as well as the
cultural character of the relationships among neighboring sites within the site
catchment area.

In refining these levels, Struever identified and implemented additional units of spatial

analyses to these schemes. For example, he proposed the activity area as the

smallest research unit in which a locus for certain activities and even a feature may

have been included. He also implemented the Mesoamerican term barrio that refers

to neighborhoods in which groups of households emerge from identical combinations of

social, economic, and political rules. He also added that the organization of a

neighborhood may include interconnecting spatial arrangements, such as streets and

courtyards in addition to houses (from Flannery 1976b). Exemplifying the framework

provided by Struever, studies on the Formative period in Mesoamerican archaeology

developed various useful case studies (Flannery 1976a). These studies focused on

different levels of spatial units to define spatial arrangements and identify the causes

for these arrangements in settlements and regions. In the mean time, Clarke suggested

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other terms implying similar levels of approach to spatial arrangements: micro, semi

micro, and macro level analyses (1977). As the result, Clarkes terminology, referring

to individual structures, the sites themselves, and relationships between sites, is

equitable with Triggers scheme (fig. 1.1).

L evels o f Struever and Flannery Clarke (1977) Trigger (1968)


Category (from Flannery 1976a)

Activity area
(including features such as hearth,
storage pit)
I Micro-level Household level
House floors and distinct male and
female areas
House

Courtyard groups
Semi-micro level Intra-site level
n Barrio (neighborhoods)

Maximum Local Aggregate


(The village itself)

Maximum subsistence-settlement unit


(villages in a single valley)

in Interregional networks of exchange and Macro level Inter-site level


pan-mesoamerican networks of sacred
lore and ritual paraphernalia (the
relationships between valleys)

Fig.1.1: Levels o f analyzing space in settlement archaeology. According to this scheme, the
architectural analysis o f Degirmentepe falls into categories I and II.

Despite some exceptions (such as Flannery 1976b; 1976c; Winter 1976; Flannery and

Winter 1976), most of the research focused on regions, investigating the interrelations

of sites within the same geographical system, site catchment and subsistence strategies,

and the viability of theory and methodology applied by the researcher. The aims were

to determine how much an archaeologist could understand from the geographic

information -locating sites in relation to natural resources, landscape, and identifying

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possible exploitation strategies. While doing this, the other concern was the

implementation of the least intrusive research methods other than extensive

excavations: the best surveying techniques and ideal sampling methods within the size

of any chosen area. However, settlement archaeology also provides an advantageous

approach to the architectural organizations of spaces within a site. The household and

intra-site units of analysis in this scheme is applicable to the architecture of

Degirmentepe.

B.2- Analyzing the built environment:

The built environment arranges and defines space. This organization comes into being

with the use of raw materials available in nature. Since people have numerous choices

of materials, the form of architecture may vary greatly. The spatial meanings coming

from cultural complexities are also a factor in architecture, and both the meanings and

form can differ easily from one group to another. People simply choose differently from

the available options. The result is the representation of vast numbers of differing

spatial arrangements in different localities in the world, with differing cultural

meanings given to these arrangements in each of these localities. Then, the task for an

analysis of any built environment must be to seek the meanings given to space by the

user and to separate them from the influences of the natural environment.

B.2.a- Built environment and natural environment:

The seminal work by Rapoport (1969) exemplifies the human-environment

relationships from numerous culture groups around the world by showing how the

meanings and the function vary in the organization of space. According to his research,

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the surrounding environmental conditions in specific cultural locales determine the

variation of spatial arrangements. For example, certain environmental conditions might

have an effect on choice of the location for a structure and its form. However, he also

recognizes the importance of environmental influences on the images and ideals in the

minds of the builders and users who, in fact, give values and meanings to a built space

(1982). He asserts that, first, the environment plays an active role in creating the

images and ideals in the mindsets, and later, those mindsets applied to the meaningful

and functional creation of a space. Accordingly, the environment is the background

influencing the spatial organization, and the meaning and function are the results of the

designers interaction with the environment. Thus, the natural environment becomes a

fundamental factor having an impact on the built environment. Despite this, the images

and ideals of people and human knowledge have influence over the environment,

resulting in a certain degree of manipulation of the surroundings. For example, people

cut trees or bum brush to create open spaces for agriculture or build water channels to

irrigate the fields. These are deliberate modifications that people make to their

surroundings.

B.2.b- Other factors: Human knowledge, symbols, and resonance:

Apart from environment, there are three other qualities that participate in complex

ways in making space meaningful and functional. One of these qualities is the human

experience. The human experience derives from long-term interactions with the other

groups and environment. Human beings take active roles while experiencing the

events; they are not necessarily passive observers. Throughout these events, people

evaluate what is good, bad, useful, and what is an essential need. The knowledge

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emerging from such decisions is transferred one to another in the group over the course

of series consecutive generations. Based on the needs and the events experienced,

human knowledge evolves into the sets of accepted rules and beliefs of the group,

which may be either utilitarian or symbolic in nature but represent cultural adaptations.

According to this evolution of human experience and knowledge, the character of a

space takes its form in accordance with the rules and beliefs, and the meaning and

function of a space face with constant changes as the knowledge of people develops. In

this sense, human knowledge is as critical as the environment in shaping spaces.

The second quality that signifies the meaning and the function of a space is the

implementation of symbols. The concepts from the desired, ideal world are deliberately

applied to the organization of space and influence it in significant ways. In other words,

consciously or unconsciously, symbolic values inevitably blend into the other qualities

of function in order to be expressed in meaningful ways in space.

The last important characteristic in studying spatial organizations may be referred to as

resonance. It may be seen as a tool organizing the communication among the qualities

given above and transmitting the changes occurring in those qualities. Through time, the

meaningfully functioning space sends feedback to the ideals and beliefs indicating how

well the degree of usefulness of space meets with the needs. Such information reaches to

all factors participating in the functionality of the space. Based on the information from

environment, from human knowledge or symbolized ideals, the space receives

instructions and may be modified to posess new attributes. According to this imaginary

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interaction mechanism, resonance becomes the last quality, a transmitter of messages

enabling the reorganization and modification of space. As a result, it is possible to see

these processes as a cyclical mechanism occurring in long-term interactions and

displaying a dynamic interrelatedness between the qualities, and the meaning and

function of space. Therefore, the environment, human experience, symbolic values, and

resonance take active roles in forming the meaning and function of a given space (fig.

1.2). However, the exact nature of interactions among these factors is a rather complex

issue; understanding these complex processes is the agenda for studying spatial

organizations.

Uti
Environment ^ Human Knowledge
A
Uti

Symbols -4 - Needs

Uti

Images and ideals in


the mindsets (beliefs)

Uti
Sym

MEANING AND FUNCTION


OF SPACE

Sym= Symbolic qualities of attribute


Uti= Utilitarian qualities of attribute

Fig. 1.2: Interrelations in meaning and function of space.

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B.2.c- Interrelated factors in understanding spatial organizations:

With this in mind, the definition of space can be determined by two kinds of

measurements in research. The first measures the standardized physical attributes,

which are solid and countable. These attributes are the use of raw materials,

dimensions of the space, and the distinct geometric form that qualifies the entities

existence in space. An archaeologist describes and enumerates these values.

However, this method alone is not enough to understand the society and should be

correlated with a second kind of measurement. These are qualitative meanings of any

given place. As Kent (1984; 1987) asserts, meanings can only be determined by

observing the correlations between the material and the social complexity of human

actions, during which the materials are produced, used, and become the end products.

Only through the search for meaning, either quantitatively or qualitatively, can the

unique identity of a spatial arrangement be envisaged. Fletcher (1995) argues for such

a correlation while introducing a theoretical outline to study long-term patterns of

settlement growth. He sees the major role of architecture as restrictive, and within

these limitations, architecture communicates non-verbally and interacts with human

behaviors. In addition, he states that human action generates the material component

of our social lives or that, in the short term, the material acts as a recursive aid to active

social life ,... (Fletcher 1995: xix). In other words, embedded verbal meanings in

material culture reflect the social action of humans, and architecture is loaded with

meanings that refer to a humans reflection of real adaptations to his/her environment

and social life. A built house does not only represent spatial restrictions by its walls, but

also through embedded meanings from social life and the capability of humans to cope

12

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with the limitations given by the environment. Similarly, Rapoport borrows a

structuralist and symbolic anthropological approach in focusing on human-environment

relations (1982). Convincingly, he states that structures are images that act as

mnemonic devices through which non-verbal perceptual and associational meanings

of environment and human experiences are emphasized as ideational and symbolic

meanings in any given built environment (Rapoport 1976; 1982 see especially Ch. 1-2).

Then the visible differences in architecture represent the differences in the ideals and

meanings of the builders. As a result, there must be traceable and explainable links

between human action and material culture (Fletcher 1995; Rapoport 1986; 1990),

although determining the correlations between human social actions and the

architectural remains is not straightforward since the thoughts of the builders and users

are unknown to the archaeologist. Yet, the archaeologist may find some links to

provide answers regarding the purposes of specific spaces, their functions, and how

their use may have changed over time. These answers can lead to a better

understanding of the social, political, and economic concerns of the society. Therefore,

the task for archaeologist should be to define architecture not only by its solid,

measurable components, but also through its qualities and meaning. The available

plans of the architecture should act as a blueprint speaking for the added cultural

meanings that were once significant to the inhabitants.

I.C- Methods for studying space:

In order to look for the meaning of space and the role of spatial organizations in

culture, one must consider the methods available for studying the meanings of the built

environment. At the household and intra site levels, which are the levels of interest in

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this study, there are few approaches: the traditional approach and functional analysis.

The former is useful but remains rather descriptive, while the latter analysis builds

upon the former. Because functional analysis is systematic, it not only can confirm or

refute the viability of the traditional-descriptive method, but it also may go beyond that

to provide explicit answers concerning spatial organization. Because of these

advantages, functional analysis is the approach taken in this study.

C.l- Traditional approach:

The usual route of inquiry for an archaeologist in understanding space use is the

process of defining every measurable attribute related to the architecture recovered

during the fieldwork. These attributes are the measurable dimensions and qualities of

the material that are visible in a trench. The compilation of these attributes leads to a

description of the unique nature of the space. Through this process, similarities among

attributes may be identified and their clusters begin to emerge. The description of those

attributes and their clusters may be used to define the types and classes of the built

environment. This processed data may eventually be used to draw generalized, not in

depth conclusions in the research usually limited to a narrative about the construction

techniques and some sketchy hints about the use of space.

However, this task alone, without a theoretical basis, cannot provide an explanation

concerning the cultural process, the spatial arrangements made, and the meanings

embedded within a settlement. While it is correct to examine a culture through its

material evidence, overlooking the meaning of types and their clusters is a dead end

that will not produce conclusions that significantly improve our knowledge of the past.

14

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Therefore, if humans are pattern makers through their behavior and social organization

that are manifested in their material culture, then archaeology should seek these

patterns with legitimate methods and theory (Kent 1987). Descriptions of measurable

attributes alone and their classified groupings are insufficient and do not provide a

well-founded explanation.

C.2- Functional Analysis:

Despite the inexplicit shortcomings of the traditional-descriptive method, it must still be

carried out and a functional analysis must follow it. Since the traditional method is the

description of the physical features of the material culture, it prepares the foundations

by giving a character to the sites spatial order. Only after this description is complete,

can the functional analysis, which involves the search for activity areas, be initiated.

The functional analysis is at the core of the study of spatial arrangements and it is the

identification of the activity areas within the settlement. The search for the activity

areas relies on the 3-dimensional mapping of the artifact distributions and non-mobile

furnishings to reveal patterns of distinct areas used by the inhabitants. The additional

data gathered by two other studies, access analysis and micro-morphology, increases

the understanding of how a given space was used and what it meant to its users. For

that reason, these sub-fields have to be included in the research as applicable tools for

both household and intra-site level analysis. Apart from these two, the most critical

input comes from ethnographic analogies, which often serve as the most powerful tool

to understand human condition in the past.

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C.2.a- Access routes:

Access analysis indicates the movements of people within the buildings and around the

site. What become visible in this analysis is the entrances into houses and to the site,

common meeting spots, the streets, and most importantly, the circulation movements

set within the architecture (Jansen 1985; Roaf 1989; Byrd 1994; 2000). Thus, access

analysis reveals both constricted and regulated movements in the spatial order and the

role of architecture in these movements. Unfortunately, the settlement layout of

Degirmentepe prevents such an experiment because the site has an agglutinant layout

with no streets. Considering the circulation inside the buildings, there seem to have

patterns but they do not yield any significant insights as what they meant to the users.

C.2.b- Aid of micro-morphological studies:

Micro-morphology is one approach to studying bio-archaeological remains in which the

reconstruction of the physical environment in relation to the contexts of human

interactions is possible (French 2003). Systematically collected samples from

architectural contexts are analyzed through a microscopic thin section in order to see

the depositional processes and activities within rooms. The results may lead to an

understanding of what materials were used in building constructions and how the rooms

were used in the past. Thus, the microscopic sampling from the floors and walls within

the structures may significantly contribute to the reconstruction of the built environment

and the understanding of the human activities therein. Similarly, Matthews et. al. assert

that micro-morphology offers useful insights in the study of the intended and actual

uses of space by examination of the types of floors or surfaces... (1997). They provide

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a few case studies conducted in the Near East to illustrate what this analysis entails in

different social and environmental contexts, including the identification of;

- the materials and technology,


- activities on floors and surfaces,
- relationships of artifacts, organic remains, and sediments in occupation deposits,
- and, effects of post-depositional alterations of contexts (Matthews, et. al. 1996;
1997).

With support of ethnographic analogy, micro-morphology can suggest explanations

regarding how the built environment was used in its original state. Based on her

ethnographic observations, Kramer (1979b) already proposed the possibility of

distinguishing activity areas and different uses of space by examining the variability of

the floors, for example between roofed and unroofed areas. Likewise, a recent

ethnographic work in Rajastan, India concerned with the social causes related to the

process of re-plastering the interiors of rooms (Boivin 2000), which duplicated the

archaeological fieldwork and the micro-morphological analysis carried out on the

samples collected from the multi-plastered rooms of atalhoyiik in Central Turkey.

Comparisons of the results of the two studies suggested some possible social aspects

involved during the re-plastering made inside the rooms of atalhoyuk. Hence, micro-

morphological studies, combined with ethno-archaeological analogies, may be of great

help in the interpretation of household remains: the ways the smallest units of space

were built, used, and maintained. Unfortunately, this method must be deliberately

ignored in this study because micro-morphological investigations were not developed

until the 1980s and were unknown to Anatolian archaeology until the mid 1990s.

Otherwise, this method would have provided interesting insights for space use.

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C.2.c- Aid from ethno-archaeological analogy:

Since its inception at the beginning of the twentieth century, providing the most critical

input in reaching reliable explanations in archaeology and limiting the biases of the

researcher, ethno-archaeology received serious attention as a major sub-discipline of

anthropology (Fewkes 1900). The definition and use of ethno-archaeology, emerging

from its theoretical basis and its practice, has been extensively discussed in the

literature (Kent 1987; Kramer 1979a; 1979b; Watson 1979a; 1979b; for the most recent

overview see David and Kramer 2001). The use of analogies from ethnographic

research is the most important way of shedding light on activity areas and the use of

space in a settlement (Kramer 1982). The domain of the ethnographer is making

observations in contemporary settings about how the human events emerge, the

conditions of the material patterning before, during, or after those events, and the

human behavioral correlates that cause those occurrences of material patterns. The

ultimate aim is to establish such correlates as the datasets of the organic and dynamic

interrelationships between the events, material patterns, and human behavior in those

settings. The archaeologist has the advantage of applying these ethnographic

observations and the ethnographic material by-products themselves to similar material

remains and contexts from the past, so that the development of a testable hypothesis of

what may have happened would be feasible (see the model of interrelationships in

Kent 1984 fig.l; 1987). If a correlation between the contemporary materials and the

observed events producing them can be established, then the similar correlation may be

used in reconstructing the archaeological cases, provided that the archaeological

material remains and their contexts are similar or identical to the ethnographic case

(Watson 1979a; also see Hill 1968 as a good case study). Thus, ethno-archaeological

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analogies can greatly assist in the functional analysis of archaeological material by

providing explanations derived from empirical data. In the cases of spatial organization

studies, ethnographic analogies become useful tools in reconstructing the use of

artifacts and activity areas in the past.

As the focus of research, ethno-archaeological studies from the Near East since the

1960s were developing ethnographic correlates for archaeological inquiry and delving

into the implications of analogies in archaeology. Watson (1966; 1979a) provided

numerous ethnographic observations from several different Iranian villages hoping to

build hypotheses about the cultural dynamics of early farming villages in the Near East.

She not only reported the events, the actors, and the materials used in the events she

observed, but also various correlates about the cultural aspects of village life evolving

around these events, such as the agriculture, animal husbandry, economy, architecture,

textile production, use of tools, kinship relations and household type, religious beliefs

and practices, and so on. Furthermore, she compares these observations with

archaeological data to make inferences about the social organizational aspects of the

prehistoric village societies. Similarly, Kramer (1979a; 1982) also searched for cultural

correlates that shaped the society in modem Iranian village life, which resulted in

viable ethno-archaeologically oriented hypotheses applicable to explain archaeological

material traits. Among these studies, the use of material culture, their pattern of spatial

distribution, the use of space, household types, and domestic architecture were also the

focus of attention (Kramer 1979b; Home 1982; 1994).

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On the other hand, the application of ethnographic observations to the studies of

archaeological spatial organization is rare, except for the two recent studies from Tell

Madhur and Tell Sabi Abyad that used ethnographic analogy to address questions of

the function of space (Roaf 1989; Verhoeven 1999). Based on ethnography, these

studies assigned function to the artifact types, and analyzed their distribution and

clusters within the built environment, so that the possible past uses of distinct

architectural spaces became clear. Thus, a search for the use of artifacts and activity

areas in the built environment at Degirmentepe must include a good deal of

ethnographic analogy to support a reasonable reconstruction of Degirmentepe

architecture and its spatial organizations.

I.D- Analyzing activity areas at Degirmentepe:

Based on what has been discussed so far, the study of Degirmentepe is limited to the

traditional descriptive and the functional analysis methods at best. On the other hand,

applying functions to tool types from various ethno-archaeological field works is

essential. The substantial work done by Verhoeven compiling the ethnographic

assessments of tool functions from various ethnographic analogies will be adopted here

as the guiding reference in assigning function to the artifacts found at the site

(Verhoeven 1999, especially see his Appendix 1).

It may be found that the Degirmentepe data has shortcomings caused by the lack of

detailed studies of the material remains (Appendix I). Verhoeven convincingly argues

that, if a functional analysis will be carried out on an excavated site, the detailed

analyses of material remains from that site should be completed first, because the most

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reliable answers to how artifacts were used in contexts and how a space functioned

could come from the results of these analyses (1999). For example, a lack of analysis

of animal bones will result in the lack of knowledge about practices of animal

husbandry, and the significance of such practices in diet and economy. What also

cannot be understood is the identification of species, the locations where animals were

kept, and where they were killed, processed and consumed. Unfortunately, this issue is

a valid concern for the material remains of Degirmentepe and the lack of information

from such analyses prevents us from fully understanding the contextual data as well as

the use of space.

Even though Verhoevens convincing argument about the necessity of studying each

material group is well taken and such studies are lacking for Degirmentepe, the

architecture of this site still deserves as precise attention as possible. The almost

2500m2 horizontal exposure, filled with a dense layout of rooms and buildings,

necessitates the systematic documentation of its architecture and spatial organizations

to the extent possible. To leave this sites architecture and the possible meanings of its

spatial arrangements unstudied would simply be wrong and negligent.

Following the detailed description of architectural remains in Chapter III (for the order

of these descriptions, see the beginning of Chapter III), a functional analysis will be

carried out, during which the artifacts from primary deposits will be placed in their find

spots to elicit any patterns and clusters.

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As a result of the analysis, it should be possible to estimate the household type and

size, from which the form for the society may be extrapolated, leading to an

explanation how the settlement functioned during its lifespan. This analysis will also be

useful in placing the site among its contemporaries in the region. It is further hoped that

this study hopefully will shed light on broader questions: How did the site organize

socially? Where were the private areas and public areas? Who were the inhabitants?

Were they really Ubaid people who were intrusive into the Malatya region, or locals

who had adopted southern traditions? Could the site be called an Ubaid colony? Does it

make sense to see the site as a precursor of the later social changes and expansion

processes evident in the Late Uruk? How do we define the time of Degirmentepe in the

context of the Malatya region? The architecture from Degirmentepe may help provide

answers to such questions concerning the Ubaid in North Mesopotamia.

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Chapter II: Background Setting

n.A- History of Ubaid research:


A.l- Ubaid in Mesopotamia:

The name Ubaid derives from the material remains first recovered at the site called Al-

Ubaid near Ur in Southern Mesopotamia (Hall and Woolley 1927). However, the

recognition of the Ubaid cultural horizon with its significant material culture had to wait

for the excavations carried out at Hajji Mohammad, Ur, and Eridu (Ziegler 1953;

Woolley 1955; Safar, Mustafa and Lloyd 1981). The recovery of long uninterrupted

Ubaid sequence of Eridu inspired the idea that the South Mesopotamia was the

heartland for the Ubaid. The rich painted pottery assemblages, usually represented with

dark brown or black painted decorations made on a greenish or light color paste, and

the distinct tripartite architectural plans became the hallmarks of the period. In the

meantime, the tripartite building plan of the Ubaid was assumed to be the earliest

representation of temple architecture in Mesopotamia. The most convincing evidence

of such architecture comes from the temple sounding at Eridu, a type-site for the

Ubaid material culture (Safar, et. al. 1981). The architectural sequence of the site

showed a gradual development from a simple, square shaped mud brick room to a

multi-roomed monumental temple structure.

Despite the seemingly clear progression of architectural forms, the recent analysis of

the sequence of temple architecture development at Eridu has led to some conflicting

scholarly reactions. For example, Akkermans recently expressed opposition to the idea

of the emergence of the temple from a single room at the early layers of Eridu (1989).

He noted that there were breaks in the lower layers of the temple sequence, and for

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him, the real temple architecture does not appear until level XI. Given the fact that the

excavations at Eridu took place before the 1950s, probably with faster and less

systematic recording, there may have been breaks in the sequence that might have

been missed during the excavations. Therefore, his argument requires attention, and

the temple sequence between the levels XVII-XII at Eridu requires re-evaluation.

Joan Oates, focusing on the developments and changes in pottery forms and painted

designs available from the early excavations, established a system of four division

typological sub-phases representing the two millennia-long Ubaid period (1960):

- Ubaid 1 (Eridu Phase),

- Ubaid 2 (Hajji Mohammad Phase),

- Ubaid 3,

-Ubaid 4.

Today, these phases are widely in use and French scholars have made a new addition

to this scheme. New data, coming from the Tell el-Queili excavations, showed that

there was an earlier phase for the Ubaid period named the Queili phase or Ubaid 0

by the excavators (Huot 1989; Forest 1991; Forest and Vallet et. al. 1996).

In addition to those known from early excavations, more Ubaid sites were discovered

with the surveys carried out (Adams 1972). Wrights (1981) 1965-66 surveys, focusing

on the area around Eridu to determine settlement systems during the Ubaid period,

yielded new data. His studies confirmed that there were apparently more Ubaid sites,

but with much smaller occupations. He also suggested a gradual growth in settlement

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size through time. Accordingly, he postulated that the earliest phase, the Eridu phase, is

problematic and the sites belonging to this date were probably buried under later

occupations or heavy alluvium, a familiar obstacle in Near Eastern Archaeology. He

added that the earliest town size settlements would have occurred as early as the Hajji

Mohammad or the Ubaid 3 phases and that the socio-political conditions during these

times were probably giving rise to the development of two-level settlement hierarchy,

which became evident in the following Ubaid 4 phase. He suggested two territories

dotted with small settlements, with Eridu and Ur representing the town centers for each

of these enclaves, where the manifestation of the power of the central authority may

have been evident. As a result, these surveys in the south combined with the early

excavations were not only concerned with the existence of the Ubaid, but also

identifying the foundations for urbanization before it became apparent in the Late

Uruk.

In Central Mesopotamia, the brief excavations at Tell Uqair and Ras al-Amiya (Lloyd

and Safar 1945; Stronach 1961) indicated Ubaid expansion towards the north in the

Ubaid 2-3 period. The excavations at Tepe Gawra, Niniveh, and Tell Arpaciyah

(Tobler 1950; Thompson and Mallowan 1933; Mallowan and Rose 1935) confirmed

that the expansion went even farther during the Late Ubaid. The contexts from

Arpaciyah provided good data from the graves, but, unfortunately, the data from

Niniveh is more problematic, since the Ubaid layers were buried at the bottom of the

massive later cultural deposits causing poorer documentation. Although the excavation

of Tepe Gawra had procedural problems, the recent re-evaluations of that site

(Rothman 1988; 2002) and recovery of temples in Ubaid levels, especially the

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Northern Temple in Level XIII (Tobler 1950), established the importance of this site

for Ubaid research in North Mesopotamia today. As a result, Tepe Gawra, with its long

stratigraphic sequence and rich material remains, now stands as a type-site for the

Ubaid in Northern Mesopotamia.

The Ubaid expansion beyond the Mesopotamian lands is also evident in the Gulf and

Saudi Arabia. Research on the shores of the Gulf region encountered no architecture,

but found distributions of Ubaid 4 pottery stretching to the sites in Oman, Bahrain, and

even to the sites of Saudi Arabian coastline (Friefelt 1989; Oates 1976; Roaf 1974;

1976). Based on limited data, Oates (1983) proposed that the exploitation of marine

resources might have been the prime factor allowing contemporary local coastal groups

to interact with Ubaid pottery users in South Mesopotamia. In short, for her, finding the

Ubaid pottery in these areas may be explained as the result of some kind of exchange

mechanism, which introduced Ubaid pottery users to the coastal groups. Her suggestion

sounds plausible, but it has not been tested systematically and there has not been any

substantial marine-related remains found in South Mesopotamia.

However, inland surveys from the Arabian Peninsula reported more Ubaid pottery

located near the rocky outcrops, suggesting the possible exploitation of rock within a

kind of exchange mechanism (Masry 1974). In Iran, Ubaid assemblages were

recovered together with other painted pottery groups, but the nature of the supposed

interactions with the locals in the Zagros hilltops remains unknown (Henrickson 1989).

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To summarize, the early Ubaid, during the Eridu and Hajji Mohammad phases, seems

to be manifested as a local phenomenon occurring only in the marshy region of the Gulf

in South Mesopotamia and in western Iran. In the Late Ubaid, however, we witness an

expansion into vast areas of the Near East. This expansion in North Mesopotamia is

explained as a result of an acculturation process. It has been argued that the local

traditions were replaced with incoming traits, which were technologically superior (e.g.

the brick mould, or irrigation agriculture), adopted from the heartland during this

process (Breniquet 1986; 1989).

The investigations carried out as a series of salvage excavations in the Hamrin region

in Central Iraq assisted in understanding the nature of the Ubaid expansion and the

formation of social organization in these local areas. Among the sixteen Ubaid dated

sites recorded in the region, the excavations at Tell Songor, Kheit Qasim, Tell Abada,

and Tell Madhur revealed Ubaid 2-3 and Ubaid 4 phases. These sites now represent

the period more clearly not only with pottery but also with architecture and other

artifacts (Jasim 1985; Jasim 1989; Roaf 1989; Fujji 1981; Forest-Foucault 1980).

Furthermore, some identifiers of an elite group were evident in the material culture of

the Ubaid 2-3 occupations at Tell Abade, while the other sites lacked such indicators

(Jasim 1985).

The step trench at Tell Hammam et-Turkman in the Balikh valley of Northwestern

Syria and the studies in the North Jazira showed that, by the time of Ubaid 4, cultural

differentiation and a developed settlement hierarchy were present in North

Mesopotamia. Based on the Late Ubaid pottery analysis from the very thick layer IV of

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Hammam et-Turkman, Akkermans (1988c) argues that there is a distinction between

the pottery of Northern Iraq and that of northeastern Syria. He claims that, if North

Mesopotamia is a periphery and the South is the core region, then the North should be

seen as composed of different local regions using Ubaid traits. Citing the predominance

of the local unpainted Ubaid bowls in comparison to the painted Ubaid bowls,

Akkermans asserts that the limited number of painted bowls from Hammam et-

Turkman represent display items of the elite and may have been brought in, while the

plain pottery was only for daily use. Since he does not see this pattern in Northern Iraq

and eastern Syria, he separates Northeastern Syria from these regions. From the

preponderance of painted Ubaid pottery in the Khabur and Iraqi Jazira, he concludes

that true Late Ubaid traits might have penetrated into the Balikh area where the local

societies adopted and imitated these traits on a limited scale. According to these

conclusions, it might be said that North Mesopotamia consisted of sub-regions

characterized by the different use of similar materials.

In addition, Akkermans seems to confirm the existence of stratification in the society

during the Late Ubaid. Based on wealth, the small group of elites or high ranking

families probably co-existed with the larger group of commoners in the community.

Since Akkermans assertions were based on pottery only, the nature of wealth as well

as the nature of the interactions among the different social groups is difficult to

envision. Based on the results of his surveys and brief excavations in Iraqi Jazira,

Wilkinson verifies the manifestation of a two-level hierarchy (Wilkinson 1990;

Wilkinson and Tuckerl995). His surveys show that there were three settlement types

apparent during the Ubaid period. One type is illustrated by the large regional center

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Tell al-Hawa, which seems to have dominated the plain with its 15 ha area, and the

other type is represented by the smaller contemporary sites scattered around it, ranging

from 0.5 to 3 ha. Khirbet al-Akhwayn was the only one holding the middle of the

hierarchy with its ca. 5-6 ha area. In addition, excavations at one of the small satellite

sites, called Kanijdal East, led to the recovery of rather less substantial architectural

evidence (Wilkinson, Monahan and Tucker 1996), implying that such small sites

probably had less economic power and less political importance compared to the large

sites.

In conclusion, it is evident that the early periods of the Ubaid in South Mesopotamia

may represent the core region, but by the time of Ubaid 4, or Late/Terminal Ubaid used

to indicate North Mesopotamia, the traits of Ubaid expand into the whole of

Mesopotamia and the adjacent regions. What is unknown is the nature of the expansion

process. Did the expansion result from the processes of population shifts, or was it an

outcome of the diffusion of material culture via import or imitation of some cultural

traits? It is clear that the Ubaid displays the earliest crystallization of social and

political inequality among human groups in this part of the world, sometime between

the sixth and the fourth millennium. Furthermore, it has been stated that today the

Ubaid does not seem to represent a single, monolithic cultural and organizational

entity, but rather consisted of many locally unique variations on a general Ubaid

material-cultural theme (Henrickson and Thuesen 1989). The research in Hamrin

-especially at Tell Abade and Tell Madhur, in Northern Syria, in Iraqi Jazira and the

reevaluation of Tepe Gawra now provides more than mere recognition of the Ubaid

and its expansion. Instead, systematically conducted wide horizontal exposures, such as

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the recent projects conducted at Tell Ziyadeh (Arzt 2001), Tell al-Abr (Hammade and

Koike 1993; Hammade and Yamazaki 1995), Tell Kosak Shamali (Matsutani and

Nishiaki 1995; Nishiaki et. al. 1999), and Tell Kashkashok (Matsutani 1991), are

beginning to render the characteristics of the Ubaid socio-political phenomena and

imply the influences it had on the following urbanization processes. Under these

circumstances, the architecture of Degirmentepe provides significant data from the

hinterlands regarding the cultural evolution of the Ubaid period.

A.2- Ubaid in Turkey:

Our knowledge of the Ubaid in Turkey comes from various sites, but because of the

limited nature of the horizontal exposures and soundings, the data is also very limited.

The early excavations, such as Phases D and E at Tell Kurdu in the Amuq plain or at

Tarsus-Gdzlukule, yielded pottery assemblages but lacked significant architectural

remains (Braidwood 1960; Goldman 1956). Mersin-Yumiiktepe level XVI, on the other

hand, showed stone architecture consisting of rooms adjacent to a wide surrounding

wall. A building next to this defense wall and barracks was probably a tripartite

building, but was only partially exposed. Pottery of this level was called Ubaid-like

pottery because it was not true Ubaid ware and was represented by a much less

quantity than the other wares (Garstang 1953). The unusual representation of

architecture and the lack of true Ubaid pottery along with the presence of other ware

groups indicate a society other than the typical Mesopotamian. Perhaps, Mersin XVI

represents a cultural boundary for the northeast extension of the Ubaid. The new

research has continued to shed more light on the characteristics of the material culture,

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the use of the landscape, and the cultural boundaries between the Ubaid and these local

communities (Sevin, et. al. 1997).

Further east, there are additional sites with Ubaid pottery. In the Sakgagozii plain, the

Ubaid is represented at four sites: Coba Hoytik level IV, the Cave site, Tilmen Hoyiik,

and Gedikli-Karahoyiik (du Plat Taylor et. al. 1950; Waechter et. al. 1951; Alkim 1962;

Alkim 1979; Alkim and Alkim 1966). Of these sites, only Coba Hoyiik revealed any

architecture, which consisted of a few wattle-and-daub walls, plastered floors, and the

pits encircled with stones. The pottery included flint-scraped Coba ware and painted

Ubaid. Given the evidence, there seems to be a temporal change from the use of Coba

ware to Ubaid painted ware at this site. The Cave site was found in the same area at

one of the rocky outcrops and the soundings were made only at the opening of the cave.

Here, pottery was predominantly Ubaid painted. It was reported that at the other

nearby sites in the area, Tilmen Hoyiik and Gedikli, the soundings also yielded Ubaid-

like painted pottery. Just north of Saksagozii, interim pottery studies from recent

surveys in the Mara Plain yielded Ubaid pottery at seven small multi-period mounds

(Carter 1996; Eissenstat 2004), and further expansion to the NW is evident with Ubaid

pottery encountered in Elbistan-Afin area surveys (Brown 1967).

In Gaziantep province, Oylum Hoyiik has recently begun giving data about the Ubaid

period, but the pottery has come from eroded deposits with badly damaged architecture

(Ozgen and Helwing 2003). The Adiyaman and Urfa areas had much intense Ubaid

sites. Surveys in the Adiyaman province yielded some Ubaid sites with Coba ware

(Blaylock, French and Summers 1990). Towards the north, at the foothills of the Taurus

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mountains, the major site Samsat located on the bank of Euphrates produced more

Ubaid pottery from its thick Ubaid layers (Ozdogan 1977; Mellink 1985). Prag states

that Ubaid Painted pottery was collected together with Halaf pottery at Harran Hoyiik

(Prag 1970). Similarly, unsystematic recent surveys in the Harran plain yielded both

Halaf and Ubaid painted pottery from various representative sites (Yardimci 1991;

1992; 1994).

The series of excavations in the Keban dam area in the mountainous region to the north

of the Taurus yielded Ubaid representations too, but the data from the four sites is

rather limited. According to van Loon, Ubaid pottery began at phase B of Korucutepe

but without any architecture (van Loon 1978). More Ubaid pottery appears at level 15

at the 8-0 deep sounding at Tepecik (Esin 1972). The largest site, Noruntepe in the

Altmova plain, has Ubaid pottery coming from the large sounding J/K 17.

Unfortunately, the bottom levels, 8 and 9, could not be opened more than 2 x 2 m

because of the appearance of underground water; here, only a small amount of Ubaid

pottery together with other ware groups were recovered (Hauptmann 1982, especially

see pi. 35 and 36/7-10). The other representation of the Ubaid comes from Tiilintepe

(Esin 1976). If the sites estimated ca. 16 meters high cultural deposits had not been

completely flattened by bulldozers for the construction of a railway, the Chalcolithic

layers would have provided more substantial data. It was reported that, in these

circumstances, limited Ubaid material was still found just above the Halaf horizon in

the large Ubaid pit-deposit and its surrounding areas (Ozbaaran 1992).

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Pirot Hoyiik, located on the banks of Euphrates in the Malatya plain near

Degirmentepe, yielded another Ubaid settlement (Karaca 1985). Despite having a very

limited exposure at level XII, painted Ubaid pottery and few wall remains were enough

to confirm the substantial Ubaid occupation at this site. In addition, a recent cut at the

eastern sector slopes of Arslantepe confirms a Halaf and Ubaid presence at this site,

previously alluded to in the results of Schaeffers Sounding (Weidner 1952-53;

personal communication with M. Frangipane).

This brief survey presenting the extent of the Ubaid horizon in Turkey clearly shows

that Ubaid traits reached not only the northern fringes of North Mesopotamia, but also

intruded into the East Anatolian highland much further north. However, this much wider

geographical expansion of the Ubaid phenomenon during the fifth millennium leaves us

with many more questions about the nature of these developments.

H.B- Geographical Setting for the Malatya and Elazig Plains;

The geography of East Anatolia differs greatly from the Mesopotamian landscape in

the south. Mesopotamia consists of vast lowlands with less than 200 mm rainfall,

creating very hot and dry climatic conditions. In contrast, East Anatolia is a

mountainous region with a high annual rainfall, allowing much more temperate

conditions. The transitional climatic zone in between these two contrasting landscapes

begins with the low foothills of the Taurus range in Adiyaman and NE of Urfa. This

zone has pockets of narrow valleys giving opportunities with respect to different types

of natural resources. Degirmentepe is located beyond this transitional zone at one of

the small plateaus in the mountainous zone (pi. 2 and fig. 2.1).

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The Elazig and Malatya plains consist of flat alluvial soils connected with the Keban

pass and surrounded by high mountains. The Euphrates and its branches cut these

mountains and provide abundant water for the nearby areas while setting the major

communication route between these two plains. Collecting heavy snow at their peaks

each winter, the mountains become impassable for most of the year. Water from the

melting snow and the sudden rains during the spring season run down to the plain via

small rivers and channels below the surface. These sources provide sufficient annual

water for the survival of flora and fauna in the lower elevations. At the end of this

route, the remaining excess water is emptied into the Euphrates to begin its long

southerly journey.

The rugged appearance of the general landscape was created by various natural

factors. The melted snow running down the mountains cuts the riverbeds, bringing down

immense amounts of loose deposits rich with minerals to the plains. This continuous

erosion has created multiple narrow valleys and occasional gorges in the piedmonts

and water-rich fertile flat lands of the plains, providing ideal niches for a wide variety

of animals. In addition to this activity, the tectonic movements over the course of

millions years have been shaping the landscape. The two major plates are the Altinova

and the Avan in the Elazig province. Together with other smaller faults, they are

active faults that have been promoting the formation of mountain ranges and other

geographical features throughout the entire region of East Anatolia (Ardos 1984; Erol

et. al. 1987).

B.l- Altinova and Avan Plains in Elazig:

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The Altinova and Avan plains are adjacent to each other within the modem province

of Elazig. It is likely that the city and its nearby districts grew upon these plains

because of the rich water resources and the fertile alluvial soil of the land. The most

significant springs are Munzur ay, alti Su, Karasu, and Murat Suyu that run year

round with high water regimes. These springs converge on the plain and form the

mighty Euphrates above the Keban district in the SW. The large Keban Reservoir,

resulting from the second largest water dam construction in Turkey, now covers the

greater portions of these fertile plains, reaching ca. 700 km2 in area.

The Altinova and Avan plains are about 950 meters above sea level and have an

average temperature of 13 C with ca. 428 mm annual precipitation (pi. 2). Winters are

cold, snowy, and dry contrasting with very hot and dry summers. The snow stays on the

mountains for as long as six to seven months. These plains may have steady,

predictable climatic conditions, although there can be entirely different conditions in

the smaller valleys and niches at the margins near the mountains (Ardos 1984).

Accordingly, plants and animals in these pocket areas may be different from those

adapted to the large and rather flat plains. Thus, this diversity of species of flora and

fauna would have provided a variety of nearby food resources for the human diet.

The mountains surrounding the Altmova and Avan plains are made of calcareous,

granitic, basaltic, and serpentine rock formations, while the plains themselves consist

mainly of alluvium, sand, and clay with the occasional appearance of some gravel

deposits and a few small rocky outcrops. Studies of the geomorphological strata of the

plains have shown that a large lake covered the region from the Pliocene era, but,

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because of the tectonic activities, the lake gradually emptied its water and shrunk over

the millennia until the emptied areas were filled with sand, gravel, and clay by the time

of the Holocene. (Ardos 1984).

B.2- Malatya Region:

As mentioned, several streams to the immediate north of Elazig make up the Euphrates

in Avan and Altinova, and as it flows south, more small streams converge to greatly

increase its water regime. The Keban district lies to the immediate south of Elazig.

Here, the Euphrates has cut into the low hills over the millennia, forming a narrow

pass. This Keban pass finishes about 15-16 km west of the Keban district near the

village of Ataf, which is submerged now under the reservoir. After this pass, the

Euphrates enters into the Malatya plain and the riverbed becomes much wider (see fig.

2 . 1 ).

This plain covers an area of roughly 1000km2 on the west bank of the Euphrates

housing the modem city of Malatya located at the southwest comer of this plain. The

other side of the Euphrates, the east bank, has very narrow flat land bordered with the

beginnings of hills further east. The peaks are high enough, most reaching up to 2000m,

to retain snow for a long time in a year, seven to eight months in winter.

Streams and small rivers are more numerous in the Malatya plain than in Elazig to the

north. They are the Keban Su, Aliaga ay, Kurugay, Tohma Suyu, and Komiirhan

Deresi, all of which join the Euphrates and increase its flow of water substantially.

Immediately after entering the Malatya Plain, the river makes wide sweeps until it

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Fig. 2.1: The map of the floodplain in Malaya. The green areas in the center are agricultural
fields that were vulnerable to floods. Today, the Karakaya dam and smaller dams, such
as the one in lower left, harness the snow-melt from the mountains. The many
kilometers long ridged area, just to the north of the fertile plain with its southeasterly
slope towards the Euphrates, was formed by the heavy rain and snow run off reaching
the Euphrates over the millennia (Image: from Landsat-7 taken in 2000 by NASA).

reaches the south end of the Malatya basin. As it descends further south towards the

Komiirhan pass, the landscape changes again with the rocky hill area enclosing the

plain. The Komiirhan pass represents the end of the Taurus Range that extends until the

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Adiyaman and Urfa regions (Ozdogan 1977). Today, the Karakaya reservoir covers

most of the Malatya plain, including Degirmentepe. The site, like many others, is

known from the salvage excavations that continued up until shortly before the site

became submerged (see the maps in Ozdogan 1977).

Similar to Elazig, the Malatya plain represents a semi-arid environment that has low

rainfall (400 mm), but the average temperature is high (ca. 36 C in July) during the

dry months of the summer. Cold and dry winters turn into hot summers and the desert

like dry conditions may predominate in the areas where springs and streams do not

appear (Marcolongo and Palmieri 1983). The climate of the entire plain is not normally

favorable to agriculture and animal life, except at the riverbanks and at the immediate

flood plains of the Euphrates.

However, the melting snow from the mountains -notably Beydagi- brings an abundant

water supply for a sufficient agricultural yield in the lower elevations of the plain.

Probably, villagers developed simple and small-scale irrigation techniques before the

construction of the dam to control the water regimes and supply enough water for

agricultural fields near the springs. Unfortunately, no data is available regarding how

the water was harnessed and used before the water dams were built. Even if there is a

water shortage from the Euphrates or from low annual rainfall, excess water from

melting snow can still feed the plain substantially and contribute to the regime of

Euphrates (Marcolongo and Palmieri 1983). As a result, the southern part of the

Malatya plain resembles an oasis with plenty of melted water via underground springs

and small rivers, especially in the city of Malatya and around the nearby site of

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Arslantepe. Nevertheless, these resources occasionally create excessive water beyond

the capacity of the plain, resulting in occasional floods (see below).

A geological study of the morphology of the Malatya plain also showed the role of

springs rich with water (Marcolongo and Palmieri 1983). The slopes of the mountains

are made of conglomerated calcareous sediments, limestone, fissured gravel and sand

formations, and basaltic rocky outcrops left from volcanic activities. Such rock

sediments allow the melting water to run below ground. Water seeps through the

ground and travels all the way down to the plain without any loss. At the skirts,

limestone, conglomerate forms, and calcareous rock formations pool the large amount

of leaking water and release it again from many openings. Thus, the Arslantepe and

Eski Malatya (Old Malatya) areas of the plain have numerous springs today feeding

the plain all the way down to the Euphrates, creating a lush, green environment

supporting many plants and animals. These fertile locations would have offered ideal

green areas with abundant natural resources for the inhabitants in antiquity (fig. 2.1;

also compare with pi. 2).

B.3- Floods in the Malatya Plain:

During the rescue excavations carried out in Malatya before the construction of the

Karababa dam, some sites had natural cuts made by the river that showed the distinct

sedimentations of floods. Such sediments were particularly noticed at the sites of

emsiyetepe, lmikuagi, Pirot Hoyiik, and Degirmentepe as well as at the vicinities of

these sites (Marcolongo and Palmieri 1983).

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Kodioturan

Mevki

Yarim
Degirm en
moglu h. K oskerbaba
Ku,u?agi

a n tep e

MALATYA

LEGEND
belt of high soil moisture content in
alluvial plain often with terraces

area of high soil moisture content


in neogenic and quaternary loose
sediments

shallow ground-water flow direction

boundary between clayey-clastic


formations and hard rocks of
various age and genesis

Fig. 2.2: Hydro-geological drawing o f Malatya and the location o f some sites on the riverbank
(from Marcolongo and Palmieri 1983).

The locals of Eski Malatya today also know the risk of flood well. Tohma Suyu always

has sufficient water flow all year around and floods occasionally, triggered by the

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sudden, heavy rainfall season in the spring. Even without abnormal snowfall from the

winter months, sudden, heavy rains during the spring create consistent and inevitable

floods, giving the plain a very shallow, swampy lake appearance for three to seven

days. This certainly inflicted substantial damage to agriculture up until the last decades

(communication with locals) (figs. 2.1 and 2.2). Since there were no substantial

tectonic and climatic changes recorded in the Chalcolithic, the conditions in the region

may have looked similar to those of today. Therefore, it is not difficult to imagine that

different levels of flooding may have occurred repeatedly in the past too. A few of

these floods may have been much more drastic than the others, if the snow from the

preceding winter was very heavy and the following spring season brought in very

heavy rains to the region. In addition, the scale of such heavy snow and rainfall

conditions can extend to Elazig to the north, causing a much higher water regime for

the Euphrates before it enters into the Malatya plain. Certainly, such disadvantageous

factors came together at least once as evidenced by the sediments of the sites just

mentioned above. Since the process of flooding in this area has not been explored

extensively, the questions about how the water level increased, how suddenly the

floods took place, or how many times it occurred in the past still remain unanswered.

B.4- Communication Routes:

Despite the fact that the Elazig and Malatya plains are surrounded by high mountains,

communication among the human groups in these regions as well as the other nearby

regions was well established in antiquity. According to the ancient history of East

Anatolia, there were common roads within the two plains connecting one settlement

with another (see Mitchell 1980: fig.3). Two geographic conditions, namely the river

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courses and the mountain passes, set the limits for the inter-regional communication

routes.

The river courses of the Euphrates as well as its branches establish the natural routes. It

appears that the southerly water flow of the river provided one means of transportation;

boats made with floating air-filled animal skin bags have been traveling this route until

recent decades. In addition, it has been documented that between the 1850s and

1960s, rope bridges were in use at convenient spots to cross the river (Wagstaff 1973;

McNicoll 1973). Furthermore, the riverbanks must have been the most common natural

land routes, allowing one to travel through the mountainous passes and gorges.

Following the routes of the Murat Suyu and Karasu, it is possible to travel to the Black

Sea Mountains and Pontic region to the north, or to the Araxes River to the northeast.

Similarly, once reaching the Ergani pass after Hazar Lake to the east, one can continue

on the banks of Tigris River and its branches to Diyabakir and Batman and then to the

Mosul area further southeast. Most importantly, the widespread flatlands of North

Mesopotamia could be reached following the Euphrates via Komiirhan pass and then

the low hills of Adiyaman to the south.

Mountains, on the other hand, can provide passage only during the summer. The heavy

snow on the mountain peaks for six to eight months during the winter creates

impassable conditions. Only when the warm temperature settles in during the mid

spring to the end of fall do these high elevations permit travel and access to more

resources for subsistence. Therefore, the landscape and the seasonal climatic conditions

set the rules for travel from one region to another. For example, once the mountain

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range to the west of Malatya is passed, it is possible to reach Mara, or even Kayseri,

and then continue on to Central Anatolia via the route of the Elbistan and Afin plains

(seepl.l).

In preliminary surveys, Ozdogan (1977) found settlements near advantageous water

sources. If water was really one of the prime factors in antiquity determining the

location of a site, then the mapping of the inland settlement patterns should also

indicate sparser distributions. Equally important, the sites at the mountain slopes near

the springs were probably sparser and presumably had a different socio-economic

character than the ones near the river. In this environmentally deterministic view, it is

possible to imagine that there were a few more sites in the nature-favored niches in the

foothills, which controlled the natural resources or the communication routes between

the plains. Such settlement patterns would have allowed opportunities for establishing

trade or socio-economical bartering rules for certain goods among the communicating

groups.

In these circumstances, the combination of the natural factors in the region and the

available technological abilities of people coping with these factors must have

determined the nature, the frequency, and the importance of communication routes as

the relationships among the past communities. Given the fact that Degirmentepe was

located on the center of a major route, on the west bank of the Euphrates, the

inhabitants of the site must have had constant interactions with other sites and regions

either via water or land. (fig. 2.1)

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II.C- Chronology, 14C dates, and Stratigraphy of the site:

Degirmentepe is a multi-period mound, but only the Iron Age and Chalcolithic periods

yielded substantial architecture. Small finds and pottery dating to the l sl millennium

AD, 1st and 2nd millennium BC, as well as the EBAI / Karaz cultures were found in the

mixed contexts of the top layers of the trenches. At the east side of the mound, there

was a round shaped, massive stone building constructed during the Iron Age. Esin

suggested that the Iron Age settlers might have been responsible for the lack of

architecture on the mound dating to the Bronze Ages. These Iron Age settlers probably

rearranged the living surface of the mound to build their dwellings, along with the

outpost that badly disturbed the early layers. In addition, the Iron Age necropolis and

the giant ca. 2 to 4 meter wide size pits also demolished the lower levels (Esin 1987;

Esin et. al 1987; 1983). Furthermore, she suggests that the floods of Euphrates

occurring after the Chalcolithic period would have damaged not only the transitional

layers from Chalcolithic to EBA I, but also the EBA occupations themselves (Esin

1984; 1987; 1998). Some activity of the Karaz culture of EBA I definitely took place,

but this culture was only represented with its pottery and a couple of postholes. Without

significant architecture, the Bronze Age layers are unclear in stratigraphy. On the other

hand, the earliest represented material culture remains were from the Ubaid period,

which yielded dense mud-brick architecture and numerous small finds. (Esin 1980;

1981; 1983a; 1983b; 1984; 1985a; Esin and Harmankaya1986; 1987; 1988).

The following are the cultural periods identified at Degirmentepe:


- Middle Age - Late Roman (ca. 1st millennium A.D.)
- Iron Age (ca. 1st millennium B.C.)
- Middle Bronze Age (ca. second half of the 2ndmillennium B.C.)
- Early Bronze Age I/KarazCulture (beginning of 3rd millennium B.C.)
- Chalcolithic / Ubaid (end of 5th/beginning of 4thmillenniums B.C.)

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Degirmentepe seems to have witnessed the most extensive occupation when the use of

Ubaid material culture was spread throughout the settlement. Of the twelve layers

encountered in the 12-13 J step trench at the northern slope of the mound, only layers 7

through 11 dated to the Ubaid period. It has been suggested by the excavator that most

of the Ubaid architecture exposed in other trenches should represent layer 7, although

the corresponding layer numbers were different in each trench. This stratigraphical

order presents confusion for the analysis of the remains. In terms of temporal

correlations, the architectural phases of a building cannot be linked with those of

another building. In other words, the settlements architectural development during the

Ubaid period is unclear. As a result, the architectural changes that occurred in the

Ubaid settlement remains for this dissertation to untangle. This task is taken up in the

next chapter based on the available data (see Ch. Ill section ELM).

Periods Layers
12-14 J Step 15 J Other Trenches (South o f the
Trench mound)
Iron Age- Medieval (mixed) 1 1 1
Iron Age-Medieval-Late Roman 2 2 2
(mixed)
Iron Age 3 3 3
Iron Age 4 4 4
Iron Age - MBA I - EBA I 5 5 5
(Karaz Ware) - Chalcolithic
Chalcolithic Ubaid 6a 6
Chalcolithic Ubaid 6b 7
Chalcolithic Ubaid 6c 7 1 (not everywhere)
Chalcolithic Ubaid 7a 8 2 (inm ost areas)
Chalcolithic Ubaid 7b 3 (in most areas)
Chalcolithic Ubaid 8 4 (not everywhere)
Chalcolithic - End o f Amuq D 9-11 5 (not everywhere)
Sterile Soil 12 Conglomerated Cobble

Fig. 2.3: Stratigraphy o f Degirmentepe. The top five layers o f the right column indicate later
periods other than the Ubaid, while the second part o f the same column coincides
solely with the Ubaid horizon (compiled from Esin and Harmankaya 1987; 1988).

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The absolute dates of Degirmentepe were obtained with 14C and Thermoluminescence

(TL) techniques, but the analyses of all of the samples have not yet been completed

(Esin 1986b). There were 33 samples taken for 14C dating, but only nine of them have

been dated so far at the laboratory of Middle East Technical University (METU) (Fig.

2.4). The results from these nine samples are inconsistent but the cause of this is

unclear: whether the samples were taken from contaminated contexts, or were not

collected correctly, or whether the dating procedures applied at the lab had problems

that affected the outcome.

Sample ID Location Date


ODTU-Degirmentepe 28 M edieval burial Modem
ODTU-Degirmentepe 21/1 Iron Age layers 789 + 50 A.D.
ODTU-Degirmentepe 21/2 Iron Age layers 155 + 55 A.D.
ODTU-Degirmentepe 30 15 J, Iron Age Layer 5 806 + 80 B.C.
ODTU-Degirmentepe 2 EBA I pit 5 64 0 + 1 2 0 B.C.
ODTU-Degirmentepe 18 EBA I pit 956 + 160 B.C.
ODTU-Degirmentepe 26 EBA I pit 1147 + 80 B.C.
ODTU-Degirmentepe 20 Room I, Chalcolithic 4870 + 170 B.C.
5385-4570 B.C. (cal.)

ODTU-Degirmentepe 22 Pit 349 in the Room i, Chalcolithic 4166+ 170 B.C.


5420 B.C. (cal.)

Fig. 2 .4 :14C dates from Degirmentepe (half-life: 5568 + 30) (from Esin 1986b; 1989).

Esin warns that since the Iron Age samples 21/1 and 21/2, and the EBA I samples 18

and 26 belong to the same specimen taken from the same location, the dissimilar dates

cast daubt. In addition, the Chalcolithic samples 20 and 22 were both from Room 1, but

these samples also do not have similar dates. Thus, she argues that there is

inconsistency in the 14C dates and that the calibrated dates for the Chalcolithic samples

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are too early for the Ubaid dates. Further, more confusion comes from the TL dating of

the hearth inside room BM to 4492 B.C., a date that does not match well with the 14C

dates. As a result, the absolute dates obtained so far are neither consistent not reliable

for Degirmentepe. Because of this, Esin relatively places Degirmentepe in the second

half of the fifth millennium B.C. corresponding to Ubaid 4 (Esin 1985a; 1986b; 1989).

This chapter has now set the background for the study of Ubaid Degirmentepe by

summarizing the Ubaid research in Mesopotamia and Anatolia, introducing the

geography of the region, and providing the absolute dates and chronology of the site

together with the associated issues. A brief summary of Degirmentepes excavation

history, recording system, and the artifact groups found at the site are provided in

Appendix I. The next chapter gives the detailed description of the sites architecture.

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Chapter III: Degirmentepe Architecture

This chapter presents detailed descriptions of the architectural evidence recovered from

Degirmentepe (pi. 3-5). Since the walls and most floors of the structures were well

preserved, the excavations produced number of complete buildings that displayed

similar plans and features, indicating a distinct architectural tradition for the Ubaid

period. In order to be systematic, the buildings constitute the sub-sections of this

chapter as the major descriptive units and the rooms are the smallest units described

within these buildings. Each room description includes the available data about the

walls, the construction techniques, soil textures, and any related furnishings found

inside them, such as hearths, niches, or benches, etc. In many cases, the characteristics

of the buildings came from the field notes. When certain measurements were not

available in the notes, such as the room area, dimensions were calculated from the

original pencil drawings. The black and white photos taken during the excavation also

facilitated this process in many instances, because they provide the most secure data

about the existence, size, and positions of the features. To confirm the existence of a

particular feature, the feature in question must have been recorded by at least two

means, or should be visible in the photos. The descriptions of architectural remains that

did not constitute any coherent building plan or room follow the complete building

descriptions. The excavations carried out in two soundings come thereafter. The end of

the chapter includes a reassessment of the stratigraphy, description of the possible

appearance of the village, and a discussion of the existence of two story buildings, open

spaces within the settlement, and the roof structures on the buildings.

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In order to keep the descriptions short, the coordinates where the buildings were

located, their orientation, their total area, number of rooms, room sizes, and the depths

of floors in each rooms are given in a chart at the beginning of each building

description. In some cases, some rooms only yielded their rooms size and floor depths

because of the lack of investigation, recording, or preservation. In these cases, only the

name of the room appears in the chart of the given building and no further descriptions

are provided in the text.

If relevant data emerged during the excavations, the descriptions of a building begin

with any renovations made to the structure and explore the possible temporal order of

changes made during the structures use-life. Then, the focus is shifted to the central

room of the building, followed by the small rooms at the flanks of the building. If any

peripheral structures are suspected to be part of a building, they are described

thereafter.

In principle, the description of the rooms proceeds vertically, or in other words, from

bottom to top, presenting the data about the floor first and then the walls and any

detected wall renovations. The discussion includes the possible form of the ceiling or

the roof structures as well, when the data is indicative. In addition to all these, any

installations or furnishings made inside the rooms are included within this vertical

descriptive order so that, for example, a hearth inside a room follows the floor

description on which it was built, and doors or niches found on a wall are described

when the specifics of the wall are under focus.

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The area measurements of the buildings include the space occupied by the floor areas

and every interior and exterior wall that confine it. However, when the room areas are

under consideration, the walls surrounding each single room are ignored intentionally,

and only the floor area of the room is measured; this is because the architectural layout

of Degirmentepe presents an agglutinant spatial order and the room spaces in buildings

are defined by their shared walls. Indeed, it would be inconsistent to measure a shared

wall twice, let us say, with the floor area of room A and then with the neighbor room B

adjacent to room A. Calculating the shared walls twice would result in larger area than

the actual sizes of the interior spaces, which would add up to a greater area than that of

the building as a whole, and might create anomalies in any further study and preparing

charts.

Walls and feature numbers are given in parentheses within the text and are all shown

in the plans. Accordingly, any missing number of a feature within the text or a plan

means that no number was given to it during the excavations. Each building name

comes from the name given to its central room, a rule of thumb in the recording system

that was originally developed during the excavations. The descriptions begin with the

archetypical building for the site, Building I, located in the SW quadrant of the

settlement.

Drawings and cross section views, prepared as plates in this study, support each

structures description in the text. Plate 3 provides a legend listing the architectural

characteristics of the buildings. Plate 4 presents the master plan of the site together

with the topography and the established contour lines. The three long cross sections

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prepared in plate 5 aim to show as many varieties of architectural features as possible

as well as to present the general height differences of the rooms and buildings, making

the apparent variations of floor levels and wall heights within the topography visible at

once. Each building is drawn on a separate plate, with the cross section view of that

particular building underneath the plan. As time permitted, the excavators drew a

series of cross section views of certain rooms to depict their interiors. These cross

section drawings are also prepared as plates and follow the building plan to which they

belong. The drawings are made according to a 1:20 scale, except the master plan,

which is prepared with a 1:100 scale. The scale in each plate indicates lm intervals, but

in the case of the wall paintings, the scale is in centimeters. Scales are also used as

frames bordering the cross section drawings. It is hoped that this system of drawings

presents the characteristics of the architectural data from Degirmentepe in a simple but

informative manner.

To avoid implying an unfounded functional meaning, coherent architectural plans were

given the most generic and simple names, such as a building or a structure. In the

absence of evidence suggesting a more specific designation, these two terms must be

used. The true name of a structure should indicate its function, and it is the hope in this

study that such different names can be proposed at the end of this text, such as a

house, a pen, a workshop, or a complex that functioned for certain such and such

activities. Among these, probably the term house will be applied to most of the

buildings, because the houses are the specific and confined places where the

community members live and conduct their routine activities throughout the day. It is in

the house space that the household members cany out tasks for basic needs in human

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life that are intense and repetitious enough to leave distinct behavioral patterns, such as

cooking or weaving. The term building complex, on the other hand, should imply a

rare but distinct space in a site where certain activities other than the basic needs and

the routines of daily life take place. In addition, the number and the identity of

individuals who participate in activities in the building complex should represent

more than one household group in the community. Until these distinctions can be

supported by evidence, these terms will not be used in this text.

Accordingly, describing architecture in such an order should be clear and systematic

enough for the purposes of this study. It familiarizes the reader within the architectural

character of the site from a very detailed point of view to the general, or in other words,

from the household level to the settlement level. Because the site produced many

similar architectural plans and features, the presentation of the Degirmentepe buildings

may begin to seem repetitive after the first few buildings.

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in.A- Building I: (pis. 6-16)
Coordinates Located in grids 1 7 ,18-E, F, G
Orientation N-S
Area 102 m2 in the basement, and probably another 102m2 space in the
second story making total of 204 m2 area.
Number of rooms 9 in the basement, 4 or 6 rooms on the second story totaling 13 or
15 rooms.
Rooms Size Floor
I 28 m2 Floor3 4.91-5.03m;
Floor 2 4.79m at north 4.90m at south;
Floor 1 3.70 m
U 7.0 m2 4.40 - 4.60 m
AF 3.7m2 4.43 m
AG 3.1m2 4.38 m
K 4.0 m2 4.91m
AC 3.6 m2 4.65 - 4.70 m
AD 3.7 m2 4.85 m
R 3.8 m2 4.90 m
P-L 4.2 m2 4.78 m
O 9.0 m2 3.50-3.60 m

Fig. 3.1: Introductory chart for Building I and its rooms.

Building i displays every distinct architectural and interior design feature recovered

from the other buildings. Its distinct tri-partite plan, use of hearths, twin rooms, bins,

burials, and pits are some of these characteristic features. Most significantly, Building 1

is the only structure that clearly and indisputably represents the existence of a two-story

building, the evidence apparent in room K and central room i (see below).

There are three building sub-phases determined solely by the floor renewals inside the

central room. It appears that the tripartite plan was adhered to strictly, and the only

modifications carried out were concerned with floor renewals. In accordance with these

floor adjustments, some installations were also modified as part of the re-designing of

the interior. The description of the building begins with the basement rooms, followed

by the upstairs rooms.

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A .l - Basement:

A .l.a - Central room I:


There were three floors in this room, floor 3 being the earliest. The latest floor, Floor 1,

may not actually be a floor, as explained below.

A.l.a.i - Floor 3:

The lowermost floor was a packed mud surface between 4.91-5.03 m1. It was located in

the south half of the room with a southerly slope. Further test excavations under the

hearth (268) or the bins at the north half of the room would have helped to understand

whether floor 3 extended to the north. Based on this, it can be suggested that floor 3

represents the renovation of floor 2 made in the south portion of the room, which was

used together with floor 2.

The furnishings that clearly belonged to this floor are a fragmentary hearth and the two

pits. Hearth (348) was in the middle of the room, but it was not preserved. According to

the field notes, only a few broken pieces of plaster were found in situ with pieces of the

surface scattered in the surrounding area. Thus, the plan of this hearth is not known.

One of the two pits was located in front of the east wall (120) at 4.93 m and ended at

6.93 m. This pit (324) was 1 m in diameter and was dug into sterile soil. Its wall was

carefully made to be straight and vertical. The contents included bones, pottery, and

ash, however, details concerning the amount or condition of these contents were not

1 The datum point, located at ca. 30 meters north of the mound, indicated an elevation of 650.80 above
sea level. This point is given in the master plan (pl.4). From now on, any depth given in the text indicates
the level below 650.80 m.

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given in the field notes. The other pit (149) lay to the west of the pit (324) found at the

depth of 4.90 m. (pl.6 and cross section A-A in pi. 7). It was carefully made with

straight vertical walls into the sterile soil. Its bottom consisted of dense sand and

gravel. The contents of the pit included very dense ashy soil with some charcoal pieces.

A baby, in a flexed position, was buried inside the pit.

A.l.a.ii - Floor 2: (pi. 6)

Building I was probably occupied during the time of this second floor for the following

three reasons. First, the thickness of the earlier floor 3 was only ca.15 cm and was

located only in the south half of the room, implying a shorter use period than the floor

2. Second, the hearth (268) and the bins of this floor level had good preservation,

indicating that the floor 2 must have been the primary living surface used throughout

the lifespan of the building. Third, the threshold levels of the three doors made to enter

from the side rooms fit well with the level of the floor 2 (see cross sections in pi. 7).

Therefore, floor 2 represents the major occupation level for the building.

Floor 2 had a hardened mud surface slightly sloping to the south of the room. The large

size hearth (268), attached to the north wall of the room, was surrounded with bins. The

hearth (268) was built with a typical oval form similar to the other hearths encountered

so far. Although it is not easy to ascertain its superstructure, because its base plan is

similar to those found elsewhere in the site and because some of these hearths had the

remains of curving walls, this hearth probably had a dome shape too. The surface was

plastered, and it sloped smoothly towards its 35 cm wide opening found at the east side.

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The back of the hearth had a much thicker wall construction than its north and south

sides, possibly for reasons of construction to sustain the superstructure.

There were two bins to the west of the hearth, and another one to the east, in front of

the hearths opening. A young fox was found buried inside the latter one. Only the

bases of these two bins remained. There were two more bins attached to the east wall

(120), but they were recovered in a very fragmentary form. If it can be assumed that

these bins were used for storing agricultural produce, their proximity to the hearth

indicates that the function of the hearth should be associated with cooking edible food

items.

The pit (320) was located to the south, in front of the wall (107). It was 95 cm in

diameter, and it began at 4.80 m and ended at 6.49 m in sterile soil. The field notes

emphasized that it was carefully dug into virgin soil, although the consistency of the

soil, beginning at the depth of 5.58 m, was hard, sandy, and mixed with gravels. The

wall of the pit was still unusually smooth and vertical. The interior of this pit was clean,

and neither ash, nor pottery fragments, nor bone deposits were found. Based on this, the

excavators suggested in the notes that this pit might have served some kind of ritual

purposes and the construction of the pit was thought to be the result of a planned

activity related to the nature of the possible rites. After the event(s), the pit seems to

have been filled with soil deposit free of archaeological material, but no further

information is noted about the characteristics of this deposit. The other pit (349) was

located in the north end of the room, near the hearth (268), but its bottom actual shape

is unclear.

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A.l.a.iii - Floor 1:

The information for floor 1 comes from the field notes with short descriptions. It only

covered less than 2m2 of the room. It may be suspected that this floor in fact

represented a large chunk of collapsed roof or the floor from the upper story that fell in

a horizontal position. Furthermore, no furnishing or artifacts were recorded directly

associated with this floor. Thus, the reliability of this latest floor is questionable and it

could well have represented a fallen fragment from another context.

A.l.a.iv - Fire:

Excavators recognized at least a partial fire inside this room i that may have ended the

use of the Building I. This fire was correlated with floor 2 and was recognized by the

partially baked mud bricks on the walls and the apparent pinkish to light red

discoloration of the walls. In addition, the texture of the soil became soft with a dense

ashy fill. On the other hand, no charred wood or similar burnt organic materials were

reported from the soil fill. Similar evidence of fire was also noted in rooms P, K, and U.

Therefore, the fire was limited to the south part of the building. Perhaps this fire was

the reason for the renewal of floor 2, and would explain why the new floor 3 appeared

to have been made only in the south portion of the room I. On the other hand, fire is

always dangerous, and may easily become a catastrophic event; this fire may well

have caused the abandonment of the building.

A.l.a.v - The wails:

The walls were built with two or three rows of bricks. The south wall (107) was a i m

wide double wall, and the same was the case for the east walls of rooms AG-AF. Thus,

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the use of a double wall seems to have been the choice for demarcating the building

and the outside spaces. The average wall thickness is ca. 50 cm. Almost every interior

wall face was covered with white plaster; the interior of east wall (120) had the best

plaster preservation in the settlement. The north wall (136), however, did not show any

plastering. It is possible that the hearth (268) and the related fire activity may have

hastened its deterioration, if the wall had ever been plastered. Because of its good

preservation, the east wall (120) retained wall paintings in two areas (pis. 8-10). One

of them was closer to the middle of the room and the other one was on the south side of

the wall near the door. The designs in these paintings probably represented abstracted

concepts without understandable theme or narrative. They consisted of red lines and

circles filled with red pigment color. Some thick, black colored lines were also evident,

which may have indicated frames encompassing separate themes and designs. If not,

the designs given in plates 9 and 10 may represent a mixture of multiple concepts and

some of the designs may have been superimposed upon the earlier designs.

The interior of the south wall (107) had two niches placed ca. 1.70 m apart from each

other. They were ca. 20 cm wide and almost 1 m high. One of them was made slightly

longer and closer to the floor.

A.l.b - Room U: (pi. 11)

Room U was large and rectangular, occupied the southeastern comer of the building.

The soil in the room fill was soft and ashy. Also, there were abundant charcoal remains

in the room fill and a 14C sample was taken from this room, although the results from

these samples turned out to be somewhat problematic (Esin 1989). As was noted in the

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central room I floor was sloping towards north. At the southeast comer of the room, a

baby burial was found in the floor. The walls showed evidence of fire, apparent by the

baked and pinkish discoloration of mud-bricks, especially visible on the north wall

(229). It is clear that the fire in this room was intense.

A doorway with high and straight sides was located at the south end of the west wall

(120). The top of it was not preserved, but it was wide and high enough for an average

person to walk through without any difficulty (see cross section F-F in pi. 7). The

second exit was a narrow one, with a height of 90 cm and a width of 50 cm; it was used

to enter the room AF through the north wall (229). The south wall (121) had a niche,

but its actual size is unknown because of its poor preservation. The east wall (517) had

another niche. About a meter above the niche, there were five holes indicating the

horizontal beams forming the ceiling on top of this room. These beam holes confirm the

existence of a second story. Their height from the floor of the room was ca. 1.30 cm,

providing a quite uncomfortable, low space for an individual to live2. A similar situation

is evident in room BB of Building BC (pi. 19), where the existence of a second story

was inferred by the same reasoning. Because of this low ceiling height, room U

represents a space used as a basement. Above these holes, the wall continues another

40 cm with no visible constructional change. The continuation of the wall also supports

the interpretation as the second story rather than the roof. An even better example may

be seen on the north wall of room DG in plate 34 (see the height above the beam

holes). In that case, the wall continued ca. 65 cm above the holes. As a result, room U

must also have had a room belonging to the second story on top of it.

2 The average height of an adult individual accepted in this text is 1.65 m.

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A.l.c - Rooms AF and AG:

Excavations in other Ubaid sites revealed that tripartite plans often have two narrow

rectangular rooms built parallel to each other at one of the flanks of the buildings (for

plans from various sites see Kubba 1987; Forest 1983; Margueron 1989). The best

example comes from the Tell Madhur house, where their function was suggested as a

staircase used to reach to upper floor or roof (Roaf 1989). It appears that Degirmentepe

tripartite plans also reveal such rooms. The plans of rooms AF and AG in this building

seem to represent those parallel built, rectangular shaped and narrow rooms3.

The twin rooms AF and AG had very narrow rectangular forms and communicated with

each other via their shared wall. The other door was in the south wall of AF for

entering room U. The function of a staircase is not indicated at all, but because clear

evidence for a staircase as the means of communication with the upper story was found

in the twin rooms of Building EE, these twin rooms were probably used for the same

purpose.

A.l.d - Room K: (pis. 6-7,12, and 15)

K is a small, square room located in the SW comer of the building. The fill consisted of

grayish brown soft soil with an ashy mixture, indicating that the partial burning of the

building occurred inside this room too. The only non-mobile furnishing found in this

3 From now on, if the room plans clearly indicate that two parallel rooms are the narrowest rooms, they
will be called twin rooms, because this form is apparently typical in tripartite architecture. As will be
seen below, rooms GF and GG of Building GK (pi. 39), EB and EC in Building EE (pi. 28) have those
twin rooms too.

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room was a 40 cm diameter clay bin in the northeast comer, preserved up to 30 cm in

height. Its walls were 6 cm thick. In addition to this bin, some complete and broken

pots, and polishing stones were also found inside this room.

In terms of clearly indicating the existence of an upper floor, room K had the most

important and direct evidence in Degirmentepe architecture. This evidence is best

preserved in the 50 cm wide north wall (111) of this room. It had a narrow door that

was sealed with bricks sometime after its original use. This entrance would have been

uncomfortably small for an adult, with its ca. 50 cm height and 42 cm width. Above this

door, there were six horizontal beam holes (see cross section A-A in pi. 7). The holes

were ca. 8-10 cm in diameter and were placed at more or less regular intervals

throughout walls interior face. They were not laid strictly horizontally, but rather in a

kind of convex layout, which may have been the result of the beams sagging during

their use, or the deformation of the wall during the deposition process. About 20 cm

above these holes, there was the second door preserved with its lower portion only.

This second entrance must have belonged to the upper floor to enter the L shaped room

O of the upper story (see pi. 15 for upstairs plan). The door was more than 55 cm wide

and the eastern side of it was preserved up to 65 cm in height. Since the top portion of it

was missing, it is impossible to deduce its exact height, but it is safe to say that it had a

rectangular form and a minimum of 1 m in height and 55 cm in width, a reasonable size

for any individuals use. In sum, these two doors and the beam holes in between them

provide clear evidence for the two stories. In this situation, it is not difficult to see room

K as the basement room, because the height between the beam holes and the floor of

the room is only ca. 1.20 meter (see pi. 12). In addition, a pot found at the level just

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above the beam holes inside room O is intentionally drawn in plate 12 to indicate the

floor level of the second story room O in relation to the beam holes and the basement

rooms. Accordingly, the floor level of the second story room O was probably

somewhere near the depth of 3.50 meters.

The south wall (109) was a double wall built with two standard brick sizes. The

exterior wall had 30x18 cm size bricks while the interior wall had 40x20 cm size bricks.

The three horizontal beam holes preserved on interior face of the top part of this wall

(109) corresponded with the heights of the beam holes found at the north wall. They

must represent the other end of the beams used to carry the floor above (see cross

section C-C in pi. 7). Although patchy, some parts of the interior of wall (109) had a

thick, white plaster surface.

The west wall (112) was also a double wall. The inner wall had two rows of different

size bricks, -50x30 cm and 50x15 cm, a whole and a half brick lay. The outer wall had

only one row without a clear brick size. Thick mortar filled the space between those

attached walls. The interior of the west wall was smooth with a 2 cm thick plaster

coating. The east wall (110) had a small passageway for entering the central room I

(pi. 12). Dirty white plaster also survived on the interior of this wall.

A.l.e - Room AC:

AC is a narrow rectangular room to the north of room K. In the east half of the room,

there was a mud brick partition made on the floor. It was 12-15 cm thick and less than

10 cm high, running diagonally from northwest to southeast. No clues as to its possible

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purpose were detected. There was a large cobble found in the northeast comer of the

room that may have been used as an anvil or as a base to raise another object off the

floor. The only entrance into this room was from room K to the south.

A .l.f - Room AD: (pis. 6,13)

Room AD, to the north of room AC, was almost square in shape. The recovery of more

furnishings inside this room implies multiple activities or specific but more intense

tasks than in the room AC. There was a platform slightly higher than the floor in the

south half of the room, which was made by laid mud bricks rows. The very southeast

comer had a higher platform, which was ca. 70 cm high from the floor. Some cobbles

were laid diagonally on top of it, suggesting an outline of some kind. These

installations imply complex activities and room AD may be a workshop area.

The other features of the room included three cylindrical clay bins of different sizes.

One of them was placed on top of the mud-brick platform, while the others were found

near the north wall, on top of the floor.

Room AD had two doors. One of them communicated with the central room I to the

east and the other one communicated with room R to the west. Both doors were rather

small. The one in the west wall had a width of 45 cm and a height of 50 cm, while the

other one in the east wall was slightly larger, with a width of 50 cm and a height of 55

cm. A pot burial was found in the NW comer of the room, buried halfway into the floor.

A.l.g - Room R: (pi. 14)

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Room R, located to the west of room AD, was narrow and long. The north half of the

room was only ca. 60 cm wide and the south end reached ca. 1 m width at most. The

furnishings of this tiny room consisted of a small hearth at the southeast comer and a

bin at the west side of the room, both of which were preserved only in fragments. Later,

a burial was made into the floor, canceling and replacing the hearth at the same

location.

There were two entrances to this room. One was from room AD to the east. The other

one was from room P-L to the south, with 1 m height and ca. 70 cm width; it was sealed

with mud-brick at a later date. Because of its unusual shape, the room originally may

have been an open space left in between the buildings. Later, it may have been added

to Building i as a narrow room. Although this suggestion seems reasonable, there is no

supporting architectural evidence preserved.

A.l.h - Room P-L:

In the very first excavation season, only the south half of the room was recovered and

the name L was given to it. The north part of the room, unearthed in the following year,

was mistakenly recorded with a new room name P. Room P-L is the second unusually

narrow room with an L-shape. The north part of it was narrow, similar to the north part

of the room R. At the south, it becomes a little more spacious that must have allowed a

person to move and turn around without much difficulty. The only door was in the north

end, communicating with room R. The west wall was attached to the wall of Building

FC from the exterior.

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A.2 - The second story of Building I: (pi. 15)

The floor plan of the upper story above the basement may be extrapolated although it

was only partially found. Room O on the west side of the building was the only

complete room found that belong to the second story. There was certainly another room

above the central room 1, but its floor plan was not preserved (pi. 8). In addition, while

lacking a floor plan, rooms U and K yielded enough evidence to conclude that they had

upstairs rooms above them (pis. 11,12). Thus, while the complete second story plan of

the building is unknown, it may be assumed that the second story floor plans were

similar to the floor plans of the basement rooms. Plate 15 shows the known room O,

and estimates the floor levels of the rooms above rooms I, U, and K. The supporting

evidence for the existence of the second story includes:

- the hearth (146), (for discussion see below)

- the beam holes found on the east wall (517) in room U in the basement,

- the beam holes and the doors found on the north wall of room K in the

basement.

Accordingly, the drawing in plate 15 presents the plan of the second story as generally

similar to the plan of the basement. In order to clarify the reconstruction, the

approximate floor levels of rooms O, IU , and K were depicted with the dot-and-hyphen

line, indicating a probable but indefinite depth range for the second story. The possible

range of floor levels in these particular rooms is mentioned below, when the relevant

data about them is available. The other areas show the rooms from the basement, since

no data indicative of the superstructure were found. It is the hope that the plate 15 can

assist in the visualization of the second story based on the evidence.

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A.2.a - Above the Room I:

The architectural evidence indicating the existence of second story above Room I

comes from the hearth (146) (pi. 8 and cross section A-A in plate 15). The hearth

(146) was attached to the uninterrupted north wall (136) between the depth range of

2.90 - 3.10 meters. The east portion of it was not preserved and collapsed into the

basement, indicating an empty space immediately below it. It was a large hearth,

similar to the one found under it, hearth (268) of the basement. If the hearth (146) had

belonged to a later building, a collapsed deposit underneath belong to the earlier

architecture would have been expected. Therefore, the hearth (146) must have been

constructed inside a room on the upper story of Building I.

The actual floor for this second story room was not found in the excavations, probably

because it had collapsed into the basement. This makes sense, because part of the

hearth had collapsed into the basement too. According to the preserved surface of the

hearth, the floor level of the second story room above the room I must have been

somewhere between the range of 3.00- 3.20 meters. Although no direct architectural

indication was found during the excavation, the plan of the room above Room I was

probably the same as that of Room i in the basement.

The field notes reveal that the remains of two broken and badly preserved bins were

found near the hearth (146), but they were not in situ. No other installations were found

in association with this floor.

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The other important line of evidence for the existence of the second story above Room

I comes from the contexts of the artifacts mentioned in the field notes. According to the

note taker, the intensity of some finds and artifacts was higher at 3.14 m depth, the

inventory of which consisted of a complete pot, some broken sherds, fragments of a few

grinding stones, and some other worked stones. Obviously, these artifacts from 3.14 m

were not in situ, but they had moved from their upstairs location to their find spots.

More interestingly, artifact density below this level dropped significantly until the

depth of four meters. Apparently, it was the collapsed rubble of the upper floor that was

excavated until this fourth meter level, and the contexts belonging to the basement

began below that level. Furthermore, when level 3.14 m is compared with the

approximate elevation of hearth (146) and the horizontal beam holes in room K and in

room U, the heights of these features are all very close to the 3.14 m level. As a result,

it is reasonable to think that the artifacts appearing above 3.14 m belonged to the

second story.

One may wonder about how the western half of the hearth managed to survive.

Although not obvious at first, there may be a good reason for it. When the collapse

occurred, the weakest part of the floor, that is the center of the room, must have

collapsed first, while the edges fell in later over a longer period of time. However, in

the case of the north edge of the room, the installed furnishings of the basement

immediately under the hearth (146) may have helped to support it, allowing the partial

preservation of the hearth. What is important to visualize at this point is the heights and

the superstructure of the hearth (268) and the bins next to it. The superstructure of the

hearth (268) must have had a height of ca. 1 m and the nearby bins must also have had

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a height of at least 1 m. These high furnishings would probably have supported the

upstairs hearth preventing its complete collapse into the basement. It seems that the

bins located to the left of hearth (268) were especially supportive. The estimation of

the actual heights of the hearth (268) and the bins given above are reasonable

approximations (see figs. 3.2-3.4) based on ethnoarchaeological analogy from East

Anatolia (Peters 1976).

Fig. 3.2: Mud-brick bins from East Anatolia. Left: A broken circular bin with hand-made pots
inside a deserted vernacular house (from Koyunlu 1982). Right: A group of rectangular bins in
use for storage in the kitchen o f a mud-brick house (from Peters 1979). They are raised off the
floor and the openings at the bottom were plugged with a piece o f cloth to keep the grain
inside. No openings were found in the Degirmentepe bins, possibly because o f their poor
preservation. The only exception was a cylindrical bin with an opening, found at the south o f
Building L

Fig. 3.3: Hand made mud-brick bins from East Anatolia. Left: Two bins from a vernacular
house deserted in the 1970s (from Koyunlu 1982). Right: Two cylindrical mud-brick bins in an
East Anatolian house that was still in use in the 1970s (from Peters 1979). Their location near
the doors and their cylindrical form can be compared to similar examples from Degirmentepe.

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e*jl,1 Q n o 0 ^ ' , o 0 O (!> Qt J a

J afi < ? C ? o8<

mc

Fig 3.4: More bins from East Anatolia with applique designs (ftom Peters 1979). Patterns were
made with mud before the whole structure was hand smoothed and plastered with thick lime.

A.2.b - Room O: (pi. 15)

Room O was found at the west flank of the building. It belonged to the second story,

built above rooms AC and AD of the basement. The wall (189) between the rooms AC

and AD did not continue in the second floor. As a result, Room O had an L shape. The

room was confined with the exterior walls of rooms AC and AD from the basement.

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The area of this room was 9 m2. The floor of this room was not found, and no associated

furnishings were recorded inside. The floor must have been at a range of 3.30-3.40 m,

because the bottom of the top door at the south wall (111) and the beam holes under it

were at a depth of 3.50-3.60 m.

A.2.c - Above the Room U:

Despite the fact that the room itself and its floor were not found in the excavations,

there must have been a second story room above room U. The beam holes on the east

wall (517), found at 3.00 m, imply that the floor for the second story room was probably

between the depths of 2.95 m and 2.65 m (see pi. 11).

A.3 - Conclusion notes for the Building:

The pits belonging to floor 3 in Room i confirm aspects of the settlements stratigraphy

in this quadrant. These pits were dug into virgin soil consisting of yellowish sandy soil

with gravel. Even though no test excavations were made below the exposed

architecture of the village, the virgin soil found under the Building I is a clear statement

that, stratigraphically, no major earlier occupation activities took place in the western

half of the settlement. In addition, it is important to refer to the pits (332) and (593) of

Building DU here too, because they were also dug into virgin soil. Thus, we can

conclude that there were no earlier cultural depositions below these buildings, and

there was only one major Ubaid phase in the west half of the mound, represented by

the buildings depicted in the master plan. Only minor architectural modifications were

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made time to time within the buildings, which presumably served the changing needs of

the occupants.

According to the descriptions given above, the tripartite Building I consisted of a

basement and the second story above it. The floors of the upstairs rooms were at ca.

3.15 m. and probably had a tripartite plan similar to that of the basement. Some of the

other buildings previously described in this text showed evidence of a second story as

well. The beam holes found inside room DG and the staircase found inside room EC in

Building EE, and the beam holes found inside room BB in Building BC all indicate that

these two buildings had two story constructions. The reasoning for accepting the

evidence for a second story in these particular buildings has already been given above

in the descriptions of these rooms.

Despite the relatively extensive architectural evidence in the case of Building i, the

actual height and form of the roof is impossible to guess with the available data.

However, there may be some interesting indications about the basement and the use of

hearths, air intake, and daylight. Hearths on each floor would have heated the building

during the cold winter months. The fresh air supply would have been sufficient for the

upstairs hearth, but it must have been limited for the basement hearth (268). The

required ventilation for this hearth was not detected architecturally in the excavations.

In other words, no window or any opening in the walls to take air inside the basement

was recovered. Since the walls were more than 1.50 cm without windows in the

building, the basement must have generally had limited oxygen that would probably

have limited the nature of the fire. However, the size of the fire would have also

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depended on what was baked inside the hearth. The recovery of the bins near the

hearths considered in light of ethnographical analogy from Eastern Anatolia would

suggest that the hearths were used for cooking edible food items; this activity may not

have required a very powerful fire, but rather a steady and continuous fire. Smoke

could have been removed through a chimney attached to north wall of the room. The

hearths probably shared the common chimney, since they were located in the same part

of the basement and upstairs rooms.

The lower level rooms may represent sunken basements built into the ground. In other

words, the basement level floors of the buildings may have been lower than the outside

ground surfaces, evidence for which was found to the immediate south of the building.

The G-131 hearth seems to have been an outside installation and the probable ground

surface in this outside area must have been the same as the surface of this hearth, or

slightly lower at ca. 2.98-3.15 m range. This floor depth range is much higher than the

floors of the basement in the building (compare the outside with the basement in cross

section B-B in pi. 15 and 16). This assumption of a sunken basement is consistent with

the lack of windows or other openings in these high walls.

Similarly, there were no windows made in the basement walls of the other buildings.

Accordingly, the fresh air supply, not only for the basement hearths but also for the

general needs of the occupants, must have been limited in the cases of buildings with

definite basements. The lack of windows suggests that the basements were dark places

unable to take advantage of the daylight. Instead, these locations must have been

rather gloomy, possibly lit weakly by candles that may have been placed in the niches.

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It was mentioned earlier that the south half of the building had experienced a fire and

that the earliest floor 3 found in the south portion of room I was suggested to be the

resurfacing following this event. During the excavations, in the middle of the room I, a

pit (74) was found beginning at 2.40 m. As the excavations went on, this pit apparently

turned out to be a very large, unusual area containing dense, burned ashy soil, covering

the entire southern half of the building. At that point, the excavator was satisfied that

this distinct soil texture was not a pit (74), but a large space filled with the deposit

representing the fire in the south half of the building. Since this burned area began at

2.40 m and continued until 4.70 m, it can be suggested here that the fire may have

taken place upstairs as well, and may have led to the collapse of the second story into

the basement. This explanation is convincing, when the suggested floor levels of the

second story rooms are compared with the beginning of this fire level (compare the

suggested floor level for the second story in the sections in pi. 15 and the depths of

burned deposit mentioned in this paragraph).

The last important aspect of this building is the possible ritual function of the central

Room I of the basement. Despite the hard, gravelly soil texture, the carefully made

walls of the pits (320), (324), and (149) together with the burial found in pit (149)

convey the importance of this space. Similar cases were also observed in room DU of

Building DU, and room BD of Building BC. Except in the case of room DU, the hearths

in these rooms may also be affiliated with ritual activities. The nature of the rituals

seems to have been related with the burying the dead, but we have no evidence

concerning the details of this process. Another type of ritual behavior seems to have

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occurred in the central rooms of buildings EE, EL, DU, and FD. The platforms with the

appearance of fireplaces, and the nearby pits may have been used for another kind of

rites. As will be seen below, the central room of Building FC also had a mud-brick

platform with pits. Because of this, Building FC should also be added to this probable

second type of ritual activity. Unfortunately, the nature of the rituals in each case is not

understood; the occurrence of ritual activity is based logical deductions from the data

without clear evidence as to what activity took place.

A.4 - The south area outside the Building I: (pi. 16)

The area south of Building I presents several interesting features. It is assumed here

that the attached, physical proximities of these features to the building imply the

ownership of this space by the occupants in Building I. However, since there was no

door communicating with the building and this area, the connection remains unclear.

This area must have been an open space, because walls forming room spaces did not

confine the features found.

The well-preserved hearth, G-131, was attached to the south wall (107). It was first

identified as two small rooms, called G and H, during the excavations, but later, it

became clear that they were the two compartments of a single hearth and the name

was changed into G-131. It was built quite differently than the other typical hearths

found in the site. The back of it was to the east and the opening was to the west. The

south and north sides of the hearth were attached to the thick mud-brick walls. The

south wall was probably part of a tiny room further south.

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This hearth consisted of two chambers: the chamber (131) to the east and the chamber

G to the west. Chamber (131) was 1 m in diameter, built in an oval shape with a

plastered surface. It opened into chamber G to the west with a 15 cm long, 20 cm wide

tunnel, but a small hole made in the north side of the hearth opens onto the outside.

This small opening was probably used for controlling the air ventilation to release the

smoke. It may also have functioned as an additional limited access to the inside of the

hearth from its back. The wall of the chamber (131) was also plastered, although it was

not preserved to a height of more than 40 cm. Thus, the superstructure of this chamber

is still difficult to reconstruct.

The front chamber G had a slightly rectangular shape with soft turning comers. Its

dimensions were 1x1.2 meter. The surface was a carefully plastered convex shape. The

opening of this chamber, which will be referred to as the mouth of the structure, was to

the west and was ca. 35 cm wide. The surface here extended outside the hearth with a

smooth slope meeting with the outside ground level. There were two ground stones

placed at both sides of this slope at the mouth of the hearth. The wall of this chamber

was ca. 30 cm high with a slight curve implying a dome-shaped superstructure (for the

forms of the chambers G and 131, see the cross sections in pi. 16).

The complicated and well-planned architecture of the hearth implies that it had

importance for the users. The plan of it does not match that of the others found in the

site, since it had two large chambers connected by a small tunnel and a carefully made

small opening at the back. The surfaces and the interior of the walls of the chambers

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showed its capacity to reach high temperatures, but what was fired inside of it remains

unclear.

There was also a very narrow, small room to the south of the G-131 hearth. The floor of

this room was not found. It was only 55 cm wide and 2 m long, but the walls were

exceptionally wide for such a narrow room with a thickness of ca. 75-80 cm. There may

have been another room further south, but the walls were not preserved enough to see

the full plan.

To the west of the narrow, thick walled room and the double chambered hearth G-131,

there was neither room nor structure, but two circular clay bins (130) and (202). One of

them, no. (130), was buried about 50 cm into the ground (see the cross section C-C in

pi. 16). It had a small opening at the bottom, which may imply that the floor for this

area may actually have been at the 3.50 - 3.60 m range, and the 2.77 m level given in

plate 40 plan should not indicate a floor but rather an unexcavated deposit.

There were two other storage bins to the north that were different from the typical

circular bins. They were attached to the exterior of the south wall of room K as

separate compartments. Bin M had a 75x80 cm square shape and with ca. 10-12 cm

thick walls. The other bin, N, was next to M but its south side did not survive. The

bottom of the bins was not found. The room T was partially opened further to the west

of these bins; it probably belonged to the earlier phase found below (see Partially

preserved structures below).

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There was a thick layer of gravel to the south of the trench representing the flooding of

the site (pi. 16). Found at 1.80-2.10 m, it consisted of dense sand and various sizes of

gravel. This layer extended further north and east, covering Building I; in addition, the

same material was found further south in grid 19 H below the surface soil at 1.80 m at

the north and at 2.50 m at the south end. This shows that the flood was very widespread

and powerful to be able to leave such a thick layer of gravel over the southwest

quadrant of the mound. A small sounding, of 1x3 m, made in grid 161 yielded a ca. 30

cm thick layer of the same gravel. This time, the gravel layer was under the Karaz

culture materials at 2.70 meter, and the Ubaid walls began appearing below the gravel.

A similar gravel layer with dense sand appeared at 1.30- 2-40 m in grids 15 K and 15 L

as well. This time the gravel layer was almost lm thick and it seems that the lower 40-

60 cm was much denser with sand, but only the gravel covered the rest of this layer. No

further information is provided in the field notes either correlating the gravel layers

found in these different areas over the mound, or describing the relationships between

the gravel and the Ubaid occupation found immediately below.

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HI.B. - Building BC: (pi. 17-21)

Coordinates Located in grids 16-17 F-G


Orientation N-S
Area 150 m2
Number o f rooms 11
Rooms Size Floor
BC 21m 2 4.83 m
DH 9.5 m2 4.75 m
BB 6.9 m2 4.92 m
BM 6.8 nr* Early floor 5.07 m; later floor 4.67
EV 4.1 m 1 -

FG 2.9 m1 -

BD 7.3 m1 4.94 to 5.25 m


DC1 2.4 m2 5.59 m
DC2 3.1 m2 at least 5.20 m
AO 2.9 m2 4.92 m
AU 3.7 m2 4.12 m
AP 3.6 m2 Early floor 4.96 m; later floor 4.63 m

Fig. 3.5: Introductory chart for Building BC and its rooms.

The majority of information about this building was compiled from a few photos and

drawings, and the brief descriptions in the field notes. The black and white photos

provided the most reliable information about the architectural layout described here.

The modification activities recovered inside this structure were obscured and their

temporal order is difficult to comprehend. Therefore, modifications to the original

construction described below are based largely on a common sense interpretation of the

drawings and photos.

Building BC displays a four-part layout instead of the typical tripartite plan observed

throughout the settlement. It is not clear, however, if it started out as a tri-partite building

at the beginning of its history. The modifications observed inside the rooms do not

provide clear evidence for its original layout.

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The northern part of the building is problematic. When Building FD began to appear

during the excavations, attention was shifted to this building; as a result, the north end

of Building BC as well as its relationship with Building FD remained unclear. The low

wall heights at the north portion of the building and unclear floor levels also contributed

to the difficulty in determining the room sizes and their relations with each other as

well as with Building FD.

Building BC does not have an exterior wall to the north; it either remained under

Building FD or was totally demolished during the later construction of Building FD.

The position of room FB and the area north of room EV (pis. 17 and 47) support the

latter possibility. Room FB does not have a north wall and the area north of room EV

seems to have been another room space almost completely demolished by the

construction of Building FD. Based on these observations, the room plans for Building

BC to the north remain unclear, but it may be stated that Building BC is an earlier

structure than Building FD.

The NW quadrant of Building BC was unexcavated. However, by looking at the

general building plan, the missing exterior walls in this northwest comer can be

reconstructed. The missing north wall of the building should have existed somewhere

near the south wall of Building FD. An imaginary line, indicating this exterior wall of

the building, may be drawn in an E-W direction. Since the west wall (278) of the

building continued north into the section, this west exterior wall of the building may

likewise be extended further north until it intersects with the imaginary north wall of

the building. If this unexcavated area inside these lines were added to the building,

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Building BC becomes ca. 150 m2 with a rectangular shape. With this extrapolated

layout, there must have been at least one other room north of room DC2. While this

reconstruction is very plausible, the plan of the unexcavated NW area may still have

been very different, because no direct architectural evidence was found for the NW

comer of the building. It is also possible that the open area located to the west of

Building FD expanded further south into this unexcavated location.

B.l - Room BC:

The floor of room BC was only found at the south half of the room. The only feature

found in the room was a thick mud-brick walled structure located in the east part of the

room. It was attached to the east wall (301) of the room by ca. 50 cm wide walls. The

interior was empty and no information was available about its construction and

surfacing. This feature recalls the others found in rooms GK, CE, and BY1, which were

much smaller and built with much thinner walls. It could have been used as a large

container for storage.

The walls in the south part of the room were higher, but the preservation quality

diminishes rapidly towards the north. The east end of the room had two walls indicating

two phases. The interior of an earlier wall was found running under the wall (697) that

turned west at its north end.

There were two doors in the south end of room BC. One of them communicated with

room AO, but it was only 25 cm wide with an unclear shape. The second exit was a

wider door opening into room BD with a width of 70 cm and straight sidewalls.

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B.2 - Room DH: (pi. 18)

The walls of this room were more or less 50 cm wide in most parts. The west wall

(301) was renovated at its south half. It is possible that originally the south end of the

wall was as wide as the north half and had a wide door. This door was later sealed with

mud bricks and two compartments were attached to its interior (see the cross sections in

pi. 18). The compartments were made with 8-10 cm thick mud as almost in rectangular

shape narrow spaces. They were preserved to a height of ca. 40-45 cm above the floor.

This remodeling of the south end of the wall and the addition of the compartments were

related to the hearths (504) and (505), because they occupy the entire south half of the

room. The compartments attached to the wall were probably used as containers,

possibly for holding some equipment for the hearths. In addition, a niche, made inside

the south wall, was found behind the hearth (504). It was probably used as a shelf,

again in relation with the function of the hearths.

The horseshoe-shaped large hearth (504), located in the south end of room DH, was

found at a depth of 4.10 m. Its carefully plastered surface covered an area of more than

lm 2 and sloped down towards its opening to the north to meet with the floor at the 4.72

m level. The plastered wall of the hearth was 45 cm high and very wide, covering the

entire width of the room. The interior of the wall of the hearth was curved indicating

that the superstructure of the hearth probably had a dome shape. There were various

artifacts collected from inside and around this hearth, such as complete Coba bowls,

bone awls, some shells, number of seal impressions, metal slag, and a piece of a thick-

walled crucible.

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The hearth (505) was located to the SE of the hearth (504). It had a much smaller size

with a diameter of ca. 50 cm. It was also deeper than the hearth (504) at 4.58 m and

had a circular shape instead of the typical horseshoe or oval shape. It was connected to

the opening with 40-50 cm long tunnel behind the hearth (504) (see cross section A-A

in pi. 17). Based on the artifacts and the location of the hearths, it can be suggested that

these two hearths were possibly used for purposes other than cooking. This idea is also

supported by the very soft black and ashy soil spread all over the room, indicating

intense firing activities. In addition, the much smaller size of the hearth (505) is

significant when compared with the other hearths described so far. Metalworking could

have been one possible activity for this room. The recovery of the metal slag, crucible,

and other artifacts, as well as the soil texture and the hearths all support this suggestion.

Perhaps, the use of two different size hearths maybe related to different steps in the

metal refinement process. More convincing evidence supporting the idea of metal

production, in the form of a hearth and metal slag, was found inside the room BM.

Perhaps, hearth G-131 to the south of Building i may be the other location for metal

production because of its highly crafted double chambered shape.

B.3 - Room BB: (pi. 19)

Room BB is in the SE comer of Building BC. The walls of the room were well

preserved and the east wall retained a series of beam holes, probably indicating the

existence of the upper living floor. The floor consisted of gravel and mud. The interior

of the west wall (353) was plastered and a door at the north end of this wall opened

into room DH. The width was 75 cm and it was preserved up to 1.30 m in height.

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There were 9 horizontal holes on the east wall (312) that were all at sim ilar heights.

They represent horizontally laid wood beams carrying the ceiling of the room. The

forms of the holes were irregular, indicating the use of uneven, rough beam shapes, and

they were placed at ca. 15-20 cm intervals. There are ethnographic examples showing

the use of different sizes of beams laid with an inconsistent alignment even for roof

structures (compare fig. 3.6). It seems that as long as the beams are placed to have

enough resistance to carry the roof, the size and the spacing between the beams are not

always given priority.

r?C ' * T ^
*vW
Fig. 3.6: Photograph from Southern Anatolia showing the use o f different sized wood beams.
They were placed unevenly but parallel. As long as the roof holds, the placement of the beams
is considered satisfactory (photo, taken by m yself in 2000, is from Malatya-Turkey).

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The tops of the holes most likely represent the upper story of the building, because the

distance between the floor of this room and the ceiling, as indicated by the beam holes,

was only ca. 1.40 m, suggesting that this room was the basement room. The 1.4 m

height would have been too low for people to carry out tasks and move around easily,

so the actual living floor must have been above the basement. Probably, the actual

floor level of the second story would have been ca. 20 cm above the beams line shown

in plate 19.

In addition to these beam holes, there were two niches, placed ca. 1.20 m apart from

each other, made inside the east wall (312). The one to the north was average in size,

ca. 25x15 cm, but the other one was much smaller with an almost triangular shape. A

pot burial (no.27) was partially placed inside the south wall, but no further details were

provided about it in the notes.

B.4 - Room BM: (pi. 20)

Room BM had two floors made with packed mud surfacing. The earlier one may not

actually have been a floor, since it was found only in a very limited, small area in the

north portion of the room and no further information was recorded about it. Thus, the

cross section view in plate 19 shows only the later floor.

The oval shaped hearth (390), at the southeast comer of the room, was built ca. 30 cm

higher than the floor. The possible dome shaped superstructure was inferred by the

curvature of its 45 cm high and 15-20 cm thick wall. The surface of the hearth, covering

more than lm2 area, was plastered. The field notes state that metal slag was found in

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and around this hearth, together with charred wood remains. Based on such evidence,

metalworking activities were already suggested as the purpose this hearth and room

(Esin 1984). The only exit from this room was in north wall, with a width of 65 cm, but

was sealed with bricks at a later time.

B.5 - Room EV:

EV had no representative floor inside. When the door of the room BM was sealed with

mud, room EV may have been added to the north, blocking the north wall of room BM.

A new door for room EV was located in the north wall for access to the area further

north.

B.6 - Area FB and the area to its east:

The floor for area FB was also not found. The field notes suggested that FB might

represent an open area because there were no walls to the immediate north or east. The

wall under the wall (697) is represented by its interior face only, which separated this

area from the central room BC. Overall, it is difficult to confirm if it was an open space

or not. The east wall of this area ends before it reaches the south end of Building FD.

Perhaps this implies a door into another space further east where, again, there was not

enough space excavated to identify it as a room or another open space. In conclusion,

the insufficient exposure in area FB and the area to its east cannot be understood well.

B.7 - Room FG:

It is believed here that room FG was added to modify the interior space of the building,

because of the presence of the earlier wall lying under this room. The west wall (697)

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was built on top of an earlier east wall of the central room BC. Since the excavations

did not continue under this room, the plan and the nature of this early wall remain

unknown. The walls thickness varied between 40-60 cm. The south wall had a very

wide, recessed inner face with a depth of ca. 18 cm and the exterior side of the NW

comer of the room was also recessed.

B.8 - Room BD: (pi. 21)

Room BD occupied the southwest comer of the building. The floor sloped slightly

towards the north and reached a depth of ca. 5.25 m; gravel appeared at a depth of 5.17

m and continued until the excavations stopped at 5.30 m. A rectangular hearth was

found in the NW comer of the room. Its surface was plastered and its wall was 30 cm

thick. The interior of the hearth covered an area of almost lm2; its opening was at the

southeast comer facing the door. The inside of the hearth was clean, but the entire

room contained dense lenses of soft, gray ashy soil with black charred specks in it. This

hearth and the soil texture indicate intense fire-related activity for this room.

There were two small pits with diameters of ca. 50-65 cm. One of them was excavated

until it reached the gravel layer at 5.30 m depth. The other pit began at 5.03 m and

ended at 5.45 m, again within the gravel layer. The contents of them were not recorded.

The west wall (278) was built to an exceptional thickness of almost 1 meter. Although

the distinct separation line of a double wall was not observed, it may still have been

built as a double wall because the exterior walls of other buildings are double walls at

this site (such as Building i). There were three doors in this room, but the one in the

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west wall was sealed with mud-brick. The one in the east wall was 70 cm wide and

opened into the central room BC; the other door in the north wall with a width of 50 cm

communicated with room DC1. Both of these doors had mud-brick thresholds.

There were two pot burials found in this room. One of them, Burial (286), was found in

the SE comer of the room buried halfway into the floor. The other burial (294), found

inside a Dark Faced Burnished Ware (DFBW) type bowl, was partially buried inside

the south wall at the floor level. The proximity of the burials to the two pits inside this

room is interesting, because a similar placement of burials near a pit was also found in

room DU of Building DU. These similar occurrences may indicate a pattern of

intramural burial practices. Even though the contents of these pits are unknown, the

proximity of burials and the pits imply a related activity that took place during the

interments. Another example of this practice was found in the central room I of

Building I.

B.9 - Rooms DC1 and DC2:

These rooms are located to the north of the room BD. Room DC2 was only partially

exposed, because its northern portion was buried under the north section of the trench.

The floor of DC1 was whitish colored mud with some chaff inclusions as well as some

horizontally lying sherds. About 20 cm below, the soil texture changed into sandy,

yellowish, fine sterile soil without any pottery fragments or other artifacts. Room DC2

floor, on the other hand, had yellowish mud. The 40 cm party wall had a doorway for

access into both rooms with two mud steps going further down inside the floor of room

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DC2. These steps would have been necessary because the floor of room DC2 was ca.

40 cm deeper than the one in room DC1.

B.10 - Rooms AO, AU, and passage EF:

Room AO is the part of Building BC building with direct communication to the central

room BC, although the door in wall (135) was narrow, ca. 30cm. The tunnel EF was on

the east side of this room. The rooftop (193) of the tunnel, at 2.90 m, was made with

two rows of regularly laid 45x30 cm size bricks (see pi. 17). Its roof thickness was ca.

60 cm. It is possible that the top surface of the tunnels roof functioned as a platform to

walk on and may also have been the floor level for the upper story. As seen in the

description of Building I, the beginning of the second story of Building I more or less

coincides with the rooftop of the tunnel at around 3 meter depth (see Building 1). This

tunnel continued almost 2 m further east and opened into the room-hearth AU. The

ceiling of the rooftop was not clear and the arch-like appearance, visible in the cross

section in plate 17, resulted from the search for the form of the ceiling during

excavations. The beginning of the tunnel at its west end was not preserved either. The

corridor was ca. 1.10 m wide and it continued straight to the east, but this space

narrowed down to 50 cm at the east end (see the dotted line in the plan representing

the tunnels east end). The reason for this narrower east end must be related with the

function of room AU, itself a giant-sized hearth. This narrow end may have been used

as the door area to seal the heat inside the room-hearth AU. The tunnel may have

continued a little further east into the area AU, but the rooftop of the tunnel was not

preserved.

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Room AU had a large-sized hearth that took up the entire floor space. Just above the

surface of the hearth, especially to the west, the soil consisted of dense ashy material.

The surface of the hearth was brown colored plaster preserved only at the south half of

the room. The preservation of the hearths wall, on the other hand, was good enough to

provide an approximate square shape for the lower areas of the hearth, but the shape of

its superstructure was indeterminable. If AU was a room at the beginning of its use, its

roof may have been flat, and later, when the room was converted into a complete

hearth, the roof may have left unchanged. Adding the room AO as an entrance to the

tunnel EF, and the tunnel as the mouth of the hearth, the size of this hearth becomes

much bigger than the original room AU, which itself occupied a relatively big space.

Therefore, the structure of the hearth consists of these three distinct areas: AO, tunnel

EF, and AU. Thus, the intriguing question remains unanswered: why was it necessary

to build such a large-sized hearth that would have required enormous amount of fuel to

obtain sufficient temperatures? Its large size, unique at the site, indicates that its

function went beyond ordinary domestic purposes. I tentatively suggest that the hearth

was a kiln, perhaps with an open top. Once the fuel and pots were placed, the fire

would have been set from the tunnel. If there had been evidence of intense firing noted

on the mud-brick walls, this suggestion would have been confirmed, but few details

were recorded for this hearth.

Three sub-phases can be recommended for the use of this distinct space. Initially, AU

was a room consisting of a four-walled structure. For unknown reasons, this room was

converted into a giant-sized hearth at a later time, but during the third sub-phase, this

area was used as a dump and must have been filled rather quickly. This last activity

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was suggested by the excavator in the notes based on finding abundant bones, sherds,

and ash in the higher levels of soil deposits. Yet, it is still difficult to correlate these

phases with the use of the building in temporal terms.

B .ll - Room AP:

This room does not have any direct communication with building BC, but it was part of

the building since the low wall separating it from room AO was a later addition. It may

have served as storage. Perhaps, the fuel used in the hearth was kept here.

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m.C- Building FC: (pis. 22-27)

Coordinates Located in grids 17 -E D


Orientation N-S
Area 72 m2. The north and the south o f the building were not excavated.
Number of rooms 6 rooms, but there would have been more rooms in the
unexcavated areas.
Rooms Size Floor
FC 33.0 m2 5.20 m
GL 6.5 m2 (as is) 4.90 m
GE 12.0 m2 4.98 m
ER 2.7 m2 4.40 m
ES 2.7 m^ 4.01 m
ET 6.0 m2 at least 5.08 m

Fig. 3.7: Introductory chart for Building FC and its rooms.

Building FC is the west neighbor of Building I; it may have rivaled Building I in size,

but its plan is not complete. While there were probably more rooms to the north, the

walls found close to the south section may represent the exterior of the building.

Despite this incomplete plan, the building represents a clear tripartite form with the

room FC being the central room. The preserved evidence described below includes

indications for the existence of the upper floor.

C .l- Room FC: (pi. 22)

FC is the central room of the building with the missing north portion under the baulk.

The floor of this room has been identified by the installations built inside and the two

complete pots found at similar depths. The mud-brick platform of the room was at a

depth of 5.20 m and the pots in the SE and N parts of the room were also at this level.

The platform (677), made with clean, clay-like mud, had a rectangular shape that was

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1.15x0.85 m in size. It had a 12 cm diameter hollow area in the center containing small

pieces of dry pigments4. The structure was ca. 5-7 cm higher than the floor level.

The feature (557) was found to the west of this platform, but its identity is arguable. It

was at 3.14 m and ended at 4.40 m. It had a diameter of 1 m and the entire interior

surface was carefully plastered. The excavator of this building suggested that it might

have been a well dug from above into this floor. However, the plastered interior

implies that this feature might not have been used as a well, but later as a storage pit.

The field notes do not describe its contents or the soil texture of the deposit. From the

distance between the floor level of the room, 5.20 m, and the bottom of this feature,

4.40 m, it may safely be concluded that it was dug from upper layers into the deposits

of Building FC. In that case, it would not have belonged to Building FC, but could have

been used as a storage pit during a later phase. Its tentative identification as a storage

pit is based on ethnographic analogy from the same region.

The practice of storing grains in shared exterior areas, a communal activity in a sense,

was carried out in the villages of East Anatolia until the 1970s. Large pits of various

shapes were dug into the ground; the interior was always plastered (Peters 1979). It

was an activity in which more than one family in the village was involved: the grain

was accepted as belonging to the entire community, not just significant individuals

within the village. The best evidence for this practice was documented by Peters in the

Elazig region. In addition, in 1997, the locals from the Kahramanmara province were

4 Although some other buildings, EE, EL, DU, and FD, had platforms, they lacked pigments. Besides the
FC platform, pigments were found only in the FD and EL platforms.

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able to remember that the same practice being carried out by their elders as early as

the 1930s (communication with locals in the town of Narli in this province). However,

this economic practice led to social tensions that contributed to economic instability in

the village. Disagreements concerning access rights and distribution among families

resulted in disputes and even feuds. In addition, grain theft also became a problem,

even though the negotiations and rules for access were always established at the

beginning of the storage season. The other problem was the difficulty of maintaining

the grain in a dry and edible state. Preventing rainwater from running into the pits was

not easy during the rainy seasons. More importantly, the effort of protecting the grain

from continuous rodent attack seems to have reduced the benefit of the shared storage,

although the plastering of the interiors of these pits was intended to protect the grain.

Thus, community members had to constantly guard and maintain these storage areas

against theft, seeping rainwater, and rodents. Communal storage was eventually

abandoned because of the difficulty of maintenance and the socially disruptive results

mentioned above. Other storage techniques had also been concurrently practiced in

these villages, such as the use of private storage bins in individual households, so that

the transition from communal to private storage was not complicated and preceded

quickly. Based on this ethnographic information, the feature (557) made from above

room FC may be interpreted as a storage pit, because its plastered interior was very

similar to the storage pits made in the recent past in East Anatolia.

The pits (613) and (614) may have functioned similarly. Pit (613) was found to the

north of the platform (677); it was a little larger than 1 m in diameter. The bottom of it

was at a depth of 5.27 meter. The other pit (614) was located to the east of the

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platform; similar to pit (613), its bottom was at a depth of 5.30 meter. Their close

proximity to the platform suggests a related function. Their shallow depth may be the

indication of a short time use. The contents of pit (613) were not recorded, but the

deposit in pit (614) produced DFBW, Ubaid pottery, a grinding stone fragment, and a

fragment of a figurine. The very northwest comer of the room was unexcavated after

4.52 m, because this particular area was thought to be a bench or a high-platform-like

installation. The soil texture in that area seemed finer than the room fills, but no further

recording concerning this supposed feature was made in the field notes. Thus, it is not

clear whether there was a bench or any type of installation here, or whether it was just

part of the room fill.

The central room FC had two doors, the first of which was 65 cm wide and

communicated with room ET via the east wall and the second of which was 55 cm wide

and led to Room GE through the west wall (611). The outside face of the south wall

was not found, but there were two niches made into the interior of this wall. These

niches were significantly larger than the other niches found in the site (see the cross

section view A-A in pi. 22 and the top drawing in pi. 23). One of the niches had an

oval shape with a height of ca. 55 cm, but the other one on the west side of the room

was much longer, with a height of 1 m, only 25 cm above the floor. The bottom half of

the wall had white plaster with red painting, but the red lines of the painting were faded

and did not show any consistent pattern.

There were two square shaped, thick wooden beam holes found at the topmost level of

the south wall. They probably represented the joists carrying the upper story of the

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building. Further information about them is included below at the end of this buildings

description.

Determining the actual size of the room:

The builders clearly applied a basic knowledge of geometry for defining the room

spaces. More interestingly, geometry and proportional calculations determined the

location of the platforms inside the central rooms. There is enough evidence from three

other complete central rooms at the site to confirm the application of some basic

geometric rules to constructions at Degirmenepe during the Ubaid (for schematic plans

of these buildings see pi. 27). Understanding this system allows the reconstruction of

the missing north wall of the central room FC and the calculation of its area.

The central rooms EE, EL, and FD have platforms preserved within their complete

plans. At first glance, each platform may look as if it was in the center of the room, but

that is not exactly the case. They are positioned slightly off the center point of the

rooms. A geometric analysis helps reveal the systematic placement of the platforms

within the rooms. When the room is divided into four equal size triangular areas by

drawing two diagonal lines connecting the opposite comers, the intersection of those

diagonal lines is the very center of the rectangular room. A line parallel to the short

walls of the room passing through the center point is the middle-line that divides the

room into two equal size halves (pi. 27). Now, when the locations of the platforms are

compared with the middle-line dividing the rooms in half, it becomes clear that the

position of the platforms was deliberately placed just to one side of the middle of the

room. Attention should be paid to the orientation of the buildings at this point. Building

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EE lies on an E-W axis and the platform in Room EE was placed just east of the

middle-line. The Buildings EL and FD, on the other hand, were built on N-S axis, but

the platforms in the central rooms are still just off center. In all three cases, they are

located slightly away from the middle-line and one edge of the platforms lies very

close to rooms middle-line. However, in the cases of room EE and FD, middle-lines lie

a little bit further away from the platforms. The reason for the variance should be

related to the margin of error in the placement of the diagonal lines, which might have

been caused by the use of imprecise measurements, such as calculations by eye and

ropes. Despite such inconsistencies, the Ubaid builders were obviously choosing the

locations of the platforms deliberately and setting the diagonal lines to find the center

of the room simply by eye and by using ropes. Overall, such a measuring system would

account for the consistent, proportional placement of the platforms within the rooms.

Since platform (677) is completely exposed, applying this geometrical principle can help

determine the location of the north wall and the actual size of the room FC. Because

Building FC was in a N-S direction as were Buildings EL and FD, the platform (677) in

room FC must have been installed slightly south of the center of the room and the

middle-line dividing the room into two halves must have been positioned to the

immediate north of the platform. The length of this middle line is already known from the

3,5 m width of the south end of the room. Accordingly, the distance from the middle-line

to the south wall becomes 4,7 meters. Since this area is half of the room, multiplying the

4,7 m length by 2 gives the actual length of the room. This enables us to find the location

of the north wall and the actual size of the room as well:

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N-S length of the south half of the room x 2 = Length of the room FC
4,7 m x 2 = 9,4 meter

Length of the room x width of the room = Area of the room


9,4 m x 3,5 m = 32,90 m2 (33m2 when rounded)

The location of the north wall, then, should be 9,4 m away from the south wall. If the

east wall (700) and the west wall (611) of the room are extended to the north, the

points 9,4 m away from the south wall on each of these walls are the north comers of

the room representing the location of the north wall. The reliability of these

calculations and the most probable location of the north wall can be tested by drawing

the diagonals from the comers. The center point of these diagonals in the other sampled

rooms meet at the middle of the middle-line, an assurance that the location of the north

wall and the area of the room FC is correct. Plate 27 shows these lines indicating the

reconstruction of the room.

Based on variations in the proximity of the platforms to the middle-lines in the other

three complete rooms, the margin of error in this geometry-based calculation of area

should be minimal, possibly ranging from 0,5m2 to 1,5 m2. As a result, room FC with an

area of 33m2 must have been the second largest central room found at this site after the

45m2 room GK.

C.2- Rooms GL and GE:

The size of room GL could not be determined because its north portion lay outside of

the trench. The missing door could very well have remained buried in the unexcavated

portion.

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GE holds the southwest comer of the building and it is one of the largest side rooms of

a tripartite building found in the village. There were three bins, two of which were in

the southeast comer of the room near the two doors (see bottom drawing in pi. 23). The

third bin, in the northeast comer of the room, had an elliptical shape rather than a round

form. Communication with the central room FC was via the door on the wall (611). The

other door, in the south wall (678), allowed entry from area FM. A typical double wall

system was observed on the east side of the building, providing the most clear example

in the settlement of the distinction of one structures space from another.

C.3- Area FM:

Barely any data is recorded for this area, which was excavated at the end of the last

season. Based on the photos, it was probably dug until the fourth meter. The wall (678)

is clearly the exterior wall for the building in this part, since it meets with the exterior

wall (624) to the west. If the south end of this area had been excavated, more

information would have been available about its actual shape, floor level, and

relationship with Building FC. Perhaps this area was an open space for the building.

C.4- Rooms ER and ES: (pis. 24-25)

These are the twin rooms of the building and have a similar size and shape. Although

these floors are higher than those of the other rooms in the building, no further

excavations were carried out inside the rooms to recover possible earlier levels. Their

shared wall (702) had a door at the east end, establishing direct communication

between the rooms. This entrance was 55 cm wide and the lower half of this door was

partially blocked with mud-bricks (bottom drawing in pi. 24). The north wall of room

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ES had evidence of multiple repairs. The bottom drawing of plate 25 shows that this

wall had at least three different sections. The northeast part of it was much thicker than

the rest of the wall, presumably a remnant of the original (also see pi. 22). The

temporal order and the nature of these renovations cannot be reconstructed with the

available data.

C.5- Room ET: (pi. 26)

Room ET occupied the southeast comer of the building and contained evidence related

to the second story (see below). It must have had a slightly larger room size than what

was found, since the south wall was missing. Inside of the room, there were three bins.

One of them was found in a poor state of preservation in the northwest comer. The

broken pieces of the edge were scattered around this location and none of them were in

situ. The second bin was in the southeast comer of the room at 5.08 m with a height of

ca. 30 cm and the third bin was in the southwest comer near the door at a depth of 4.98

m.

The east wall (704) of the room was a double wall separating this building from

Building 1 to the west. There was one door in the west wall (700) and another in the

north wall (703) (pi. 26). An almost U-shaped opening with a height of about a half

meter was found at the top of the west wall (700); this was thought to be the remains of

another door used in the second story. The existence of a similar wall with two doors

built on top of each other in room K of the Building i encourages the idea that this

depression area in the wall may also be an upper level door. However, its original form

as a door is unclear.

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The north wall (703) had a group of holes found in the depth range of 3.30-3.50 m that

probably represented one end of the horizontally but unevenly laid beams carrying the

floor of the second story. The hearth (570), found at 3.10 m, survived with its plastered

surface only in the south of the room (pi. 22). The opening of the hearth was probably

on the northwest side because the surface bulges out slightly in this area. Since it was

preserved inside the room and probably attached to the south wall, this hearth would

probably have belonged to the second story too.

Despite their varying sizes and uneven layout on the wall, the beam holes found at the

opposite wall (703) must indicate the ceiling of the room they once carried. If the south

wall had been recovered, it probably would have shown some beam holes providing

more definite evidence for the presence of the second story. The level of the second

floor associated with this hearth was not found, and the shape of the room on the

second story above the room ET remains unknown. However, the ceiling carrying the

floor of the second story was probably at the level of ca. 3.20 m. The name Level 1,

given to the deposits in the third meter during the excavations after the discovery of the

hearth (570), contained the first Ubaid cultural deposits in this trench. Now, it can be

concluded that Level 1 represented the second story of the building.

Notes on the second story:

The two thick joist holes found on the south wall of the central room FC support the

idea of a second story for the building. However, the evidence is somewhat ambiguous

too. The recovery of the joist holes alone does not confirm the existence of the second

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floor because the height of this wall above the joist holes is not known. In addition, the

height of the room from its floor to these joists is not low enough to call room FC as a

low basement, such as those clearly observed in Buildings BC and t Instead, the height

of this room was ca. 1.80 cm, easily permitting an individual to move around and carry

out any necessary task. Then, one should still ask, whether there was a second story

above room FC. The answer is probably yes, because the existence of a second story is

indicated by:

- the height of the north wall in room ET,

- the heights of the beam holes in room ET,

- the floor level at 5.10 m in room ET,

- the heights of the joist holes in room FC,

- the floor level at 5.20 m in room FC (visible in plates 22 and 26).

Accordingly, it seems that the floor level of the second story above room FC was

slightly higher than the floor level of the second story room above room ET. Probably,

the room above room ET began at ca. 3.00 m, but the room above room FC would have

begun at ca. 2.80 m.

It is highly probable that the higher floor level of the second story above the room FC

necessitated the use of thick joists to provide extra support to carry the ceiling. It should

also be remembered here that the room was 3.5 m wide and probably longer than 9 m,

reaching an area of ca. 33m2. The thick beams laid from one long wall to the other may

not have been capable of carrying the ceiling across such a large space. If the walls of

room FC had survived much higher, they would probably have shown more and better

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evidence for the construction of the second story. In conclusion, a second story must

have existed above rooms FC and ET, but the floor levels of the upstairs rooms can

only be guessed without any direct evidence of room plans. Thus, Building FC, after

Buildings I, and BC, becomes the third structure in the site to have had a second story.

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III.D- Building EE: (pis. 28-36)

Coordinates Mostly found in grid 17 J.


Orientation E-W
Area About l W . It reaches about 180m2 if the peripheral rooms are
included
Number o f rooms Tripartite plan consists o f 10 rooms, but it may have had an
extension with 5 more rooms and 2 courtyards
Rooms Size Floor
EE 38.0 m2 3.69 m
GN 2.5 m2 (at least) -

CC 7.2 m2 3.70 m
EG 7.3 m2 3.60 m
Area HA 3.8 m2 2.72 m
EH 6.8 m2 3.80 m
EA 7.0 m2 3.65 m
EB 4.2 m2 3.61 m
EC 3.4 m2 3.45 m
DF 2.8 m2 -

Peripheral Rooms
DG 3.2 m2 early floor 4.15 m; second floor 3.80 m;
CV 4.5 m2 -

CU 2.7 m2 2.70 m
CT _ 2.62 m
DB 10.5 m2 3.30 m
Area DD 12 m2 ca. 4. 00 m
Area GZ ca.18 m2 or more Indefinitely 2.80 m

Fig. 3.8: Introductory chart for Building EE and its rooms.

Located at the east side of the site, this structure was built on east-west (E-W) axis

contrasting with the north-south (N-S) axis used for the other buildings at the site. The

reasons for this different alignment are unclear.

There was a wall beneath Building EE located at the SW comer (pi. 28). This wall

indicates an earlier structure under Building EE, which was probably contemporary

with Building EL to the south. In order to accommodate Building EE, this earlier

structure may have been demolished, with only this early wall remaining intact. Since

the shape of the south walls of the rooms EA and EH is similar to the shape of this early

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wall, the earlier building may have had the same plan and the same direction as

Building EE. In addition, the southwest comer of Building EE almost intersects with the

NW comer of Building EL. This suggests that Building EL already existed at the time

of Building EE construction, and must have limited the space available to the south.

After demolishing the earlier building, the builders of the new structure EE must have

known how much space was available and built the new Building EE accordingly. The

recovery of the earlier wall and the position of the Buildings EE and EL suggest that

Building EL was contemporary with either the Building EE phase or the earlier building

phase under EE.

The ground plan of the building is a typical tripartite plan consisting of the central room

EE, and the side rooms HA, GN, CC, EG, EH, EA, EB, EC, and DF. The rooms added

to this core plan are room HA to the east and room DF to the west. If they do not belong

to another structure further north, we may also add rooms DG, CV, CU, and CT to this

building. Since the records for these rooms are cursory and the excavations in the areas

further north did not reach Ubaid levels, these rooms are subjectively accepted as the

extension for Building EE. Room DB to the north of room EG does not have any direct

communication, but it may still be part of Building EE since Building EE is the only

cohesive structure found next to this room. Furthermore, the areas DD to the west and

GZ to the east must be added to this building as its outside areas, although the other

neighbors would have certainly used these courtyards.

The walls of the building were preserved up to 1.60 m in height and varied between 50

to 60 cm in thickness.

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D.l- Room EE:

The floor of room EE consisted of compacted mud and was mostly preserved to the

west portion of the room. The platform located in the center and the hearth (630) at the

west comer of the room supported the existence of the floor at that level.

The platform was made of mud and had a rectangular shape with rounded, softly

turning comers. It was 130 cm long and 80 cm wide. It had a slightly raised, bulging

area, which had a small circular sunken hole in the middle that was ca. 5-7 cm deep.

This platform was slightly raised from the floor by ca. 7 cm and the surface was eroded.

It is similar to the one found in the central room of the EL building.

Although it was scarcely mentioned in the field notes, there was a small burnt area to

the northeast of this platform. This particular location had no built structure, such as a

plastered surface, that would have been appropriate for setting a small fire on the

surface. It contained a scatter of dense, ashy soil of a reddish-orange color, extending

into an area 70 cm wide. The possibility of burnt and then fallen roof beams instead of

a fire place is unlikely, because no charcoal was reported from this room and no sign of

an extensive fire was detected for this building. It is possible that a fire was set

occasionally and was affiliated with the platform because of their proximity to each

other.

The other furnishings of the central room were the horseshoe-shaped hearth (630) at

the west side of the room and a square shaped bin (675) next to it. Their backs were

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attached to the west wall of the room, which was heavily damaged by the large size

Iron Age pits, such as the one (521) provided in the plan. The hearth (630) was 10-12

cm higher than the floor surface. It had a horseshoe shape and was almost 1.30 m in

diameter. The surface was carefully made with mud plastering that sloped smoothly

down toward its opening to the east. The opening of the hearth was ca. 20 cm wide and

the wall of the hearth was preserved up to 20 cm in height, but the shape of its

superstructure is unknown. The feature (675) was more or less square-shaped; 1x1.2 m

in size, and interestingly, built 1.20 m high. The surface of this structure was only 15-20

cm deep as a very shallow, tray-like container. The mud walls were ca. 15 cm thick. Its

function must be related with the use of the hearth because of their proximity to each

other. Perhaps it was used for storing edible items, which required that it be off the

floor to protect the contents from mice and other vermin.

There were three doors found in this room. Two of them were used for entering the

smaller rooms of the building, while the third one at the east served as an entrance

from the outside. One of the two small interior doors was located at the north wall

(532) near the square bin (pi. 29). It was less than 1 m high and 50 cm wide with a

slightly dome-shaped top. The second door of the room was located on the south wall

(529) connecting with room EH. It was 1 m high and 45 cm wide. The entrance to

building EE was from the east side via area HA. After sometime, this door was taken

out of use by blocking it with mud bricks and adding a newer wall to the exterior face

of the wall (652). The area squeezed in between this wall and the enclosure wall

further east was called HA.

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The only niche found in this central room was at the northeast comer of the room. This

niche was rather deep, 35 cm, and large compared to the niches recovered in other

buildings.

The preservation of the walls in this central room was much better than many other

walls of the site. The south wall (529) of the room had the remnants of wall paintings

made on multiple layers of white plaster (pi. 30). After applying a new plaster layer on

top of an earlier painting, a new pattern was made. The designs did not survive

completely. Some red, orange, and black colored designs were visible, but the themes

were unclear. Thus, plate 30 probably shows multiple layers of paintings with different

themes made on this wall. More wall paintings apparently existed in other buildings

too, but the poor preservation did not indicate the use of multi-layered paintings in

these cases.

The top brick courses of the north wall (532) may imply the existence of an upper floor

(pi. 29). The U-shaped cut above the left door may be the indication of the bottom

portion of a door from upstairs. The east end of this wall has a similar cut at the same

elevation. If these cuts imply an upper story, the top mud-brick courses above this

elevation should belong to the upper floor and below these cuts should indicate a

ceiling with a height of only 1.25 m, which would be too low to allow easy movement

for an adult. However, this height is not unusual, since there are more cases found in

this site with solid evidence for a second story that show similar heights. Such evidence

is mentioned below within the descriptions of their respective buildings (see Room K in

Building I or room ET in Building FC).

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D.2- Rooms GN, CC, and EG:

The 130 cm wide, E-W running baulk covered a substantial area of these northern

rooms. Only the south portion of the room GN was preserved but the other two provide

a complete room plan. According to the notes, the north wall (389) of room CC had a

niche at 2.40 m, but it was not drawn in the plans. The notes also mention some copper

slag in this room but without any further description. The north wall of room EG was a

double wall with a total of five rows of mud-bricks (pi. 28). The southern three rows

belonged to room EG and the other two belong to room DB to the north. A small door

made in the south wall was used for entering the central room EE.

D.3- Area HA:

A door on the west wall (652) was once used to enter the central room EE but it was

blocked with a new, parallel wall attached to it sealing the door with mud at some later

time. It is not clear if area HA represents an open space or a room. Perhaps area HA

may have been used as an entryway and may have been an open area before the door

to room EE was sealed later, it may have been turned into a room when the door was

sealed. The south wall is represented only by its interior face due to the damage by the

pit (670) from above.

D.4- Room EH:

The pit (670) was damaged its eastern portion. The wall found at the bottom of this pit

appears to be the remaining lower courses of the east wall. The door communicating

with room EE was at the north wall. The niche in the center of the south wall was

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conical in shape and 35 cm high, 18 cm wide. Its bottom part was filled with mud-brick

at a later time, so that the size of the niche became smaller, shrinking to 20 cm in

height. The door at the west end is described below in room EA.

D.5- Room EA: (pi. 31)

It is unclear what the distinct, ashy, soft soil with abundant pottery found above the

compacted mud floor means. The north end of the east wall (525) had a door with up to

1 m height and 40 cm width between this room and room EH. The west wall (526) had

another door that was blocked soon after with mud-brick (see room EB below). In the

middle of the south wall (524), there was a niche with a conical shape. It had a height

of ca. 50 cm, a width of ca. 25 cm, and a depth of 20 cm.

D.6- Room EB:

Room EB is one of the twin rooms of the building. The soil context above the floor had

a dense ashy matrix indicating some burning activity, although the nature of this is

unclear. This room has two doors at opposite sides. The entrance from EA had a height

of 1.30 m as preserved and had a width of 50 cm (pi. 32) and sometime later, this door

was filled with mud. The other entrance at the opposite side of the room communicated

with the parallel room EC. This door was more than 70 cm wide and at least 1.5 m high.

The niche found at the south wall (524) was conical in shape.

D.7- Room EC: (pi. 33)

The Iron Age pit (521) destroyed the northwest portion of the room. There was a barely

preserved fireplace in the southwest comer of the room but it must have been taken out

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of use after some time according to the brief excavation notes. A DFBW pot had a baby

burial inside that was placed under the floor at the southeast comer of the room. One of

the entrances was from room EB, and the other one was from room DF at the northwest

comer. The latter had an irregular rectangular shape that was sealed with mud-brick

sometime after its use.

A number of beam holes were found in the inner faces of the east wall (527) and the

west wall (528). Each hole on one side of the room more or less corresponded with

another one found on the other side. Thus, the holes from both sides of the room are

pairs found at similar heights. The elevation of these pairs on both side of the room

gradually rises from the north end of the room to the south end.. Each hole had a

different diameter, but the average diameter was 12 cm. Their round shapes are

slightly flattened at the bottom. They clearly indicate a basic system used as a staircase

for going to the upper level. It is not so obvious from this evidence whether there was

another living floor or a roof on top of these rooms. However, the indication of ceiling

height in this room clearly shows that it was rather low. The uppermost beam holes

depicted in the top and bottom drawings of plate 33 show the 2.80 m level as the ceiling

line for the room. This level enables us to calculate the distance between the ceiling

and the floor of the room, which was less than 1 meter, probably ca. 85 cm. Since the

floor and the ceiling heights of this room are established, and it may be assumed that

the low height would prevent an adult from moving about freely, the room EC should

be interpreted to represent the basement of the building. The living floor with a

comfortable ceiling height allowing a person to move around upright must have been

above this floor. To summarize, Building EE had two stories, and the cross section view

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of the room EC in plate 33 and the plan of the entire building in plate 6 show the

basement of the building.

It may be thought that these holes cannot represent a staircase because of several

remaining problems. First, the number of beam holes on both sides of the room that do

not match, and second, the distances between the holes found on the same wall are

irregular. Nevertheless, there may be reasonable explanations for these issues.

In referring to the first issue, there were 9 holes identified on the east wall (527), while

there were 11 holes on the west wall (528). The two additional holes on the west wall

are at the north end of the room facing the doorway used to enter from room EB. The

answer to this problem may be related to the door made in the wall (527). There were,

probably 11 holes on the east wall (527) too, but the lowermost two holes were

obliterated later when the door with a threshold was made. The holes at the opposite

wall (528) coincide with these missing holes and support this reconstruction.

The second discrepancy of the possible staircase is the irregular distances between the

holes found on the same wall. Spacing between the holes varies from 15 cm to 30 cm.

In order for these holes to indicate horizontal steps of the staircase, it would be more

desirable for each hole to be equally spaced on the same wall and to coincide with

another hole of the same height on the opposite wall. As mentioned above, the

corresponding holes on the both sides of the room still match and make more or less

horizontal lines for beams. Based on these, it may be stated that the builders did not

measure carefully and probably approximated the distances between the beams by eye,

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which seems to have been the common practice in making the ceilings as well (see

Buildings I and BC). For a much simpler structure, such as the staircase in question,

improper spacing may not have been a problem, and the irregular holes in this case

must still represent a staircase used for access to the top level.

One may wonder about how the staircase was constructed. The structure might have

been built as a simple ladder. However, as an alternative view, it is reasonable to

imagine that the staircase may have had an underlying mud ramp. The limited notes

and soil descriptions do not give evidence for such a ramp at all, but it is still possible

that a ramp may have been present. In this way, no matter how irregular the structure

of the ladder, it would be safe to use and the beams embedded into the mud would

prevent erosion on the ramps surface. In addition, a mud ramp with wood step layout

would have made going up and down easier. Supporting evidence for mud ramp usage

was reported from a similar Ubaid building at Tell Madhur in the Hamrin (Roaf 1989).

In sum, Building EE represents two-story building that is convincingly observed in room

EC to have established communication between levels via a staircase or a mud-ramp

supported by wood steps.

The baby burial, the remnants of an oven or a fireplace at the southwest comer of the

room, the blocked door used for entering from room DF, the other door used for room

EB on the east wall (527), and the removal of some of the beams indicate a number of

renovations took place in this room. A possible reconstruction sequencing the

renovation activities of this room follows.

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In the original construction of the building, the staircase had probably not yet been

built, although the fireplace in the south end may have been present. The DFBW pot

burial could have been placed next to it some time thereafter, but there is no way to

determine if these two features were contemporary. During this time, the door from

room DF might have been in use. Later, the door from room DF might have been

sealed, but the fireplace and the burial may still have been visible in the room. In the

next stage, because the room function had changed, the room was modified by building

a ramp with wooden steps embedded on its slope. In the last stage, the door from room

EB was opened, which necessitated the removal of the first two lowest steps of the

ramp at the north. Based on the evidence given above, the order of this, scenario is

plausible, but unconfirmed.

D.8- Room DF:

The east wall had a 70 cm wide door that was sealed after some time of use. The wall

construction of the room indicates that the south, west, and north walls may have been

later additions to confine this space as a room. The north wall consists of a double wall

with both (675) and (468) reaching a width of 80 cm. The south wall (676) seems to

have been built for the room DF and another wall at its south face, belonging to the

room FP of Building EL, was attached to it. These two walls draw the border for the

neighboring buildings here. The west wall of DF is a single wall built with three rows of

mud bricks reaching a width of 80 cm.

D.9-Peripheral rooms and areas:

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The rooms described so far constitute the core tripartite plan for Building EE, but more

rooms to the west and north may also be part of this building. The lack of doors

providing direct communication with Building EE makes the relationship between those

structures difficult to understand. In addition, the Ubaid layers were not investigated in

grid 161 and there may have been another building in this trench. Only the close

proximity of these rooms to Building EE suggests the possibility that they may belong

to the larger structure. In this sense, these rooms may be accepted subjectively as the

extension of the building.

The spatial proximity of room DG to the west and room DB to the north in relation to

Building EE makes these rooms the easiest ones to correlate with the building. In the

case of room DB, no other building was found with which it could easily be affiliated,

except Building EE to its immediate south. For this reason, it is a reasonable

assumption to correlate room DB with Building EE. Area DD was an open space

probably shared by the occupants of Buildings EE and GK. Similarly, the area GZ

further west was probably part of the open area DD.

D.9.a - Room DG: (pi. 34)

The second floor, above the earlier packed mud floor, was a thin layering of gravel

preserved in the north part of the room in front of the door. The walls were 75 cm thick

but the large pit from above destroyed its east wall. The physical relationship of this

room with Building EE would no doubt have been clearer, had the pit not damaged it.

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The north wall of the room is an important one because it contains a door for entering

room CV with a number of beam holes on top of it. The door was 100 x 65 cm in size

and had a rectangular shape. There were 7 holes made above the door representing

horizontally laid wood beams carrying the ceiling. They were more or less at the same

height, but the beam size, beam shape, and the spacing between them are uneven. In

terms of supporting the existence of second story, the same logic followed in the case of

the staircase and the basement in room EC can be applied here too. The height of the

ceiling in this room is 85 cm between the first floor and the bottom line of the ceiling

and 1.30 m between the second floor and the bottom line of the ceiling. Both of these

heights show that the room height in both floor phases was low for an adult person.

Because of this, room DG may also be interpreted as a basement, implying that there

must have been another living surface above with a higher ceiling. The brick courses

preserved ca. 45 cm above the beam holes (shown in plate 33) must belong to the

second story. As a result, this room represents the evidence for the use of two-story

architecture during tire Ubaid period.

Ethnographic analogies also support the existence of a second story in this room. The

vernacular architecture of East Anatolia provides two clear clues (Koyunlu 1976; pi.

35). First, the height where the roof begins is also the height where the walls end. The

north wall of room DG does not show such a case. Instead, the wall continues ca. 55 cm

above the beam holes. Thus, the beam holes must not have been carrying the roof, but

the floor of the second story and the wall portions above the beams must represent the

second floors wall. The second indication of vernacular architecture from East

Anatolia concerns the thickness of the roofs. The height between the beams carrying

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the roof and the top surface of the roof ranges between ca. 30 to 35 cm in vernacular

buildings. This feature consist of various layers made up of different materials to

reinforce the roof, such as very fine mud, soil mixed with small size gravel, beams, and

wood planks or fiber mats. If the beam holes of room DG and the distance of the

preserved brick courses between those holes and top of the wall are considered to

represent the roof, then preserved brick courses above the beam holes become too high

for the roof. In other words, the 55 cm high wall preservation above the beam holes is

too thick and inconsistent for a roof structure. In sum, ethnographic examples suggest

that a roof would have been much less thick; therefore much less thickness for the roof

systems and the 55 cm continuous height preserved above the line of beam holes in the

north wall of this room DG belongs to the upper story.

D.9.b- Rooms CV, CU, and CT:

These rooms are located next to each other and extend to the west of the building. The

limitedly preserved floor depths are higher than the floors of Building EE, which may

indicate that they do not in fact belong to Building EE. The limited excavations shed

little light on the plans of these rooms. A wall with a length of ca. 4 m to the south of

these rooms may be part of an earlier room built before them.

D.9.c- Room DB; (pi. 36)

It is certain that this room had distinct functions because of the number of seal

impressions, mostly out of context, and burials found in it. The floor consisted of a

rather soft, light brown soil, identified through the recovery of human remains laid on

the floor.

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The lack of an entrance makes this room difficult to affiliate with Building EE. The

additional walls to the east, west, and north of this room may have belonged to the

remains of other buildings. By contrast, its south wall was built with an unusual

technique. It was at least 1.20 m wide and had 5 rows of bricks with ca. 10 cm wide

hollow areas spaced regularly between them. These regular empty areas can be

interpreted as rails into which narrow wood planks might have placed horizontally. The

reason for such a wall construction is not clear from the available data. The two brick

rows on the north side probably belonged to this room, while the other three rows on the

south side would have been shared by room EG.

D.9.d- Area DD: (pi. 4; 28)

Since the interiors of all the buildings in this settlement are in the form of four walled,

rectangular rooms, area DD with more than four sides does not appear to be a room or

an interior space. Moreover, the space it confines is much larger than the usual room

space. Based on such reasoning, area DD represents one of the few roofless spaces

found in the site surrounded by the buildings EE, GK, BY1 and perhaps another

building at its north side. The occupants of these buildings must have shared this area

for certain outside activities.

If no wall remained hidden under the west baulk, area DD may have continued further

west and area CZ to the west may have also constituted part of it. The floor might have

been at ca. the 4thmeter because a few fragments of a hearth with ashy debris around it

were mentioned in the notes, but without any further information.

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D.9.e- Area GZ: (pi. 4,28)

This is the last open area located to the northeast of Building EE. A wall to the north

partially buried in the section implies another structure, but the excavators did not note

the data about this area.

D.9.f- Surrounding Wall: (pi. 4,28,37, and 39)

An enclosure wall built at the southeast edge of the site surrounded Buildings EE and

EL. The excavations outside these buildings were carried out in a hurried fashion and

the enclosure was discovered only with its preserved top courses. The sides of the wall

were excavated ca. 40 cm to expose the plan of the enclosure. This clarified the

relationship of the enclosure with the buildings, but its association with the immediate

open areas remained unknown. In other words, the floor levels of the open areas

located to the east and south of these buildings were not found.

Surrounding the east of Building EE, and the east and the south of Building EL, this

enclosure displays a straightforward layout. Its continuation south of Building GK is

possible but not confirmed. Since this wall continued further north, it probably drew a

borderline for the structures built to the north of Building EE as well. With this layout in

mind, the enclosure was built with three different forms:

- It exists as a freestanding mud-brick wall to the east of Buildings EE and EL

with boulders at the very south end.

- The south walls of Building EL and the southwest area of Building GK continue

the enclosure with another mud-brick wall attached to their exteriors. A series

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of large, rectangular-shaped posts were embedded into these walls in an upright

position to support the buildings as well as the enclosure (pis. 37,39).

- The south walls of rooms GT and GY may have also been included in the

enclosure but the weak preservation does not permit us to be certain about the

west end.

Carefully made wall (649) to the east of Building EE demarcated the inside and

outside spaces for the village. It was made of two rows of mud-bricks with the visible

length of ca. 20 meters. It continued north under the baulk. This wall was ca. lm away

from the buildings to the north, but gradually approached the east walls of the buildings

towards the south, and almost connected to the southeast comer of the Building EL. At

this point, the east wall of room EN was thickened with an additional mud-brick wall

with four rectangular posts embedded in it. Continuing south, the enclosure had a series

of large boulders sealing the east of the building completely. The boulders disappear

south of Building EL, but the exterior of the south wall of Building EL was also

thickened with an additional mud wall, likewise supported with the groups of

embedded poles.

The enclosure was extended to the southeast comer of Building GK further west, but its

existence is not as evident as in the east end. A 4 m long and 2 m wide wall, almost

attached to the east walls of rooms GV and GY, was probably an addition built to support

the enclosure and link the south areas of Buildings EL and GK (see this wide wall in pis.

4 and 39). Perhaps the south walls of the rooms GT, GY, and FF were used as the west

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end of the enclosure as well, because these walls were supported with upright poles as

described above (see the end of Building GK descriptions).

Why was the enclosure necessary?

Flooding to varying degrees is a common event during the spring season (cf. Ch. II),

and at least one major flood occurred in antiquity that damaged the site. This enclosure,

thus, may have been built as a protection against disastrous floods. The occupants must

have been aware of the heavy rain and the high water regime in the nearby branches of

Euphrates as well as the Euphrates itself in every spring. The evidence of flooding,

dated to the post-Ubaid period with the layer of gravel, was well documented at the

southwest of the mound (pi. 16). In addition, another 40 cm thick layer of gravel was

detected immediately above the Ubaid walls in a small sounding in grid 15 K. One may

think that the water may have come from the Euphrates to the north, but no evidence of

flooding was found at die north side of the settlement. Perhaps water came from other

directions, but it is impossible to explain in detail how such a process could have

occurred. According to this, the enclosure wall may have been built to provide

protection against the seasonal floods, but the circumstances by which the river gravel

reached the south and the top of mound remains unclear.

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IILE- Building EL: (pi. 37)

Coordinates Grid 18 J
Orientation N-NE to S-SW
Area About 104 m2.
Number of rooms 7 rooms and a possible open area
Rooms Size Floor
EL 19.5 m2 3.12 m
El 3.2 m 2 3.04 m
EO 4.1 m1 3.14 m
EP 3.4 m1 Probably 3.14 m
EN 6.1 m2 3.10 m
FP 6.5 m5 3.18 m
FR 3.6 m2 Probably 3.50 m
FS 3.6 m2 Probably 3.50 m
EU - -

Fig. 3.9: Introductory chart for Building EL and its rooms.

Building EL is located at the SE quadrant of the site surrounded by the enclosure wall.

The walls survived up to 1.55 m in height except for the east wall (545) of the central

room, which had a height of only 60 cm. The wall thicknesses vary between 40 and 60

cm. This building appears to be contemporary with Building EE to the north and

Building GK to the west since all these buildings had similar floor levels. However,

some architectural indications implied that Building EL probably had an earlier use

than these two buildings. The details are given in Building EE and GK descriptions.

E .l - Room EL:

Despite the damage done by Iron Age pits dug into to the Ubaid contexts, the

preservation of this rectangular-shaped room was relatively good. The rectangular

shaped mud platform in the middle of the room was ca. 10 cm higher than the floor. A

circular shaped hollow area, ca. 10 cm in diameter, was in the center and contained a

few dry lumps of pigment. It is possible that these pigments were prepared for making

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paintings over the plastered walls, although in this case no painting was detected on the

walls.

The south wall (546), which is also the south wall for rooms EN and FS, is a double wall.

It is extraordinarily thick compared to the others, reaching a width of 1.25 m, because the

enclosure wall was attached to it from the exterior. Eight rectangular postholes, in groups

of four, were embedded in it for support. On the interior, two niches were found of

similar size and shape. They were 25x25 cm in height and width and ca. 20 cm in depth.

They were placed ca. 1 m apart from each other and ca. 50 cm above the floor. The west

wall of the central room EL had two small doors for entry into rooms FP and FS (pi.

38). Cutting a rectangular form into the mud walls made these doors. They were ca. 70

cm in height and ca. 50 cm in width at their bottom line. The lowermost brick courses of

the wall were left intact and used as a 20 cm high mud threshold.

A circular bin was located at the northwest comer of the room near the doorway. Only

the ca. 18 cm high bottom portion of it was recovered, but it had a diameter of 50 cm

and a wall thickness of 6 cm. Its location partially blocks the front of the door, implying

that the bin was placed there later. The inside of the bin was empty.

The hearth, which was not given a feature number, was located in the northeast comer

of the room. Its north and east sides were attached to the north and east walls. The

hearth had a horseshoe shape with a diameter of ca. 1.40 m and a wall thickness of ca.

25 cm. Its mud plaster surface was slightly raised from the floor. The walls of the

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hearth had a slight curve, implying a dome shaped superstructure. The opening at the

south side sloped smoothly down to the floor of the room. This carefully plastered slope

was wider than the actual opening of the hearth. The slope leading to the opening may

have facilitated the efficient placement of the wood inside, and removal of the ash and

charcoal from the hearth.

E.2 - Area El:

Area El was located in the northeast area of the complex and covered an area of ca.

3.20m2. A wall that lay partially under building EE and the room EO to the south

confined this area. Since walls did not completely surround it, it must have been an

open space that was probably used as vestibule to enter the building from room EO.

The narrow triangular-shaped area further west of it could not have functioned very

efficiently.

E.3 - Rooms EO and EP:

The north wall had a 1.25 m wide opening connected with area El to the north. The

other 60 cm wide opening at the south wall (548) connected EO with EP. The south

room EP was slightly narrower than the room EO. The mud-brick enclosure wall (649)

was unattached to the east wall (549) but ran parallel to these rooms.

E.4 - Room EN:

This room did not have any door communicating with the other rooms around it. A

plaster surface representing the remains of a hearth was found in the NW comer of the

room. It was more or less square in shape and ca. 5 cm higher than the floor of the

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room. The actual form of the superstructure is unknown, due to its poor preservation.

The east wall of room EN was 80 cm thick and the south wall was 1.25 m thick. There

were four rectangular wooden beam holes made inside of each of these walls. Similar

beam holes were also found at the south wall of room FS.

E.5 - Room FP:

The floor of room FP may have been at 3.18m because the two circular bins were found

at this depth also. The bins were placed side by side in the SW comer of the room. One

of them was 50 cm in diameter while the other slightly larger. Only the bottom parts of

these bins were preserved. The east wall of the room had a small door for entering the

central room EL. The west wall of the room was a double wall with a thickness of 1.50

m. The outside wall of this double wall belonged to Building GK. Given the fact that

the double walls have been repeatedly discovered in many other cases as the exterior

walls for the buildings, this double wall indicates a physical boundary drawn between

the two attached Buildings EL and GK.

When compared with other room plans, the plan of this room clearly differs with its

non-rectangular six sides. This could hypothetically imply a later remodeling, but there

is no architectural evidence to support this supposition.

E.6 - Rooms FR and FS:

These adjacent rooms had a similar size and shape. The middle room FR had no exit,

but the room FS contained a door that opened into the central room EL. The south wall

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of room FS was a double wall and its exterior with postholes constitutes part of the

surrounding wall.

There are two very narrow areas west of these rooms. No significant records were

available for these tiny openings, but they are visible in the excavation photos. Their

width is 35cm at most and their floors were not found. The notes mention that the

excavations could not continue further down after the first 70 cm because of the

difficulty of digging in these very narrow areas. These two cell-like openings seem to

have stratigraphical indications for this part of the settlement. They may have been part

of Building EL, since no architectural evidence distinguishes them from this building.

However, Building GK to the west was a later construction built on top of an early

structure; these two obscure areas were probably the remains of the two rooms

belonging to this earlier building. This case will be pointed out once more in the

description of Building GK when the south rooms are under discussion (see the

additional rooms at south in Building GK below).

E.7 - Area EU:

This is the area outside of Building EL that surrounds the south and the east sides of the

structure. The actual surface of this area was not found, but the harder soil texture

found at 3.25 m depth was assumed to be the ground surface for the outside areas in

this quadrant of the settlement.

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m .F- Building GK: (pi. 39)

Coordinates Grids 1 8 1 and 1 7 1


Orientation N-NE to S-SW
Area Approximately 148m2. If the southern rooms are added as its
peripheral structures, it reaches 220m2.
Number o f rooms 8, or 13 including the peripheral rooms to the south
Rooms Size Floor
GK 45.0 m2 3.50 m
CH 6.9 m2 3.43 m
CY ca. 6.5 m2 ca. 3.40-3.70 m
FL ca. 6.5 m2 ca. 3.40-3.70 m
CM 4.9 m2 -

GF 3.4 m2 3.40 m
GG 2.3 m2 3.40 m
GH 5.6 m2 3.60 m
GI 1.3 m^ (?) -

Additional Rooms in t le south


HE-GU - 2.52 m
GT-GV - -

GY - -

Area FV - -

Fig. 3.10: Introductory chart for Building GK and its rooms.

The floor preservation inside the rooms of Building GK was poor and their

identification was largely based on the determination of the harder soil texture, as well

as the depths of the installations and the positions of artifacts near the possible floors.

Building GK was the largest structure with the widest single walls encountered in the

site. The walls were generally lm wide, or even wider in some cases. They were

preserved up to a height of 70 cm for the most part, but the south wall (608) was 1.40 m

in height.

More rooms and an open space were located further south of the building. A discussion

about their relation to Building GK is provided below. However, it may be noted here

that this group of rooms seems to have been the remains from an earlier building that

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lay beneath building GK. According to their relative positions to each other and the

possible floor surfaces, the use-life of Building GK can be divided into two sub phases:

1- the early building phase and 2- the building GK phase during which the rooms to the

south were in use by the GK occupants.

F .l- Room GK:

The central room of the building was the largest room found in the site. An Iron Age pit

(471) with a diameter possibly ca. 4 m had destroyed a portion of the north side of the

room. The excavators seem to have decided not to remove this large pit and the layers

above it in order to reach the Ubaid deposit under it because this task would have taken

a considerable amount of time. Thus, this giant pit area remained unexcavated and the

NW quarter of the room was left as a 2.5 m wide, 5 m long baulk.

The floor was in a bad state of preservation. The soil was reported to be very soft and

ashy, indicating some exposure to fire. The excavations inside the room produced large

amounts of broken pottery, with the bottom of a circular bin at the southwest comer of

the room, and a box-like mud-brick feature. The circular bin had a diameter of ca. 50

cm. The box-like feature was at the floor level and was attached to the east wall (466)

from its back. It had a 45x45 cm square shape with ca. 8 cm thick walls, and was empty

inside. This feature may have been used as some kind of container.

The interiors of the walls were carefully plastered and a small area with red painting

was preserved on the east wall (466). The designs and the theme of the painting cannot

be understood because of its limited preservation (pi. 40). Some scattered fragments of

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dry pigment pieces found inside the room may have been related to the production of

the wall paintings. The east wall (466) had a doorway opening into room GH that was

about 80 cm wide. There were two other doors found at the opposite side of the room

on the west wall (609), but their actual height was unclear, because the part of the wall

at these door areas was only preserved to a height of ca. 60 cm. One of the doors was at

the south and was used to enter room FL; the other one at the north was used to enter

room CH. They both had a width of ca. 70 cm.

The south wall (608) had two small niches with a width of ca. 25 cm, a height of 20 cm

and with an arch-shaped top. They were relatively shallow and were placed a little

more than one meter apart from each other (see the cross section view in pi. 39).

F.2 - Rooms CH, CY and FL:

Room CH was located at the NW comer of the building. The door to enter room GK

was on the west wall, but was obscured by the baulk. There were three infant burials

found in the shelf-like horizontal openings made inside the wall. The context and the

condition of these burials were not clear.

The baulk from room GK continues and covers most of the interior spaces of rooms CY

and FL. As a result, the information from these rooms was greatly limited. The floors

for these rooms were not found, but, since the other rooms of the building had floors at

a similar depth range, it was logically assumed that the floors should have been

somewhere in between the depth of 3.40-3.70 m.

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CY was a narrow rectangular-shaped room. A burial of an adolescent was found in a

ca. 60 cm long shelf-like space inside the north wall. Some residue of red paint found

on the skull indicates a treatment of the dead after death. The notes suggested that the

remains might have belonged to an individual of ca. 15 years in age based on the shape

and condition of the teeth. This information should be considered unreliable, since the

note-takers were only students and the necessary confirmation by a specialist was

never made at that time. Room FL was similar in shape and size to room CY, but its

long axis was in a N-S direction.

F.3 - Room CM:

This northeast room had a more or less square shape. A circular fireplace area might

have existed in the middle of the room, because the soil had an intense gray and ashy

content specifically in this location. Although it cannot be proven, a few pebbles that

seemed to surround this particular area suggested the presence of a fireplace.

The north and east walls were built as double walls and were exceptionally thick. The

exterior wall of the north double wall (464) was 55 cm wide and the interior wall was

70 cm wide. The interior wall had an entrance from area DD, but this was filled with

mud to seal it (pi. 41). Later, this door was blocked with the addition of the exterior

wall in front of it. The east double wall (465) had 65 cm wide exterior and 90 cm wide

interior walls reaching a total thickness of 1.55 m. The inner wall bricks seemed to be

more square in shape than the bricks used for the outer wall.

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An infant burial was found in a pot in the northwest comer of the room. The burial was

located slightly within the wall, but the pot was broken into pieces and the bones were

emerging out of the wall. The pressure of soil from above may have caused the pot to

break during the depositional processes and may have pushed the bones out from their

place into the softer soil deposit that filled the room.

F.4- Rooms GF and GG:

These twin rooms were located south of room CM. The recovery of abundant pottery

and bones may imply the use of these rooms as a trash area. These rooms are

connected with each other via a door cut straight at the end of their shared wall (604),

but they had no apparent access from the other rooms of the building.

Their form and size suggest that they were the twin rooms of the building that were

used to access the roof or an upper living floor, although no evidence indicating a

staircase was recovered inside of them. The reasons for assuming such a function were

already presented above when the case of room EC in Building EE was under

discussion. Assuming that the size and shape of the twin rooms are appropriate for their

use to access to upper level, then rooms GF and GG may represent at least two

different functions: 1-they, for a while, served as the dumping area, 2- they provided

access to the roof or second story. The idea of such multi-functionality is supported by

the evidence detected in rooms EC and EB of Building EE, where the internment of the

dead, the use of an oven, and then the use of a staircase were evidential activities (pi.

28). Building EL, on the other hand, does not show any twin rooms with clarity. If the

room size and plans are the first criteria, rooms EO and EP may not be designated as

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the twin rooms, because their size is not as significant as the rooms GF and GG in

Building GK and no evidence indicative of their function was recorded in the notes.

F.5 - Rooms GH and GI:

Room GH had a more or less square shape. The door on west wall lead into the central

room GK. The field notes state that pottery and bones were abundant in this room, but

it is not clear what this indicates.

To the east of room GH, there is a very small cell-like room GI. The wall in between

GH and GI has no door, but an incomplete, small opening was made in antiquity from

the GI side of the wall without reaching the room GH side. The east wall of GI was

very thick, indicating a border between Buildings GK and EL. This associates the room

GI with Building GK. On the other hand, room GI may have originally been part of an

earlier structure beneath Building GK, the remains of which were represented by the

group of rooms to the immediate south of building GK. Therefore, it seems more

convincing that room GI probably existed before Building GK, together with the

southern rooms, but was also used later by the Building GK occupants (see below).

F.6 - Additional rooms in the south:

More architectural remains were recovered to the immediate south of Building GK.

The goal for excavating this area was to expose the outer areas of the Building GK so

that the general architectural plans and the southern edge of the site could be visible.

The walls were represented only by their preserved tops at a depth of ca. 2.30 m and

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the floors were not found inside every room. As a result, the available information is

limited for this area, yet the recovery of architectural plans was reasonably successful.

The areas HE and GU do not appear to have been rooms, since they were very narrow

(ca. 55 cm) and would not have allowed enough space for an individual to cany out

any task. For that reason, they are refened to here as areas. There was a partially

preserved mud floor recovered at the east end of area GU at a depth of 2.52 m. A bin,

found in the middle of area HE at a depth of 2.47 m, provides further evidence for the

existence of this floor. The floors of the rooms GT-GV and GY were not found.

Based on the general architectural plan, HE and GU seem to constitute a large, single

room, since there was no division wall between them. Similarly, GT and GV make

another room. The room GY, on the other hand, was a rectangular room with no

connection between it and its neighbors. The walls of these rooms survived with a

height of ca. 35-40 cm. A 50 cm wide entrance established communication between the

rooms HE-GU and GT-GV.

All together, these rooms must be interpreted as the remains of the southern portion of

another single structure because they do not fit the plan of Building GK. In addition,

this structure must be an earlier building below Building GK, because the 35 cm wide

south wall of HE and GU extends a little bit beneath the SE comer of the Building GK.

The very narrow and long space of HE-GU also indicates that it previously would have

had a much wider space towards the north, which was obliterated by the massive walls

of Building GK. According to these, it is safe to assume that when the construction of

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Building GK began, it destroyed the earlier structure underneath it. Based on these

observations, rooms HE-GU, GT-GV, GY, and probably the small room GI to the east

of the room GH should signify part of this earlier structure under Building GK.

Furthermore, the two very small areas to the north of GI, found between Buildings GK

and EL, must represent two larger rooms that belonged to the north portion of this early

structure but were destroyed by Building GK. That is why these two rooms were

recovered with such small and seemingly unusable areas. As a result, Building GK may

be described as a later building built on top of the early building represented by

multiple rooms. If any other remains of this earlier building had survived demolition for

the construction of Building GK, a small test sounding inside room GK would have

yielded sufficient data to confirm or refute the existence of this early building. Given

that the floor level of the room HE-GU did not differ greatly from those of Building

GK, these rooms may not have been deserted, but rather may have been used later by

the occupants of Building GK as an extension.

The south walls of the rooms GT-GV and GY may also be seen as a barrier

incorporated into the west portion of the enclosure wall, which, as one possibility, may

have protected the site against floods (see Building EE and EL plans). The poorly

preserved south wall of room GY may have been intended to provide such protection,

however unsuccessfully.

South of these rooms, area FV, defined an open space and probably the southern edge

of the site. Since the excavators were primarily interested in the interiors of the

structures, no information is available about area FV.

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ffl.G- Building DU and its north area: (pi. 42)

Coordinates Located in grids 17-18 G-H


Orientation N-S
Area 91.2 m2. The classic form of a tripartite building plan is disturbed
by more rooms to the west and north.
Number o f rooms 10
Rooms Size Floor
DU 18.7 m2 early phase floors only at 3.92 and 3.71 m
EK 11.5 m2 3.57 m
DV 5.0 m2 3.80 m
BE 4.1 m 2 early phase floors at 3.95 and 3.65 m;
later phase floor at 2.83 m
AY-DZ 5.75 m2 early phase floors at 4.10 and 3.60 m;
later phase floor at 2.90 m
AT 1.35 m2 early phase floor 4.10;
later phase floor 2.93 m
AV 1.9 m2 early phase floors 4.00 and 3.72 m;
later phase floors missing
BF 2.7 m2 early phase floors 4.00 and 3.72 m;
later phase floors missing
FZ 1.6 m2 3.35 m pebbled surfacing
GA 1.7 m2 -

CE 2.8 m2 3.68 m
Small Building BY1 at north
BY1 12 m2 early floor 3.67 m; later floor 3.30 m
CO 3.0 m2 early floor 3.67 m; later floor 3.30 m
BZ 6.7 m2 3.30 m
CG 2.3 m2 early floor 3.78 m; later floor 3.37 m
BH 3.8 m2 possibly at 3.60 m

Fig. 3.11: Introductory chart for Building DU and its north areas.

While the basic concept of the tri-part division was somewhat adhered to in the layout

of building DU, only one large size room was built to the east and west sides of the

central room. Furthermore, the addition of a series of narrow, smaller rooms to the west

and north blurs the tri-partite organization. The area in grids 17 G and 17 H to the north

of Building DU is intentionally added into this section here. The excavations in this part

of the mound seem to have been hurried and the significance of the rooms to the north

of this building was not clear. However, the lack of doors between these rooms

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indicates that these north rooms were disconnected from Building DU and may be

considered part of another building. The wall thicknesses, the plan of these rooms, and

the relation of these rooms with each other also support the interpretation as a separate

building to the north. This building is called Building BY1 in this study, which takes its

name from room BY1. The cluster of rooms to the south of Building DU did not belong

to Building DU either. They constituted other smaller buildings. For this reason, the

description of them is in the section called partially preserved structures that can be

found towards the end of this chapter.

G.l- Room DU:

This room represents the two major building phases, but the recovered floors belong

only to the early phase (see the early phase floor in pi. 45). The building plan in plate

42 shows the upper floor of the early phase, because it is the one that contained

installations. There must have been another floor above it belonging to the late building

phase, but a large Iron Age pit from the top layers seems to have destroyed it. The

section drawing in pi. 45 shows this late phase floor together with the associated wall

remains inside rooms BE, AY, and AT. The evidence from these rooms helps in the

reconstruction of the late phase for the building. Therefore, room DU must have been in

use through the later major building phases as well, but the evidence of this phase did

not survive.

G.l.a- Upper Floor Level of the Early Phase:

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The installations belonging to the upper floor of the early building phase were: a

platform in the north end of the room with two basins near it, three pits in the floor, and

a painted area with two niches found on the south wall.

The two Chalcolithic pits were in the south half of the room (pi. 42). The pit (585) was

at 3.63 m and continued until 4.51 m. The other pit (593) was at 3.66 m, dug into the

sterile soil to a depth of 5.01 m. The third pit (332) was located in the north end of the

room. It began at 3.59 m and its bottom also reached sterile soil. There was a skull of a

deer near this pit, but no clear indication correlating this skull with the pit. The context

and the soil texture of the pits are not specified in the notes, except that dense layers of

ash were mentioned in describing the content of the pit (332).

The platform (586) was in north side of the room and had two mud-brick basins near it.

The platform was 10 cm higher than the floor and was attached to the north wall. It was

square in shape, ca. 60 by 60 cm in size, and had a ca. 7 cm diameter hole in its center.

To the immediate west of it, there was a basin that also partly connected to the north

wall. It had an ovoid shape with a pronounced curved edge, which functioned as a rim,

and it had a plastered surface. Their close proximity with each other suggests that they

may have been used together. Since this platform resembles the others found in

buildings EL and EE, it can at least be suggested that these particular installations were

probably used in the same fashion inside the central rooms. The second basin (587)

was located further south, and probably functioned similarly to the other one to the

north. It was made of mud brick with an oval shape, but its west side was not preserved.

It was 20 cm deep and its rim was 10 cm thick.

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The walls of this room as well as the rest of the building are not particularly thick,

averaging ca. 40 cm. It appears that two rows of bricks were used for the south wall, but

the others might have only had one row of bricks. There were three doors for entering

the side rooms of the building. The one on the east wall was used to enter room EK and

it was 50 cm wide (pi. 44 top). The other doors were on the west wall (507); the one

for entering room BE was 80 cm wide, but interestingly, the door made for the room

DV was too narrow to use comfortably. It was 30 cm wide only (also see room DV

description below). The interiors of the east, west, and south walls were covered with

white plaster; a red painting survived in the southeast comer of the room on wall (506)

(pis. 43 and 44 bottom). It is possible that there were more paintings on the plastered

surfaces of these walls, but none of the designs were preserved.

The south wall (506) was the interior part of the double wall built to separate the

building from southern rooms. The south walls of rooms EK and DV were also built in a

similar manner. There were two niches made ca. 1.50 m apart from each other on the

south wall (506) (pi. 44 bottom). They were ca. 20 cm deep and the size of the west

niche was 50x35 cm. The other one was much larger, probably because of erosion on

the wall after the desertion of the building.

A baby burial was found in the northwest comer of the room, lying in a flexed position

inside the wall. The body was placed horizontally within the wall. The excavation notes

suggest that the burial, the deer skull above the pit 332, and the platform with the two

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basins indicate some kind of ritual activities in this room. The wall painting on the

south wall may also refer to this possible function.

G.l.b- Early Floor Level of the Early Building Phase: (pi. 45)

The lower floor of the room DU was at ca. 3.92 m, but was not found as a distinct

feature with any furnishings associated to it. It is represented in the middle and,

partially, in the northwest comer of the room. Below this early floor was yellowish

colored sterile soil with a granular texture mixed with gravel.

G.2- Room EK:

This room itself comprised the eastern flank of the building, and it was relatively large

for a side room. The floor belonged to the early phase. The north, south, and east walls

were all double walls. The north wall had a width of 1.15 m, while the east and south

walls were less thick, with ca. 80 cm in width. The use of these double walls for this

room indicates that it was the border for the east side of the building.

The 50 cm wide door on the west wall was used to enter room DU. A buttress-like wall

projected ca. 30 cm out of the north wall. It may have been used to support the roof, but

may also have defined the northeast comer of the room as a separate part for some

purpose. Pit (615), with a diameter of ca. 1 m, was located in the south end of the room.

It was dug into the floor at 3.56 m until 4.60 m. The high platform (667) built at the

southeast comer is the third feature installed in this room. It had a 20 cm wide mud

edging with pebble-stone surfacing. Interestingly, this feature was ca. 50 cm higher

than the floor and its wall was survived to almost 1 m in height at its west side. It may

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have been used for storing certain items, which required pebble surfacing for isolation

from the floor level.

G.3- Room DV:

Room DV is again relatively large for the side room of a building. The floor belonged

to the early building phase. The entrance from room DU was only ca. 30 cm wide,

through which it would have been difficult for an adult to pass. The narrow size of this

entrance must be related with the spatial arrangements made inside the room.

Occupying most of the room space with a diameter of 1.40 m, the oval-shaped hearth

(538) is quite large for this room and barely allows an individual to move comfortably

around it. As this hearth was attached to the east wall of the room, the remaining part

of the east wall (507) provided only a very narrow space for a door. The surface of the

hearth was mud plastered and its wall was preserved as high as 20 cm from the floor.

Its opening was ca. 20 cm wide and was located on the west side. Because the hearth

occupied most of the space, this room could have been linked with fire-related

activities, such as ceramic firing or possibly cooking. There was a small niche in the

south wall, but it was not well preserved. A burial found at the SW comer was

contained only a skull and a few bones, indicating a possible disturbance of the deposits

in the past. These remains may even have leaked down from the later period deposits.

Thus, it is safer to avoid dating the burial as Ubaid period since it was found in an

uncertain context.

G.4- Room BE: (pi. 45)

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Room BE provides clear evidence for the existence of two building phases. There were

later walls built on top of the early walls (305) and (304), and there was a floor, made

above the two early floors, undoubtedly associated with these late walls. The walls of

the late building phase barely survived up to 40 cm due to damage from Iron Age

activities. Thus, the walls (304), (305), and the two floors represent the early building

phase and the floor in 3.65 m depth is the renewal of the earlier one.

No features were found in this room except the three doorways, suggesting that the

room was used as a vestibule for entry into other rooms. The width of the east door was

ca. 80 cm, used for going into room DU, and width of the west door was ca. 50 cm,

opening into the small rooms AY, AT, and DZ. The last door to the north was used for

entering room AV and had a width of ca. 50 cm. A baby burial placed into a pot was

found in the south of the room, but no details about it are available in the notes.

G.5- Rooms AY, DZ, and AT: (pis. 42,45)

Areas AY and DZ are the two parts that form a reversed L-shaped room. Both building

phases are represented inside rooms AT and AY. The later building phase in AY was

represented with later wall remains and a floor built on top of the early phase floors.

The early floor of the early building phase was at 4.10 m, but it was renewed later. The

depth of the late floor and the associated walls, as well as the early building floor and

the walls, match well with the depth and position of both building phases encountered

inside the room BE.

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Room AT has almost the same levels for the walls and the floors, except the late

flooring within the early building phase is missing. The south wall of AT was a thin

wall made with one row of bricks. This wall may be a later addition that blocked the

connection with room DZ to the south, but no data is available to confirm this.

There were baby burials found in the southeast comer of the L-shaped AY-DZ room.

One of them was buried in the soil, while the other two babies were interred together

inside a pot. They were placed on top of each other in flexed position.

G.6- Rooms AV and BF: (pi. 46)

The plan and the building phases of these rooms were very similar to those found in the

small rooms AT and AY. Both of these rooms had the early building phase with two

floors, but the later building phase was only represented with later walls built on top of

the early walls. The early floors consisted of packed mud and ashy soil with abundant

gravel. This gravel was mostly flint, probably brought in from the Euphrates, which

contained numerous multi-pointed perforator tools. The small size of these rooms

suggests that they may only have been used for storage.

G.7- Rooms FZ and GA:

No early or later building phases were detected in these rooms. The size and shape of

room GA are reminiscent of the other small rooms found in the building. FZ also has a

similar size, but its floor surface was made with pebbles. Instead of a room, FZ should

be accepted as a platform because it was built slightly higher than the surrounding

rooms. It may have been used for keeping tools and other goods above the floor level.

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If this was the case, the question of to which neighboring room it belonged cannot be

answered with the available data. It may equally have been part of room BF to the

west, or GA to the east.

G.8- Room CE:

CE is a small, square-shaped small room. This room has no access to its neighboring

rooms, which makes it difficult to determine whether it really belonged to Building DU.

However, the double walls to its south, east, and north sides imply that it was a part of

Building DU.

Inside CE, there was a ca. 60x60 cm size, mud-brick box-like feature attached to the

interior of the west wall. This feature recalls the other similar square-shaped, feature

from room GK in Building GK, which was also attached to the east wall in this room.

A note for Building DU:

It is clear that Building DU had an unusual plan, but it still generally adhered to the

tripartite layout. It had two building phases observed in its east and north portions. The

early building phase provided the most coherent plan with two floors (pis. 42,45). The

late building phase did not demolish or change the original architectural plan in any

substantial way, but instead, the newer walls were added on top of the earlier ones with

a new floor associated with them. Thus, the general plan of the building must have still

been preserved in the late building phase. It is possible that the narrow and small rooms

to the west and north may be the result of the addition of thin dividing walls inside the

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larger rooms. Such a possibility is hinted at best between rooms AT and DZ. However,

no clear supporting evidence for such modifications can be found in the available data.

G.9- The rooms to the north: (pi. 42)

The least understood part in the site lies the to the north of Building DU. Based on the

room plans, the size of the rooms, and the thick walls visible to the east and south,

another building may be identified, called BY1. It does not have a tripartite plan, but by

interpreting room BY1 as the central room, the building plan becomes bi-partite. It

consisted of the main room BY1 and the small rooms BZ and CO for its eastern flank.

At the west side, the third flank did not exist, but it was represented by an open space

BH instead. Since sufficient data is lacking, the description of this building and its

possible modifications are based on some general indications hinted at by its

architectural data.

G.9.a - Room BY1:

During the excavations, the room name BY was mistakenly given twice: to a room in

the grid 15 J and to another in grid 17 H. For that reason, the room BY of grid 17 H

received the number 1 here and is called BY 1 in this study. This rectangular room

probably represented the central room for the building. There were two floors

indicating that the room was contemporary with the early building phase of Building

DU. According to the field notes, the late floor was a renewal consisting of sandy soil

mixed with gravel. Most of the gravel was flint nodules, probably from the Euphrates.

This type of flooring had also been detected in rooms CO and CG, all of which recall

the early floor textures found in the rooms of Building DU.

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The west wall of the room was probably buried under the baulk. The south wall may

have been a double wall because it was almost 1.30 m wide. The north wall was ca. 40

cm wide, and the east wall was only 25 cm wide, built with only one row of bricks. The

box-like 65 x 65 cm size mud-brick feature (392) was attached to the interior of the

east wall (363), suggesting a kind of container or the bottom of a storage bin. It should

be remembered here that similar features were found inside room CE to the immediate

south, the central room GK of Building GK, and the central room BC of Building BC. In

this case, the walls were about 10-12 cm wide mud-brick. Despite the crudely made

exteriors, the interior was rather smooth, with round gravel used for the surface.

G.9.b- Room CO:

Located next to the southeast comer of room BY1, room CO had two floors found at the

same levels as those found in room BY1. The upper floor again consisted of sandy soil

and gravel. The north and west walls of the room were 30 cm wide. The south and east

walls, however, were quite thick, without any signs of a double-wall construction. The

thin walls may represent the internal walls of the building, while the east and south

walls separated this building from Building GK.

G.9.c- Room BZ:

BZ is an L-shaped room and the only floor was at a depth of 3.30 m. It is possible that

an early floor could have existed at the depth of 3.60-3.70 m, if the excavations had

continued deeper. The west, south, and east walls were thin, but the north wall was

fairly thick, probably defined the northern edge for the building. The east wall had a

zigzag shape, meeting with the wide wall of room CH of Building GK.

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G.9.d- Room CG:

The floors of the rectangular room CG consisted of sandy soil and gravel, which fits

well with the characteristics of the other floors found inside the other rooms. The thick

walls to the east and north probably drew the northeast border of the building.

G.9.e- Area CZ:

Area CZ was probably not a room. Its non-rectangular form suggests that it may instead

have been an open area. There is a possibility that its east wall was under the east

section. However, if it had no east wall, this area may have formed the west part of the

open courtyard DD for Buildings EE and GK (see pis. 28 and 39). No information is

available about the floor of this area.

G.9.f- Area BO:

It is unclear whether this area represents a room or an open space. Its plan as well as its

interior size is incomplete, because the excavation lines to the north and west hide its

actual form. Thus, only the south and east walls of this area were found with no floor.

G.6.g- Area BH:

This is the last area that could have been an open space because it does not seem to

have the usual rectangular form for a room. It appears that the significant part of this

area remained under the north and east sections. The excavated space had an area of

ca. 20m2. The east wall separating area BH from room BY1 was presumably under the

east baulk. The floor may be assumed to be at 3.60 m but this was never confirmed in

the field records.

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G.9.h- Room BA:

BA is a very small room created by walling off a portion of the south part of area BH.

The south and west sides are actually the thick external walls of Buildings BC and DU.

The thin north and east walls were added to confine the space. Wet lumps of mud

applied by hand formed the walls that resulted in crumbly and rough surfaces. The

opening to the north was very narrow and would not have permitted any individual to

pass through. There was a mud-brick installation (314) inside attached to the south

wall. This crudely made structure was 30 cm higher than the possible floor surface. Its

small space, along with its shape, and height imply a container for keeping hay, straw,

or grain for animals. It may have functioned as a coop or a hutch in which small

animals, such as rabbits, ducks, or chickens, may have been kept.

A note for Building BY1:

Even though the architecture of Building BY 1 is not as straightforward as that of

Building DU, it can be recognized as a bi-partite structure consisting of four rooms: the

central room BY1, and small rooms CO, BZ, and CG. The remaining areas CZ, BO, and

BH around it probably represent the open spaces of this building where the occupants

could have carried out certain outside tasks. Since the south and east walls of the small

room BH are also the external walls of the other neighboring buildings and lack any

doors, the inhabitants of Building BY1 must have had direct access to area BH and the

tiny room BA to its south. If a wall with a door remained buried under the baulk to the

west of room BY1, then area BH and room BA could be securely associated with this

building.

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m.H- Building FD: (pi. 47)

Coordinates Located in grids 15-16 G


Orientation N-S
Area 98m2. This building had only five rooms, unless there were more
under the baulk to the east.
Number o f rooms 5
Rooms Size Floor
FD 34.5 m2 Slopes between 4.53 and 4.93 m
GP 7.5 m" 4.80 m
HH at least 2.8 m2 between 4.40 and 4.57 m
GM at least 2.8 m2 between 4.40 and 4.57 m
FT 7.5 m2 4.30 m

Fig. 3.12: Introductory chart for Building FD and its rooms.

The complete exposure of Building FD was not possible during the very last excavation

season, but the base plan of the structure appears to be bi-partite, consisting of the

central room FD and the group of side rooms on the east side. Thus, the most significant

difference of the structure from the typical Degirmentepe layout is its lack of rooms

forming the west flank.

The spatial relationship between this building and Building BC to the south is also

unclear, but the temporal difference between the two seems evident. The substantial

wall (690) of Building FD obviously sits on top of the north part of Building BC and as

a result, the Building FD can be interpreted to be a later construction than Building BC.

Probably, the later construction of Building FD damaged the northern rooms of Building

BC as well. This possibility and the temporal difference suggested for Building FD here

would have to have been tested during the excavations (also see the beginning of

Building BC below), but was apparently not pursued because of time constraints.

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H .l- Room FD:

Beginning from the south end, the floor had an unusually distinct slope down towards

the north end. This floor was adjusted to the general topography of the site, because the

mound itself sloped smoothly north towards the Euphrates in this area. Although the

preservation of the floor was not very good in the middle of the room, it met with

feature (668) where the floor depth became ca. 4.82 m. It continued at the other side of

feature (668), but the slope almost disappeared and the floor became more horizontal

at ca. 4.90-4.95 m depth. According to this sloping floor, the ceiling at the north half of

the room must have been much higher than the south half of the room. Perhaps

additional strengthening features were necessary for the north side in order to support

the higher ceiling. Although the walls of the building were not preserved particularly

high, an almost two meter long mud-brick wall was added to the exterior of the north

wall (687). This wall must have been much longer, running the entire length of wall

(687) at its exterior and probably providing the additional support needed for higher

ceiling and the roof of the structure.

The platform (658) was in the middle of the room. It is the largest and best-preserved

example compared to the others found in the village. It had a 1.60x1.00 m size

rectangular shape found at 4.85 m. With the extension made on its north side, it

resembles a simplified anthropomorphic form. A depression 60x75 cm in size, ca. 10

cm lower than the floor level, may have been a basin. The whole structure was made

with mud, and it surface was carefully smoothed with mud plastering. A complete pot

found inside the basin suggests a distinct use for the platform. When the other examples

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found in Buildings FC, EE, EL, and DU are considered, the location of all these

platforms in the center of the main rooms indicates a specific purpose for this feature.

To the immediate north of this platform, the unique feature (668) was found. It was a

low structure built with mud bricks, 80 cm wide, running across the entire width of the

room. The bricks used for its construction were unusually long, standard size bricks,

with the average of 80 x 13 cm size, but a different size of brick was used for its east

side. The bottoms of these bricks were buried inside the floor, but it was not determined

how deeply they were buried. This feature had a ca. 2 m long part projecting from the

north side, also made with the long bricks. The known overall height of this feature

from the floor was only 16 cm. This low height eliminates the possible function of a

bench for sitting. Perhaps, with the use of posts, it may have been part of a support for

the ceiling, because the high ceilings compensating for the sloping floor necessitated

additional support.

This room has two benches attached to the short walls to the south and north sides of

the room. The width of the benches was ca. 30-35 cm, so they seem narrow for sitting.

Their surfaces were plastered with yellowish-white colored mud, but the plaster on the

north bench barely survived. The walls of the room had the standard thickness of 55-60

cm, preserved up to heights of ca. 40-50 cm. The interiors of the walls were plastered.

There are two doors on the east wall (688) used for entering into rooms FT and GP.

The west wall had only one entrance but it was too narrow for a person to use. Despite

the fact that the excavated area to the west of this room is so limited, the exposed area

was enough to show that no room was present to represent the west flank of the

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building. Thus, this narrow opening could only have been an entrance for small animals

to enter the building from outside.

H.2- Room GP:

The floor was not found in most parts of room GP, but the hearth (623) indicated that

the floor was probably at the depth of 4.80 m. The door on the west wall, with a width

of 75 cm, was used to enter the central room FD.

H.3- Rooms HH and GM:

These rooms both have similar forms with a narrow rectangular plan, indicating that

they were the twin rooms of the building. The areas of the rooms must have been

similar, but their exact sizes cannot be determined because their east sides bordered

with the trench.

H.4- Room FT:

As with the other small rooms of the building, only the three walls of the room were

found and the east wall was probably buried under the east baulk. The door, with a

width of ca. 65 cm, was in the west wall, opening into the central room FD.

H.5- The outside area:

It is obvious that the west and the north of the building served as open spaces: The only

direct communication was through the narrow door from the southwest comer of the

central room FD, indicating that the open area probably belonged to this building.

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III.I- Building FN: (pis. 48-49)

Coordinates Located in grids 17 -D C


Orientation Unknown
Area About 36 m2. It has an incomplete plan
Number of rooms 5. There must have been more rooms to the north
Rooms Size Floor
FN at least 9 m2 4.55 m
GO 3.1 m2 perhaps at 4.48 m
FO 7.5 m2 4.53 m
HL at least 5.2 m2 4.78 m
HK at least 1.3 m2 -

Fig. 3.13: Introductory chart for Building FN and its rooms.

The limited time in the last excavation season affected the excavations in this building

so that the data related to it is very limited. It was located at the very west side of the

settlement and was only partially recovered with its north portion remaining under the

section. The building did not have a tripartite form and most of the walls survived to

less than 1 m in height (see the cross section view in pi. 48). Even though the rooms

and the division walls had an angular, irregular plan, the exterior of the building on the

west side had a round form, demarcating the borderline of the settlement at its SW

edge.

LI- Room FN:

Room FN was only partially exposed. This room presumably had a rectangular shape,

running parallel to Building FC to the east. The east wall (679) was part of the double

wall structure separating this building from the other one to the east. No furnishings

were recovered inside the excavated space of this room.

1.2- Room GO:

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Room GO fit in between room FN to the north and Room FO to the south. The

triangular shape of this room implies that the plan of the building was prepared before

the actual construction was started; this geometric shape helped to form the curvature

along the west side, enabling the structure to adjust the topography of the mound.

1.3- Room FO:

Room FO at the south end of the building was built in a rectangular shape. Because of

the triangular shape of room GO to the north, its layout was not parallel to room FN but

angled with a NW to SE orientation. The north wall, for some reason, had a zigzag

shape in the middle. The south wall had three angular postholes indicating vertically

placed wooden poles. Sets of similar postholes were also recovered along the enclosure

wall at the southeastern edge of the settlement. They were 14x14 cm in size and were

placed at intervals of ca. 30 cm to support the wall. The south wall (627) ran under the

wall (683), in which there was a door leading to the west room HL.

1.4- Room HL:

This room is an interesting one because it shows the curvature of the west side of the

building. Because the north part of the room is missing and the west wall is curving

rather than straight, the overall room shape is difficult to extrapolate. The necessity for

the curving exterior wall, which was built in two parts, is contradicted by the generally

rectangular plan of the interior spaces. Probably they were the result of an adjustment

to the topography and the renovation process of the building. Perhaps, the builders were

not comfortable in constructing continuous curving mud-brick walls and preferred

several connecting wall segments. The south end of the curving wall was much wider,

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like a buttress. The L-shaped wall (684-683) sits on top of this wall and wall (627) to

the east. The north wall (682) had an entrance to room HK.

1.5-Room HK:

Only its comer area was excavated and this visible portion implies that the room had a

triangular form. This makes sense because room HK a is geometric reflection of the

triangular room GO at its opposite side, so that the triangular forms of these rooms

would have helped form the curved edge of the building to the west.

1.6- Reconstructing the buildings plan:

There are two interesting architectural features of this building not repeated elsewhere

at the site that allow for some discussion of the actual plan and the conditions at the

time of construction: the unexpected use of triangular room plans and the curvilinear

form of the west edge of the building. The reasons for this buildings unusual style

seem to stem from two factors:

- Limitations of space use deriving from the geography of the mound

- Constraints of space use related to ownership and social rules.

The excavated part of the building shows that the available space was limited and the

building plan had to fit into that space. It seems that Building FC to the east, probably

another building to the north, and the topography of the mound all restricted the space

for Building FN. The only curvature achieved with two walls was in the west side of the

building, which coincides with the beginning of the slope at this part of the mound. The

contour lines of the mound and the position of the west side of the building are clear in

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plate 4. In addition, the construction of triangular shape rooms GO and HK contributed

to the curvature of the west side within the norm of rectangular room form. Thus, the

topography of the mound was one of the primary constraining factors.

The ownership and the rights of space use from a social perspective can be assumed to

have played a significant role in the construction of this building as well, since the

space for Building FN was restricted by other buildings to the east and probably to the

north. The planned construction of FN was not so important as to change its

surroundings but necessary enough to fit into the limited area without disturbing the

neighbors. This interpretation is reasonable because the entire settlement had an

agglutinate layout, and open spacing was always limited. The specific social reasons

remain unknown, but they must have influenced the plan of the given space. Thus, we

may say that this building was less desirable when compared with the traditional form,

but still necessary to build without disturbing the neighbors. Perhaps newcomers with

much less control of space had to take the only available space that was vulnerable to

flood and erosion at the edge of the community.

Based on these conditions, the area of the building was probably much smaller than

those of the other buildings, even though the plans of its north portion are not known. A

reconstructed plan of the building may only be proposed by extrapolating the location

of north wall (plate 49). As a result, Building FN probably consisted of two triangular

rooms GO and HK, two rectangular rooms FN and FO, and the amorphous last room

HL that probably lost its prearranged rectangular shape because of its curving wall.

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IH.J- Building AS: (pi. 50)

Coordinates Located in grids 15,16 - J


Orientation NE to SW
Area Only 39 m2 area. Complete tripartite plan o f the building would
have at least ca. 60 m2.
Number o f rooms 5 rooms, but there must have been more rooms to the west that
were not excavated.
Rooms Size Floor
AS at least 15 m2 2.75 m
AR at least 5.75 m2 2.74 m
Z 5 m2 2.77 m
Area AE - -

Single room DA 4.9 m2 -

Fig. 3.14: Introductory chart for Building AS and its rooms.

Building AS was a partially preserved tripartite building on the NE portion of the

mound, which was significant because it represented a later architectural phase lying

on top of the other buildings described so far. Together with the single room DA to the

south, it is the only building associated with this phase. The small room Z of the

building sits immediately on top of the earlier phase walls of room BY and BV (pi. 50).

The walls of this building had only one row of bricks preserved with ca. 25 cm in width.

The room areas were much more spacious than the other buildings rooms and the size

of the central room AS may also have been quite large. Thus, although only half of the

building was recovered, Building AS may have been more spacious than the other

buildings revealed at the site. Excavations in grid 151 to the west did not continue until

the Ubaid layers to expose the other portion of the building.

The orientation of Building AS differs from that of the other buildings too. It was built

in a NE-SW direction instead of the usual N-S direction. The walls were preserved to a

height of only ca. 25-30 cm, contrasting with the high walls of the other buildings. Such

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poor preservation may have been the result of its thinner wall structure and heavy

damage from the late periods. Based on the thinner wall width, larger room spaces and

the different orientation, it is clear that Building AS represents a different approaches

in architectural tradition when compared with the early phase buildings of

Degirmentepe. Probably, the changing political, economic, or social needs of the time

caused modifications in the functions and activities inside the buildings, which affected

the building style while the use of the tripartite plan persisted conservatively.

It is worth mentioning the extensive damage from the intrusive activities made by the

later period occupations at higher levels. The EBA / Karaz remains together with the

Iron Age pits were recorded concurrently with the Ubaid remains in the 2.50-3.00 m

depth range. In order to show these later period intrusive activities, plate 50

purposefully depicts the EBA / Karaz post holes and the large size Iron Age pits

together with the Ubaid architecture. The activities of die Karaz culture had been

recognized through pottery and other artifacts from non-primary deposits throughout the

excavations; the only Karaz architecture encountered was in grid 15 J. The five

postholes aligned in a NE-SW direction, known as feature (214), were dug into the

Ubaid room BY. The holes had a diameter of ca. 20 cm and they may have represented

a wattle and daub structure. The Iron Age pits in this trench were not unexpected, since

the massive Iron Age outpost lay to the immediate north (Esin 1987: fig. 41-42).

J .l- Room AS:

Room AS is the central room of the building. It was 3 m wide and at least 5 m long

within the exposed area. The only installation was a bin in the SE comer of the room.

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J.2- Room AR:

Room AR is the only room representing the north flank of the building. Only partially

exposed with two walls, (206) and (207), the actual shape and size of the room are

unknown. Since the visible length of the walls were ca. 2.50 m long, the room must

have been covering a relatively large area of more than 5.75 m2.

J.3- Room Z:

Room Z lay on the south side of the central room and was completely exposed. The

northeast comer of the room had a ca. 1 m long, bench-like mud brick addition attached

to the wall and the door was made next to it but pits damaged it. The stratigraphic

evidence for this late building phase comes from this room. The SE comer of the room

sits on top of the west wall (359) of an earlier Ubaid building (see the section in pi.

50).

J.4- Area AE:

Even though no walls were found confining an interior space for a room, the room

name AE was given to the space SW of room Z to imply the possibility of another side

room there. Thus, area AE may be a misleading name. The hearth (177), preserved

with its plastered surfacing, was attached to the south of the wall (210). This hearth

may indicate that baking activities took place outside, if this area was not a room at all.

There were two Ubaid walls found to the NE of the building. The walls (208) and

(213) were not attached but built parallel to each other. They were preserved only to a

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height of 30 cm and were damaged by the Iron Age pits. It is unclear if they were

related to Building AS. Perhaps they represent the remains of another structure.

J.5- Single Room DA in Trench 16 J:

The room DA was found in the northeast comer of grid 16 J. This room was associated

with the Building AS phase because the wall heights and the floor depth of room DA

were similar to those of Building AS. Furthermore, room DA sits on top of the earlier

phase room CF.

Room DA was probably not a single room structure, because there was an incompletely

exposed entrance on the east wall. The immediate area to the east of it in grid 16 K

was not excavated (see the master plan in pi. 4). Thus, what, if anything, existed to the

east of this room is not clear. The floor was identified according to a piece of grinding

stone at 2.70 meters, which rested on top of a large stone foundation in the northeast

comer of the room. The north and west walls were double walls, and the exterior ones

were made with pebbles.

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m.K- Partially preserved structures and Sounding in 12 J:

Rooms to the SE of Building DU Size Floor


FJ - -

FA 4 .1 m 2 -

Rooms to the S of Building DU Size Floor


FK 6.5 m2 probably at 2.30 m;
DY-FH-FI 9.5 m2 Maybe 2.50 m (?)
S ca. 10 m2 3.25 m
AH - -

Rooms to the S of Building I: Size Floor


BK - -

BI - Maybe at 3.50-3.60 m
BP about 2.5 m2 -

CA - -

T - -

BR - -

BS - -

Room to the W of Building BC Size Floor


AL-DN-DL - Early floor 4.85 m; second floor 3.65
m;
DT - -

DS -

DR -

Rooms in grid 16 J Size Floor


Area DP - -

Cl - -

CF - -

Grids 15 J and 151 Size Floor


DO at least 16 -

m2
BY 8 m2 perhaps at 2.62 m
BV - -

BU - -

BT - -

Grid 14 J Size Floor


HD 2.9 m2 -

HF 2.6 -

HG ca. 3.1 m2 -

Rooms in the sounding Size Floor


GR - -

GS - -

HB-EJ - -

EY - -

Area EZ - -

F ig . 3 .1 5 : In tro d u c to ry c h a rt fo r p a rtia lly p re s e rv e d structures an d sounding in 12 J.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Excavations also uncovered groups of rooms of various sizes that did not provide any

complete building plan. However, in rare circumstances, a possible tripartite plan may

be inferred based on the architectural forms and the rooms positions. In addition, there

seems to be a second building type at this site, called multi-room structures, included

in this section. Since the double walls indicate the separation of one building from

another, different buildings begin to emerge upon examination of these room clusters.

The rooms at the east side of the settlement show poor preservation because of the

damage done in the later periods. The master plan (pi. 4) shows only some of the

intrusive Iron Age pits, since displaying the rest of them would have obscured the

general layout of the Ubaid settlement.

It is unclear exactly how these structures should be placed within the temporal order of

the site. The unclear physical relationship between these rooms and the tripartite

buildings described so far makes the establishment of temporal order for those rooms

impossible. Assuming that reverse stratigraphy or terracing on the mound did not occur,

any similarity in floor levels and construction techniques of these rooms with the

neighboring tripartite buildings should imply a similar building phase.

Most of the data concerning these rooms consists of rather simple and incomplete

descriptions because of the generally poor preservation of the archaeological record in

these areas. When the rooms did not belong to a representative building, they were

identified with respect to the trench in which they were found. Some of the room groups

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have already been described above, such as the ones located to the west of Building

EE, because there was a possibility that they may have belonged to their respective

tripartite neighbor. The descriptions will begin with the room groups from the south part

of the settlement, and continue towards the north, including the architecture recovered

from the sounding in grid 12 J.

K.1- Multi-room buildings:

K.l.a- Rooms to the south of Building GK: (pi. 4,39)

The rooms HE, GU, GV, GY, and GT to the south of Building GK have been described

earlier, when Building GK was under focus (pi. 39). It was suggested that they

represented an earlier building under Building GK that was probably still used by the

occupants of Building GK.

Rooms FE and FF were located at the southwest comer of Building GK. It is possible

that they belonged to the early building under Building GK, but the baulk running in a

N-S direction along their east side obscured any connection these two rooms might

have had with rooms GT and HE. On the other hand, their western double wall

separates them from Building DU.

The areas identified as FV and GB were found further south of room FF. Area FV was

an open space, and its north wall was the exterior of the enclosure wall with three

square shaped postholes. Two stone walls, further south, enclosed GB area, but it was

not clear if this area would have been a roofed space. These walls survived with only

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one course of stones and the floor was not found until 3.80 m, the depth where the

sterile soil with gravel began to appear.

K.l.b- Rooms to the SE of Building DU: (pi. 4; 42; 51)

The rooms FJ, FA, FK, DY, FH, and FI surrounded the south end of the DU building.

They were clearly separated from Building DU by a double wall. Most likely, they

constituted a couple of other buildings, because more double walls were visible in

between some of the rooms (pis. 4 and 42). Although some parts of this cluster of

rooms remained under the south section, the general layout strongly implies that these

structures did not have tripartite plans. Instead, they seem to have consisted of a

number of various sized rectangular rooms and represented multi-roomed buildings (pi.

51). The same possibility was also observed with the set of rooms to the south of

Building I. It is impossible to determine to what degree they were contemporary with

the tripartite buildings. However, their occurrence at similar depths as tripartite

buildings implies their contemporaneous use.

Room FJ was defined by its east and north walls and its interior was exposed in a very

limited way. The position of these walls indicate that the shape of the room was

rectangular. The rectangular room FA, found north of area FJ, was excavated in a short

time in order to recover its plan. Excavations continued only until a depth of 2.33 m,

and the floor was not reached inside (pi. 4). Except for the partially exposed south

wall, the others were double walls with plastered interior surfaces. Since room FJ had

the double wall to the east, and room FA had double walls to its west and north, they

should be singled out as separate structures from the others.

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K.l.c- Rooms to the S of Building DU: (pl.4,51)

Room FK was west of room FA. Its south wall was not recovered because of the

excavation limits (pi. 4). The hearth (553), in the east side of the room, with its two

phases at 2.21 m and 2.30 m, assists in estimating the rooms floor at 2.30 m. The

hearth was only partially preserved, but it showed a plastered surface. Although not

very clear, there may have been another floor at 2.82 m, because a Chalcolithic pit

(599) began to appear at this level in the west side of the room.

The names DY, FH, and FI were given to the three internal divisions made inside the

one large room further west. The room was probably a rectangular room first, but later,

two thin mud-brick division walls were added in the south half to create the three

separated areas DY, FH, and FI. The square shaped hearth (537), albeit poorly

preserved, divided the space to create area FH. It was remodeled once by adding a new

surface on top of the older one. Broken pottery pieces formed the surface of the hearth.

According to the 2.50 m depth of the hearth (537), the floor of the room might have

been assumed to be at the same level. The entire south wall of the room was quite

wide, but only the interior of it was found because it lay outside the excavation limits.

Room S, southeast of Building I, was another room belonging to this cluster. The floor

surface had dense ashy soil. The west wall, consisting of four rows of bricks, was a

double wall, separating this room from the other rooms to the west. Area AH had very

limited exposure further south and neither its plan nor its relationship with room S was

clear, but the double wall to its west again consisted of four rows of bricks. Based on

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the double walls, it seems that the room DY-FH-FI together with the room S and area

AH constituted the north portion of another building.

K.l.d- Rooms to the south of Building i:

As the excavations progressed, more rectangular rooms were found under the hearth G-

131 and the nearby bins to the south of Building I. (pis. 4,15-16). The plan of those

rooms indicated that they belonged to a multi-room building and their relations with the

hearth G-131 and the bins demonstrate that this building was earlier than those

installations. If hearth G-131 and the bins were used by the Building 1 occupants as

contemporaneous features, then Building i becomes later than these room clusters.

Accordingly, a safer reconstruction of their temporal relationship would be as follows:

First, both Building i and the rooms to the south were in use contemporarily, but later, a

remodeling took place. The multi-room building to the south was demolished and

replaced with the hearth and the bins for use by the inhabitants of Building i. For the

moment, this explanation looks plausible, but still cannot completely account for the

temporal relationships among structures in this area.

Rooms BK and BI were located to the west of room S. Their walls began to appear

after the third meter under the hearth G-131. The west wall of room Bl had white

plaster with red colored wall painting (pi. 52). As the other paintings of the site, its

pattern was poorly preserved and indistinct. There were three pits found inside room BI

beginning at a depth range of 3.50- 3.60 m, which implies that the floor was somewhere

within this depth range. The burial of a child lying on its left side was found at the

bottom of the pit (323), at a depth of 4.32 m. The wall painting as well as the pit with

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the burial suggest that of ritual practices were carried out inside this room. The

information about rooms BP, CA, T, BR, and BS was even more scant than the other

rooms. The limited excavation areas did not yield any complete plans. The shapes of

rooms BS and CA are also not clear because the gravel layer at the 1.90-2.20 m range

was intentionally left unexcavated to preserve the indication of flooding.

A Note on Degirmentepes multi-room buildings;

The areas south of Buildings GK, DU and i, that is, the south end of the settlement,

consisted of various sized multi-room buildings. The number and the size of the rooms

in each building do not show any consistent layout. There were 4 multi-room buildings

that were separated by the double walls (pi. 51). More importantly, the existence of

these buildings clearly indicates that Degirmentepe had a second building type other

than the commonly used tripartite plans. Unfortunately, the temporal relationship of this

new building type with the tripartite plans is not so clear. If there were any temporal

difference, it would have been a short period, perhaps about a decade or so.

K.2- West of Building BC: (pi. 4,6-7,15)

The group of rooms to the west of Building BC belonged to another building. The

limited exposure of these rooms shows that this building did not have a tripartite plan.

Room AL-DN was located at the NW comer of Building I. The two hearths built at the

same location inside the room identified its floors. The hearth (487) was at a depth of

4.85 m surrounded with dense ash deposit at the southwest comer of the room (pi. 6,

and cross section D-D in 7). The second hearth (138) was above the first one at a

depth of 3.65 m (see cross section view B-B in pi. 15). The room turns west where the

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small area DL had been built as a compartment. The east and south walls of the room

were double walls separating the room from Buildings BC and i. The west wall was 75

cm wide at its south side; because of its relative thickness, it may have been a double

wall too.

Information about room DR is very limited. On the other hand, DT and DS, separated

by a thin wall, were suggested to be a workshop for metal production (Esin 1986c). The

hearth 509 was round in shape and located in the NW comer of room DT (pl.17). It was

similar to the smaller hearth 505 found in room DH in Building BC. Its opening to the

north was made as a long, narrow channel of 1.20 m. It began with a width of ca. 25

cm, but narrowed down to 12 cm at the end. Both the chamber of the hearth and the

channel were carefully plastered. Esin rightly suggests that the channel might have

been used for extracting the molten metal from the chamber or for air circulation. A

large stone next to the chamber in DT and a number of broken stones around the

channel could have been used as hammers and an anvil after the metal smelting was

complete. The soil deposit of the both rooms contained dense ash. Even though no slag

or metal ore was recovered in those areas, the available data strongly suggests a

workshop for metal production (pi. 4).

K.3- Areas V and Y: (pi. 15)

Plate 15 shows the limited exposure of a late architectural phase built to the north of

grid 17 F. The two areas V and Y to the north of Building i were on top of the rooms

AP, AO, BD and central room BC of Building BC. Their significance is unclear

because those layers were heavily mixed with Iron Age deposits and pits.

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K.4- Rooms in grid 16 J: (pi. 4)

Room DB and area GZ were suggested to have been part of Building EE and they have

already been described along with Building EE (pi. 28). The other areas in this grid are

area DP and rooms Cl and CF, but it is not clear what they mean architecturally. There

were parts of walls in area DP but they do not form any clear plan. It may be concluded

that many walls in area DP are the remains of more than one structure used in different

time spans. The data for Cl and CF are minimal but they may have been rooms.

K.5- Grids 15 J and 1 5 1: (pi. 4)

Damages from later period activities dramatically increased in grids 15 J and 151,

resulting in poor preservation and very limited data. Room DO was a large rectangular

room that survived with only its north half. Its plan recalls the central rooms of tripartite

buildings found elsewhere at the site. However, since no other rooms could be

connected with this room, it would be impossible to confirm a tripartite layout. The few

wall remains encountered in area ED did not constitute any significant space. Rooms

BY, BV, BU, and BT were another structure separated by a double wall from room DO.

Room BY was the largest in this group, but BU, BV and BT were probably narrow

rectangular rooms.

K.6- Grid 14 J: (pi. 4)

Rooms HD, HF, and HG were built parallel to each other in the south of grid 14 J. Their

similar, small plans suggest that they were used for storage in one building. No

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architectural remains were encountered to the north and east of these three rooms,

which may have been completely destroyed by the Iron Age pits.

K.7- Trench 13 J and deep sounding in 12 J: (pi. 4)

It is certain that the remains represented in these trenches imply different building

phases. Along with descriptions of the architectural remains, the stratigraphical

indications will be pointed out, since the sounding in grid 12 J produced multiple

architectural layers within its depth range of more than 5 m. A total of 12

stratigraphical levels were recorded in this sounding, with Level 1 indicating the topsoil

and the Level 12 designating the sterile soil (Esin and Harmankaya 1987; 1988). The

levels from 2 to 5 above Level 6 dated to Iron Age and EBA / Karaz activities. The

uppermost representation of the Ubaid period in this part of the mound was at Level 6,

although it lacked Ubaid architecture. Level 7 was divided into two architectural sub

phases a, and b; room GR represented the later Level 7a sub-phase and the rooms in

GS, HB-EJ, EY, and EZ were the earlier Level 7b sub-phase architecture.

The rooms in trench 13 J were probably part of a building, but did not display any clear

plan. A platform made of two rows of mud brick (ca. 40x15cm) was attached to the

south wall of GR and to another wall to the east. It was not clear if this area with the

platform would have been a roofed space or not. Room GR represents the topmost

Ubaid architecture in the step trench, but its size is unclear. It may have been

somewhat contemporary with the tripartite buildings of the site because its floor might

have been at 2.80 m depth. A round shaped hearth (631), found at 2.75 m in the south

of the room, helped determine the depth of this room. The east wall of room GS ran

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under the west wall of room GR, giving a slightly earlier date for the room, Level 7b.

The shape of room GS might have been rectangular based on its exposed walls.

Area HB-EJ constituted one long room to the south. Some pottery fragments and a

grinding stone implied that the floor was at a depth of 3.90 m. A platform-like mud-

brick projection attached to the east wall divided the room into two halves. This room

was earlier than room GR, because its east wall ran under the west wall of room GR.

Area EY was partially opened as well. It had a short north wall with an opening made

in its northwest side. The space to the north of EY was not understood. This area must

have been contemporary with room HB-EJ, because the recovered walls of both had

similar heights. Area EZ was located at the east side of the trench. The floor must have

been at 4.00 m, because of the location of the hearth (580), which emerged from the

section of the first step made by the excavators. Only the north half of it was exposed.

To the north of EZ, there was a weakly preserved wall built in an E-W direction. It is

unclear whether EZ was an indoor or outdoor space. Area EZ was earlier than the room

GR but contemporary with the areas EY and HB-EJ to its west. The second step of the

trench was made alongside the north face of the wall of EZ and the layers excavated

after the second artificial step further north contained much less architectural

information.

Level 8 lay to the immediate north of area EZ after the second step. The feature (577),

of this layer was an unusual hearth; its top was at 4.85 m while the base was at 5.67 m.

Its exterior was rectangular, but the interior face had a circular shape. No floor was

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associated with the bottom level of this hearth. It has been suggested in the notes that

this feature and its surrounding area were used in metal production because some

copper slag was found inside this structure. It may also be suggested that this tall

feature may have been a large box for storage, since it lacked any opening and no ashy

debris was recorded around it. Still, further information would be necessary to identify

its function.

Level 9 was identified in the third artificial step made between 5.90 m and 6.70 m.

There were two parallel stone walls (581) and (582) in this level, but only the

lowermost course of these walls survived. They were ca. 1.40 m away from each other,

but the wall (582) to the west was better preserved and ran into the step section to the

south. The cluster of stones found to the north of this wall had probably fallen from the

upper courses. Some broken pottery found at 6.65 m indicated the floor level that was

associated with these stone walls.

Although no change was observed in the soil texture under these stone walls, Level 10

was arbitrarily designated as starting after 6.70 meters. Thus, Level 10 may never have

existed and Level 9 would have actually ended at the depth of 7.00 meters. The

beginning of Level 11 at 7.00 m was identified with the change in the soil texture,

described as dark brown, non-granular powdery soil. Only Ubaid pottery was

associated with Level 11 and the sounding was shrunk to a 4x4 m exposure in the NW

comer. Level 11 continued until the appearance of virgin soil at 8.10 m. Pit (584)

began at 8.00 m and it was apparently dug into the virgin soil until 9.00 meters. Level

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12 designates the virgin soil in this stratigraphy and the excavations continued for

another meter until a depth of 9.00 m.

A note on the sounding:

The sounding made in grids 13 J and 12 J clearly shows that the site had multiple

architectural phases, depicted in the master plan (pi. 4). At least for the northeast

portion of the mound, there were no less than three early architectural phases

represented in Levels 8-11 under the main settlement of the site. Based on this data,

Degirmentepe stratigraphy will be reconsidered and proposed below (see section

m.M ).

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III.L- Sounding In Trench 13 F:

The second sounding, opened in grid 13 F, was in the northwest quadrant of the site.

Work was initiated in a 5 x 5 m square in the NW quarter of the trench, but later, it was

diminished into a 2x2 m size area in order to save time. No architectural remains were

encountered, and the stratigraphy of the sounding was determined according to the

pottery and the changes observed in the soil texture. Because Degirmentepe pottery

has never been intensively analyzed, it is impossible to correlate this sounding with the

other areas and the building phases. However, some general statements about its

stratigraphic relationship with the other parts of the mound may be made.

The northwest quadrant of the mound had a wide, depressed area that sloped down

towards the north. The topsoil in grid 13 F began much lower than the other excavated

areas at 6.35 meters. There were four stratigraphic levels identified: the surface layer,

Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3 (fig. 3.16). The surface layer, which continued until ca.

7.10 m, consisted of loose, not granular, soft soil mixed with artifacts from the Ubaid

period, EBA, and Iron Age. Level 1 was a thin layer dated to the Iron Age by its

dominated pottery content. The excavator suggested that these two levels represented

rubble from domestic activities at the higher areas of the mound that had leaked down

into this depression, a portion of which must have ended up in the area of grid 13 F.

Level 2 began at 7.40 m and continued until 8.10 m. The soil was soft, light brown, and

granular with an ashy content. Speckles of tiny charcoal were also abundant. This level

was dated to the Ubaid period based on its pottery. Level 3, below, was sterile,

consisting of yellowish-brown soil containing a mixture of sand and gravel; the

excavations stopped at 8.70 m.

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Levels Period Depth (in meters) Soil Description
Surface Layer 6.35-7.10 Brown, crumbling with pockets
of powdery content
Level 1 Iron Age 7.10-8.35 Brown, non-granular, very soft
and loose
Level 2 Ubaid period 7.40-8.10 Light brown, granular, soft soil
with dense ash and charcoal
speckles
Level 3 Sterile Soil 8.10-8.75 (work stopped) Yellowish-brown with mixture
o f sand and gravel

Fig. 3.16: Stratigraphy of the sounding in grid 13F.

The sterile Level 3 sloped smoothly from the south towards the Euphrates, but a much

sharper slope was also evident in the west to east direction. This easterly slope

probably did not continue further into the eastern areas because the virgin soil in grid

12 J also started at a similar depth of ca. 8.10 m. If the surface did not undulate

between 13 F and 12 J, a ca. 40 meter long distance, then it is reasonable to assume

that the beginning of the surface of sterile soil to the north of the mound, at least

between the grids 13 F and 12 J, was probably at a depth range of 8.00-8.20 m. The

earliest Ubaid occupants must have begun settling at this level.

Although it is tentative at best, the data from grid 13 F and the topography of the

mound suggest boundaries for the earliest Ubaid occupation of the site. A line passing

over the grids 121 and 15 H or 16 G designates the northwest edge of this earliest

occupation (pi. 53). Perhaps the earliest history of the settlement remained buried

beneath the east half of the mound while the west half of the mound was a large open

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space. As time went by, the population must have increased, either from family growth

or new settlers, and the settlement expanded towards the southwest.

The lack of architecture in this sounding may suggest that the unexcavated large

depression area in the NW quadrant of the mound was a vast open space. If the 70 cm

thick deposit in Level 2 of 13 F was really debris, it may have leaked down from this

possible open area. In addition, this large space, reaching an area of ca. 1500m2, must

have been used for some outside activities as well. The inhabitants might have carried

water from the river and used it for some of the daily activities that would have taken

place in this open area, such as drinking, cooking, and washing, or feeding and

watering animals.

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III.M- Revisiting the stratigraphy of Degirmentepe:

Excavations in sounding 12 J showed that the site had a long occupation history with

multiple architectural phases. On the other hand, the architectural evidence in areas

other than sounding 12 J was unable to show whether one building was contemporary

with another; thus, this data does not assist us in reconstructing the temporal order of

the buildings. The excavators were unable to establish architectural relationships. Only

inside of some of the buildings, the floor or wall renovations were understood. The

director of Degirmentepe excavations was able to establish the order of stratigraphy by

grouping certain areas in the site rather than being able to determine the temporal

relationships between the buildings (Esin and Harmankaya 1988; or see fig. 2.1 here),

a task that she left for later, until the analyses of architecture and pottery could be

completed.

After describing the buildings and the two soundings made in grids 13 F and 12 J in

detail, it appears now that most of these buildings were in use concurrently during one

major occupation phase. Some of the newer buildings of this phase were probably

added adjacent to the core of the settlement in areas where the open spaces were

available. Buildings FN and FD might have been such cases. In the meantime, a few

others were demolished in order to build new structures on top. For instance, the

remains under Building EE or under Building GK represent these earlier structures.

Therefore, excluding Building AS and the building remains found in sounding 12 J, the

rest, including their phases of remodeling, may be seen as broadly contemporary within

one general architectural phase. In other words, the people who used those buildings

must have lived within the same time span and been aware of each other as neighbors,

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if not kin. Accordingly, the buildings below the Levels 7a-7b in sounding 12 J were part

of the little known earlier major phases, and Building AS with room AD to its south

belonged to the latest phase built above the major phase of the site.

Now, based on the observations of architectural relationships described in this chapter,

the assessment of the stratigraphical order of the architecture for the entire site may be

undertaken. I suggest that there were four architectural phases in the history of the

Ubaid occupation of the site.

The partially preserved buildings have been integrated into this scheme as much as

possible, but the rooms in the east portion of the site had to be ignored, since they did

not yield any physical connection with the better understood structures. It is important

to keep in mind that this analysis will be subjective, since a greater degree of accuracy

in the table given below is impossible without further test excavations or at least

correlation with the pottery analysis. Unfortunately, Degirmentepe is submerged under

the reservoir today.

Stratigraphy: (fig. 3.17)

The stratigraphy of Degirmentepe can be divided into three major periods, designated

with roman numerals. The Iron Age is called Period I and the EBA / Karaz activities

contaminated with Iron Age, Middle Bronze Age, and Ubaid remains comprise Period

II. Any archaeological and architectural elaboration within these two periods is ignored

here, since they are not the concern of this thesis. The last period, called Period D3,

represents the Ubaid period, and every building and room cluster described in this

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chapter as the representation of Ubaid architecture falls into this period. Four

architectural phases designated by the capital letters A through D divide this period

with the aim of setting an approximate temporal order among the Ubaid structures.

Building AS and room DA to its south represent the latest Phase A of the Period in

(see pi. 50). They were clearly built on top of the earlier Ubaid structures, which safely

establishes a later time for them. In addition, a possible wattle-and-daub structure

represented by a few postholes dug into this level confirms that Phase A was the latest

Ubaid architecture in the settlement. The wall remains and areas V and Y found on top

of Building BC (north of Building I in plate 15) are assumed here to have been

contemporary with this phase, since they are later than Building BC.

Phase B under this phase represents the major Ubaid occupation and it was divided into

three architectural sub-phases, BI, B2, and B3, specifying different time-use for the

buildings. None of the buildings in this phase was built on top of each other, and for that

reason, the time difference between the sub-phases must not have been very different.

In fact, each sub-phase must overlap the others time range.

The Sub-phase BI includes Buildings GK and EE. Building GK was on top of an earlier

building represented only by a group of rooms at its southern half. When the early

building fell out of use, a newer tripartite construction GK with massive walls was built,

but the south part of the early building was still used concurrently to some extent. The

wall under the southeast comer of Building EE placed it into this sub-phase as well.

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Period Architectural Buildings and rooms Sounding Esins
Phases in 12 J Stratigraphy
(see fig. 2.1)

Iron Age outpost built at


I (Iron Age) NE of the site 1-4

(EB A / Karaz activities


II mixed with Iron Age 5
and Ubaid period)

Building AS and room


A DA 6
(Possibly areas V and Y
in grids 17 F/G)

Buildings EE, GK, and


B1 the late building phase of Room GR 7a
Building DU

Buildings EL, I, BC, FD,


III (Ubaid Period) FC, FN, BY1 and the
early building phase of Rooms GS,
B2 DU. HB-EJ,
Multi-room buildings to EY, EZ 7b
the south of GK, DU, 1
and to the west of BC

B3 South of I

C 8

D 9-11
(stone walls)

12
(Sterile Soil)

Fig. 3.17: Reconsideration o f Degirmentepe stratigraphy.

Since this earlier wall probably represented an earlier structure contemporary with

Building EL, Building EE with its unusual E-W orientation became a later structure

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built on top of this earlier one. However, the use-life of buildings EE and EL may have

overlapped and they both may have existed concurrently as structures for some time.

Building DU underwent substantial internal remodeling, understood by the new floors

and walls, and its late building phase must also have belonged to this sub-phase (see

pis. 42,45-46). In addition, room GR, representing Level 7a in sounding 12 J, can be

added into this phase, because its floor level is very similar to those of the other

structures in this sub-phase. Yet, its relative temporal relationship should still be

considered subjective, because this room did not have any physical or spatial

connection with those structures that are located far away from grid 13 J.

Sub-phase B2 includes the other tripartite buildings found at the site, namely Buildings

EL, 1, BC, FD, FC, FN, and the early building phase of Buildings DU and BY1. In

addition, the room clusters representing various size multi-room buildings to the south

of Buildings GK and DU and to the west of Building BC are included into this sub

phase as contemporary structures, since they share similar wall heights with those

tripartite buildings. Although Building FD seemed to have been built partially on top of

Building BC, it still does not fall unequivocally into Sub-phase Bl. The early building

phase of Building DU and Building BY1 with floor renovations belonged to this sub

phase. The rooms GS, HB-EJ, EY, and EZ of Level 7b in sounding 12 J may be

contemporary with this sub-phase too, since they are earlier than room GR. However,

the far distance of these rooms from the other buildings belonging to this sub-phase

makes this temporal correlation uncertain. Therefore, in the safest sense, the Sub-phase

B2 may be said to represent the major occupation phase of the site during which the

population and the settlement size reached its peak.

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Sub-phase B3 includes the multi-room building located to the south of Building I. It was

concluded earlier that this building seemed to have had an earlier use than the Building

I, since its rooms were under the G-131 hearth and the bins. The temporal correlation of

this sub-phase with the architectural remains found in the sounding 12 J remains

unclear. Phases C and D are labeled solely for the little understood architectural

features encountered below Level 7 in sounding 12 J and they coincide with Esins

levels 8-11.

As a result, the table in figure 3.17 may appear to be an incomplete and indefinite

reconstruction of the architectural stratigraphy, and many of the correlations of the

buildings and different areas of the site are necessarily subjective because of the

limitations of the data. On the other hand, the scheme acknowledges that the Ubaid

occupation history of the site had multiple phases, represented by the phases A, B, C,

and D. More importantly, the scheme attempts to combine the architectural evidence

revealed by the excavations, and it aids the interpretation of the use of the buildings

and the modifications over their use life during one major architectural phase.

In order to investigate the existence and scope of earlier occupations under the

buildings of Sub-phase B2, it would have been necessary, and in fact ideal, to open

small soundings inside some of these buildings, but such investigations did not take

place during the excavations. However, an answer can still be provided from the

available data, which should assist in determining the location and the size of the

village during each phase. The pits found in some buildings, such as the ones in DU or

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I, showed that they were dug into sterile soil (see descriptions of those buildings). The
recovery of sterile soil layers under those buildings safely indicates that no earlier

occupation existed in the middle and west portions of the settlement. Furthermore, the

data from sounding 13 F indicated that there was no occupation in the NW quadrant,

but instead there was probably an open space in which domestic or non-domestic

activities took place on both the household and communal levels. The east and

southeast sides of the site, however, could still potentially have had earlier occupations

because the buildings did not yield any pits that extended into sterile soil. Moreover,

the early occupation of phases C and D in sounding 12 J could well have expanded all

the way south to the areas under Building EL. That is why the size and the border of the

earliest Ubaid occupations are estimated to have been somewhat oblong in shape,

located on the east side of the mound (pi. 53). As a result, the earliest occupations

below the major occupation phase B must have been confined to the east half of the

site, covering an area of ca. 0.25 ha at most (see the hypothetical reconstruction of the

early settlement size in pi. 53). As time went on, the occupants of Phase B dealt with

increasing population by adding more buildings to the western areas of the mound,

reaching the largest size of the settlement, ca. 0.6 ha. Thus, the occupation history of

Degirmentepe not only represents a vertical stratigraphy but also a horizontal

expansion witnessed during the major occupation phase.

In the late phase, Phase A, the occupation pattern apparently changed dramatically. If

Building AS was not the only structure, which may have been the case because there

were walls confining the areas V and Y on the west side of the village, then it is

possible to suggest a different settlement layout at Degirmentepe: an architectural

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pattern comprising only a few Ubaid buildings separated by large open spaces between

them. Or, if Building AS was the only one in use before the occupants deserted the site

completely, then this means that the settlement had shrunk significantly and had

become a small hamlet.

The time span over which the Ubaid community at Degirmentepe existed may be

estimated as follows. Perhaps, the average life of a building before demolition would

be ca. 30 years, if equated to the average span of one generation. Then, Phase A may

be estimated to have survived about 20-25 years before the last occupants left. Phase B

must have lasted much longer since it expanded towards the west side during the three

sub-phases. This phase may have been lasted around 60 years, the time span

equivalent to two generations. Even though the data about phases C and D is very

limited, the time span of at least one generation could be given to each. Accordingly,

the total life of the Ubaid settlement at Degirmentepe may have been as short as 140

years. It is important to say again that this estimate of the occupations time span is

based on pure assumption, not on any solid archaeological evidence. Yet, it is

worthwhile to consider this aspect, because the goal of this dissertation is to examine

the Ubaid society at Degirmentepe from all possible angles.

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I1I.N- Open areas, movement, and communication routes within the village: (pi. 4)

The agglutinative Ubaid architecture of Degirmentepe depicts a rather introverted

settlement, with the buildings physically attached to each other, leaving very little

space for open areas. There were no streets or alleyways establishing communication

between the buildings. Only two areas between the buildings appear to have been good

candidates for open space. It is quite obvious that area DD and area CZ to its west were

one complete courtyard surrounded by Building GK to the south, Building EE to the

east, and Building BY1 to the west. Interestingly, none of these surrounding structures

had direct access to this area with a door; except for the NE room CM in Building GK,

the small doorway that was sealed later. Therefore, this space was formed by the

surrounding buildings, and was not built to serve a particular purpose for one of the

households.

Although it is less clear, the second open space was probably area BH located to the

west of Building BY1. The excavation limits in this area did not permit confirmation of

the shape of this space. Perhaps the area BO belonged to this open space too, although

this cannot be concluded with its very limited exposure. It may be suggested that the

inhabitants of Building BY made use of area BH, and if there had been any door

opening onto this area, it would have been in the west wall of BY1, which was assumed

to have been under the baulk (see pi. 42).

Apart from these, the immediate surroundings of the settlement must have provided

plenty of open space for a variety of open-air activities. The occupants of the buildings

forming the outside edge of the settlement, such as Building EE and EL, must have had

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ready access to those immediate areas for their outdoor tasks. The ground surface at

the south of the mound seemed to have enough space to accommodate some outdoor

activities. For instance, the areas in the vicinity of the enclosure wall must have been

used at least for casual gatherings by some of the community members. The west side

of the mound, on the other hand, may not have been as functional because of its slope,

but the largest open space was probably the NW quadrant of the mound. Its position,

located between the village to the south and the river to the north, must have provided

enough space for many outdoor activities and even some privacy. Some of the

individual or group tasks that made up the daily routines probably took place here.

Even though this area was not investigated archaeologically, the domestic animals of

the village may have been kept here. The lack of streets and entrances to the buildings

confirm that the animals were kept outside the buildings. The NW part of the

settlement would have provided enough space for the domestic animals and thus, the

simple enclosures and pens with thatch and thorny dry bushes would probably have

built here. Moreover, some of the animals may have been free to graze for most of the

day near the site and the river.

The use of roofs:

It has already been mentioned that most of the buildings lacked entrances and there

were no streets within the settlement, leading one to wonder about the inhabitants

movements within and around the village. How did the inhabitants enter the buildings

and move from one building to another? How was entry into the village possible? The

agglutinative layout of the village sets strict limitations for such movements and

provides only one possible answer to these questions. Communication must have been

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over the roofs. One would have been able to access to the roofs by adding simple wood

ladders to the exterior walls, and once on the roof, a person would probably have

followed a certain route to get to a certain building. Therefore, the roofs provided the

pathways to get in and out of the buildings, even though the actual heights and the form

of the roofs remain unknown.

There has been an ongoing discussion in the literature about the roofs of the tripartite

plans in the Ubaid (Roaf 1989: Huot 1987). These discussions have concentrated on the

central rooms, questioning whether they had roofs or were open courtyards. More

importantly, if they were roofed, then the concern has been the form of these roofs. For

the cases of Degirmentepe, it can safely be stated that the central rooms of the

tripartite buildings were enclosed with roofs. The convincing evidence is the plastered

walls and the wall paintings encountered in some instances. If the central rooms were

open courtyards, those plastered surfaces and paintings would have deteriorated and

disappeared very quickly from the fluctuations in temperature and humidity, rain, and

sunlight. In addition, the two thick joist holes found on the south wall of the central

room FC in Building FC indicate a supportive structure for the roof over this central

room. In conclusion, the central rooms of these buildings were covered with roofs, and

the roofs provided communication routes for the inhabitants. The shapes and the sizes

of the roofs of these buildings as well as the social relations among the inhabitants of

the village would have regulated the pathways.

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131.0- Conclusion for architectural evidence:

This chapter has described the entire architectural and stratigraphical evidence

recovered from Degirmentepe in as much detail as possible. The compilation and

discussion of the original data in this chapter has revealed many more architectural

facts about the site and provided insight into the functions of the spaces, certainly more

than what is visible on the surface of the site plan. This chapter also forms the

backbone of the analytical study of architecture in the next chapter. The implications of

this chapter will be summarized in the final chapter to draw conclusions about the

social organization and position of Degirmentepe in this region.

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Chapter IV: Spatial organization and activities at Degirmentepe

IV.A- Introduction:

Investigating the Broken K Pueblo site in Arizona, James Hill stated that the interest of

archaeology is to discern the meaning of spatial arrangements created by the ancient

people (1968). If archaeology endeavors to answer the question of how people lived in

the past, then the architectural exposures -when considered along with the artifacts

found inside- should provide some level of reliable understanding of community social

organization. Exploring the contexts of artifacts within activity areas should shed light

on the use and purpose of the built environment. Accordingly, architectural analysis

must extend beyond the study of architectural features by including a thorough three-

dimensional analysis of artifacts in context, which will elucidate the purpose of

constructed spatial arrangements and the activity areas within the architecture.

Focusing on the spatial organization of interiors, the locations of artifacts, and the

relationships of some artifacts with others begins to define the characteristics of a

community in a given time and place: the life styles of the people evolving in the built

environment, the use of the built environment itself, and their social adaptations. The

wide horizontal exposure achieved at Degirmentepe allows for such a focused study.

Based on such thinking, the description of architecture aids the investigation of the

activity areas, and thus, the activities that occurred inside the buildings at

Degirmentepe, (Chapter IE), but only in an inexplicit, general sense. A fuller picture of

what the architecture meant to its occupants can be realized by implementing a

functional analysis, undertaken below. This effort maps the location and intensity of the

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activities as indicated by the distribution and the density of the artifacts. Since artifacts

are the only surviving clues for us, a typology linking the artifacts with their unique

functional roles presents the range of activities that took place at the site. Moreover,

listing and mapping the activities begins to speak about the use of the buildings, the

functions of the settlement, and the nature of the social organization at the

Degirmentepe village. The activities that will be observed represent the adaptive

response of the occupants to their physical and cultural environments. Some of the

social aspects to be explored in this functional analysis are: the characteristics of the

daily activities, the function of the buildings, the definition of different household types,

and an estimate of the communitys population, all of which hint at the social

organizational relationships among individuals both inside and outside the village.

IV.B- Method:

B.l- Factors disrupting the functional analysis: Site disturbances

Although the analysis appears quite straightforward, Rothmann (2002) warns us that

there may be pitfalls in such a study. Products of various site disturbances create flaws

in the analysis and obscure the determination of functions both quantitatively and

qualitatively. Documenting the site disturbances and how they distorted the function of

a context is an ongoing and unsolved issue in archaeology.

Abandonment, the final part of the settlement history, also has an important role in

creating site disturbances and the factors shaping the abandonment process vary greatly

as a response to the conditions in economy, demography, ecology, social arena, etc. of

the culture (Tomka and Stevenson 1993). If we accept that the artifacts found on living

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surfaces are the evidence relating us to the use of the rooms, recognizing the ways that

the abandonment process influenced the formation of artifacts pattern in contexts is

equally important. When considering the site abandonment, the following questions

should be asked: Do the artifacts found in a context represent a space used as a regular

trash area or a place where some daily tasks took place during the settlement history?

Were the artifacts deliberately left just before the abandonment because they no longer

had any value to the owner? Although it is difficult to distinguish complex

abandonment behaviors with respect to artifact deposition, a good control of contexts

freed from such factors is necessary so that the artifact distributions may become

uncontaminated and representative of daily functions (Cameron 1993). Additionally,

deposition processes, the choice of raw materials, and a lack of understanding the

function of artifacts are other factors in determining the contexts. The archaeologist

must focus on these issues while recording is in progress in the trench so that there

might be a chance to provide solutions.

Below is the list of the limiting factors in functional analysis:

The entire assemblage of artifacts can never be excavated:


Many artifacts are made of perishable organic raw materials and they
disintegrated and disappeared over time.

Some tools were used at off-site locations or lost in antiquity.

Many complete and mobile artifacts were probably looted or taken away from
the site since they were useful. For example, scavenging and removal of some
items for re-use by the last occupants would have taken place during the desertion
process or immediately after. The result is the loss of artifacts and the disturbance
of the reliability of context (Roaf 1989).

The use of some artifacts cannot be understood today:


Whether broken or complete during use or during the deposition process, some
artifacts no longer represent their identity or use at the time of recovery.

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Some artifacts may have been recycled for re-use in other activities so that its
first original shape and function is erased at the time of recovery. Certainly,
ethnographic analogy can provide critical help for such issue, but in some cases, no
resemblance may be found between the artifacts from archaeological sites and the
ones observed in the ethnographic cases.

Some artifacts in many late prehistoric site excavations are not found in-situ:
the occupants might have discarded some of the artifacts or dropped them in then-
found locations by mistake.

Over time, some artifacts may have leaked from their proveniences into other
contexts. In such cases, their original proveniences are lost and they become
contaminants for the possible activities in their found contexts. Simply, these
artifacts no longer represent their original use, and no longer help to identify what
was happening in the locus. Thus, the elimination of not in-situ artifacts from the
ones found in a reliable context is necessary.

Not every stratum is completely exposed during the excavations:


This may be the case for many excavations that mostly caused by the time limits
and funding. Limited exposure of a stratum results with the lack of understanding of
the activities in that stratum, which otherwise, would have participated in
determining the sites function. Fortunately, this limited exposure factor was for the
most part eliminated at Degirmentepe.

In general, the inferences from ethnographic observations may offer comparable

solutions to these disturbance problems, as long as the archaeologist records the

contexts with the related obstacles observed in the archaeological deposits.

B.2- Obstacles particular to Degirmentepe:

Despite the fact that Degirmentepe had extensive architectural exposure, the site has

issues associated with the reliability of data that potentially affect the success of a

functional analysis.

It was a salvage excavation:


The Degirmentepe project was one of several salvage excavations carried out in
the Malatya basin. The project had to be completed within a limited amount of time

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before the water level of the new reservoir rose too high. Apart from this time
constraint, the limited budget may probably be the main cause of the fast
excavations. Those unavoidable factors seem to have resulted in some
inconsistencies in the recording.

Staff of the excavation team:


The participants were mostly students. Although some of them had previous
fieldwork experience, some seemed to have had their first fieldwork experience at
this site. This definitely caused some inconsistencies and omissions in the recording.
Such serious shortcomings are mostly evident in schematic daily plans and note
taking. In many cases, soil descriptions were superficial and not detailed. On the
other hand, architectural features, artifacts, and general collection areas (loci) were
listed systematically, and the black-and-white follow up photography archive is rich
and very informative in terms of both recording the architecture and the artifact-
related data.

Post-excavation studies are incomplete:


Systematic post-excavation analyses of the material remains are incomplete. A
series of interim articles was published by the excavator describing the preliminary
studies related to artifact data. Additionally, more detailed analyses of chipped
stones by Balkan-Atli, human remains by Ozbek, and seals and seal impressions by
Esin were also published in various periodicals and edited books (for these
publications, see the reference list). In spite of this, the detailed analyses of the
pottery assemblages, all small artifacts, and paleoethnobotanical and
zooarchaeological materials have not been completed. Accordingly, perhaps the
weakest area of understanding Degirmentepe today is its economic aspects.

This study has no practical tool to overcome the incomplete material culture analyses

of Degirmentepe. Nevertheless, a functional analysis of Degirmentepe will be carried

out below with these conditions in mind, although the discussion of social adaptation

processes at Degirmentepe may be inconclusive on some points. In any event, some of

the social aspects must become evident from the available data that will add

significantly to the information from the previously described buildings.

B.3- The analysis:

Provided in Appendix n, the general list of artifact types and the activities they indicate

was prepared based on the analogies from extensive ethnoarchaeological research

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carried over many decades. Such ethnographic analogies of past activities were already

compiled thoroughly by Verhoeven (1999) in his analysis of the Halaf period site Tell

Sabi Abyad in Syria, and a shorthand version of his chart is used as a guideline in

preparing Appendix II for Degirmentepe.

This chart shows that applying a function to a type is a complex task because most

artifacts seem to have been produced and used for multiple purposes, while others have

functions that remain indeterminate. For example, a stone bowl may indicate the act of

displaying an object with symbolic value, or the act of consuming food, or the act of

preparing non-edible plants and pigments for use in rituals or as medicine. For this

reason, the complete analysis of each material type becomes critically important for

confirming the uses of artifacts. If such analyses are complete, specific use of a tool

type can be pinpointed and the activities that took place in a context can be determined

correctly. Since most of the material types from Degirmentepe have yet to be analyzed,

a possible solution to minimize the issue of multiple functions and find out which

activity actually occurred in a context would be the comparison of those functions with

the others present within the same locus. Assuming that the activities of a context might

have been interconnected, a multi-purpose artifact in a specific context can be

connected to a distinct activity by logically linking it with other activities observed in

the same context. In addition, considering the extant architectural characteristics and

furnishings as part of the context further defines the function of an artifact and the

activities that took place. The relationships among artifacts and their surrounding

furnishings in any given context is taken into account for each room at Degirmentepe,

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to paint the clearest picture of the types of activities that took place inside the rooms

and buildings.

It is true that the analyses of all material remains, absolute determination of their

proveniences, as well as the detailed descriptions of soil deposits from which they

came would have made a substantial contribution to decoding the activities and the

functions of the structures. Since our knowledge of the entire material remains of

Degirmentepe is incomplete, only the inventoried artifacts could be included in this

study. Those inventoried artifacts had straightforward descriptions in the artifact record

list, yet a considerable number of them became weak identifications for functional

study or came from general collection areas or dry sieving. For instance, the locations

of the slag are not clear and in most cases they came from dry sieving without exact 3-

dimensional data, although their existence is unquestionably important (fig. A.4 in App.

I). For that reason, a filtering process was necessary, and each inventoried item was re

photographed, re-defined, and its provenience double-checked during the visit to the

Malatya museum in 2003. Among those, only the artifacts found on floor surfaces and

in the 30 cm height range above the floors were accepted as having come from reliable

primary deposits and representing the activities that took place inside the rooms. The

other ones that were from unreliable loci were deliberately eliminated in this process.

Consequently, this filtering work resulted in a total of 390 artifacts coming from

primary deposits.

As a precaution, a further elimination of some of those inventoried artifacts was

necessary too. The artifacts found in multi-room buildings were almost always out of

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context and too small in number to indicate activities; this problem seems to have

resulted from limited time and incomplete excavations. Similarly, Buildings AS, FN,

and BY1 produced only one or two artifacts, and were accordingly eliminated from the

analysis, reducing the total artifact assemblage to 384 artifacts (see fig.4.1 for their

distributions in each building). The buildings are presented here with the same order

implemented in Chapter III, beginning with Building I.

Distribution o f artifacts by building

i^n

140 - ns
w
^ 190 -
t? 100 -

* QA _
) C
3 O
!

iff ^
O O C
^ M


1 1 I

r2 8 ! r2 8 ! oo
| | 1 i J -,
i 1 1 i 1 i 1 i
Building Building Building Building Building Building Building Building
I BC FC EE EL GK DU FD

Fig. 4.1: Artifact distributions by building.

Each of the artifacts used in the analysis is presented with a brief description and a

photo image in Appendix EH. If published by the excavator, the drawing of an artifact is

presented with its reference as well. Thus, it is anticipated that Appendix III will

provide enough data to enable the reader to test, criticize, and evaluate the degree of

reliability of this chapter.

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Symbol Artifact type Quantity Percentage (%)

# Plain Bowl 51 13.3

0 Painted Bowl 5 1.3


A Jar 19 4.9

A Cooking Pot 16 4-2

B Miniature Cups/ Jars 15 3.9


Pot Stand 4 1.0

Spoon 2 0.5

A Spindle whorl 27 7.0

0 Stopper 28 7.3

0 Figurine 7 1.8

0 Arrow head 2 0.5


(D Knife 1 0.3
<?)- Sickle blade 3 0.8
X Core 1 0.3

+ Scaper 1 0.3

# Polishing Stone 14 3.6


71 Hammer 29 7.5
* Net weight / Loom weight 2 0.5

* Celt 8 2.1

K Chisel 1 0.3

+ Mace head 3 0.8


Ground Stone 1 0.3

Mano / Metate 4 1.0

Game Piece 4 1.0

0 Bead, Pendant, Shell 5 1.3

0 Needle 3 0.8
0 Awl 26 6.8
Q Seal 14 3.6

'F Sealing 88 23.0


TOTAL 384 100.0

Fig. 4.2: Legend for the artifact types incorporated in the study and the quantity o f each artifact
type.

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Every artifact type was assigned an individual symbol and their quantity and

percentage with respect to the entire assemblage are shown in figure 4.2. The

schematic plans of the buildings show the distribution of artifacts with a legend of

artifact symbols. The distribution of artifacts is also presented in histograms when a

particular building is in focus. Each symbol in a distribution map represents only one

count of an artifact. If more than one artifact of a type is present, the symbol

representing it is shown as many times as the artifact type is encountered. Because of

this, some rooms appear unduly crowded, but showing the quantity of artifacts is critical

to linking the activities to their locations and eliminating any subjective attribution of

an activity. Since the find spots of artifacts were listed with room names in the

recording system, the artifact locations inside the rooms are not necessarily exact. As

much as the records and publications permitted, the distribution of the burials was

added to the schematic plans of buildings with "fr symbol.

IV.C- Activities and functions:

C.1- Building I: (pi. 54) (fig . 19)

The basement of Building I showed one of the densest artifact distributions at the site

with its yield of 81 artifacts. However, the twin rooms AG and AF and the narrow room

P-L to the west held the least number of artifacts.

The seven spindle whorls found in Room U clearly indicate textile production here. In

addition, two hammer stones point to the maintenance or production of tools. The large

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area of the room, 7m2, would have allowed enough space for those activities. The

pestle found here was probably used for an activity other than food production since no

other artifacts linked to food processing or cooking were found in this room. Although

the other artifacts -a miniature jar, a painted bowl, and a pot stand- could be seen as

evidence as evidence for food consumption, they could also be associated with the two

burials made in this room. Unfortunately, the few artifacts recovered shed little light on

the activities that once took place here.

Cluster of artifacts in Building t


2 14 1-3
: 12 ' ' '
i 12
}j 10
n
Z 10
8 I
|
1 6
if]
6 $ < % < 1
i' 4 < 1
o
1 f $ 1
1 4 I M
ii? 2 I 1
2
- J .V
I 1 I
i "iv" * 1
O' 0 I E l. i I
s. i 1 Iasi
r -i-
8 IS) 1-J IL J 1 1

>v

Artifact type

Fig. 4.3: Artifact types and their distribution in Building I.

The SW room K, containing polishing stones and a hammer, unambiguously

demonstrates tool production and tool maintenance. Woodwork could have been the

other activity of the room since a celt was located here, assuming it had not been

dropped or lost. In addition, the recovery of a large stone mentioned in the field notes

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could well have served as an anvil or some kind of platform for such tasks. Storage jars,

a cooking pot, a mortar, as well as the bin placed in the NE comer of the room suggest

food storage, and thus, a domestic activity. The other domestic function of the room

may have been textile work as evidenced by an awl, needle, and a spindle whorl. As a

result, it may be concluded that this room was in use as a workshop, but the overlap of

some domestic functions must also be recognized. Room AC did not produced a

significant number of artifacts except a seal and a plain bowl. Although the particular

functions of this space remain unclear, the mud brick alignment survived in the middle

of the room may have been the result of some kind of production activity.

Artifacts found in room AD cannot clearly help us to understand how the raised surface

and a platform-like area in the south portion of the room was used. However, at least

one particular use of this room was as a burial ground. The three burials found inside

the bins prove that the bins were not only used for storage but also as a place for

burying the dead. The fourth burial was inside a cooking pot. The bins would probably

have been used for storage too before the interments were made in them. The recovery

of three plain bowls in this room might have been related with storing food items and

probably food consumption as well. Despite their single occurrences, a spindle whorl

and a miniature cup may be suggestive of domestic activity too. Two seal impressions

found here imply the arrival of imported goods. Architecturally, the location of the

room and the two doors connecting it to the central room i and room R confirms that

this room was used a corridor.

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Room R had five plain bowls, a portable oven, a bin, and a storage jar, all suggesting

food preparation, food consumption, and storage activities. The miniature cup may or

may not have been part of such activities. The only burial found here was inside the

bin, probably interred at a later time. The other artifacts do not necessarily represent

any distinct activity due to their single occurrences and their small size. Room P-L

produced only a seal and a seal impression, implying arrival and transportation of

goods, although their single occurrence makes this assertion only tentative. The

appearance of these artifacts in one of the dead end rooms of the building may suggest

that some economic activities might have taken place in private, and perhaps with

some secrecy. If this was the case, it is possible to conclude that only specific, or

perhaps high value exchange items would have been dealt here. Overall, the narrow

shape of the rooms R and P-L may be interpreted as unfavorable for many activities,

but, nevertheless, food production, storing goods, exchange activities were still evident.

Room i must have been used for both domestic activities and tool maintenance or

production. The hearth (268), three plain bowls, a jar, and number of bins clearly

demonstrate that food was stored, prepared, and probably consumed in this room. In

addition, spindle whorls and awls point to textile production. Hammers and the

polishing stone would probably have been used for tool making and repair. Those

activities must have been part of the same activity observed in room K, because the

door on their shared wall connects these two rooms directly. The three seals and four

seal impressions found in this room demonstrates that the exchange of goods was the

other major activity. The last function of this room seems to have been ritualistic. The

burial recovered inside the carefully built pit (149), the other carefully structured pits,

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and the wall paintings all imply some ritual behaviors, burying the dead possibly being

the focus of the ritual.

In conclusion, it is safe to say that Building I functioned as a house and its basement

provided spaces for food storage, food preparation, and probably consumption as well

as textile production. Apparently, in addition to those domestic activities, room K of the

basement was a workshop where tools were produced or repaired on a regular basis.

Room AC and AD maybe used for tool production too but this function is vaguely

implied by the interior design of the rooms, not by the artifacts. More activities must

have taken place in the second story, the most likely one being food production because

of the hearth (146) to the north of the room (see the building descriptions in Ch. IE).

Moreover, the sleeping areas and production activities requiring easier hand skills and

daylight, such as spinning wool, would probably have taken place in the second story.

The concentration of burials was in the NW portion of the building. This seems to have

been the case in buildings GK and DU as well, which may indicate a pattern in

choosing the location of the dead. It is possible that there is a meaningful correlation

between the houses and the locations of baby burials dictated by the interplay of social

rules and the actual events connected with the dead. Although the orientation of

Building EE is different, the location of the pot burial in room EC is another example of

a burial within a side room holding a comer of the building. The layouts of the buildings

show a conscious, consistent sense of direction, which must have been deliberately

chosen by the occupants when they built their houses; the locations of burials inside the

buildings must likewise have been chosen according to this meaningful orientation. The

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other burials found in the central rooms do not fit well with this observation, but may

instead have represented different causes of death, different aspects of their belief

system, family customs or temporal differences besides what has been suggested just

above.

C.2- Building BC: (pi. 55)

In comparison with other buildings throughout the site, Building BC has the densest

artifact distribution (fig. 4.4). Interestingly, seal impressions are the major artifact type

in this building, represented by more than fifty specimens. Despite its area of 21 m2, the

central room BC appears empty in comparison with the side rooms, which yielded a

wealth of artifacts. Yet, the rooms to the N and NE produced the least number of

artifacts, suggesting that the later construction of Building FD to the north probably

disturbed the contexts and resulted in much fewer reliable artifacts.

Cluster of artifacts in Building BC

Artifact type

F ig . 4 .4 : A rtifa c t typ es and th e ir d is trib u tio n in B u ild in g B C .

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Room BC had seven artifact types, but for the most part, they were represented only

once, a factor weakening their linkage with specific activities. The seal and two seal

impressions may imply economic activities, while a hammer and a polishing stone

represent tool production or repair. On the other hand, a miniature jar and a painted

bowl related to food consumption. The function of the mud brick feature attached to the

east wall is still not identifiable, even when considered with the artifacts found inside

the room.

The stoppers and seal impressions that came from inside the rooms DC1 and DC2 point

to the arrival and the opening of goods at the end of transaction processes. The bowls in

this case might have served for distributing the items inside and around the building.

The miniature cup is difficult to correlate with those activities; however, its small size

may indicate that it was a lamp used to provide light inside. The recovery of a number

of spindle whorls and awls point to textile production, although these rooms lack

sufficient space for this activity.

Room BD probably served as a food production area as indicated by the hearth in the

NW comer, two storage jars, and the bowls. The thick ash layer in the soil is supportive

of intense fire-related activity, which probably occurred on daily basis. The crowd of

stoppers, seal impressions, and a seal are clear evidence for the arrival and dispersal of

goods. In addition, this room was a burial ground, manifested by the two pot burials

near the hearth. Such a dense artifact recovery suggests that this room did not undergo

any clearing or removal of useful items before the abandonment.

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On the other hand, the useful artifacts in room BM on the east side may have been

removed before abandonment because its artifact repertoire is not as rich as the latter

room described above. The plain bowl, mortar, and the hearth would usually suggest

food production, but the recovery of numerous pieces of slag scattered around the

hearth are also clear indications of metal production. In addition, some bone and shell

fragments may have been used as tools in this room during the smelting process. It is

also possible that the room may have been converted into a storage area after the door

in the north wall was sealed and taken out of use.

Artifacts and the hearths in room DH were clearly linked to metal production. The two

adjacent hearths (504) and (505), the pocket-like containers attached to the west wall

(301) in room DH, and the recovery of abundant metal slag suggests this distinct

activity (see the description of this room in Ch. HI). As in room BM, the bones and

shell fragments reported in the notes may have been used as tools during the smelting

process. Furthermore, the recovery of stoppers in room DH and numerous seal

impressions in room BB as well as the absence of finished metal products from both of

these rooms point to the exportation of the metal products used for exchange with other

goods. The plain bowls as well as the storage jars found in room BB might have been

part of these trade activities. Apart from this, awls in room DH imply textile or leather

work, and the pot burial in room BB designates this room as the second burial ground

inside the building.

The most interesting architectural feature of the site, tunnel EF, belonged to this

building and was located to the south of the central room BC. Room AO did not show

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any significant activity based on its two artifacts but the room-hearth AU yielded

numerous seal impressions. After the hearth was taken out of use as a kiln, this room

must have become a dumping area for the seal impressions along with abundant bones,

pottery fragments, and ash. However, because of the fragments of a bin, a large

cooking pot, and two plain bowls, a short duration of storage activity may be suggested

too, which would have taken place before the dumping began. The arrowhead and the

seal found in this room may have been lost here, if not deliberately discarded.

Room AP may have been a fuel storage area for hearth AU and a dumping area too,

since it contained stoppers and a seal impression. The pieces designated as figurines in

this room were identified through their simple decorative or perhaps symbolic attributes

and their deliberately formed leg-shaped bottom parts. However, this identification is

subjective, since their long and conical form is identical with that of the stoppers, and

may in fact have served the same function as the stoppers. Moreover, the consistently

broken tops of the figurines seemed to have marks identical with those of the

stoppers. These marks may have left been from the twisting that occurred when they

were used to close the small bottle-like narrow mouths of the jars or bags. In other

words, the designation of certain artifacts in this room as figurines is an artificial

distinction resulting from the process of defining the types in the artifact assemblage of

the site. They might have been used in a similar fashion with stoppers but with an

additional, leg-like simple schematic design at the bottom portions (see their images in

App. HI). If these so-called figurines were actually stoppers, then dumping may have

been the major activity for this room. The two celts and a hammer imply woodwork,

perhaps to prepare the wood for use as fuel for hearth AU.

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Overall, Building BC again represents a house because of the preponderance of the

domestic activities indicated by bone awls, hearths, jars, and bowls. For the first time,

the bowls seem to represent a second function in this building: their use along with

seals and seal impressions within exchange mechanisms. The nature of these

mechanisms is still unclear, but metal production must have been an important

component in those processes. The very elaborately built hearth G-131 to the south of

Building 1 and the hearth (509) in rooms DT and DS to the west of Building BC should

be seen as the other.possible locations in the site where the metal production took place

(see pis. 15-17; sections III.A and ELK in Ch. ID). The hearth G-131 is ignored dining

the discussion of Building I functions above, because the relationship of this hearth with

Building I is only a possibility.

Apart from that, basic tool production, tool repairs, and use of some rooms for burials

comprise the other functions of the building. Despite the occurrence of burials, actual

rituals are difficult to confirm for this building. Since the presence of a second story

clearly was indicated in the architecture (see room BB in Ch. m and pi. 19), domestic

activities, tool production as well as sleeping must have taken place on this second

floor.

C.3- Building FC: (pi. 56) (fig. 4.5)

The artifact density of Building FC is not particularly high, but the types represented

are similar to those found in other buildings. Some of those types, considered with

respect to their quantity and association with each other, are once more representative

of domestic activities in a house. Storage jars, plain bowls, a miniature cup, and the

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clay bins unambiguously designate storage and food production activities clustered in

the central room as well as the side rooms to the east. In addition, the recovery of

spindle whorls and awls imply textile production, and perhaps some leather work. Tool

maintenance and production becomes evident with the recovery of a chisel and a

relatively high number of hammers. The mace head found in room ET is hard to

explain. It may have been a rare item with a high symbolic status value, and yet, its

occurrence alone without more status-associated artifacts is incongruous amongst the

artifacts designating domestic activities in room ET.

Cluster of artifacts in Building FC


6
M
5
Cm
+3
im 4
CO
Cm
O 3

2
e

3 1
O'
0
&

Artifact type

F ig . 4 .5 : A rtifa c t types an d th e ir d is trib u tio n in B u ild in g F C .

The side rooms to the west were ahnost empty, despite their exceptionally large space.

The only function assignable to room GE is storage, because of its three bins. The stone

and shell beads recovered from this room came from items of jewelry, but who wore

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them, what they meant to the wearer, and whether their meaning and function had any

affiliation with the house are impossible to extrapolate. Their small size suggests that

they had been lost in their deposition context. Thus, jewelry is one of the most difficult

artifact types to decode in terms of function, especially when no other supportive

activities or artifacts are seen in the same context.

The exposed portion of this house lacks burials. If the afore mentioned pattern of

burying the dead at the NW comers of the houses holds true, then the unexcavated

portion to the north of the building may have contained burials. They might have been

located in the area north of room GL, or perhaps in another room just north of it, if any

existed. In any case, the burial of the dead as a religious activity is not observable in

this building. The platform in the central room FC had dry pigments in its center, and if

the pits surrounding it were not related with storage, they may have been associated

with short durations of ritual activities (see Ch. HI). The painting found in the south

wall of room FC may represent additional evidence for the ritual behavior. Even

though many of the other buildings contained numerous seals and seal impressions, this

building did not yield any such artifacts that would demonstrate the activities related

with trade.

The second story of the house would probably have been used for domestic activities.

The hearth (570), which belonged to the second story room built above room ET was

likewise for domestic use, such as cooking. A similar but much better preserved hearth

(146) in the second story of Building I confirms the idea of domestic activities taking

place on a regular basis in the second stories of the houses.

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In conclusion, Building FC represents another house in the site in which the domestic

activities, such as cooking, storage, and textile work were routine. Tool m aking or tool

maintenance was probably a secondary function that may not have been carried out as

intensely as the domestic activities. The ritual behaviors is weakly represented in the

central room FC, possibly because it took place only occasionally.

C.4- Building EE: (pi. 57)

Cluster of artifacts in Building EE


5

0
p

Artifact ype

Fig. 4.6: Artifact types and their distribution in Building EE.

The buildings to the east of the settlement have a lower artifact density than the other

buildings and Building EE produced only 28 artifacts (fig. 4.6). Perhaps the low artifact

density is the result of the lower intensity of the activities that took place, or it may

have been related to occupants actions during the abandonment process. For example,

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artifacts may have been removed or left in place depending on the timeframe of the

abandonment, their portability, and their value. Otherwise, it may be said that the

activities were less intense than in the other buildings, although the types of activities

were identical with those observed in other buildings.

The central room EE produced only four artifacts: a net weight, a jar, a celt, and a seal.

The use of the jar should be linked with the hearth and the bin next to it, implying food

production and storage. The other artifact types cannot be securely linked to any

specific tasks, since each is represented only once inside this room. For instance, the

seal may have been dropped or lost here because of its small size. Thus, a conclusion of

economic transaction would be unfounded here. The net weight would be weakly

indicative of fishing, but it might have been used for another activity. None of the

artifacts seems to have any clear link with the use of the platform found in the center of

the room. On the other hand, the burned area noted to the NE of the platform may

imply an occasional fire affiliated with the platform. Thus, the platform itself and the

burned area near it may be related to ritual activity. The multiple layers of paintings on

the walls might have been associated with the rituals as well.

Most of the side rooms of the building were empty. Only the rooms EB, EC, and DF to

the SW of the central room had any kind of artifact density. The polishing stones in

rooms EB and EC show that some kind of production work took place here. The

cooking pot in room EC was used as a burial pot for the dead. Thus, a funerary ritual

during the interment may be deduced for this room. The spindle whorls unquestionably

imply spinning wool and producing yam for textiles. It should be remembered here that

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room EC was used as a staircase and provided direct communication between this floor

and the second story. The two seal impressions in room EB were probably dumped here

after the delivered goods were opened in the building. If the occurrence of bone awls in

rooms DF and EA was not due to loss, then textile production or leather work may have

taken place in those rooms. The plain bowl found in room DF does not imply a specific

function; without the presence of more similar artifacts, no pattern of activity can be

seen.

Room DB to the north seems to have functioned as a burial ground because there were

six burials recovered here: one in the ground, two in the walls, and the other three as

pot burials inside the room. The three cooking pots from this room are unrelated with

cooking since they contained the burials. Along with these, it is reasonable to think that

the miniature cup found here was affiliated with the burials. The jar found in this room

implies a storage function. The pestle may be indicative of food production or grinding

inedible items, such as pigment. The hammer and the sealing again only tentatively

indicate tool production or the arrival of goods due to their single representation.

The sealing and a stopper encountered in area DD imply economic activities that may

have been carried out by the residents of Building EE. Certainly, the occupants of

Building GK may have been involved in those activities as well.

According to the probable domestic activities, such as food production and textile work,

this building should be identified as a house where daily routines took place. The side

rooms without artifacts may have been used for storage, among other functions. Tool

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maintenance and production were probably the other major activities, although they are

not substantially represented in this particular building. Rituals may have been an

occasional activity in the form of burning small fires near the platform; perhaps the

wall paintings have to be affiliated with such activity as well. If Room DB really

belonged to this building, it seems to have served as the burial ground for this house.

C.5- Building EL: (pi. 58)

Cluster of artifacts in Building EL

Artifact type ^

Fig. 4.7: Artifact types and their distribution in Building EL.

This building produced only 22 artifacts with a variety of artifact types (fig. 16).

Mainly domestic activities are evident, but the production of tools and wood working

also took place. Rooms EN, FR, and FS had jars that were probably used for storage.

Room FRs lack of a door also points to its likely storage function. However, the celt

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and a polishing stone in this room imply the possibility of wood work and tool

production; its room size of 3.6 m2 would have provided enough space for such

activities. The identical size of rooms FR and FS, along with the recovery of a storage

jar, a hammer, and a scraper imply similar activities. The only difference is room FSs

door built to communicate with the central room EL. Room EN did not have a door, but

it had a more than a meter wide hearth at the comer with two storage jars near it. For

this large room, cooking, and storing activities may be suggested, even though more

definitive artifact types, such as grinding stones, would have better supported the

interpretation of domestic functions.

Rooms EO, EP, and the area El did not produce many artifacts, but because of their

doors, they establish a direct communication with the outside. In this respect, area El

maybe seen as the entrance of the building. On the basis of the two hammers and a

spindle whorl in those rooms, tool making and textile production may be suggested as

occasional activities for these areas.

Because of the presence of a mortar, a cooking pot, a clay bin, and the hearth to the

north of room EL, it may be said that cooking was the major activity in the central

room. In addition, seal impressions indicate unpacking of traded goods here. The

hammer also indicates some indefinite production work. Room FP had a cooking pot

and two bins that suggest cooking and storage activities. Those activities must be

related with the domestic activities evident in the central room EL, since the door

between these two rooms established a direct communication.

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On the whole, EL represents a building where domestic activities took place most of

the time. Also observed were tool production or maintenance activities. As a result, this

building must be seen as a house with the routines of daily life, although they are

observed only on a moderate scale. The role of the platform in the central room is

unclear, and the lack of associated artifact types or features or burials equally

unhelpful. Thus, the possibility of rituals in this house can only be supported indirectly

through analogy with the other similar platforms found in buildings FC, EE, DU, and

FD. For instance, because Building EE had a platform and a burned area next to it in

the middle of the central room, an indirect correlation could be made to say that

Building EL had some kind of ritual function too.

C.6- Building GK: (pi. 59)

Cluster of artifacts in Building GK

Artifact type

Fig. 4.8: Artifact types and their distribution in Building GK.

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Building GK has more artifacts (52) than the surrounding buildings and the artifact

types are proportionally richer here (fig. 4.8). However, the majority of artifacts, 43 of

them, are located in the central room GK, while the side rooms produced only a small

number of artifacts, four or less per room.

The knife found in Room GH should suggest the use of this area for butchering or

cutting meat, assuming its deposition in this room is not accidental. The tiny room GI to

the east of GH did not yield any artifacts, but its small space points to its use as a small

storage cell. Of the twin rooms, only room GF produced artifacts: a game piece, two

stoppers, and a storage jar. The first two types are small artifacts and may have been

lost here, but the storage jar logically implies storage as the activity for this space. The

other room, GG, did not have any artifacts. Because evidence for a staircase was found

in the similar twin rooms of house EE, rooms GF and GG may also have contained a

staircase, providing access to the second story as their major function.

Room CM yielded only a ground stone and a burial made inside a cooking pot, neither

of which necessarily imply cooking activities for this room. Although it was not clearly

described in the field notes, the small area with a variation in the soil texture was

suspected to have resulted from burning. It is now tempting to interpret the fire as

associated with a brief burial ceremony that would have taken place during the

interment of the burial, although there is no direct evidence for such a scenario.

Only two flanking rooms, CH and CY to the west, produced artifacts, but with numbers

too insignificant to determine an activity. Two pot burials found in room CH and

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another in room CY seem to continue the pattern of keeping the dead in side rooms.

What other activities might have taken place in those rooms is difficult to envision due

to their lack of artifacts, but space inside those rooms would have permitted other uses,

such as storage.

Room GKs total of 43 artifacts presents a clear contrast with the low artifact density in

the flanking rooms. Despite the high number of artifacts, the activities for food

processing or consumption, such as a large hearth, cooking pots, storage jars or grinding

stones, are not represented in room GK. The six small bowls with different forms and a

bin in the SW part of the room may suggest food consumption and some kind of storage

here. If this was the case, food preparation must have taken place elsewhere and

prepared food must have been brought into the building. The miniature jar found here

may also have been used for serving. Textile production and sewing leather were other

activities represented in this room according to three spindle whorls, two bone needles,

and six awls. Three celts indicate woodwork, while two hammers and a polishing stone

are the links for the activities of tool maintenance and manufacture. The function of the

mud brick box-like feature, attached to the east wall, is not clearly connected with any

of the artifacts of this room, leaving it to be interpreted as some kind of a container at

the best guess. Although only two seals were found in this room, a significant number

of seal impressions (12) represent goods opened in this room after arrival. The three

stoppers, on the other hand, may suggest the dispersal of goods linked to an exchange

mechanism, if they were not used on the containers for storage.

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The last function to add to this building is the ritual activity implied by the four burials

recovered in the side rooms. We may conjecture that family members associated with

the building buried their ill-fated babies in here. Once the burials were made, a

meaning related with their spiritual worldview was added to the meaning of the house;

unfortunately we have no viable means to elicit this meaning. Room GKs painted wall

interiors may be related to this spiritual worldview.

Is it possible to call this building a house? A conditional yes answer must be given

because of the lack of a hearth and food production; the absence of these necessary and

expected domestic activities from the building GK weakens its interpretation as a

house. However, implicit textile work attested here is the evidence justifying the

designated domestic function for the building. As no open courtyard hearth was

available near the building, we must assume that the food was prepared in other houses

and brought into this building later. Along this line of reasoning, it is even possible to

think that this building may have been the house of elderly persons for whom the food

had to brought from other houses where the other members of the extended family

resided. According to this interpretation, the house GK may become an informal social

gathering place with the excuse of taking care of the elderly. Some domestic activities,

other than the food production, and some maintenance or tool production could have

taken place during such gatherings. The building may have been used on a daily basis

as a gathering place while daily tasks were accomplished and the elderly residents

received the needed care. The thick walls and relatively large size of the building

(148m2 with a 45m2 central room) would have been linked to dedication to the care of

the elderly, reinforcing the social function of the space and distinguishing it from the

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other usual houses. If this scenario was the case, then it is possible to designate this

building as a house, but with a social-oriented public space: Here, most of the usual

daily activities would have occurred, but it would also have been an informally

established public space functioning casually as a forum for any gossip, or discussion of

any social, economic, political, and even ritual topics. The scale of such behaviors was

most probably extended family size, but occasional inter-family gatherings must also

have been the case. The suggestion of public space for Building GK is certainly purely

conjectural and it has weaknesses due to lack of significant data. However, a house

with a social sphere embedded in it seems to be the best identification that may be

made for this building. As a result, the meaning of the public space with this building

may be developed by entwining the domestic activities with social, religious, economic

lifestyles together.

C.7- Building DU: (pi. 60)

Building DU does not seem very rich with its 33 artifacts (fig. 4.9). The side rooms to

the west and to the north of the building produced less artifacts than the central room.

On the other hand, six out of the seven burials found in this building were located in

those west rooms. AY-DZ contained four burials, two of which were buried together

inside a cooking pot, the only artifact found in this L-shaped room. Since room AT is a

small cell-like room, the recovery of a miniature cup and a pot should not be taken to

indicate food consumption here. Storage instead is more likely. The function of Room

BE is not revealed by the artifacts, except again, as a burial ground, where another pot

burial was recovered. The use of this room as a vestibule is more likely because its

three doors established direct communication with the other rooms surrounding it. The

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Cluster of artifacts in Building DU

2 -

1 -

Artifact type

Fig. 4.9: Artifact types and their distribution in Building DU.

hearth and a cooking pot found in room DV signify the activity of cooking. The other

activity of this area might be related to trade or consumption because two seal

impressions show the arrival and opening of some goods here. The obsidian core found

here might have been lost accidentally since it was very small in size. The northern

rooms did not yield any artifacts, except one miniature cup in room BF.

The single side room EK to the east contained a mace-head, a spindle whorl, two

hammers, and two stoppers. Hammers imply tool maintenance or the production of

certain items, although this activity may not have been intense. Stoppers together with

the raised feature (667) in the SE comer of the room indicate storage. Other artifact

types, the mace-head and the spindle whorl, are not really indicative of a function

because of their single occurrences.

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The central room yielded the most artifacts in this building. Since no other artifacts

recovered from this room indicated the production or consumption of food, the single

plain bowl, a scraped Coba bowl, should be taken to represent something else. Textile

production should not be deduced based on the single occurrence of an awl in this

room; because of its small size its occurrence here may be accidental. The burial,

platform, and basins to the north may be linked to ritual activity. In addition, the whitish

colored plastering over the walls and some wall painting surviving at the south of the

room may be correlated with rituals. However, assuming that they happened, the nature

of those rituals remains unknowable and the extent that those actions were religious

cannot be determined with the existing data. The game pieces and figurines may have

been used as toys, unless they had some ritualistic value combined with the rites that

possibly took place. The other activity inside this room seems to have been trade-

related. The recovery of two seals and five seal impressions indicate the departure and

arrival of goods.

As a result, the consideration of artifacts together with room sizes and interior

furnishings show that the Building DU saw domestic activities such as cooking, storage,

and possibly textile production. Food production and consumption may have been

actively taking place on the roof as well. Some ritual and economic activities are also

represented. More artifacts would certainly have assisted in pinpointing the activities.

Nevertheless, based on the domestic activities observed, this building can be identified

as a house in which maintenance, tool production, rituals, and economic transactions all

took place.

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The use of Building BY1 to the north of house DU is impossible to know with one

artifact only. It is important to remember here that the star shaped engravers were

reported to have been found abundantly in rooms BY1 and BZ. Such finds certainly

guarantee the use of this building as a workshop, but still do not eliminate the

possibility of its being a house with domestic functions until the rest of the materials

remains are studied.

C.8- Building FD: (pi. 61)

Cluster of artifacts in Building FD


o
3 -I

L. 2
2 -
Cm
O

c
1 - I 1 1

S3
3 0 -
O'
Spoon Spindle whorl Stopper
Artifact type

Fig. 4.10: A r tifa c t types and th e ir distribution in Building FD.

This building was almost empty and only one plain bowl, two spoons, and a spindle

whorl were recovered from reliable contexts inside the central room FD (fig. 4.10). The

bowl, found inside the platform, may have once held an offering, if the platform was in

fact used for ritual activity. The spoons imply food preparation and consumption, but

this activity is not supported by other indicative types, such as plain bowls. Because the

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spindle whorl is a small artifact and was found alone without associated artifacts within

the room, it is possible that it was lost here.

The only artifact from a side room was the stopper. Again, its small size and the lack of

associated artifacts make the interpretation of activities in room GM unreliable. In fact,

it is impossible to suggest any of the activities that took place in this building based its

artifacts. Considering only the interior design of the central room, the platform, the T-

shaped feature (668) to the north of the platform, two bench-like installations on the

interiors of the short walls, and the white plastering throughout the interiors of the

walls, the building may be affiliated with ritual activities. However, the last three

installations may well be related to something else. The T-shaped mud-brick feature

may very well have been used for different functions, such as spatially dividing the

room for some purpose or as a support for the ceiling since the ground was sharply

sloping towards the north. The bench-like installations were so narrow that they would

not have allowed one to sit comfortably. The white plastering may only be related to

decorative purposes and cleanliness. If the walls had been preserved higher, perhaps

residues of wall paintings would have been found, if any had been made. Thus, ritual

activity should be ascribed to this building with caution. At the same time, had more

artifacts from the immediate outside areas of the building been found, one might have

been able to determine how those open spaces had been used and what kind of spatial

relationship they had had with the building.

IV.D- Conclusion:

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As an experiment, this chapter undertook the analysis of the artifact data within their

contexts to elucidate patterns of use by the occupants of the buildings. The analysis

resulted in significant occurrences of artifacts in the buildings that began demonstrating

how the built environment served its inhabitants within the entire site. However, the

exact nature of the observed activities is still far more complicated than their basic

identification.

D .l- Functional patterns of the buildings:

The eight tripartite buildings included in the experiment yielded numerous artifact

types, the distribution of which in each building manifested that the room spaces were

not built for a single activity. Instead, the rooms served multi-purposes. Both

quantitatively and qualitatively, the artifacts combined with some furnishings inside

many rooms consistently, and thus, conclusively demonstrate the domestic use of these

buildings in general. If a house is a place for living maintained through domestic

activities, then it is clear now that those buildings were houses. The Buildings BY 1 and

FD are exceptions for the moment because the lack of artifacts from these structures

does not allow interpretation of any domestic activity. The occupants of these houses

stored edible and/or non-edible items inside the bins and jars kept in the side rooms,

cooked their food in the hearths; distributed, served, and consumed the food with the

bowls; spun wool into yam with the spindle whorls; and sewed textiles or leather with

their needles and awls.

The houses provided all the necessary spaces for these activities that obviously

contributed to the adaptation process of the occupants in surviving within the

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constraints of their environment. Only in one case, the pattern of a house was slightly

different. The house GK displayed an unusual character since cooking, as one of the

most obvious domestic activities, did not seem to have taken place here. Accordingly,

an explanation suggesting that this house was the residence of an elderly person or

persons, the care of whom by the others provided an occasion for casual social

gathering within the house space, seem appropriate with the artifacts recovered here.

The evidence for food production observed throughout most of the houses at this site

seems to have one common issue. There is a significant lack of grinding stones

represented in the artifact types. Such a discrepancy must have been linked with the

deposition process of the artifacts. In reality, there were a number of grinding stones

reported in the field notes and recorded in the artifact list. Unfortunately, most were out

of context, and because of this, they had to be excluded from the analysis, resulting in

their absence from the artifact type table in figure 4.2. Their out of context recoveries

suggest that grinding staple food most probably took place in the second stories or on

the roofs, and the ground stones probably tumbled from their in-situ locations into the

collapsed deposits, losing their contextual value. If this suggestion is correct, the second

stories and the roofs become distinct spaces for domestic activities. Furthermore, there

is no reason not to add sleeping to the activities of those spaces. In this respect,

especially, roofs once more become socially significant. There should be analogies in

ethnographic research that suits with this view. I, personally witnessed many times that

the flat roofs, additional to front of the houses, become sleeping places during hot

summer nights in the SE Turkey. Probably this not a new fact and other archaeologists

working in the Near East had such observations as well. The other activities, including

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the use of the roofs for entering the houses as well as the movements of individuals

within the already set circulation pathways, contribute to the social dimension of the

roofs (see the end of Chapter HI).

The second pattern seen in the use of these houses is as a place for exchange. The

recovery of numerous seals and seal impressions in the houses represent the dispersed

and received commodities, pointing to well-established mechanisms of exchange. The

seals and seal impressions given in Appendix HI show that the seals do not match with

the seal impressions and the backs of the impressions show mostly textile pieces tied

with string. In addition, the forms of the clay lumps indicate that tying and sealing were

always made on the necks of the pots. Accordingly, we should assign the seals as the

representation of outgoing items and the seal impressions as the indication of incoming

items; some of the storage jars and bowls must also have had a role in the

transportation and distribution processes of the system. Therefore, there was an

exchange mechanism established with other sites. Furthermore, the sophisticated forms

of the hearth (509) in rooms DT-DS to the west of house BC, the hearth G-131 to the

south of house I, and the hearths (505), (504), and (390) in house BC; along with the

recovery of metal slag, all indicate the export of metal products, either in the form of

ingots or objects ready for use (pis. 15-18,20, and 41). There may have been other

items exported, but no indications were found as to what they might have been. More

importantly, it is unclear what Degirmentepe received in return and from where the

imports originated.

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Some rooms of these houses served as workshops for making and repairing the tools

that were necessary in other activities, such as agriculture, building construction, and so

on. Perhaps the best examples of workshops are the west side rooms in house I and

rooms DH and BM in house BC. Polishing stones, hammers, and celts were almost

always available inside the houses. Since there were few courtyards identified near the

houses, tool production makes sense as one of the indoor activities that probably

occurred on a regular basis. Some of the artifacts analyzed in this research must have

been the ones first produced and then used for other types of production, such as a celt

that was produced and then used for wood working. In addition, others types of tools

would have been made of perishable materials that could not have survived over the

millennia and many more useful tools and other artifacts must have been taken away

when the buildings were deserted.

The last pattern of behavior observed in those houses is their religious use. Houses

were deliberately chosen as burial grounds for the interment of the youngest members

of the families. Those interments were found inside pots, bins, or the walls of the

rooms. It is interesting to note the apparent tendency to bury the dead inside the west

side rooms. Such concentration of burials is evident in houses I, BC, GK, and DU.

Furthermore, there may have been more burials located in the unexcavated NW

portions of houses BC and FC. However, there were also a number of burials in the

central rooms and in the east side rooms as well. Choosing different locations for the

burials in the houses may well have been associated with variations of meaning or the

cause of death. Accordingly, the number of burials recovered in room DB of house EE

to the east side of the village may represent alteration of meaning. Perhaps changes in

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the choice of location were connected with slight changes in the meanings of funerary

practices over time, because house EE belonged to a slightly later building phase. It is

not clear what those deliberate choices meant to the families, but certainly, religion

was perceived strongly with the overlying concepts of household, house, baby, and

death.

Ritual behavior may also have been among the activities that took place inside the

central rooms of the houses, but the indications are rather complex and ambiguous. The

presence of platforms alone initially appears insufficient to conclude ritual use, but

when the platforms converge with the other finds recovered near them, ritual functions

become clear (see fig. 4.11 below). Even the hearths may be considered part of such

activities. The central rooms of the houses I, FC, EE, GK, and DU, all had wall

paintings. The sixth case may be the building FD, which did not yield any paintings but

showed the remains of plaster covering the walls of the entire central room. In addition

to the evidence of the plaster, platform (658) is the largest one found in the site and a

pot inside the rectangular shaped hollow area of it was recovered in-situ. The feature

(668) just to the north of this platform further suggests that this room may once have

been painted as in the other houses and have had ritualistic use. The burned area noted

near the platform in house EE suggests the occasional use of fire. Dry lumps of

pigments in the cases of houses EE and FC were in the center of the platforms. Two

basins and a deer skull were found near the platform in the central room DU in house

DU. In addition, a baby burial in the comer of this room might have had a link with the

ritual use of the platform. The wall painting found inside the room Bi cannot be

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discussed with respect to ritual aspects, because the lack of recovered artifacts and

incomplete building plan make its function impossible to determine (pis. 51-52).

House W all Painting & Platform Burials Hearth Pits


Plaster
EE X X X X
(burned area) (central room)
EL X X
(pigments) (central room)
GK X X
DU X X X X
(two basins, deer
skull, infant
burial)
FD X X X
(plaster only) (in-situ pot,
feature (668))
BC X X
I X X X X
(central room) (unusually
built)
FC X X
(pigments)

Fig. 4.11: Indications of rituals inside the houses, according to the occurrences of platforms,
wall paintings, burials, hearths, and pits. Significant additional findings pointing to
ritual acts is provided in parenthesis.

Perhaps the most significant and common attribute of the platforms is their specific

locations inside their rooms. Unlike other furnishings, the platforms were consistently

placed a little off the center point of the rooms, demonstrating a deliberate choice. The

significance of their location within the rooms further supports the interpretation of the

platforms as a site for ritual use. The variations in furnishings and finds associated with

the platforms in each house may mean that more than one type of ritual activities

occurred at the site. For example, some rituals would have been regularly conducted

religious activities and others would have been dedicated to distinct events that had

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importance to society. There may even have been some rituals that were not

specifically religious in nature. If the burials found inside the houses are indeed related

with the ritualistic use of platforms, then we may assume that, in general, at least one

type of ritual was funerary. If all of the rituals were related to burials, then the

occurrences of different features associated with the rituals in each building may imply

different meanings given to the dead. As the result, Degirmentepe society displays

complex and various types of ritual behaviors. Nevertheless, the strong depiction of

rituals evidenced at a number of houses of Degirmentepe permits the designation of

those houses as shrine-houses.

D.2- Population and household type:

As Trigger puts it, the analysis carried out in this chapter was at the smallest level, the

household level, but the use of each building also reflects a larger scale understanding:

the intra-site level indications of cultural dynamics. Accordingly, an estimation of the

population size as well as the nature of the household type is necessary, since these

attributes contribute to the larger picture of Degirmentepe society.

In order to estimate population, the actual usable floor area of each house must be

determined first. Then, the formula of 1 person per 10m2 suggested by Naroll (1962),

which interestingly showed a consistent correlation with usable floor area and

settlement population in various ethnographic cases, will be applied to each building.

This formula also seems to fit well with observations on the annual consumption of

households reported in an ethnographic study of villages in Iran (Kramer 1982). The

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critique of Narolls studies made by LeBlanc (1971) should also be considered

seriously. LeBlanc, studying three different ethnographic cases, showed that Narolls

formula may not have a relevant application to archaeology unless precautions are

taken. LeBlanc warns that the standard deviation of his calculations became high in

those particular cases, and thus, calculating the total roofed area in a site may not fit

well with the constant relationship observed in Narolls test. Instead, he suggests that,

first, distinguishing the roofed dwelling areas in which the people lived, and then,

calculating the population only from these roofed areas can yield results closer to

Narolls equation. Since the Degirmentepe house plans represent completely roofed

dwelling areas where only the families lived, measuring the floor spaces of each

building and applying Narolls formula should yield much reasonable results.

Measuring usable floor areas of houses:

Since the total space of the houses is known, subtracting the wall spaces from those

total areas is necessary to find the actual usable floor area for every house.

Therefore, the calculation of actual usable floor space in each house is:
Total area of the building - Wall area = Usable floor area (in m2)

For example, if a building has 11 lm2 total area with 42 m2 of wall .space in it,
then the actual usable space of that building becomes 69 m2:

111m2 - 42 m2 = 69 m2

The buildings AS and FN are excluded in these calculations because they did not yield

confidently measurable complete building plans. Because the other complete buildings

are not uniform in size, it is impossible to reasonably estimate the size of these two

incomplete buildings. Although houses FD and BC might have been larger than what is

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suggested in Chapter ID, the sizes given in their descriptions are accepted as the true

representation of their areas and used accordingly in the calculations below. In

addition, the multi-room buildings in the south and other structures in the NE quadrant

probably represent more houses, but their status as residences is indeterminate due to

their lack of complete plans and primary deposits with artifacts.

One complication in calculating the usable area of these houses is the existence of

second stories in a number of houses. We now know that at least four buildings had

second stories, although among them only House i yielded the best-preserved evidence.

In principle, calculating the floor space of the second stories is necessary to reach an

accurate population estimate. However, sound guesses for the second story floor spaces

are not possible, especially in houses EE, BC, and FC, because their second story plans

are unknown. For these reasons, only house i could be calculated with its basement and

second floor. As a result, house I appears to have had the largest occupied space

compared to other houses in figures 4.12 and 4.13, which were represented by their

basement spaces only. All of these limitations will have an impact on estimating the

population of the village so that this number will only represent the minimum number

of inhabitants that lived at Degirmentepe.

All houses measured here are considered to be contemporary, since the sites

stratigraphy does not show any distinctively different time-use among the buildings

focused on here. Thus, the estimated population living in those houses will indicate the

size of the community at a single moment in time.

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House Total Area (m2) Wall Area (m2) Actual Usable Floor Area (m2)
I 204.0 91.0 113.0
BC 150.0 86.0 64.0
FC 91.0 29.0 62.0
EE 144.0 61.0 83.0
EL 104.0 54.0 50.0
GK 148.0 65.9 82.1
DU 91.2 34.0 57.2
BY1 40.0 16.0 24.0
FD 77.0 21.9 55.1
Total 1049.2 458.8 590.4
Average 116.6 51.0 65.6

Fig. 4.12: The calculated actual floor area o f the houses.

250

I BC FC EE EL GK DU BY1 FD
Houses

13Actual usable floor area ESWall space Total area

Fig. 4.13: Actual usable floor areas o f houses given in m2. Note that House I was measured
with its estimated second story in addition to its basement.

Figure 4.12 shows the actual usable floor area for each house, with the average usable

floor-area being 65.6 m2 for the site. According to these calculations, there seems to be

an interesting balance between the wall space and the total size of a house. In most

houses, the wall space takes up ca. 40-50 % of the total size of the house, while the

remaining space is the actual dwelling area (fig. 4.13). This consistent percentage

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should be interpreted as a necessary sacrifice of space to provide enough carrying

capacity for the entire structure and roof.

House Actual usable Number o f individuals (1 person per 10m2)


floor area

I 113.0 11.3
BC 64.0 6.4
FC 62.0 6.2
EE 83.0 8.3
EL 50.0 5.0
GK 82.1 8.2
DU 57.2 5.7
BY1 24.0 2.4
FD 55.1 5.5
Population estimate lived in the village (fractions rounded) 58.0

Fig. 4.14: Population estimate per house.

House

Fig. 4.15: Distribution o f number o f individuals by house.

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Now, by using the actual floor areas, the population that lived in each house and in the

entire settlement can be estimated. The table in fig. 4.14 below shows the number of

people who resided in those houses according to the 1 person per 10 m2 ratio suggested

by Naroll. The most populous house, with an estimated 11.3 individuals, is House i;

because it was a clearly documented two story building, the actual floor area of the

house became significantly larger than those of the other houses. The next most

populous houses are EE and GK, with an estimated eight individuals living in them.

Since house BY 1 was the smallest, it housed only 2.4 individuals. The minimum

number of people living in this village is estimated to have been 58 individuals.

Considering that there were more houses in the NE quadrant and perhaps in the

immediate south edge of the site as well, the total number of individuals that lived

during the most populous time in the history of Degirmentepe might conservatively

have reached about 80 individuals.

The households might have been the extended family type, since most seem to have

easily accommodated more than 5 individuals. According to this, it may be speculated

further that the families probably consisted of a parent couple, along with their children

and younger or elderly couples or relatives, varying between 5 and 11 individuals.

Naturally, the infrastructure of a family must have been set by the kinship system, but

the particular kinship relations are beyond the reach of this study.

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Chapter V: Conclusion

The data presented in the last two chapters completes the analysis of the architectural

remains of Degirmentepe. In concluding the research, this chapter summarizes the

architectural characteristics of the Ubaid village and makes suggestions about social

organizational aspects of the community that derive from the data. Meanwhile, hints

concerning the nature of social complexity that the plain may have experienced and the

evidence provided by the Ubaid material culture in Eastern Anatolia are added into this

summary.

V.A- The built environment and projections for the social organization of

Degirmentepe:

According to the soundings made in grids 12-13 J and 13 F, there were at least three

distinct earlier occupation phases that existed other than the major occupation Phase B

(pi. 4). These earlier phases, now called phases C and D in the stratigaphical order,

represented with very limited exposures of rooms or wall remains (fig.3.17). Those

early phases represented much smaller settlements than the major occupation phase B

settlement and were confined to the east of the mound. A number of pits in the floors of

phase B buildings in the middle and west of the mound had been dug into sterile soil, a

solid indication that no occupations earlier than the buildings of phase B were present

in this portion of the mound (pi. 53).

The major occupation Phase B of the village consisted of fifteen buildings (pl.4). There

must have been at least three more buildings to the north of Building EE where

insufficiently preserved room plans do not illustrate any distinct building type. With the

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addition of Building AS, occupied during the last architectural phase A, the total

structures documented in the village becomes nineteen.

As a rule of thumb, buildings were separated with double walls in the agglutinant

layout. This fact alludes to property rights and rules for sharing space in terms of social

relations over the lifetime of the site, during which the layout of the settlement took its

shape organically. As the building locations and their size were not significantly

different, the social settings in the community must not have evolved very much over

time.

There were two building types: the tri-partite plan, represented with ten buildings, and

the multi-room buildings, represented with four buildings. Of the tri-partite group, the

variation of bi-partite and quadri-partite plan is evident, such as Building FD or BC.

Probably reasonable experimentation in architecture resulted in the occurrence of these

sub-types within the tri-partite organization. Yet, the use of the central and side rooms

in those buildings remained intact and the mainstream rules in the building tradition

continued.

Although not seen in every building, the interiors were repeatedly furnished with

distinct features. These were: the platforms in the central rooms, niches in the walls,

small doorways allowing communication between the central room and smaller side

rooms, the paintings on the white plastered walls, the hearths, the number of clay bins

in each building, and the occasionally occurring clay basins and small box-like

installations attached to the walls. The consistent locations of the platforms just off the

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center point of the rooms showed that they were deliberately placed with the use of

basic geometry (pl.27). The placement of other features must also have been

intentional, but their locations apparently varied in each building. For instance, the

hearths occurred in almost every building, but they were not exclusive to the central

rooms. In addition to these features, some unusual installations appeared as the single

occurrences. The central room FD had a T-shaped, mud-brick feature in the middle and

two narrow bench-like features along the short sides of the room. Rooms EK and FZ of

Building DU had pebble-laid, high platforms that were probably for utilitarian

purposes. Room AU of Building BC was converted into a giant hearth with a 2 m long

tunnel opening into room AO to the west. It is tempting to think that it may have been a

kiln because of its large size, but apparent indicators could not be found in its artifact

contents or form. All of these features clearly showed that each building had usual and

common activities, but some must have had additional specific functions as well.

The other major building type, the multi-room buildings, consisted of rectangular rooms

but lacked any standardized room size or number. These buildings were only located at

the south edge of the settlement. None of them provided any complete building plan.

On the other hand, they all seemed to have been built according to the general mle of

N-S orientation like the tri-partite houses. It is unclear what this distinct alignment

meant to the residents. Their incomplete floor plans and the lack of sufficient artifact

data also prevent ascribing any distinct function to the multi-room buildings (pl.51).

Perhaps, each structure belonged to one family and was used for storage purposes,

although the recovery of a hearth in one of these buildings, room DY-FH-FI, implies

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activities other than storage. According to the available plans, the buildings must have

been entered from the roofs as they were in the houses.

Both building types noticeably lack entrance doors. A few exceptions in the tri-partite

plan buildings were all temporary and were sealed with mud brick after being used for

some time. The doors in Buildings FC and EE were more or less normal in size, but the

ones in buildings FD and GK were unusually small and ultimately impractical. The

opening in house EL was too wide, and may not even have been a real door but rather

the result of poor preservation. Additionally, Building BY1 might have had a door

opening into the west courtyard BH that remained under the baulk. Therefore, some of

the houses had direct communication with outside for some time during their use, but

probably for different reasons, and perhaps not solely for human use. It is clear that the

real means of communication between the houses and the outside areas was through

entrances on the roofs. Probably, horizontally laid wooden hatches on the roof surfaces

functioned as their doors.

A.l- Houses:

The architectural study and functional analysis demonstrate that the tri-partite buildings

served as houses in which any manner of domestic activity that one may expect

occurred. On a regular basis, food items were stored, prepared, and consumed, wool

was spun into yam to be made into textiles and probably sun-dried or smoke-tanned

animal hides were sewn with bone awls. In addition, tool production and maintenance,

indicated by the variety of tools, was an indoor activity. Some of the rooms were

workshops deliberately reserved for producing tools, such as rooms K, AC, and AD in

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house I. The most important activity was metal production, best represented in house

BC. Perhaps two other areas of the village had the same activity, the south of house i

and the west of house BC (pis. 15-17). The presence of numerous seals and seal

impressions and the lack of any finished metal products in house BC indicates that the

produced metals were exported. The hundreds of small engravers reported from BY1

also suggest that this building was a workshop and the tools were probably traded.

However, a generalization that every house was a private entrepreneurship

specializing in a certain type of production and solely engaging in the trade of their

distinct products would be unreasonable and unfounded because no other distinct

artifact type or significant distribution of seals and seal impressions were associated

with any other building. For the moment, probably it is safe to say that perhaps some

houses began to focus on distinct craft productions, but we cannot distinguish who really

engaged in the trade. The artifact data simply cannot conclusively identify the

producers as the individuals engaging in the trade of their distinct products.

The third distinct function in those houses was occasional ritual activities. The

platforms, associated with occasional burning activity, or the pits nearby them are the

evidence of ritual. In addition, the numerous infant interments point to the use of the

basements as burial grounds and alluded to the ceremonies at the time of burying the

dead. It is plausible that the paintings made on the walls were connected to the rituals

and may even have resulted from them. However, the nature of ritual behavior seems

neither uniform nor straightforward in each house. The types of findings associated

with ritual are similar but not all of them were present in every house. For example, the

carefully built pits related to ritual were only found in House I, but no platform was

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found there (compare ritual related findings in fig. 4.11). Perhaps, different

combinations of ritual related findings in every other house indicate different types of

rituals. These rituals represent complex beliefs loaded with strong symbolic values and

it is difficult to distinguish the types of rituals with the available data. On the other

hand, it is safe to state that the burial ceremony was one of the distinct ritual types due

to number of infant burials made in those houses. Although speculative, platforms may

have been used and wall paintings might have been made during or after the burial

ceremonies.

In a broader sense, I suggest that the houses with platforms also functioned as shrines

used exclusively by the same household members. The rituals were probably practiced

regularly in addition to occasional ceremonies required for burials. I imagine that the

platforms are the representations of ritual perceptions, and, perhaps in the sense of

praying, the household members occasionally carried out rites by using those platforms.

For that reason, calling these houses house-shrines seems to make sense. As a result,

rituals with a strong depiction of symbolic values were a characteristic feature of the

Degirmentepe houses and the inhabitants perceived their houses with strong religious

beliefs.

I also suggest that there may be a correlation between the presence of the platforms

and the types of households in the village. There are five houses found with platforms

and each of these platforms might have represented one household or the residence of

the head of the extended family. The families of a house without a platform might have

been tied through their kinship relations to a house with a platform where the head

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family or the head of the extended family resided. If this was the case, the extended

family groups may have constituted a larger household tied together by their kinship

relations. Accordingly, five larger household groups may be identified in the village,

but linking the families without platforms with a specific house where a platform was

available is impossible. It is conceivable that the ties of the lineages were organic and

evolved gradually over time through the marriage and economic alliances to establish

these large extended families (for houses with platforms see pi. 62). In conclusion, the

house at Degirmentepe was the center of daily life. The meaning of the house was

formed through its use, which was developed by the co-existent relationships of

domestic, social, economic, and religious activities.

The most significant discovery for the houses is their two story structures. Four of the

houses, I, BC, FC, and EE, had a basement floor with low ceilings and the upper story

on top. The most clear indications for the presence of a second floor came from a wall

with a two doors and beam holes in room K of house I. Furthermore, a hearth on the

second story had collapsed into the basement room I after the abandonment (see pis. 6-

16). House EE yielded well-preserved evidence for a staircase inside one of the twin

rooms, clearly revealing the means of access to the upper story. The other two

buildings, BC and FC, also displayed enough evidence to infer the existence of a

second stories above the basement levels.

The other buildings without direct evidence about the upper story probably had the

second stories as well. Having the staircase in the twin rooms in house EE suggest that

the identical plans of twin rooms in other buildings point to the means of

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communication with the second story. Such rooms were found in six of the houses (fig.

5.1). However, relying only on their plans indicates the use of staircase but it cannot be

known if these buildings had upper floors. Staircases may have existed in those rooms

but they may have only been for going to the roof. Thus, the plans of twin rooms alone

have limited implications for the existence of second stories.

House Definite second story Twin Rooms


(roof beams, upper story door, collapsed hearth and staircase)
I X AF-AG
BC X DC1-DC2
FC X ES-ER
EE X EC-EB
EL
GK GF-GG
DU
BY1
FD GM-HH
Total 4 6

Fig. 5.1: Houses with two-stories based on the evidence.

I believe there is another convincing implication in explaining that all the tri-partite

plans of the site were two-story buildings. This centers on the way the room deposition

processes occurred inside the houses. The more than six thousand year old walls of the

buildings were preserved unusually high and remained more or less intact at 1.30 m

height. It seems that this fact is closely linked with the way the buildings collapsed and

the rooms filled with deposits. It is likely that the site was not deserted quickly, because

there is no evidence for a sudden catastrophic event, such as fire. If so, then the

occupants would have packed their portable goods and prepared to leave in a slower,

more organized process. Just before departing, the residents may have deliberately

demolished the roofs and second stories of the buildings in order to remove the beams

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from the ceilings for re-use. Some ethnographic examples are analogous to this

behavior in which the occupants removed the beams from their houses before they

moved out to a new location because the wood beams were considered among the

valuable items of the household and were not easily replaced (Roaf 1989; Koyunlu

1982). This intentional dismantling of the roofs must have happened at Degirmentepe

too, and the roofs must have been deliberately demolished to remove the beams. Such

intentional, human interference in the collapse of the buildings may have resulted in

the rapid collapse of the roofs and upper floors. The collapsed debris probably filled the

basement room spaces within a couple of days and immediately began preserving the

basement rooms and the walls. This process explains well why the implications of the

second stories are absent on almost each wall and how the basements and their high

walls were preserved. Thus, if this interpretation is valid, then it is possible to conclude

that the other tri-partite buildings at this site were also two story buildings.

A.l.a- Basements:

It is clear from the evidence that the lower floors were basements rather than

comfortable living quarters. The use of this term here is deliberate because those

basements were not built high enough (about 1.40 m) to move around with ease. The

designation of the first floors as basements also comes from the fact that these spaces

were dark and airless because they lacked windows. The limited light and air

circulation must have presented a challenge to the inhabitant with regard to carrying

out any activity. None of the basements had any openings on the preserved walls

sufficient for either air intake or daylight. Because of this, the niches found on some of

the walls are interpreted as the locations for candles, which probably gave dim, but

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apparently adequate light. The absence of windows on the walls is understandable

because the buildings were actually attached to each other, leaving no space for open

areas. Despite the low heights of the ceilings and insufficient light and oxygen intake,

the basements were probably used for many tasks on a daily basis. The pots, bowls,

hearths, and bins, for instance, indicate the storage of food items and food preparation

in the basements. These tasks could be performed while seated, although requiring

more than one individual and perhaps some assistance from children. These rather dark

and uncomfortable places also served as burial grounds and spaces for ritual, probably

accommodating the entire household.

It is unclear if the term basement should indicate that they were subterranean. The

outside area DD, used by the occupants from houses EE and GK, might have had its

floor on a level similar to those of the adjacent houses. However, the surfaces of the

small open spaces to the east of house EE and north of house BY1 were unclear.

Furthermore, the ground levels of the immediate outside areas through the south edge

of the settlement were also unknown. In this situation, it is impossible to judge whether

the basements of the buildings were subterranean or built at a similar level as the

outside surfaces.

A.l.b- Second stories:

There is no significant data about the sizes, shapes and numbers of rooms built for the

second stories. The only evidence, which is fairly limited, comes from Building 1.

Based on this building, it may tentatively be suggested that the second stories might

have had tri-partite plans that were almost identical with the plans of the basements.

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Probably a central room was copied from the basements, but the size and shape of the

small rooms may have varied (see pis. 8 and 15).

In terms of the functions of the second story rooms, there is insufficient data to visualize

any activity. On the other hand, it is reasonable to suggest that the activities lighter and

perhaps cleaner than the basement tasks might have taken place in the second story

rooms. There must have been small windows located on the higher ends of the walls as

well, providing enough air and daylight for the activities that took place there. Although

not inferred by archaeological data, food consumption, spinning wools, sleeping,

socializing, and hospitality for the guests were probably the common activities. For

example, at least textile production activities, let us say spinning wool or weaving,

must have been one of the tasks to have taken place upstairs, since it requires many

hours of work and the upstairs would have been truly more comfortable and bright.

A.l.c- Roofs and communication routes:

The roofs of the buildings must have been flat since there was a need for enough space

to facilitate the movements of the occupants throughout the site. Because of this, not to

mention the lack of daylight in the basements, the roofs with flat spaces must have

served as the third level of the buildings that provided opportunities for a variety of

activities. During the daytime, some food production activities may have been carried

out on the roofs. As can be seen today in the villages with vernacular architecture,

laying edible items for drying, simple cooking or boiling, or preparing mixtures in

containers for fermentation or other desired taste were probably the parts of the food

preparation process took place on the roofs. Child minding may have been another

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activity that took place on the roofs while the other tasks were in progress (personal

observations in SE Turkey). Additionally, the functional analysis showed that the

ground stones were rarely found undisturbed in the good contexts of the basements,

although many were recorded in the debris. Supporting the idea of domestic activities

on the roof spaces, I had suggested earlier that they may have been used on the second

stories or on the roofs (see the end of Ch. IV).

Perhaps seasonal changes were a factor deriving the shift of activities within the three

levels of the houses. The cold and snowy winters as well as the rainy days of spring and

fall must have prevented any outside activity, while the hot and dry summers were more

welcoming for the use of the roof spaces. Thus, daily activities would have taken place

mostly in the basement and on the second floors during the winters and the rainy days of

the year, while these activities, or at least the some of them, would then have shifted

upward to the roofs during the warm and dry seasons. Thus, this hypothesis suggests that

the domestic life in a house was a cycle moving between the basement, second story, and

the roof depending on the weather condition.

The communications around the site were set in two ways. An individual who wished to

go from one building to another, or who entered the site, possibly from the west, would

have either walked around the site or walked over the flat roofs of the houses until

he/she reached the building that he/she wished to enter. After reaching the roof by

means of a wood ladder, walking over the roofs must have been quite practical. There

must have been frequently used pathways that functioned as streets, providing the most

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efficient circulation movements for the community members. In addition to these main

routes, there must have been minor pathways branching out from those major ones

leading to the entrances of each particular house. The suggestion of minor routes is to

imply that they were significantly smaller and narrower paths that would have been

used primarily by the household members who lived under the roof, while the major

ones would have been open to anyone for more common use. It can be imagined that,

for safety reasons, not only the activity areas but also the communication routes on the

roofs would probably have been located away from the edges of the houses.

Considering the fact that the mud-brick houses of contemporary societies do not have

one single flat roof covering the entire building, the roofs at Degirmentepe would

likewise not have had one flat roof. Instead, the houses must have had sections of the

roofs with different heights reflecting the form and the use of the interiors below. As a

result, the varying roof heights would have been compensated for with ladders set on

the necessary locations of the pathways. In addition, the height differences of roofs in

each house would have provided another advantage: enough space to place small

windows on the high ends of the walls, providing enough oxygen intake and sunlight

into the second stories. In the meantime, the small windows must have been safe

enough without diminishing the carrying capacity of the walls and risking the collapse

of the roofs.

A.2- Open courtyard at the NE quadrant:

Although it was not excavated, the large open court in the NE quadrant probably served

two functions: keeping domestic animals in pens and accommodating individual or

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group activities. Since this area was large enough, any kind of gathering, whether

social, political, or economical at the communal or individual level, could have taken

place here. The water for drinking and cleaning must have been brought in from the

river by using this area. If the river was used in transportation, the processes of import-

export might have taken place anywhere around this open space as long as the

transactions were meant to be casual and open to public. However, with no

archaeological evidence for this area, the nature of any such potential activities is

impossible to discern.

A.3- The village: (pi. 4)

The appearance of the east and the west sides of the settlement is not so clear.

Probably, three more buildings were located to the north of building EE, because of the

cluster of various types of room remains. If no other buildings existed to the north of

building FN in the west of the settlement, most of the unexcavated west side of the

settlement was probably open and would have been used to enter the village before

reaching the houses. Based on this scenario, the layout of the village at the peak of the

occupation history was probably in a reversed L-shape; starting from the building FN

from the west and continuing to the east until building EL and then turning up north

until the sounding in grids 12-13 J.

Additionally, the agglutinative settlement layout of the site is unique, when compared

with the architecture known from other Ubaid sites (pi. 4). When there have been

broad enough architectural exposures, Ubaid sites always tended to show open spaces

used for outside activities in addition to streets and alleys. For instance, the well

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exposed levels 1-3 settlements of Tell Abada in Hamrin had wide-open spaces

between the buildings. (Jasim 1985; 1989). Thus, the insular and compact appearance

of the Degirmentepe village is unusual. Furthermore, the settlement intriguingly turned

its back to the plain and faced towards the river. It appears that the sites posterior was

to the south and was bounded by positioning the enclosure wall as if concealing the

village from the other neighboring communities in the plain. The square beam holes,

the characteristic feature used in the enclosure wall, found in the south wall of Building

FN at the SW comer of the site, imply that the very long enclosure was continuous

throughout the entire south edge of the settlement (pis. 4 and 51). As a consequence,

the enclosure wall may have been for isolating the village, not necessarily for the

purpose of military defense, but rather some kind of village size social insulation.

The possible large open area in the NW quadrant and the N-S orientation of the

buildings give the impression that the village looked towards the Euphrates. Of course,

the river may have been more picturesque than the plain, but also, this river was the

major means of communication with the southern regions for transportation and trade,

and Degirmentepe may have become more concerned with the activities taking place

on the river rather the other communities nearby. The general worldview of the

occupants may not have been so different from the concepts in the South

Mesopotamian Ubaid, but the socio-political relations in the plain perhaps had some

constrictions on spatial arrangements that resulted in this insular, agglutinant, L-shaped

layout that appears to protect itself from the outside world.

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Once such a dense spatial order emerged, the built environment probably had the

reverse effect on the community, which had to constantly interact to reorganize the

rules of the society. While being socially protective of each other on a communal level,

the individual and household level relationships, already formed by the complex and

influential kinship relations, privacy, and ownership (Watson 1979; Kramer 1982),

must have re-adjusted to the new compacted village layout. In return, the built

environment must have been influencing the relations again to reorganize them in this

continuous cycle.

Unfortunately, the full implications of this self-reinforcing cycle between the spatial

organization and social organization of the society are still beyond any reasonable

guess. However, one area where the mutual influences of the dynamic interactions and

changes in social relations can be exemplified is in the use of the spatial arrangements,

that is, the access routes and the overall use of the roofs. Since a house is a private and

owned space, the circulation paths on the roofs to go from one building to another must

have been shaped according to ownership, privacy rules, and the kinship system in the

village. In fact, as set by kinship relations, the locations of houses must have already

represented a few social clusters in the community and the use of the roofs must have

been grouped accordingly. The members of the same kin group carried out their

activities and used the pathways for access to their houses on their own roof space. As

long as there were no conflicts within neighborhood relations, the neighbors could have

used the same routes on the roofs for access to their own roofs and houses, but probably

much less intensely. The same rules must have been in place in other families or social

clusters. The web of relations was dictated the layout of activity areas and access

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routes over the roofs. Changes to these spatial arrangements would have occurred with

a marriage or death among the same kinship members, or conflicts between the social

groups. In addition, changes in the population and economy would have had permanent

effects on social relations, and the intensity and the ways in which roofs were used

were probably fluctuated over the long term. Furthermore, there is no reason not to

think that the same causes were also responsible for changes in the ways the interiors

of houses were used, modified, and even the ways the new building were built.

A.4- Population and household type: (pi. 4)

The population of the site was hypothetically measured with the formula of one person

per 10m2. My measurements suggested that the population of the village at the peak of

its occupation history was conservatively about 80 individuals (see the end of Ch. IV).

This number includes the tri-partite houses during Phase B2 as well as the three other

tri-partite buildings assumed to have existed to the north of Building EE. The data

about other buildings, such as the multi-room buildings, was not sufficient for a

population estimate because their function is unknown and their floor spaces are

incomplete. If the tri-partite houses are accepted as two story buildings, then according

to this formula, the population would certainly have been more than 80 individuals. For

instance, House I was calculated to have housed 11 individuals. If second floors in each

house represent an average of three more individuals, this would add 24 more

individuals to the entire population (additional to House i). In this case, the total

number of people would have reached as many as 104 at one point of time.

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Certainly, the population of the site was dynamic and the number of households must

have changed over time. While new babies were bom and other relatives arrived for a

long term stay or to settle down, some number of the babies also died during their

infancy as seen in the high number of infant burials in the houses, some of the elders

passed away, and some adults left the site to settle down elsewhere. These birth, death,

and migration factors must have caused shifts in the population as happens today.

Since the houses seem to have accommodated at least 5 individuals, the proposed

household type for each house in this settlement is that extended family, consisting of

two adult couples and their children or relatives varying between 5 to 11 individuals.

Based on kinship ties, the families made up larger households. If the presence of

ritually used platforms in some houses is linked to the heads of the large families, then

there must have been clusters of five larger families in the village that were bound by

the kinship system (pi. 62).

A.5- Desertion of the site:

Evidence suggests that the site did not meet with a catastrophic event causing the

abandonment of the village. The limited fire that took place in the south portion of the

Building 1 is the only exception and did not extend to the other buildings. Although the

annual flood in spring and early summer may have posed a serious threat for anyone in

the plain, the catastrophic one was documented only above the last Ubaid occupation

layers. This disaster probably struck after the last Ubaid occupation Phase A. Thus, the

flood would have been responsible for demolishing the poorly built architecture, which

was probably wattle and daub style, and the other material culture of the early third

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millennium B.C. culture. The recovery of mixed contexts above the Ubaid layers is

probably the result from this event.

In the absence of evidence of a natural disaster, I suggest that the desertion of the site

occurred as a much slower, more gradual process. The best indication of such a process

is the change of settlement size between Phases B and A. The village shrunk to a

hamlet at the end of Phase B when most of the population moved out and only one or

two buildings remained, including Building AS and perhaps a second one to the west of

the mound. The portable economic, religious, and personal items of value were taken

away, but most of the utilitarian tools of lesser value were left behind. Thus, the artifact

assemblages found at the site consisted of predominantly utilitarian items, dumped

artifacts, and some items lost during use.

V.B- Elazig-Malatya region:

B.l- Pirot Hoyiik:

The representation of Ubaid material culture at other sites in the Elazig-Malatya region

was already presented in Chapter II. Located just a few kilometers south of

Degirmentepe, on the west bank of Euphrates, Pirot Hoyiik had Ubaid material coming

from a very limited area under the 8 meter thick cultural deposits of later periods

(Karaca 1985; 2003). Two walls built with stone foundations and mud-brick courses

above represented the architecture of this small area. The most significant discovery

was the wall painting preserved on the lower portion of one of these walls. The red

colored circles of this painting are identical with the patterns seen at Degirmentepe, but

the other designs are not comparable. Small finds reported from this limited exposure

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included Ubaid pottery, a seal, and a few bone tools implying that the Ubaid activities

at Pirot Hoyiik were substantial.

More evidence for Ubaid traits was identified at four Keban sites located to the

immediate north in the Elazig plain. Limited amounts of Ubaid pottery were reported

from Tepecik, Tulintepe, Korucutepe, and Noruntepe; additionally, the latter had a

painting of an animal on a wall amply proving the presence of Ubaid cultural traits

(Esin 1972; Ozbaaran 1992; van Loon 1978; Hauptmann 1976,1982; Giilgur 1988).

There are probably more Ubaid materials at sites away from the river, but they may be

buried under the deposits of later periods. Unfortunately, these site are not comparable

with Degirmentepe, since they lack significant architectural data. As a result, we can

conclude that the Ubaid material culture at Degirmentepe was not a single occurrence

or a fluke, but instead, it represented a substantial and probably long-term intrusive

expansion process into to the Elazig and Malatya plains. For the moment,

Degirmentepe is the type-site representing the expansion and the substantial

occupation history for the Late Ubaid material culture.

B.2- Arslantepe:

There is evidence from Arslantepe VII and VIA occupations indicating a strong cultural

continuity in the area following the disappearance of Ubaid traits and the desertion of

Degirmentepe. The architecture of Arslantepe level VII, dating to a much later time

range (3900-3400 B.C.) than the Late Ubaid, displays two building types with close

formal similarities to those of Degirmentepe buildings: the bi-partite structure and use

of long and narrow room groups (Frangipane 2000; 2001).

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The bi-partite Building XXIX in period VH, consisting of a main room (A900) and

smaller rooms to the east, was monumental. This building was more than 20x16 meters

in size, built with mud-brick walls much wider than 1 meter. The altar in the middle of

the central room A900 was very large (ca. 4x2 meter) with a hollow area in the center

used as a fireplace. The largest platform in building FD at Degirmentepe is similar to

this platform and the burning activity was evident in building EE (pis. 28 and 47). The

additional features of Building XXIX included, two large niches made on the south

wall, at least three wide doorways on the long walls with recessed edges, and a wall

painting preserved in the central room (A900) of better design quality than the ones

found in the Degirmentepe houses.

The stacks of hundreds of pots in the central and side rooms were mass-produced local

productions found together with numerous clay seal impressions. Although the pots

have close similarities with Coba ware, they probably developed from the Coba

tradition and they certainly represent a locally produced, later variety. Thus, the

architectural features of this building convincingly indicate that the building had a

religious ceremonial function and that the contents were the traces left from

administration and redistribution activities. Thus, the use of Building XXIX was for

public services, surrounded with strong religious concepts.

The second building type of Arslantepe VII consisted of thick walled, long and

considerably narrow room spaces dating to the later phase of period VII. The artifact

repertoire, especially pottery, was identical with that of Building XXIX. Frangipane

suggested that these long-rooms were storage structures perhaps intended for non-

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domestic use (2000). Then one may ask, is it possible to see the multi-roomed

buildings of Degirmentepe as the possible predecessor of these rooms at Arslantepe?

The answer is maybe, since the multi-rooms of Degirmentepe have more spacious plan

and much thinner walls.

During period VIA, the Buildings III-IV and the temples A and B of this period formed

the temple/palace complex (Frangipane 2000). The buildings consisted of various

sized rectangular rooms and the street, but the temples again were bi-partite in plan

with a central room and a group of small rooms located to one side of the main room.

The well-preserved wall paintings, the recovery of mass-produced pottery as well as

the earliest but scant appearance of Kura-Araxes components, and the seals and seal

impressions, when combined with the thick walled buildings and the street, make these

structures one palatial complex used for administrative purposes. As a result, the bi

partite architecture of this site continued in use until the radical change in the

occupation history occurred with the intrusion of the Kura-Araxes material components

in 3000 B.C.

On the whole, there are two conclusions that may be drawn from the comparison of

these two sites. One is the confirmation of the ritual function at Degirmentepe houses

with platforms; these houses seem to have been a prototype that developed into public

structures in the later centuries in the region. The second conclusion is that the

Arslantepe buildings present a similar architectural tradition but a different function

when compared with the Degirmentepe houses. At Degirmentepe, rituals were

probably practiced separately by individual households or family groups inside their

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houses, but at Arslantepe VII, it seems that the religious concepts were pooled into one

monumental public building where every community members, no matter to which

lineage they belonged, might have found the opportunity for ritual practice. It is worth

noting here that the houses of Arslantepe VII are as yet unknown, and thus, it is

impossible to see whether a house of that site would have had any similar building

plans with interior design and any ritual activity comparable to those of Degirmentepe.

As of today, the ongoing excavations have concentrated on Periods VII and VUI, but it

is known that Arslantepe has thick Ubaid occupation layers below Period VII. Perhaps,

the uppermost Ubaid layers might represent the Period IX within the Arslantepe

stratigraphy. In addition, the Ubaid occupations at Arslantepe may signify a local

center as seen during the later Periods VII and VUI. Explanations for the changes in

Mesopotamian architectural style and function as well as explanations concerning

aspects of cultural continuity in this plateau may be provided when the earlier layers of

Arslantepe are exposed in the near future.

V.C- Emerging Complexity: The larger picture

C.l- Cultural identity and hybridization:

Since the built environment has the power to express the worldviews and cultural

identity of the inhabitants, the Mesopotamian tri-partite house type, the multi-room

buildings, and the interior features of the buildings at Degirmentepe all strongly suggest

that the occupants had close cultural affiliations with their southern counterparts. The

community might have constituted an Ubaidian group that intruded and settled in the

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plain. The limited occurrence of Ubaid pottery at a few other sites in the region also

supports the idea that the intrusion process was not a coincidence or a one-time event.

If the settlers were Ubaidian migrants, then it is important to know who the locals were

and what local meant in this region. Yet, the definition of local in this region has not

been made in the archaeological record. The concurrent occurrences of Coba Ware,

best known from the Sakagdzii sites (Weachter et. al.1951), with the Ubaid material

culture may be an indication of indigenous groups. However, Coba type pottery as well

as related materials has been very little studied, and what this type of pottery should

represent to us is not clear archaeologically. The wattle-and-daub architecture at Coba

Hoyiik may be the representation of other localized culture groups within the

Sak?ag6zu area.

Based on the discovery of seals and seal impressions at the site, but without emphasis

on the identity of the inhabitants, the excavator of Degirmentepe suggested the well-

known idea of trade mechanisms opening the highlands to the people of south (Esin

1986; Esin, Harmankaya 1987; 1988). She seems to imply that the occurrences of

DFBW and Coba wares are the equivalent of local traits and she rightly notes that the

residents were engaged in trade with the southern regions because of the numerous

seals and seal impressions found at the site. However, she does not comment on the

cultural identity or the origin of the inhabitants.

In these circumstances, Degirmentepe alone may not provide complete answers, but

with the support of architecture it may be asserted that the occupants were not locals

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but arrived from the Northern Ubaid cultural sphere to exhaust the natural resources of

the highlands for trade with southlands. They exploited metallic ore resources and

perhaps the riverbed for stones to produce chipped tools as well. During their stay in the

plain, they needed to develop strategies to interact with the locals. The materialistic

representation of the locals might be the occurrences of DFBW and Coba wares in the

pottery corpus, although as of yet, no apparent correlation may be made between these

pottery types and people indigenous to the region.

The newcomers from the south could not have lived independently as Ubaidians but

would have had to face the hybridization of their cultural traits with local traits, an

inevitable outcome of close interactions with indigenous communities. With the

apparent form of architecture, painted Ubaid pottery, seals and seal impressions as well

as with religious rituals, they retained their southern identity and probably even

identified themselves by a southern name. In all likelihood, they adopted some local

qualities, although not strongly. While unclear, the DFBW and Coba wares may have

held some meaning with reference to these traits. The locals, for their part, slowly

adopted the forms of religious values and architecture from the south in a manner not

noticeable for these times but apparent in the later periods, such as the Arslantepe VII

and VIA periods. During these times, the Ubaid in North Mesopotamia progressively

faded as well. The ongoing communication with the south, where the Ubaid cultural

traits were progressively eroding for unknown reasons, must also have diffused those

processes into the highlands, and concurrently participated in the hybridization of both

the Ubaid rhigrants and the locals (fig. 5.2). In the case of Degirmentepe, the

abandonment of the site may have been caused by those external southern influences

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that resulted in an interruption, leaving the ongoing progress of hybridization

incomplete.

Timeline
ca. 5000 BC. -ca. 4000 BC

Anatolia Anatolia Anatolia

N Mesopotamian N Mesopotamian N Mesopotamian Early - Middle


Ubaid Ubaid Ubaid Uruk

Step I Step II Step III Step IV

Ubaid intrusion to Co-existence and Locals and Ubaid Late Chalcolithic 1-3
Anatolia begins hybridization via groups hybridized (Rothmann 2001) in
interactions begins both culturally and Greater Mesopotamia
materially

Fig. 5.2: The suggested scheme for the hybridization process of the Ubaid groups in Anatolia
with the indigenous groups. Legend: Vertical ovals are the Indigenous Anatolian
groups, horizontal ovals are the North Mesopotamian Ubaid groups, small circles are
the migrating Ubaid groups, curved arrows are the movement of people and double
sided straight arrows are the continuous interaction o f between the North
Mesopotamian and the migrant Ubaidians.

C.2- Communication with the south and the seasonal use of routes:

The Euphrates, running to the south, must have been the most obvious route guiding the

first Ubaid settlers to go north, and later, the traders. This route can be tracked easily

from Malatya-Elazig down until the Balikh valley in North Syria. The other route might

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have been set southeasterly, passing from Degirmentepe to Hazar lake to Diyarbakrr to

the Mosul area, and perhaps finally reaching Tepe Gawra. This hypothetical line is

geographically passable and Tepe Gawra provides a wide range of Ubaid material

remains within its long and continuous strata. Esin, already correlated the

Degirmentepe seals and seal impressions with the ones from Tepe Gawra based on

stylistic similarities (Esin 1994; Tobler 1950; Rothman 2002). In addition, the animal

figurines and other stylized figurines of Degirmentepe seem to share formal similarities

with the Tepe Gawra gaming pieces that came from different strata (compare

specimens in App. Ill in pp. 309-375 with the ones from Tobler 1950: pi. LXXXIV).

Although those finds may establish ties between these two sites, conceivably connected

by plausible routes of travel, the implications for interaction are still weak and there is

no data for the presence of Ubaid stations located along these routes. It is likely that,

there were additional minor inland routes located near key resources throughout the SE

Anatolia. Future research may reveal these routes and the locations of other Ubaid

assemblages.

Seasonality must have played an important role in the timing of trade and

communication. The weather conditions and the temperature must have set the

schedules for the transportation of goods throughout the year. Traffic along these routes

would have ceased due to low temperatures, heavy snow during winter, and then heavy

rainfalls during spring. The goods probably delivered by land and water in both

directions beginning in the early summer until the end of fall.

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C.3- The level of complexity: Was Degirmentepe a chiefdom?

In the brief summary of Ubaid research given in Ch. II, several lines of evidence

showed that social complexity at Ubaid sites reached the chiefdom level. Surveys in

South Mesopotamia (Wright 1981), indicated a one-tier settlement hierarchy in the

Ubaid 3 phase and a two-tier settlement hierarchy in Ubaid 4 with Eridu and Ur being

the town centers surrounded by clusters of smaller sites. The recent surveys in Iraqi

Jazira (Wilkinson 1990; Wilkinson and Tucker 1995) also found the same hierarchy in

which Tell-al Hawa kept the upper level by being the largest site and controlling the

region compared to their smaller contemporaries scattered around it. The finds from the

step trench level IV at Hammam et-Turkman were suggestive of a socio-political

stratification in the society that consisted of an elite group with more prestigious status

and those under them of common status (Akkermans 1988).

The temples of Eridu display the earliest appearance of monumental public

architecture, perhaps as early as in Ubaid 1 (Safar et. al. 1981). Later, similar

architecture emerges from Tell Uqair too (Lloyd and Safar 1943). Jasim (1985) asserts

that a one-tier settlement hierarchy was evident in the Hamrin region during the Ubaid

2-3 phases. In his scheme, Tell Abada stands on the top level while the other sites

comprise the second level. He defines Building A at Abada as the residence of elites

with a high status in the society. Indications included the size, plan and location of

buildings relative to each other, as well as the recovery of numerous burials and some

distinct artifacts from Building A, such as grave goods and mace heads, that were not

found in other buildings at the site. Additionally, other Hamrin sites did not have such

architecture and the artifact contents in the buildings were undifferentiated and mostly

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utilitarian. So far, a contextual study in search of possible high status-artifacts is not

available from anywhere else in Mesopotamia. Yet, the hundreds of graves associated

with the temples found at Tepe Gawra seem to be strong evidence for the site being a

religious center where the elites resided (Tobler 1950).

As a result, the evidence from these sites indicate that the Ubaid societies were socially

and politically stratified chiefdoms spreading into the vast areas of Mesopotamia.

Looking primarily at South Mesopotamia, Stein suggests that Ubaid Mesopotamia

consisted of a series of small, localized chiefdoms based on staple finance (1994:

pp.41). He asserts that the economical, political, and Social organization of the Ubaid

elites were based on exercising water, land and labor management combined with a

religious redistribution system, a model that opposes a wealth finance economy

characterized by conflict, prestige goods economy, and symbolic depictions of power

seen in the cases in the New World. Throughout the processes of irrigation-dependent

fanning and ritual elaboration, the Mesopotamian elites gained economic wealth and

political power, and used these in consolidating their area of occupation in the region.

How can the complexity at Degirmentepe be defined and can it be fit into this

Mesopotamian model? I believe that Degirmentepe was a colony belonging to a larger

chiefly political structure. Internally, it was organized as egalitarian as possible but it

remained a satellite belonging to a center somewhere in the homeland, perhaps in

Malatya or south of Adiyaman, where a paramount chief or an elite group may have

resided. Even though the data sufficient for visualizing any settlement hierarchy

outside of Degirmentepe does not exist, the data from the site itself is suggestive of its

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being the satellite of a central authority. The most important indications of a chief or an

elite group are missing at Degirmentepe. In terms of architecture, the house sizes and

plans are quite similar to each other; none of them had a more distinguished location

than the others and none of them were really monumental. The artifact assemblages in

the houses were all utilitarian, moderate in quality, and not particularly different in

quantity or density. Any possible prestige items distinguishable from others by their

quality are also missing. Centralized religious rituals could not be assigned to any

building, but rituals were exercised more or less in the same way in each house by the

members of the household. Storing activities seems equally distributed in each house. If

the multi-room buildings served as storage space, they were probably owned by

different extended families and the goods would have been pooled separately into each

one of those buildings by each family. Accordingly, redistribution may have been made

only among the members of the same household, not on a communal level. There

seems to have been a concentration on significant craft production. I believe that metal

production was a specialized craft practiced by one or two families; likewise the

numerous engravers point to the specialized production of another family in the village.

However, I do not see these concentrations of craft work as conveying privilege that

would give the producing families power and distinguish them from the other families.

Instead, I imagine that the other families focused on the production of other crafts that

were not detected archaeologically, and that these engagements in production did not

give any status or any economic differentiation to the household. I believe the

distribution of seals and seal impressions in almost every house supports this view of

the production system in the village. The heavy concentration of seals and seal

impressions in one specific location, that is house BC, is probably not an indication of

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the greater wealth of the house BC residents but more intense production and

exchange. They had to produce more goods, perhaps metal ingots, not to increase their

wealth but because of their obligation to produce more by the center; to this end, even

other household members may have helped by participating in the production process.

Even if there was any social conflict in the community, it was probably not from

competition for better economic wealth but instead from the other social disagreements

among families or individuals, and was probably minor in scale.

Thus, there was no chief or elite group living at Degirmentepe and the community

looks truly egalitarian in itself. The families had no differences from each other in

terms of economic wealth, social status, or political power. Considering that chiefly

societies existed in a regional scale during the Ubaid, this picture of Degirmentepe

implies to me that the site was probably a satellite belonging to an undiscovered center

located perhaps in Malatya or further south. Since elite groups are invisible at this site,

the controlled surplus mobilization within the site must also have been absent in the

village. In spite of this, control of surplus mobilization could be thought to have taken

place at the inter-site level, between Degirmentepe and the unknown center. It is

conceivable that in return for the exported items, the occupants may have received

staple items to support themselves. Coercion is probably too strong a term for the

means by which the center solidified its hold over its satellite and instilled in it a sense

of economic obligation.

In the meantime, close interactions with locals, even though they are not clearly

identifiable from the records, would have been intense. Both sides would have

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influenced each other either subconsciously or deliberately, leading to the

transformation of the locals and the hybridization of the Degirmentepe inhabitants

world views. Probably, the religious meaning was so powerful for Degirmentepe

residents that it became fused into the house plan. The occupants equated their identity

with their southern homeland through religion by the most intensely used space, the

house. In the meantime, the strong depiction of religious meanings in Degirmentepe

life gradually and peacefully merged with the identity of being local that became

evident in the following centuries.

One may ask the whereabouts of this center, since the site is interpreted to be a

satellite in this explanation. Perhaps the unexcavated Ubaid layers at Arslantepe would

represent a center with authority, if the centralized political structure of the later levels

VII and VIII continues to those earlier dates. If the center were not in the Malatya-

Elazig area, then Samsat in Adiyaman to the south, excavated by Dr. Nimet Ozgii? as a

salvage project until mid-1980s, would have been a likely candidate because it is the

closest and large site to Degirmentepe. We know now that Samsat has a significant

amount of Ubaid pottery5. Although these sherds cannot establish the actual size of the

Ubaid occupations at Samsat, they may have extended from the eastern slope of the

mound. Accordingly, Samsat could well have been the center of the region, residing at

the top of the settlement hierarchy.

I have to conclude this chapter with a critique of a recent study. Helwing (2003),

adopting the idea from various essays from Dietler and Hayden (2001), proposed that

5 Especially see (Ozdogan 1977: 130-134,227-232, pis. 83-89). In Ozdogans classification of


pottery, Chalcolithic type 1.4 refers to Ubaid ware.

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feasts or festivals were used as political tools, during which power of the chiefly

institution was emerging, and such events were used as jurisdiction to justify and

maintain the chiefly institution in the community. She asserts that some buildings at

Degirmentepe were temples where the feasts occurred. After interpreting

Degirmentepe as an egalitarian community at the site-level, and suggesting that it was

a satellite that focused providing goods to its center on an inter-site level, I have to

disagree with her feast hypothesis asserting that Degirmentepe was a ranked society

where multiple elites resided. It is true that ethno-archaeological and ethno-historical

research seems to verify that feasts may have provided powerful scenery and played

significant roles in the development of social complexity (Hayden 2001; Weissner

2001). Feasts may have been used for aggrandizing the power and economic wealth of

certain individuals over the commoners, and become part of the process of increasing

social complexity, that is, the legitimization of inequality within the group while

releasing socio-economic tensions and mollifying disputes (Paynter 1989; Hayden

2001). Competition, conflict, and coercion seem to have been the critical factors seen

in different accounts of chiefdoms around the world and feasts occurring as part of the

redistribution process and gaining surplus may be the tool used to overcome social

tensions without aggression or oppression. The end products of these actions would be

the accumulation of wealth by the elite as prestige items along with stored surplus. As

Stein (1994) argues, a prestige financed economy does not seem to fit the Ubaid period

of the Near East. Instead, the staple financed economy seems to have been the case, at

least for the South Mesopotamia.

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At Degirmentepe, evidence suggests that, first, there was no chief-like entity at the site

regulating feasts whether for legitimization of his status or for accumulating wealth.

Second, there was no temple where any large scale ritual feast would have been

carried out with hidden political agendas. This does not mean that the community at

Degirmentepe did not belong to a chiefdom. I would expect that such events would

have occurred only at the centers where the elite group or family would have resided

and where the religiously distinguished spaces would have prepared to display power

and exploit the religious values. On the other hand, I am certainly not asserting that the

feasts never took place at the site, but if it ever happened, assuming that a feast is a

community scale activity, it probably took place outside at the NW portion of the site.

However, this area was not excavated. Without the recovery of mass amounts of

animal bones that would truly point to a single event involving large scale meat

consumption, or the pottery used for cooking, serving, and consuming the food during

the feast, it is impossible to suggest that any communal-size feast took place. The field

notes occasionally point to the recovery of bones inside the houses, but they may very

well have been the result of regular food consumption that accumulated in the

designated dumping locations. Besides, no analyses on the animal bones or on the

pottery have been completed to verify any such activity. Thus, I believe that ritual

oriented feasts never took place in the houses. I am more inclined to imagine that any

small scale, informal gatherings inside the houses must have been for socializing only,

and that the rituals were meant to be a kind of regular practice performed by each

individual household. If there was any practice of eating food as part of the burial

ceremonies during or after burying the dead, it may have served to reinforce the bonds

of family identity. The feasts with elite involvement must have occurred at the ruling

: 267 :

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center. Consequently, my interpretation of the chiefdom model at Degirmentepe is a

reasonable one based on a substantial amount of archaeological data and differs

significantly from the Helwings view of socio-political dynamics of the inhabitants.

Nevertheless, there are components in my explanation that certainly require more solid

evidence to understand the social organizations better, after which the necessary

modifications follow. How do we define the local populations in East Anatolia

archaeologically? Was the Ubaid intrusion really for the exploitation of the resources?

If co-existence with locals was the case, how did the emulation process of Ubaid values

occur and how did the locals adopt the Ubaid values for their part? What were the much

larger scale factors within Mesopotamia that caused the Ubaid traits to die out? Were

the chiefdoms of Anatolia a one-tier settlement hierarchy or did they contained middle

stations that held more wealth than Degirmentepe-like sites but less than the centers?

For the moment, Degirmentepe provides only provocative hints and the picture is far

from being complete. Any explanatory answers to these broader questions require more

research.

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APPENDIX - 1: Excavation history of the site

LI- Salvage Projects and the location of the site:

The series of water dam projects initiated by the Turkish government in the 1970s led

to intensive archaeological research in East Anatolia. Following the construction of the

Keban dam, the decision was made to build the Karakaya and Atatiirk dams to improve

the water supply for agriculture and provide sufficient hydro-electric energy in the

region. The series of surveys carried out by archaeologists preceding the excavations

highlighted the antiquity of these areas and Ozdogans reconnaissance surveys along

the banks of the Euphrates yielded numerous sites dating from the Paleolithic to the

Islamic era (1977). Degirmentepe was one of the sites discovered during these surveys

and was recorded as P 50/7 (fig. A .l).

The site was located 24 km. east of the Malatya city center and ca. 50 meters south of

the Euphrates (Esin 1980; Esin et. al. 1987). It was a low, ca. 1-hectare mound with a

more or less round shape. The top of the mound was fairly flat but the NW quadrant

had a quite wide depression. With the direction of Ufuk Esin of the University of

Istanbul, salvage excavations were carried out between 1978 and 1986 seasons.

1.2- Recording Procedures:

The base point, or the highest elevation of the site, was at the NE quarter of the mound

at 650.80 m above sea level (pi. 4). Following the preparation of the topographic map

of the mound, trenches with 10 x 10 meter gridlines were laid out. Each trench was

designated by numbers on the horizontal axis and capital letters of the alphabet on the

vertical axis. Thus, a trench named 14 G indicated the quadrant where the horizontal

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\w

D egirm entepe
P .50/7

E S K i MALATYA

MALATYA

10 Km.

Fig. AI.l: Malatya Basin and the location o f Degirmentepe. The area with hatches indicates
the limits o f the reservoir.

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line of number 14 and the vertical line of the letter G met over the mound. Excavations

were carried out within these 10x10m size trenches, but additional trenches with

smaller squares and rectangles were also opened, whenever it was felt to be

advantageous in terms of time and budget.

The trench supervisors consisted mostly of students who were responsible for record

keeping in their own trench and organizing the jobs given to workers. As a result, each

trench kept its own field notes, sketch plans, and listings, but the site directors still

supervised the students throughout the season.

Each architectural feature was given a number starting from 1 and each room was

named with capital letters starting from the letter A. Following the last letter Z, double

letters were used, such as the room AA, AB, AC and so on. The representative central

rooms gave the name to a building when the identification of such feature was certain,

e.g. Building GK. The architectural features were described and sketched in the

logbooks and later, prepared for photography. Each architectural feature was briefly

described in a separately kept feature list book, in which the features find spot was

identified by means of its coordinates within the trench and the building, and, if known,

its depth and size. Architectural drawings were made either by skilled archaeologists or

a professional draftsperson, if one was available. The scale of plans used was 1:20.

Artifacts were given a find number and listed in the artifact inventory book. Each

artifact was numbered with the excavation year in which it was found, followed by a

find number starting from the number 1. For instance, the inventory number of D.82-49

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might have been given to a bone awl for which the letter D stands for Degirmentepe,

82 indicates the year it was found, and the number 49 represents the find number of

that particular bone awl. In this way, the inventory list for artifacts began with the

number 1 in each excavation season. The burials were also treated as artifacts and

received the same recording procedure.

If artifacts were not to be recorded as finds, they were collected in buckets. There were

three types of material treated in this maimer: pottery, bones, and chipped stones. Each

bucket was tagged and listed in the bucket list book indicating the trench name, the

coordinates of the collection area, its depth, and, if known, the stratigraphic level of the

collection area. When the excavation of a collection area was completed, buckets were

sent to the base camp for washing. Within the allotted time, a draftsperson drew as

many diagnostic pieces as possible. The excavator has published a good number of the

diagnostic pieces together with the finds (see App. HI). No detailed analyses have

been carried out on the materials so far, with the exception of the preliminary studies

made on seals and seal impressions, lithics, and burials, which are published (Esin

1994; Balkan-Ath 1995; 2002; Ozbek 1986a; 1986b). The room fill deposits were

sieved in order to find small artifacts, particularly seals and the seal impressions. On

the other hand, no soil samples seem to have been taken for archaeo-botanical studies

since there are no records of such.

The base point was in use for the depth measurements of the collection units, features,

and artifacts. It was considered as zero meter and any reading of depths in the trenches

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represented the depth from this zero point. For example, a 2.38 m reading implies a

depth of 2.38 m below the zero point, or the base point of 650.80 m.

With this recording procedure, salvage operations were initiated in two areas of the

mound: at the NE quadrant where the base point was located and at the west part of the

mound. The excavation areas were enlarged in all directions over the following years

in order to track the architecture. This strategy was implemented to understand the

Ubaid horizon with as wide a horizontal exposure as possible while recording the

material culture systematically.

1.3- Artifacts of Degirmentepe:

This section reports the artifacts found in the Ubaid layers to give a brief orientation for

the artifact related character of the site. What is ignored here is the architecture that is

documented in Ch. M6.

I.3.a- Pottery: (App. Ill)

The pottery of Degirmentepe, regarded as a manifestation of the culture, easily dates

this site to the Late Ubaid Period. The Ubaid wares consist of Painted Ubaid and Plain

Ubaid. They were handmade, but a significant number of examples showed the sign of

slow wheel use. The paste was always light in color, but the well-known greenish

colored paste from Mesopotamia also appeared in some numbers. The forms generally

6 The data was compiled from Demirci 1985; Esin 1980; 1981; 1983a; 1983b; 1984; 1985a; 1985b;
1986a; 1986b; 1989; 1994; 1998; Esin and Harmankaya 1986; 1987; 1988; Esin et. al. 1985; Kun? et.
al. 1984; Ozbek 1986a; 1986b; Tiirkmenoglu et. al. 1985 (see the references). The pottery section,
however, is based primarily on my observations of the inventoried artifacts at the Malatya Museum in
addition to the material published by Esin.

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consisted of bowls and jars. Naturally, their size varied, but the smaller range of bowls

and the small to medium-range jar types seemed to predominate. The bowls had both

flat and ring bases with conical or slightly S-shaped body forms. The jars had

hemispherical body forms and convex bases with flaring necks. Painted decoration was

done with brown or light red colors. The bowls seemed to have typical designs: linear

geometric patterns, horizontal bands near the rim, or floral motifs spread over the

exterior. The painting on the jars seemed limited to simple horizontal bands near the

neck and rims. There were number of light colored, unpainted jars also.

The other significant ware group is known as flint scraped Coba ware. This plain

ware has a light buff or orange paste and scraping made with a hard tool on the lower

half of the pots exterior. They were always characterized as bowl types and as slow

wheel productions. Some of them bear distinct potters mark. These attributes indicate

that the Coba bowls were standard products. They were abundant at the site and were

found side by side with the characteristic Ubaid pottery (Esin and Harmankaya 1986;

1988). The parallels of this group were documented at Sakgegozu sites (Plat Taylor

at.al. 1950; Waechter, et. al. 1951), at Noruntepe in Level 10 of J/K-18 (Hauptmann

1982; Giilfur 1988), at Mersin XIH-XIIA (Garstang 1953) and at Hammam et-

Turkman IVC-VA (Akkermans 1988a; 1998b). More importantly, this ware became the

identifier in the following Local Late Chalcolithic period. Trufelli (1995:247) asserts

that the huge quantities of mass-produced pottery, the wide-spread use of the potters

wheel and the high level of standardization in terms of technological and formal

features; all these aspects are designed to reduce production times and increase

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productivity for the new needs of ranked society, a well-documented trend at

Arslantepe VII.

The last ware group of the Chalcolithic period was the Dark Face Burnished Ware,

the identification of which was based on comparisons with the Amuq D-E sequence and

the Mersin XVI-XII assemblages (Braidwood and Braidwood 1960; Gastang 1953).

This ware was hand made and primarily took the jar forms. The quality of the jars

depended on the amount and the size of the temper and the temperature during firing,

but most were well made and hard textured. Most jars were slightly burnished and self

slipped over the heavy tempered, well-levigated clay. Temperature may have been

controlled during firing. However, there are some crudely made pots too. Some sherds

showed grits larger than the wall thickness that had ripped the clay and come up to the

surface. Heavy, large size temper also seems to be the reason for the occasional holes

and cracked areas seen. The jar forms had round bases and globular bodies with simple

rims. Two, four, or five lugs were always applied near the rim, the attribute most

significant for this group. Some DFBW was used for burying the dead.

The analysis of these pottery classes is reportedly in progress, so their quantitative

data, their distribution inside the buildings, and their function cannot be determined for

the time being. There have been brief analyses done towards clay sourcing the ware

groups, but no substantial results are available yet. The preliminary study made on

some limited samples implied that the same clay resource was in use for both the Coba

and the Ubaid wares. This provokes the idea that pottery production might have been a

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local endeavor, although any further elaboration on the nature of such local production

is beyond the capacity of the limited data.

I.3.b- Stone and Bone Tools and Other Finds: (App. ID)

Various sizes and forms of stone tools were found during the excavations. These

included mano/pestle, metate/mortar, hammers, large size anvils, polished axes,

pounders, polishing stones, and a few chisels and mace heads. Although scarce, some

stone beads were also found. A few stones with holes have been suggested as weights

used in textile production or in fishing.

The bone tools consisted of numerous needles and awls recovered from various

contexts. In addition, shells found near some of the hearths with metal slag suggest that

they may have had something to do with metallurgic activities.

The clay artifacts consisted of many spindle whorls, a few animal figurines of unclear

species, some stoppers, and numerous seal impressions. The seal impressions were

made on very clean, unbaked clay lumps. The impressions consistently showed that the

pottery, reed baskets, leather bags, and possibly wooden boxes were in use for

transportation and storage. There were also a few long, tube-like clay stoppers that

may also have been used to lock narrow jar mouths.

The most significant stone artifact group for the site is undoubtedly the seals. Soft

stones were used for their production, referred to by Esin as soapstone. The designs

made on the surfaces were diverse. Apart from the predominant geometric designs,

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animals, plants, and anthropomorphic figures, such as the bird- man, were also

depicted. Almost all of the seals were round in shape, except for a few that were

rectangular. Their dimensions vary from 2 cm to ca. 5-6 cm, but the smaller sizes are

the most common. The comparisons with the designs from the seal impressions show

somewhat similar skills and style use in pattern making.

L3.c- Chipped stone industry:

The chipped stone industry from Degirmentepe requires attention since some analyses

were conducted on the lithics. The assemblage consists of both flint and obsidian with

the total of 23,298 pieces weighing 358,730 grams. Despite the large horizontal

exposures at the site, the lithics industry cannot be considered well developed. Analysis

indicates a very crude and expedient industry, the predominating material was flint

(97.07%) while obsidian was only represented insignificantly by a low percentage

(2.93 %) (Balkan-Atli 1995; 2003).

Flint:

Flint was probably found locally in the form of small, water-wom pebbles, and the

riverbed of Euphrates has been proposed as the most likely source. Cores were poorly

worked and flakes were probably taken out with a percussion technique. Irregular flake

cores are significant, demonstrating low to moderate level flaking performances. The

abundant pieces of primary core preparation indicate that the knapping process took

place within the site. The recovery of a high quantity of debris also supported this idea.

The most commonly produced flint tool was the multi-tipped perforator, many of which

were found in rooms BY1 and CZ (fig. AI.2). The concentration of the same type of

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tool apparently supports Arsebiiks hypotheses that room BY1 was a workshop and that

some perforators were used for making the designs on the seals while the others were

exported (Arsebiik 1986). The perforators were made from flakes, and their size is

uniformly small, even though a variety of size was evident within this small size range.

The number of points produced in each piece varies from one to six points. Six point

perforators are rare, whereas perforators with one point or more are usual occurrences.

The point tips were generally made by retouching. The distribution of points on a

perforator are generally uneven, but without disturbing the consistency in shape and

size. This homogeneity implied to Balkan-Ath that the tool production was

Fig. AI.2: A sample o f flint engravers. Since the total number and the reliability o f the deposits
where they came from cannot be established, they are not included in the functional
analysis.

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standardized, or certain individuals were engaged in production at the site (1995). The

tools other than the perforators consisted of some scrapers, notched and retouched

flakes, as well as small number of sickle blades but they were represented only in

small quantity (fig. AI.3; Balkan-Ath 1995).

Layers 6 7 8 9 10 11 Total

Un-retouched P ie c e s--^
Cores 14 682 48 9 5 758
Blades 2 206 3 4 3 218
Flakes 136 3862 486 25 46 4555
Debris 464 7825 1036 64 35 2 9426
Sub-total 616 12575 1573 102 89 2 14957
Retouched Pieces
Microliths 9 9
Scrapers 2 39 39 1 81
Sickle Blades 2 40 2 1 45
Steep Retouched Blades 33 33
Perforators 269 4684 2313 51 13 7330
Retouched Blades 14 1 1 16
Retouched Flakes 68 8 2 2 80
Notched Blades 3 3 6
Notched Flakes 64 24 88
Denticulate Flakes 2 1 3
Burins 1 1
Chipped Discs 1 1
Utilized Blades 1 1
Utilized Flakes 14 3 1 18
Sub-total 273 4964 2400 59 16 7712
Total o f flint tools 889 17539 3973 161 105 2 22669

Fig. AI.3: Distribution o f the flint assemblage by layers (prepared from Balkan-Ath 1995).

Obsidian;

As was the case with the flint, obsidian artifacts consisted mostly of small cores and

flaked pebbles, which, again, were proposed to have been brought in from the banks of

the Euphrates. When compared with the form of the other pieces, the small number of

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blades implies that they were imports (fig. AI.4). The size of the nodules was small,

averaging 2.5-3.0 cm in diameter, or they were knapped to form very small cores.

Flaking was done with a pressure technique (Balkan-Ath 2003).

Layers 6 7 8 9 10 Total

Local Obsidian
Pebble Industry \
Cores 5 98 17 1 1 122
Initial Cortical Platform Flakes 5 5
Initial Cortical Flakes 8 1 9
Cortical Flakes 1 42 8 51
Flakes 3 109 18 130
Bladelets (?) 4 1 5
Pebbles 2 2
1/2 Pebbles 1 19 3 23
Debris 4 43 13 2 62
Total 14 330 60 4 1 409

Imported Obsidian Industry


Uni-dimensional Flakes 11 46 15 4 3 78
Multi-dimensional Flakes 5 81 9 2 97
Blades 1 9 3 1 14
Unidentified 6 1 7
Waste 4 11 8 3 1 27
Total 21 152 36 10 4 223

Fig. AI.4: Distribution o f the Degirmentepe obsidian assemblage by layers (from Balkan-Ath
2003).

The chemical composition of the obsidian found at Degirmentepe suggests that the

sources were Bingol A and B. However, the samples attributed to Bingol A also recall

Nemrut Dagi sources, because of the chemical similarity of the obsidian between these

regions (Yeginligil and Liinel 1989). On the other hand, the macroscopic observations

by Balkan-Ath indicated that some pieces may have come from Central Anatolian

sources. For her, that is interesting because more significant connections with East

Anatolian resources would have been expected, since Degirmentepe is in East

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Anatolia. Related with the location of the site and East Anatolian resources, she finds it

also surprising that the representation of the obsidian assemblage throughout the site is

considerably small and shows poor technology. Furthermore, she reiterates that the use

of obsidian has not been rare at all since the Neolithic period, and it began to take on

more functions and became a social status item during the Halaf and Ubaid periods;

but, for the Ubaid period, Degirmentepe provided a poor obsidian assemblage. As a

conclusion, she points out that the sourcing of Degirmentepe obsidian is still not clear,

and there is a need for sufficient verification.

I.3.d- Metallurgy: (compiled from Esin 1986c; Esin and Harmankaya 1986)

Evidently, metal production was a significant activity that took place at the site. A few

locations at the site had clear evidence for such activity. For example, the hearths 504

and 505 in Room DH in Building BC had a dense ashy soil deposit and abundant slag

with small bowls (see Building BC, hearth G-131 to the south of Building I and rooms

DT and DS to the west of Building BC in Ch. III).

Most metal specimens came from dry sieving. They were recorded only two-

dimensionally, and their depths or the reliability of the deposits where they come from is

unclear (fig. AI.5). Some of them were analyzed to understand their chemical structures

and the production process. The samples were generally copper slag but rarely iron was

also found. The residues in the samples implied that at least two resources were

exploited and one of them might have been used more than the other. The temperature

during smelting seems to have reached up to 1100 C, because the residues of silicon

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dioxide (Si02) and calcium oxide (CaO) found in the slag samples could only have

found above that temperature. The amount of copper in most of the slag samples was

consistently less than % 0.0001 -100 parts per million. Having so little copper in the

slag implied that the smelting was made twice to purify the copper and improve its

Building Room Character o f Metal Remarks


I O Iron Ore No context. It may well be leaked from
later periods
AD Iron Ore
I I Copper Ore
I I Copper Slag
I I Copper Slag Fused into a pot. Excavator suggested that
it was crucible. The other pot with copper
was found close to the surface in area Y
(pi. 15).
I I Copper Slag
I i Copper Slag
I i Copper Slag
I I Copper Slag
I I Copper Slag
I i Copper Slag
I u Copper Ore
I u Copper Slag
I AC Copper Slag
I R Copper Slag
grid 16F Iron ore No context. It may well be leaked from
later periods
BC BC Copper Slag
BC AU Copper Slag
BC AU Copper Slag
DU BE Iron Ore
AS AS Copper Slag
BI Copper Ore From pit 323. Pit deposit was dense ash.
BI Copper Ore From pit 323. Pit deposit was dense ash
BI Copper Ore From pit 323. Pit deposit was dense ash
BK Copper Slag No context (from sieve)
grid 17 F Copper Slag No context
grid 17 F Copper Slag No context
grid 16 J Copper Slag No context

Fig. AI.5: Some o f the metal related items found inside the buildings. They are out of context
(from Esin 1986c).

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quality. There were two pots with some amount of copper fused into their interior

surfaces that were perhaps used as crucibles.

I.3.e- Burials:

Degirmentepe excavations found numerous burials inside the buildings. Ozbek (1986a;

1986b) studied and published them in terms of their physical anthropological aspects.

Esin (1986b) states that his studies included only the burials encountered in the 1979-

1983 seasons, totaling 24 interments; this number increased with further recoveries

made in the following seasons, reaching 34 burials (fig. AI.6). Most burial numbers and

their 3-dimensional locations are unclear in the records and publications; these

uncertainties are reflected by the gaps and only 2-dimensional locations for each burial

in fig. AI.6.

All the burials belonged to infants and children, except one adult. Having only one

adult burial found in such an extensive horizontal exposure implies that the adult

burials were made outside of the site, a behavior characteristic of Ubaid period burial

practices. Interments were made in various ways: inside pots, bins, within walls, and

under floors. Physical analyses showed that the causes of the death were miscarriages

and stillbirths. Ozbeks (1986b) studies of the 24 burials from 1979-1983 seasons

showed that seventeen of the burials were between 0-2.5 years old age, indicating a

high infant mortality rate in the community.

The skulls from the burials showed significant deformations that were not the results of

any biological reasons but were caused by a deliberate treatment made on the babies

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Find No: Location: Explanation:
D.84-75 Room DU in 15 K Pot burial. Pot was DFBW
- Room CF in 16 J Pot burial but the pot type is unclear.
- Room CF in 16 J Placed into a wall or in a niche. Bad preservation
Burial 32 Room DB in (EE) Pot burial.
Burial 33 Room DB in (EE) Not a pot burial. Found next to Burial 32.
Burial 64 Room DB in (EE) Pot burial. Body in flexed position. Found at SE comer
of the room.
- Room DB in (EE) Pot burial. Placed inside the wall.
Burial 61 Room DB in (EE) Not a pot burial. Found inside the wall.
Burial 62 Room DB in (EE) Not a pot burial. Found to the south of Burial 64.
- Room CM in (GK) Pot burial but the pot type is unclear.
- Room EC in (EE) Pot burial. Pot was DFBW.
Burial 18 Room CH in (GK) Found inside the E wall. Belongs to a child.
Burial 19 Room CH in (GK) An infant burial found inside a bin.
Burial 20 Room CY in (GK) Found inside the N wall. 11-12 years old. Represented
by skull, teeth, and some long bones.
- Room AU in (BC) 12 months old. Found in front of S wall.
D.81-137 Room AY in (DU ) Pot burial made into floor. Pot was DFBW with four
lugs. Two babies buried inside. Same family members?
Room AY in (DU ) Not a pot burial. Found next to the twin burial D.81-137.
Belongs to a baby.
- Room AY in (DU ) Not a pot burial. Found next to the twin burial D.81-137.
Belongs to a baby.
D.81-113 Room BE in (D U ) Pot burial. Pot was light color plain ware. Burial was
flexed but in a sitting position.
- Room DU in (DU ) Only fragments of skull, lower jaw and some long
bones. 3 years old. Found inside the wall.
Burial 27 Room BB in (BC) Found S of the room under the floor. Represented by the
skull and some long bones. 13-14 years old.
- Room DV in (DU ) Highly disturbed in antiquity. Only skull and teeth.
D.84-93 Room U in (I) Pot burial. Pot was DFBW with two lugs. Found to the N
o f the room in front of the door.
- Room U in (I) A child buried under the floor at SE comer of the room.
Burial 86 Room I in (I) Found inside the pit (149).
Burial 229 Room R in (I) Found in bin (292). It is a stillborn baby.
Burial 69 Room AD in (i) Pot burial. Pot was DFBW with two lugs. Stillborn. Only
skull and some long bones.
Burial 227 Room AD in (i) Found inside the bin (289). 1-2 weeks old. Only skull
and some long bones.
Burial 226 Room AD in (I) Found inside the bin (290). A 4-5 months old.
Burial 228 Room AD in (!) Found inside the bin (291). In flexed position.
- Room BK in 18 F Found in a pit.
Burial 286 Room BD in (BC) Pot burial.
Burial 292 Room BD in (BC) Burial pot. Pot was DFBW. It was a baby burial.
Total number o f individual burials recovered: 34
Fig. AI.6: Human burials from Degirmentepe. The data was gathered from the field notes and
relevant publications (Ozbek 1986a; 1986b). Because o f their young age, the gender
distribution of the burials is unclear.

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(fig. AI.7). Ozbek suggested that such skull deformations should be seen as a

correlation with the belief system and social aspects of the community, since there is

comparable archaeological evidence from some Chalcolithic and Neolithic sites. In

addition, he refers to some ethnographic practices that are analogous and in support of

this view (for this point see Ozbek 1986a).

Fig. AI.7: Infant skulls showing deformation, (prepared from Ozbek 1986a).

I.3.f- Zoo-archaeological and Archaeo-botanical remains:

No detailed zoo-archaeological and archaeo-botanical analyses were made, but some

of the bones and the soil samples collected from the site were shown to specialists. The

soil samples contained more barley than wheat. Some of the animal bones were

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identified as domesticated dog, sheep, goat, pig, and cattle. Horse and donkey were

also represented in the assemblages, but whether they were domesticated or not is

unclear. (Esin and Harmankaya 1986). Thus, the evaluation of faunal remains is far

from complete and does not go beyond the intermittently carried out identification of

species.

I.3.g- Esins explanations of Degirmentepe:

Esin argued that the site was a proto-urban center involved with intense trading with

North Mesopotamia. The seals and seal impressions indicated that there were private

owners or traders at Degirmentepe.

She also suggested that the buildings were temples. The central rooms with distinct

features, especially platforms, were used for religious purposes and the smaller rooms

were domestic areas, workshops, and storage areas. She interpreted the wall paintings

found in some rooms as related to religious activities. Therefore, for her, the

Degirmentepe community was organized with a proto-urban political structure and the

occupants were traders with close contacts in North Mesopotamia, in addition to

practicing agriculture and animal husbandry (especially see Esin 1994; and Esin and

Harmankaya 1988). These suggestions, reported in preliminary articles, are convincing,

but they are rather generalized views only based on the observations made during the

excavations instead of results from detailed studies of the entire material culture. For

instance, if the occupants were traders, there is no way to envision whether everyone

was a trader or the trade was practiced only by a certain number of individuals in the

community.

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APPENDIX II: Activities, functions, and artifact types:

This appendix correlates possible cultural activities of the later prehistory with artifacts

by which they may be represented. Four major activity types are identified in this

scheme: Subsistence, manufacturing / maintenance, social life and administration. The

list is adequate for the purpose of this functional analysis, but at the same time, it is

probably incomplete or may need adjustments on case-by-case basis. The most artifacts

are for multi-purpose, and only their correlation with others and the nature of context

where they found can signify the type of activity. The use of artifacts and relevant

ethnographic analogies are discussed in detail in Verhoeven 1999 (pp.: 67-105 and

Appendix 1 in pp. 233-258).

Category o f major activity: Encompassing these Indicated by these artifact


activities: types:

Subsistence: Food Preparation: Grinding stone, grinder,


Producing, processing and - Seeds and plants: mortar, pestle, round stone
preparing edible items for Cutting, drying, grinding, ball / hammer stone, stone
consumption. baking, cooking (boiling or vessels, or stone bowls, pots,
roasting), and storing items textile sacks, jars, residues of
temporarily before seeds.
consumption.

- Meat: Adze, pots, animal bones.


Butchering, cooking in the
form o f boiling or roasting.

- Fermentation: Necked jars, inflated bags


Fermenting process of dairy made of animal skin.
products, mixture o f fruits
and nuts, grains, etc.

(table continues in the next page)

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C a te g o ry o f m a jo r a c tiv ity : E n c o m p a s s in g these In d ic a te d b y these a r tifa c t
ac tiv itie s : types:

(Subsistence continued) Food Serving: Stone vessels, pottery or


basket bowls
Food Storage:
- Keeping large size animals
in pens or, in open spaces Pens.
nearby the site

- Keeping smaller size


animals, such as chicken or Coops.
rabbits in coops,

- Drying meat products for


future consumption ?

- Storing liquid or dry food


items Long necked jars, large
pots, stone vessels, or stone
bowls, Large baskets, cloth
or leather bags, seal
impressions.
Food Acquisition:
- Working in the fields Adze, perforated stones,
- Harvesting the yield hoes, sickles, sickle blades
- Hunting animals with silica shine, sling
- Animal Husbandry balls, textile bags, baskets,
- Herding sling missiles.
- Gathering plants, fruits nuts

M a n u fa c tu r in g /M a in te n a n c e - Textile Production Pierced disc, or perforated


Clear indications of potsherd, spindle whorl,
technological achievements loom weight, needles,
and skilled craft work in a awls, impression of cloth.
given society. A range of
utilitarian tools and artifacts - Grinding non-food items Grinding stones, such as
are produced or repaired on a and sharpening tools. mortar, pestle. Stone
regular basis to fulfill a bowls, rounded or oval
variety o f tasks. shaped handy stones used
as mortar, stamping stones
to grind lumps o f pigment.
Pigment. Tools with shafts.

- Leather work Spatulas made of scapula


bones, awls, needles.

(table continues in the next page)

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C a te g o ry o f m a jo r a c tiv ity : E n co m p as sin g these In d ic a te d b y these a r tifa c t
a c tiv itie s : types:

(Manufacturing/Maintenance - Production o f jewelry Unworked colorful stones,


continued) bones, teeth, horns or shells.
Pendants or beads. Drills,
engravers; polishers.

- Pottery Production Pottery, abundant pottery


waste, pottery slag, pits,
kilns, wheel, toumette,
polished stones, flat stones,
bones or wood pieces.

- Basketry Awls, basket impressions.

- Pyro-technology Metal artifacts, metal slag,


and unprocessed ores.

- Wood work Celt, chisel, adze

- Building construction Celt, chisel, adze, not


worked cobbles and
pebbles, flattened stones,
slabs, wood beams, plaster.

- Production of chipped Chipped stone tools, cores


stone artifacts and debitage.
S o c ia l L ife : - Eating and Drinking Animal bones, stone bowls
In order for assuring and vessels, pottery,
individual or communal basketry
identity, necessary
participation in group - Sleeping Raised platforms, sub
activities that are set for the divisions of interior spaces
social enjoyment, the
subsistence of the community, - Formal / Informal meeting Adze, axe, mace head, or
or the perpetuation of the metal items and ornaments
culture representing symbols of
wealth and power.
Group members learn skills,
crafts, cultural beliefs, etc, by - Entertainment/Playing Figurines, tokens.
sharing and maintaining them Games (not necessarily by
in a social setting, the process children)
that warrants the
reinforcement and the - Recreation and Music Ceramic or bone whistles.
perpetuation of cultural
ideologies and customs.

(table continues in the next page)

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C a te g o ry o f m a jo r a c tiv ity : E n c o m p a s s in g these In d ic a te d b y these a r t if a c t
a c tiv itie s : types:

(Social Life continued) - Celebrations / ceremonies Figurines, abundant bones


These processes may involve (wedding, feasts, etc.) (maybe dumped in pits).
as few as two individuals or
as many as the entire - Food preparation as a group Multiple occurrences of
community. activity (such as bread food production tools in a
making) context (see relevant
headings above).

- Ornamentation/Decoration: Pigments. Beads, pendant,


Tattooing, body painting and bracelets, earrings, anklets.
piercing.

- Harvesting, hunting, and Sickle, sickle blades,


fishing related gatherings arrowheads, sling missiles,
and fish net if preserved.

- Gathering for daily water Large jars.


supply and transporting to
houses

- Large scale group works: ?


Construction works, building
and maintaining irrigation
channels, maintenance of
ritual and sacred spots,

- Gathering for laundry ?

- Childrearing ?

Ritual related gatherings: Mace heads, small axes,


Healing pain and sickness, labrets, figurines, or other
incantations, preparing objects that are symbolic
charms for protection against and powered by the
evil, praying, supernatural. Pigments.

- Funeral Figurine, mace head,


amulet, adze or axe (if
small), labret, unusually
formed stone or bone,
pigments. Burial itself.

Conflict/Aggression: Sling missiles, stone balls,


Arguments, fighting, settling mace heads, arrowheads,
disputes. metal weapons, fire,
unburied bodies.

(table continues in the next page)

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Category o f major activity: Encompassing these Indicated by these artifact
activities: types:

Administration: - Record keeping, accounting, Seal impressions, seals,


Exercising and possession controlling access to some tokens, incised bones,
over access to communal significant spaces, and sealing
facilities and spaces, to goods indicating ownership
goods, and services.
- Display o f power o f certain Mace head, adze or axe (if
Administrative activities individuals small), metal items (such
provide reinforcement for the as copper weapons), rare
social structure and items (such as precious
protection from the socio stones, or colorful bird
political stresses in the feathers), clothing, rare
community, while ornaments, elaborate pots,
guaranteeing the unequal stone bowls, or baskets,
wealth and power o f a small graves and grave goods
group over the commoners.

Fig. AEL1: A list o f activities and possible artifacts associated with them that may be found at a
late prehistoric site excavation.

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APPENDIX III: Artifact Types From Degirmentepe:

The artifact types included in the analysis are listed below. The index of artifacts and
their descriptions follows thereafter.

Turkish Name In English Turkish Name In English


Ogiitme Tai Ground Stone Turn Kap Complete Pot
eki$ Hammer Biiyiik Kap Jar
Uzun ekig Long Hammer Kiiiik Kase Small Bowl
Balta Large Hammer MinikKap Miniature Jar
Yuvarlak ekilli Ta Round Shaped Minik Kase Miniature Cup
Stone
Oval ekilli Ta Alet Oval Shaped Coba Case Flint Scraped Bowl
Stone / Polishing
Stone
Ezgi Tai Small Pounder Karaz Mali Trans-Caucasian Ware
(Grinding Stone)
Keski Tai Chisel Obeyd Mali Ubaid Ware
Askilama Tai / Cila Polishing Stone Koyu Yiizlii A?kili Dark Faced Burnished
Tai Mai (KYAM) Ware (DFBW)
Ta Agirlik Stone Weight Kepge Scoop / Spoon
Ag Agirhgi Net Weight Pota Crucible
Ta Balta / Yassi Balta Celt Ta Kap Stone Bowl
Havan Eli Pestle/ Mano Ocak AyagI Portable oven /
Andiron
Dibek Mortar / Metate Kap Altligl Pot Stand
Topuz Mace head Nihale Flat pot stand
Agirak Spindle Whorl Ok ucu / U? Arrow Head
Tezgah Agirhgi Loom Weight Obsidyen ekirdek Obsidian Core
Miihiir Seal Yan Kaziyici Side Scraper
Bulle Seal impression Dilgi Flint / Obsidian Blade
Ta Amulet Stone Amulet / Orak BigagI Sickle Blade
Figurine
Figiirin Figurine / Amulet Kemik Biz Bone Awl
OyunTai Game Piece / Kemik Igne Bone Needle
Token
Jeton Token Kemik Alet Bone Tool
Tika? Stopper Boncuk Bead
Kap Kapama Stopper Gerdan?e Pendant
Ciiruf Metal Slag Kabuk boncuk / Shell Bead/Pendant
Gerdan?e

Fig. A in .l: Artifact types recorded during the excavations and their English translations.

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Index of Artifacts and Their Descriptions:

The inventoried artifacts recovered from Degirmentepe excavations are presented here

with brief descriptions, photos and illustrations where available. The illustrations come

from publications and they are provided with references here. If artifacts do not have

photos, that is, they were not inventoried in the excavations and in the Malatya

Museum collection I studied, then they are only represented by their published

drawings here. Apart from these, there are a few artifacts that were neither studied by

myself at the museum, nor published. Such finds are mentioned in Chapter IV within

the relevant building descriptions. Their black and white photo should be available in

the extensive black and white photo archive at the laboratory of Istanbul University,

which I used solely for the study of the architectural remains.

The identification of an artifact includes brief but relevant information: the name of the

artifact type, its inventory number, its dimensions, and the location from which it was

recovered. It is worth mentioning once more that only the artifacts from primary

deposits are included here. Their locations are presented with the name of the building

in parentheses, followed by the room name from which they were recovered, such as

(EE) Room EA. The artifact descriptions consist of brief explanations based on my

observations in Malatya Museum and the available information published by the

excavator. Since none of them have been systematically studied yet, the entire

assemblage of artifacts is presented here in a simple typological manner, grouped

according to artifact type and raw material, such as pots, stone artifacts, seals, sealing,

etc. The pottery assemblage consists of complete pots and their typology is grouped in

accordance with their size and form with the objective of their function and use.

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POTTERY:

BOWLS:

D.83-182 D.83-207 D.84-3

(drawing Esin 1985a) (drawing Esin, Harmankaya 1986)

Name: Plain bowl Find no.: D.83-182 Location: (BC) Room BD


Dimension: Rim diameter 16.5 cm; Height 9 cm; Base diameter 5.5 cm
Description: Coba bowl with conical form. It has buff color paste and fine clay. Abundant grit with some
chaff temper. Rim area is slightly flaring and made thinner than the rest of the wall. Flat base. Made on
slow wheel and bottom half of the exterior was scraped with hard tool. Scraping was made diagonally.

Name: Plain Bowl Find No.: D.83-207 Location: (BC) Room DC1
Dimension: Rim diameter 16 cm; Height 9 cm; Base diameter 6.5 cm
Description: Coba bowl with conical form. It has the same attributes as the above bowl, except grit
temper is abundant and chaff was visible. It has a thin film of self-slip. Flat base. Well fired. Made on
slow wheel and lower half of the exterior was scraped with a hard tool horizontally.

Name: Plain Bowl Find No: D.84-3 Location: (BC) Room BD


Dimension: Rim diameter 16 cm; Height 9.5 cm; Base diameter 5.5 cm
Description: Coba bowl with conical form. It has the same attributes as the above bowl, except this bowl
has pinkish-red paste color. Well fired. Flat base. Made on slow wheel and scraping was on the lower
part of the exterior, which was made in varying directions.

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2 3 4 5 O7 3 9 lil3 2 3 4 5 6 1 S

D. 84-70
D.84-20 D.86-144

(drawing Esin, Harmankaya 1986) (drawing Esin, Harmanakaya 1988)


(drawing Esin, Harmankaya 1986)

Name: Plain bowl Find No: D.84-70 Location: (BC) Room DH


Dimension: Rim diameter 18 cm; Height 9.7 cm; Base diameter 7 cm.
Description: Coba bowl with conical form. It has buff color paste with grit temper but no chaff. Well
fired. Rim is pronounced with slight widening. Flat base. Made on slow wheel and the bottom half was
scraped with a hard tool horizontally.

Name: Plain bowl Find No: D.84-20 Location: (BC) Room AU near EF tunnel
Dimension: Rim diameter 16 cm; Height 10 cm; Base diameter 7 cm.
Description: Coba bowl with conial form. It has the same attributes as the above bowl but the paste is
lighter buff color. Bottom half of the exterior was craped with a hard tool horizontally.

Name: Plain Bowl Find No: D.86-144 Location: (GK) Room GK


Dimension: Base diameter 17 cm; Height 10 cm; Base diameter 7,5 cm
Description: Coba bowl with conical form. It has the same attributes as the above bowl, except the paste
has pink color. Scraping is limited to bottom part of the exterior and scraping was horizontal but very
deep and roughly.

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D.86-72 D.86-208 D.84-71
(drawing Esin, Harmankaya 1988) (drawing Esin, Harmankaya 1986)

Name: Plain Bowl Find No: D.86-72 Location:(BC)RoomBM


Dimension: Rim diameter: 15 cm; Height: 10,5 cm; Base diameter 6,5 cm.
Description: Coba bowl with mmore or less conical form. The wall was built more vertical. It has pinkish
paste color and fine clay with grit temper and no chaff was used. Well fired. Rim are widens slightly.
Base is slightly convex shaped but still can be called as flat. No sign of wheel use. Lower half was
scraped with a hard tool but scraping was made carefully.

Name: Plain bowl Find No: D.86-208 Location:(GK)RoomGK


Dimension: Rim diameter 15 cm; Height: 10 cm; Base diameter 8 cm
Description: Coba bowl with conical form. It has pink color paste and fine clay with grit temper. No
chaff. Well fired. Rim slightly widens. Flat base. Use of wheel is not visible on the available pieces.
Lower half of the exterior is scraped with hard tool and carefully.

Name: Plain bowl Find No: D.84-71 Location: (BC) Room DH


Dimension: Rim diameter 15 cm; Height 10 cm; Base diameter 8 cm.
Description: Coba bowl with conical form. It has light buff color paste probably made from levigated,
very fine clay. Little grit temper but no chaff. Well fired. Rim area slightly widens with simple lip. Lower
half of the exterior was scraped and no sign of wheel use visible.

296

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
D .84-73 D .86-199
(drawing Esin, Harmankaya 1986) (drawing Esin, Harm ankaya 1988)
Name: Plain Bowl Find No: D.84-73 Location: (BC) Room DH
Dimension: Rim diameter 20 cm; Height 9 cm; Base diameter 6,5 cm.
Description: Coba Bowl with conical form. Its size is wider than the others in the plain bowl group. Paste
is buff color with grit and some chaff temper. Well fired. Flat base. Made on slow wheel. Most of the
exterior was scraped with hard tool. Scraping was rough and deep resulting with uneven exterior.

Name: Plain Bowl Find No: D.86-199 Location: (FC) Room FC


Dimension: Rim diameter 22,5 cm; Height 9 cm; Base diameter 7,5 cm.
Description: Coba bowl with round form. This is the widest size in the plain bowl group. Paste is pinkish
color with grit and some chaff temper. Well fired. Hat base. Made on slow wheel and the lower part of
the exterior is scraped with hard tool diagonally.

D.83-180 D .84-72
______________________________(drawing Esin, H arm ankaya 1986)
Name: Plain Bowl Find No: D.83-180 Location: (BC) Room BD
Dimension: Rim diameter 16 cm; Height 9 cm; Base diameter 8 cm.
Description: Coba bowl with almost conical for. Belly area has convex shape. It has pinkish paste color
with grit temper and some chaff inclusion. Well fired. Very slight flaring rim area. Made on slow wheel
and lower half of the exterior was scraped with a hard tool.

Name: Plain Bowl Find No: D.83-182 Location: (BC) Room BD


Dimension: Rim diameter 17 cm; Height 8,5 cm; Base diameter 6,4 cm.
Description: Coba bowl with the same attributes of above bowl, except it has larger and deeper size and
buff color paste.

297

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Name: Plain Bowl Find No: D.81-42 Location: (BC) Room AU
Dimension: Rim diameter 17 cm; Height 8 cm; Base diameter 5 cm.
Description: Coba bowl with conical form. It has buff paste with both grit and chaff temper. Well fired.
Flat base. Rim area widens with simple pronounced simple lip. Made on slow wheel. Lower half of the
exterior and the base were carefully scraped with a hard tool. Scraping was made in horizontal direction.

Name: Plain Bowl Find No: D.81-84 Location: (i)Room R


Dimension: Rim diameter 17 cm; Height 8,5 cm; Base diameter 6 cm.
Description: Same as above, except reddish-buff paste with heavy grit temper. This pot was used as a lid
to cover a pot burial, which found on the floor of the room.

298

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
D.84-57 D .81-429 D.85-125
(drawing Esin, Harmankaya 1986)
(draw ing Esin, Harm ankaya 1986)
_______________________ (drawing Esin, Harmankaya 1987)

Name: Plain Bowl Find No: D.84-57 Location: (BC) Room BD


Dimension: Rim diameter 13 cm; Height 7,5 cm; Base diameter 5 cm.
Description: Coba Bowl with conical form. Paste is buff color and it has grit temper. Self slipped. Well
fired. Rim area is slightly flaring. Flat base. Made on slow wheel. Lower part of the exterior scraped
with a hard tool. Scraping was made with vertical motion.

Name: Plain Bowl Find No: D.81-429 Location: (BC) Room BB


Dimension: Rim diameter 11 cm; Height -; Base diameter 10 cm.
Description: Coba bowl, but also is reminiscent of Mesopotamian origin because of its straight sided
wall, round base and lacking lip. Buff color paste with fine grit and some chaff temper. Well fired. Made
on slow wheel. No visible scraping treatment on the exterior. Blackish discoloration maybe resulted from
its use related to some firing activities, instead of its firing process during its production as a pot

Name: Plain bowl Find No: D.83-198 Location: (BC) Room BD


Dimension: Rim diameter 13,5; Height 10 cm; Base diameter 6,5 cm.
Description: Coba bowl with conical form. It has buff color paste with grit temper. Well fired. Flat base.
Rim area widens slightly. Made on slow wheel and lower half of the exterior scraped with a hard tool.
Scraping was made with short and in horizontal direction.

Name: Plain bowl Find No: D.85-125 Location: (FK) Room FK


Dimension: Rim diameter 16 cm; Height 11 cm; Base diameter 6,5 cm.
Description: Possibly Coba bowl with conical form, but also its size and the ring base remind painted
Mesopotamian variety. Lower belly area has convex shape. It has pink paste with grit temper. Chaff
temper is rare but visible. Well fired. Rim area flares out and it has much thinner wall thickness than the
rest of the section. Probably made on slow wheel and no scraping is visible on the exterior.

299

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
D.86-73
(drawing Esin, Harm ankaya 1986) (drawing Esin, Harmankaya 1987)

Name: Plain bowl Find No: D.84-1 Location: (BC) Room BD


Dimension: Rim diameter 16 cm; Height 9 cm; Base diameter 6 cm.
Description: Coba bowl with conical form. It has buff color paste with grit temper. Well fired. It has flat
base, very slight convex wall and no lip. Bottom half of the exterior scraped with a hard tool diagonally.
An X shaped mark (potters mark?) is on the upper part of the exterior, which was made before the firing
process of the bowl.

Name: Plain bowl Find No: D.86-73 Location: (DU) Room DU


Dimension: Rim diameter 16 cm; Height 11 cm; base diameter 7 cm.
Description: Coba bowl with conical form. It has pink color paste with heavy grit temper. White color
temper must be larger specks of limestone. Well fired and straight sided. Flat base. Made on slow wheel.
Lower half of the exterior was diagonally scraped with a hard tool.

Name: Plain Bowl Find No: D.80-165 Location: (1) Room R


Dimension: Rim diameter 15,5 cm; Height 9 cm; Base diameter 5 cm.
Description: Coba bowl with conical form. It has buff color paste with fine clay and heavy grit temper.
Well fired. Flat base and slightly flaring rim area. Made on slow wheel. Lower part of the exterior was
scraped with a hard tool.

Name: Plain Bowl Find No: D.80-135 Location: (I) Room R


Dimension: Rim diameter 17 cm; Height 9 cm; Base diameter 7 cm.
Description: Coba bowl with conical form. It has very light buff color paste and heavy grit temper. Well
fired. Flat base. Made on slow wheel. Lower part of tire exterior was scraped with a hard tool.

300

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
D.81-370 D.80-31 D.80-164

(drawing Esin 1986a)

Name: Plain Bowl Find No: D.81-370 Location: (BC) Room BB


Dimension: Rim diameter 17 cm; Height 9 cm; Base diameter 6 cm.
Description: Coba bowl with conical form. It has pinkish-red paste color with grit and some chaff
temper. Well fired. It has slightly convex body and flat base. Made on slow wheel. Lower part of the
exterior was horizontally and deeply scraped with a hard tool.

Name: Plain Bowl Find No: D.80-31 Location: (1) Room I


Dimension: Rim diameter 17 cm; Height 8,5; Base diameter 6,5 cm.
Description: Coba bowl with buff color paste and grit temper. Small amount of chaff is also wisible.
Well fired. Made on slow wheel. Lower part of the exterior was horizontally scraped with a hard tool.

Name: Plain Bowl Find No: D.80-164 Location: (I) Room AD


Dimension: Rim diameter 18 cm; Height 9,5 cm; Base diameter 7 cm.
Description: Coba bowl with conical form. It has pinkish-buff color paste and grit and chaff temper. Well
fired. Made on slow wheel. Lower part of the exterior was carefully scraped with a hard tool.

301

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
D.82-21
D.80-133
(drawing Esin 1984)

Name: Plain Bowl Find No: D.80-133 Location: (I) Room R


Dimension: Rim diameter 13,5 cm; Height 9 cm; Base diameter 4,5 cm.
Description: Coba bowl with conical form. It has buff color paste with heavy grit temper. Well fired.
Small and flat base. Made on slow wheel. Lower part of the exterior was scraped horizontally.

Name: Plain Bowl Find No: D.82-21 Location: (BY1) Room BY1
Dimension: Rim diameter 24 cm; Height 15,5 cm; Base diameter 7,5 cm.
Description: Coba bowl, but its size, form and paste color remind painted Ubaid wares. Buff paste with
heavy grit temper. Well fired. Flat based with convex body and flaring rim. No wheel use sign.

15 cm

D.82-40 10 cm
D.84-66
(draw ing Esin, Harmankaya 1986) (drawing Esin 1984)
D.83-181
(drawing Esin 1985a)
Name: Plain bowl Find No: D.84-66 Location: (BC) Room BD
Dimension: Rim diameter 19 cm; Height 13 cm; Base diameter 7,5 cm.
Description: Plain, light color and large size bowl. Further information is not available.

Name: Plain bowl Find No: D.82-40 Location: (EE) Room CC


Dimension: Rim diameter 25 cm; Height 16,5 cm; Base diameter 8 cm.
Description: Plain, light color and large size bowl. Further information is not available.

Name: Plain bowl Find No: D.83-181 Location: (BC) Room BD


Dimension: Rim diameter 20 cm; Height 15 cm; Base diameter 7 cm.
Description: Plain and large size bowl. Green paste color. Further information is not available.

302

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
D.79-75
D.81-21
(drawing Esin 1987) (drawing Esin 1986a)

Name: Plain Bowl Find No: D.79-75 Location: (1) Room K


Dimension: Rim diameter 9,5 cm; Height 6 cm; base diameter 5 cm.
Description: Coba Bowl with pink paste color. Grit temper and hand made. Well fired. It has widening
rim area, slightly convex body and ring base. Its form is similar to painted Ubaid forms.
Name: Plain Spouted Bowl Find No: D.81-21 Location: (I) Room I
Dimension: Rim diameter 8; Height 8 cm; Base diameter 4,5 cm.
Description: Plain bowl with a spout. It has buff color paste with grit temper. Well fired. It has round and
slightly convex base, hemispherical body and short, flaring neck. The spout has cylindrical form and goes
upward. It widens towards the end. It is a miniature bowl imitating the larger bowls of the same form.

Name: Plain Bowl Find No: D.86-210 Location: (GK) Room GK


Dimension: Rim diameter 18 cm; Shoulder 22 cm; Height 11,5 cm; Base diameter 4 cm.
Description: Coba bowl with buff paste color. Grit temper. Hand made. Well fired. Lower part of the
body is conical and slightly convex shape. Shoulder inverts and gives closing form to the rim area. Rat
base. Conical area was scraped with a hard tool.

Name: Plain Bowl Find No: D.86-213 Location: (GK) Room GK


Dimension: Rim diameter 20 cm; Shoulder 23,5 cm; Height 13,5; Base diameter 3,5 cm.
Description: Same as above except slightly lighter paste color.

303

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
D.83- 197
(drawing Esin, Harmankaya 1986)

Name: Plain Bowl Find No: D.83-197 Location: (BC) Room DC2
Dimension: Rim diameter 13,5 cm; Shoulder 16 cm; Height 8,5 cm; Base diameter 5 cm.
Description: Coba bowl. Pink color paste with grit temper. Well fired and hand made. Lower half is
conical but shoulder was inverted to have closed the rim area. Flat base. Near the base area is scraped
with a hard tool.

Name: Plain Bowl Find No: D.81-119 Location: (DU) Room BE


Dimension: Rim diameter 13,5; Shoulder 17 cm; Height 10 cm; Base diameter 5 cm.
Description: Same as above, except reddish paste color.

D.80-163 D.81-76

Name: Plain Bowl Find No: D.80-163 Location: (I) Room AC


Dimension: Rim diameter 16,5 cm; Shoulder 20 cm; Height 12 cm; Base diameter 4 cm.
Description: Coba bowl with buff paste color. Grit temper. Hand made. Well fired. Lower part of the
body is conical and slightly convex shape. The inverted shoulder gives a closed form to the vessel. Flat
base. Conical area was scraped in different directions with a hard tool.

Name: Plain bowl Find No: D.81-76 Location: (BC) Room AO


Dimension: Rim diameter 17,5 cm; Shoulder 22,5 cm; Height 11,5 cm; Base diameter 4 cm
Description: Same as above, except this one has darker paste color.

304

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
D.81- 399 D.86-211
(drawing Esin 1986a)

Name: Plain Bowl Find No: D.81-399 Location: (i) Room R


Dimension: Rim diameter 11,5 - 1 4 cm; Carination 17 cm; height 11 cm.
Description: Carinated bowl with buff color paste. Grit and occasional chaff temper. Well fired. Round
base and carination on the belly area of the body. Above the carination it becomes close form.

Name: Plain bowl Find No: D.86-211 Location: (GK) Room GK


Dimension: Rim diameter 15 cm; Carination 18 cm; Height 12 cm.
Description: Same as above, except lighter buff color paste and larger size.

mm
itili

Name: Plain Bowl Find No: D.86-212 Location: (GK) Room GK


Dimension: Rim diameter 19 cm; Height 13,5 cm; Base diameter 4,5 cm.
Description: Plain bowl with pink paste color. Abundant grit temper. Well fired. Lower body is conical
but upper belly has round form. Small flat base.

Name: Plain Bowl Find No: D.85-124 Location: (FC) Room ER


Dimension: Base diameter 12,5; Height 10 cm.
Description: Hemispherical bowl with buff color paste. Very thin wall compared to other plain bowls.
Well fired. Round base.

Name: Plain Bowl Find No: D.81-11 Location: (1) Room AD


Dimension: Rim diameter 12 cm; Height 9 cm.
Description: Plain spherical bowl. It has buff color paste with grit and some chaff temper. Well fired.
Round base, convex body. No lip.

305

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
D.79-141
(draw ing E sin 1980)
0 1 2 1 < ion
D.81-428
(draw ing Esin, H arm ankaya 1988)
Name: Plain Bowl Find No: D.79-141 Location: (I) Room K
Dimension: Rim diameter 15,5 cm; Height 10,5 cm; Base diameter 4 cm.
Description: Unpainted straight sided bowl. Probably Ubaid. Pikish-buff color paste and grit and some
chaff temper. It was well fired and made on slow wheel. Exterior was smoothed probably by hand. Small
flat base. Lower body is round but upper body is straight sided. Small and simple lip widens slightly.

Name: Plain Bowl Find No: D.81-111 Location: (BC) Room AP


Dimension: Rim diameter 11 cm; Height 8,5 cm; Base diameter 3,5 cm.
Description: Painted Ubaid cup. Probably levigated, veiy fine clay with buff color paste. Grit temper.
Well fired. Small flat base. Convex shape body. Rim area is painted in brown as a band.

Name: Plain Bowl Find No: D.81-428 Location: (BC) Room BB


Dimension: Rim diameter 12 cm; Height 8,5 cm.
Description: Plain, light color Ubaid bowl. No further description is available.

Name: Plain Bowl Find No: D.83-206 Location: (EE) Room DF


Dimension: Rim diameter 12,5 cm; Height 8,5 cm.
Description: Dark faced bowl with dark brown paste. It has both grit and chaff temper. Both faces were
well burnished. Probably firing was medium-low level but well controlled. Round base and conical body.

Name: Plain Bowl Find No: D.86-178 Location: (GK) Room GK


Dimension: Rim diameter 11,5 cm; Height 9 cm.
Description: Dark faced bowl with dark brown paste. It has heavy grit and chaff temper. Both faces
were burnished. Probably firing was medium-low level but well controlled. Round base and conical body.

Name: Plain Bowl Find No: D.80-170 Location: (I) Room AD


Dimension: Rim diameter 13,5 cm; Height 9 cm.
Description: Plain spherical bowl. It has brown color paste with grit and chaff temper. Well fired. Round
base with convex body. No lip. A + shaped incision (potters mark?) was made on the base.

306

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
D.80-136 D.81-78 D.81-78
Name: Painted bowl Find No: D.80-136 Location: (BC?) Room Y/BC
Dimension: Rim diameter 18 cm; Height 15 cm.
Description: Painted Ubaid bowl. It has buff color paste with fine and dense grit temper. Well fired.
Round base with conical body form. Self-slipped and hand smoothed exterior. Brown color paint but not
thick giving impression as fugitive, light color. Maybe made on slow wheel.

Name: Painted bowl Find No: D.81-78 Location: (BC) Room AO


Dimension: Rim diameter 23 cm; Height 12 cm; Base diameter 8 cm.
Description: Painted Ubaid bowl. It has buff color paste with dense grit temper. Well fired. Ring base
with sinuous sided body form. It has simple lip. Painting was dark brown color made mostly on the
interior. Only the lip area on the exterior was painted. Maybe made on slow wheel.

D.84-74
(drawing Esin, Harmankaya 1986)
Name: Painted Bowl Find No: D.84-74 Location: (I) Room U
Dimension: Rim diameter 17.5 cm; Height 12 cm; Base diameter 8 cm.
Description: Painted Ubaid bowl. It has pink color paste and fine clay. Maybe levigated. Heavy but fine
grit temper. Well fired. Ring base with sinuous sided body form. Rim area widens slightly. Painting was
dark brown color made mostly on the exterior. Only the lip area on the interior was painted. Maybe
made on slow wheel.

307

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
JARS:

Name: Plain Jar Find No: D.85-49 Location: (EL) Room FR


Dimension: Rim diameter 15 cm; Belly diameter 23 cm; Height 24 cm.
Description: Plain jar with buff paste. It has grit and chaff inclusion. Well fired. Interior was smoothed
with a hard tool while the exterior was carefully burnished. Neck was made on slow wheel before it was
attached to body. Round base and round body form. Upper belly has carination . Short and flaring neck.

Name: Plain Jar Find No: D.81-121 Location: (I) Room R


Dimension: Rim diameter 17,5 cm; Belly area diameter 26 cm; Height 26 cm.
Description: Same as above, except this pot is not burnished but self-slipped and it has shorter neck.

(drawing Esin, Harmankaya 1987)


Name: Plain Jar Find No: D.85-120 Location: (EL) Room EN
Dimension: Rim diameter 16,5 cm; Belly diameter 30 cm; Height 28,5 cm.
Description: Plain jar with buff color paste. It has grit and chaff temper. Well fired. Round base. Hand
made. Neck may or may not be made on slow wheel. Short neck with flaring rim. Inside was smoothed
with a hard tool while the exterior was smoothed carefully.

Name: Plain Jar Find No: D.83-77 Location: (EE) Room DB


Dimension: Rim diameter 19,5 cm; Belly area diameter 34 cm; Height 34 cm.
Description: Same as above, except the neck was made on slow wheel while the body was hand made.

308

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
D.84-19
(drawing Esin, Harmankaya 1986)
D .7 9 -1 9 3

(drawing Esin, Harmankaya 1987)

Name: Plain Jar Find No: D.79-193 Location: (I) Room K


Dimension: Rim diameter 18 cm; Belly diameter 34 cm; Height 35 cm.
Description: Plain jar with spout. Pinkish-buff paste with heavy grit temper. Exterior was carefully
smoothed and self slipped but interior was smoothed roughly with a sharp tool. Well fired. Probably it
had round base and globular body with slight carination on die belly area. Short flaring neck. Cylindrical
straight spout with unclear length.

Name: Plain Jar Find No: D.84-19 Location: (BC) Room BD


Dimension: Rim diameter 19,5 cm; Belly diameter 26,5 cm; Height 28,5 cm.
Description: Plain jar with spout. Pink paste with grit temper. Exterior was carefully smoothed and self
slipped but interior smoothed with rough tool. Well fired. Round base and globular body. Short flaring
neck. Cylindrical straight spout with unclear length.

309

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
D.85-121
(drawing Esin, Harmankaya 1987) (drawing Esin, Harmankaya 1987)

Name: Plain Jar Find No: D.85-81 Location: (I) Room P-L
Dimension: Rim diameter 16,5 cm; Belly diameter 21 cm; Height 20 cm.
Description: Plain jar with spout. Buff color paste with fine grit and chaff temper. Well fired. Round
base and globular body with slight carination. Exterior smoothed. Short and flaring neck. Cylindrical
spout with widening end.

Name: Plain Jar Find No: D.85-121 Location: (FC) Room ER


Dimension: Rim diameter 11 cm; Belly diameter 28 cm; Height 31 cm.
Description: Plain jar with buff paste color. Grit and chaff temper. Well fired. Self-slipped exterior.
Round base with globular body. Long, straight neck with slight widening.

310

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
D.83-202 D. 85-152
nu oZb
c cm. 0 i i i ,t i
> a10cm.
*----------- ------------ 1________i i

(drawing Esin, Harmankaya 1987) (drawing Esin, Harmankaya 1987)

Name: Plain Jar Find No: D.83-202 Location: (BC) Room BD


Dimension: Rim diameter 16 - 23.5 cm; Belly diameter 37 cm; Height 41 cm.
Description: Light color plain jar. No further description is available.

Name: Plained Jar Find No: D.85-152 Location: (FC) Room FC


Dimension: Rim diameter 13 cm; Belly diameter 22 cm; Height 25 cm.
Description: Light color plain jar. No further description is available.

311

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
D.86-150 D.85-169
(drawing Esin, Harmankaya 1988)

Name: Painted Jar Find No: D.86-150 Location: (FC) Room ET


Dimension: Rim diameter 13.5 cm; Belly diameter 30 cm; Height 35 cm.
Description: Painted Ubaid jar. Buff paste with fine grit and chaff temper. Well fired. Probably made on
slow-wheel. Exterior was well smoothed, but interior has rough surface. Round base with globular body
form. Long and flaring neck. Dark brown paint as a band pattern both on the beginning of the neck and
the lip area.

Name: Plain Jar Find No: D.85-169 Location: (FC) Room ET


Dimension: Rim diameter 11 cm; Belly diameter 30 cm; Height 33 cm.
Description: Painted Ubaid jar. Pinkish-buff paste with grit temper. Well fired. Exterior smoothed and
self-slipped. Probably round base. Globular and slightly widened body form. Long and slightly flaring
neck. Complex design covering entire exterior area with dark brown paint color.

312

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Tv&iWwly.

D.-86-I9& D.83-33
(drawing Esin, Harmankaya 1988) (drawing Esin 1985a)

Name: Painted Jar Find No: D.86-198 Location: (FC) Room FC


Dimension: Rim diameter 9 cm; Belly diameter 17 cm; Height 18,5 cm.
Description: Smaller painted Ubaid jar. Buff paste with fine grit temper. Well fired. Maybe hand made.
Exterior is self slipped. Round base with globular body form. Long and flaring neck. Dark brown paint is
on the shoulder and rim consisting of set of bands with diagonal lines in between them.

Name: Painted Jar Find No: D.83-33 Location: (BC) Room BB


Dimension: Rim diameter 7 cm; Belly diameter 12 cm; Height 11,5 cm.
Description: Smaller painted Ubaid jar. Pink paste with grit and chaff temper. Well fired. Probably
made on slow-wheel. Burnished exterior. Round base with globular body form. Long and flaring neck
that was made separately before is was attached to the body. Dark brown paint on the shoulder consists
of two thick lines filled with crosshatch pattern.

313

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
(drawing Esin 1986a)
D .86 -10 0

(drawing Esin, Harmankaya 1988)

Name: Plain Jar Find No: D.79-160 Location: (I) Room K


Dimension: Rim diameter 24 cm; Height 28 cm.
Description: Plain U shaped jar. Buff paste color with grit and some chaff temper. Well fired. Round
base with straight sided body form.

Name: Plain Jar Find No: D.86-100 Location: (EL) Room FS


Dimension: Rim diameter 15 cm; Height 31 cm.
Description: Plain U shaped jar. Buff paste color with grit and some chaff temper. Well fired. Made on
slow wheel. Round base with straight sided body form, but towards the rim, body was slightly introverted.

Name: Plain Jar Find No: D.81-120 Location: (I) Room i


Dimension: Rim diameter 14,5 cm; Height 22,5 cm.
Description: Strainer. Brown color paste with some grit and heavy chaff temper. Fired in reduced
conditions. Both surfaces were burnished. Hand made. Convex base with V shaped conical body form.
Holes were made vertical to the surface before firing. Diameter of the holes is ca. 6 mm. They were
placed in regular vertical rows but the number of holes in each row varies from 4 to 8.

314

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
D.85-122 D.81-99 D.86-155

Name: Plain Jar Find No: D.85-122 Location: (EL) Room EN


Dimension: Rim diameter 8,5 cm; Belly diameter 20 cm; Height 18 cm.
Description: Smaller unpainted Ubaid jar. Light brown paste with heavy grit temper. Well fired.
Probably made on slow-wheel. Exterior is hand smoothed. Round base with globular body form. Lower
body has slight carination. Probably long and flaring neck.

Name: Plain Jar Find No: D.81-99 Location: (BC) Room BB


Dimension: Rim diameter 9 cm; Carination 15 cm; Height 13 cm.
Description: Smaller unpainted Ubaid jar. Buff paste with grit temper. Well fired. Probably made on
slow-wheel. Exterior is hand smoothed. Round base with bi-conical body form. Short and flaring neck.

Name: Plain Jar Find No: D.86-155 Location: (GK) Room GF


Dimension: Rim diameter 7,5 cm; carination 14 cm; Height 11 cm.
Description: Smaller unpainted Ubaid jar. Light buff paste color with grit temper. Well fired. Probably
made on slow-wheel. Exterior is hand smoothed. Round base with bi-conical body form. Flaring neck.

Name: Plain Jar Find No: D.85-118 Location: (EL) Room FP


Dimension: Rim diameter 20,5 cm; Belly diameter 34 cm; Height 36 cm; Base diameter 13 cm.
Description: Dark Faced Jar. Dark brown paste color with grit temper. Hand made. Well burnished
exterior and interior of the rim area. Darker brown coloring at the upper body resulted from firing
process. Flat base with round body form and pronounced shoulder. Closing rim area with lip. Burial pot.

Name: Plain Jar Find No: D.81-70 Location: (BC) Room AU


Dimension: Rim diameter 15,5 cm; Belly diameter 22 cm; Height 18 cm; Base diameter 5,5 cm.
Description: Dark faced jar. Grayish-brown paste with heavy grit and chaff temper. Hand made.
Exterior is slightly burnished probably to smooth the surface. Interior is un-bumished but hand smoothed.
Resulted from firing process, brown lower body and almost black upper body. Round base with globular
body form. Two conical lugs at opposite sides. Burial pot.

Name: Plain Jar Find No: D.79-143 Location: (I) Room K


Dimension: Rim diameter 15,6 cm; Belly diameter 24 cm; Height 24 cm.
Description: Dark faced jar. Dirty gray-brown paste color with grit temper. Hand made. Burnished
exterior with hand smoothed interior. Darker brown color at the upper body resulted from firing process.
Round base with round body form. Narrowing rim area with two lugs.

315

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Q86-?
D.85-164 (draw ing Esin, H arm ankaya 1988)
(draw ing Esin, Harm ankaya 1987)

Name: Plain Jar Find No: D.85-164 Location: (EL) Room EL


Dimension: Rim diameter 23 cm; Belly diameter 34 cm; Height 34 cm; Base diameter 6 cm.
Description: Dark faced jar. Brown paste color with grit temper. Hand made. Exterior burnished and
interior hand smoothed. Small flat base with globular body form. Two lugs near the rim. Burial pot.

Name: Plain Jar Find No: D.86-2 Location: (EE) Room EC


Dimension: Rim diameter 15 cm; Belly diameter 23 cm; Height 20 cm; Base diameter 5 cm.
Description: Same as above, except both exterior and upper half of the exterior was carefully burnished
and it has the lowered belly area form. Burial pot.

Name: Plain Jar Find No: D.80-92 Location: (i) Room AD


Dimension: Rim diameter 18 cm; Belly diameter 25 cm; Height 25 cm; Base diameter 7cm.
Description: Dark faced jar. Dark grown paste with color variation. Grit temper. Hand made. Hand
smoothed exterior. Flat base and round body form. Two lugs near the rim. Burial pot.

Name: Plain Jar Find No: D.81-33 Location: (DU) Room AT


Dimension: Rim diameter 18.5 cm; Belly diameter 25 cm; Height 28 cm; Base diameter 7 cm.
Description: Dark faced jar. Brown paste color with heavy grit temper. Hand made. Burnished exterior.
Flat base and round but deformed body form. Two lugs near the rim.

Name: Plain Jar Find No: D.81-136 Location: (I) Room I


Dimension: Rim diameter 18.5 cm; Belly diameter 25 cm; Height 28 cm.
Description: Dark faced jar. Brown paste with heavy grit temper. Hand made. Exterior was burnished,
but interior was smoothed. Round base with globular body form. Darker brown color at the upper body
resulted from firing process. Two lugs near the rim. Burial pot.

316

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
(drawing Esin, Harmankaya 1987) D .8 5 -165 D.83-183
(drawing Esin, Harmankaya 1987)

Name: Plain Jar Find No: D.84-94 Location: (BC) Room BD


Dimension: Rim diameter 17 cm; Belly diameter 25 cm; Height 27 cm.
Description: Dark faced jar. Brown paste color with heavy grit and chaff temper. Both interior and
exterior were carefully burnished. Round base and globular body form. Color variation is visible on the
surface. Two lugs on die opposite side near the rim.

Name: Plain Jar Find No: D.85-165 Location: (FN) Room HK


Dimension: Rim diameter 22 cm; Belly diameter 29 cm; Height 29 cm; Base diameter 11 cm.
Description: Dark face jar. Pink-brown paste color with grit temper. Hand made and the form of the pot
is deformed. Flat base with round body form and four lugs near the rim. Color variation. Maybe the paste
color was pink but the belly area had reduced condition during firing.

Name: Plain Jar Find No: D.83-183 Location: (EE) Room DB


Dimension: Rim diameter 18,5 cm; Belly diameter 33 cm; Height 30 cm; Base diameter 8cm.
Description: Dark faced jar. Brown paste color with grit and some chaff temper. Hand made. Flat base
and round body form. Four lugs were placed near the lip.

317

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
D .85-93
(drawing Esin, Harmankaya 1987)
D.83-203 D.83-76
(drawing Esin, Harmankaya 1987)

Name: Plain Jar Find No: D.85-93 Location: (DU) Room DV


Dimension: Rim diameter 20 cm; Belly diameter 36 cm; Height 35 cm.
Description: Dark faced jar. Brown paste color with grit temper. Hand made. Exterior is burnished.
Round base with globular body form. Upper body has slight carination creating a shoulder area. Five
knob shaped five lugs are located near the rim area.

Name: Plain Jar Find No: D.83-203 Location: (EE) Room DB


Dimension: Rim diameter 26 cm; Belly diameter 36,5 cm; Height 30 cm.
Description: Dark faced jar. Light brown-pinkish paste color with grit temper. Hand made. Exterior was
carefully burnished, interior was also burnished. Round base with round body form. Four angular shaped
lugs were placed vertically on the rim. Burial pot.

Name: Plain Jar Find No: D.83-76 Location: (EE) Room DB


Dimension: Rim diameter 28 cm; Belly diameter 37 cm; Height 31 cm.
Description: Dark faced jar. Light brown paste color with grit temper. Hand made. Exterior carefully
burnished and only the rim area of the interior is burnished. Round base with round body. Rim area is
straight sided with four crescent shaped lugs. Color variation is visible in various locations on the pot.
Burial pot

318

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
f t '"

D .8 1 -1 3 7 D .8 4 - 1 3 D .8 6 -1
(d r a w in g E sin ,
H a rm a n k a y a 1 9 8 8 )

Name: Plain Jar Find No: D.81-137 Location: (DU) Room AY


Dimension: Rim diameter 18,5 cm; Belly diameter 24 cm; Height 25,5 cm.
Description: Dark faced jar. Light brown paste color with grit and chaff temper. Hand made. Exterior
was burnished. Round base with orange color and round body form with light brown color paste. Four
lugs near the rim. Burial pot.

Name: Plain Jar Find No: D.84-13 Location: (GK) Room CM


Dimension: Rim diameter 19,5 cm; Belly diameter 26 cm; Height 26 cm.
Description: Dark faced jar. Brown paste color with grit and chaff temper. Hand made. Exterior is
carefully burnished. Interior was burnished less carefully from Rim to the lower belly area. Round body
with round body form. Rim. area has light brown color throughout, which was probably resulted during
firing process. Four knob shaped lugs near the rim area.

Name: Plain Jar Find No: D.86-1 Location: (DU) Room BE


Dimension: Rim diameter 13 cm; Belly diameter 17,5 cm; Height 17 cm.
Description: Dark faced jar. Dark brown color paste with grit temper. Hand made. Only exterior is
burnished. Round base and round body form. Color variation probably resulted from firing process. Four
lugs near the rim area.

319

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Miniature cu p s:

Q 8 S -167
( d r a w i n g E s in , H a r m a n k a y a 1 9 8 8 )
( d r a w in g E sin , H a r m a n k a y a 1 9 8 7 )

Name: Plain Bowl Find No: D.85-12 Location: (I) Room U


Dimension: Rim diameter 7 cm; Belly diameter 7 cm; Height 5 cm.
Description: Carinated bowl with buff color paste and grit temper. Well fired. Round base and fla ring
rim area.

Name: Plain Bowl Find No: D.85-167 Location: (FC) Room ER


Dimension: Rim diameter 5,6 cm; Belly area diameter 7 cm; Height 4,5 cm.
Description: Small bowl with buff color paste. Grit temper and well fired. Round base with simple lip.

D.80-46 D.80-169

Name: Plain bowl Find No: D.80-46 Location: (I) Room R


Dimension: Rim diameter 6,5 cm; Height 4,5 cm;
Description: Plain bowl with light brown paste and grit temper. Well fired. It has round base, spherical
wide body, and wide flattened rim. Made on slow wheel. This is a miniature bowl.

Name: Plain Bowl Find No: D.80-169 Location: (I) Room K


Dimension: Rim diameter 5 cm; Height 5 cm.
Description: Plain bowl with pink color paste. Grit temper. Well fired. It has round base, spherical body
form and pronounced flaring rim. Made on slow wheel. This is a miniature bowl.

320

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
in?ji n !J Hj ;i^|n
i'G ^ l 4 3

D. 8 5 - 1 1 2
(drawing Esin, Harmankaya 1987)
Name: Miniature cup Find No: D.86-55 Location: (FK) Room FK
Dimension: Rim diameter 8 cm; Height 4 cm.
Description: Miniature cup with handle. Brick-red paste color with heavy grit temper. Hand made. Both
interior and exterior have rough surface. Round base with bent handle. It may be a scoop or spoon, but it
seems too wide and its handle is too short. Tentatively, it is identified as a lamp here.

Name: Miniature cup Find No: D.82-45 Location: (BC) Room DC1
Dimension: Rim diameter 6 cm; Height 3 cm.
Description: Miniature cup. Red paste color with heavy grits. Hand made. Surfaces were not treated
well and remained rough.

Name: Miniature cup Find No: D.85-112 Location: (BC) Room EV


Dimension: Rim diameter 4,5 cm; Height 3 cm.
Description: Stone bowl. Black color. Round base and short neck. Everted lip. Circular grooves on the
interior is visible left from drilling during the production process.

321

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Name: Miniature Cup Find No: D.81-259 Location: (DU) Room AT
Dimension: Rim diameter 2,3 cm; Height 5 cm.
Description: Dark faced cup. Black-dark brown paste with heavy grit temper. Hand made. Round base
and narrowing body form.

Name: Miniature Cup Find No: D.83-8 Location: (EE) Room DB


Dimension: Rim diameter cm; Height cm; Base diameter 2 cm.
Description: Buff color paste with sparse fine grit temper. Ring base ovoid shaped body form. Hand
made. Rim area is missing.

Name: Miniature Cup Find No: D.81-98 Location: (BC) Room BB


Dimension: Rim diameter cm; Height 3 cm.
Description: Brown color paste with grit temper. Hand made. Round base and U shaped body form.

Name: Miniature Bowl Find No: D.79-142 Location: (I) Room O


Dimension: Rim diameter 4 cm; Height 8,5 cm.
Description: Pink paste color with fine grit. Well fired. Hand made. Round base. Hemispherical body,
short neck and flaring rim area.

Name: Miniature Bowl Find No: D.81-71 Location: (DU) Room BF


Dimension: Rim diameter 3,8 cm; Height 3,5 cm; Base diameter 1,5 cm.
Description: Dark gray paste color with heavy grit Hand made. Small ring base with conical body form.

322

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
D.81-429 D.80-30
Name: Miniature jar Find No: D.81-429 Location: (BC) Room BC
Dimension: Rim diameter 6 cm; Carination 10 cm; Height 10,5 cm; Base diameter 3 cm.
Description: Unpainted Ubaid jar. Made with buff color paste with grit temper. Self-slipped exterior.
Well fired. It may have been made on slow wheel but available body pieces can not assure this. Rat
base, bi-conical body and short neck with flaring rim.

Name: Miniature jar Find No: D.80-30 Location: (1) Room AD


Dimension: Rim diameter 6,5 cm; Belly area 8 cm; Height 8 cm.
Description: Unpainted Ubaid jar. Made with yellowish-buff paste with grit and sparse chaff temper.
Well fired. Round base and rounded carination in the belly area. Short neck with flaring rim area.

D.85-83 D.86-209
(drawing Esin, Harmankaya 1987)
Name: Miniature jar Find No: D.85-83 Location: (EL) Room FR
Dimension: Rim diameter 6 cm; Carination 8 cm; Height 7 cm; Base 3 cm.
Description: Plain Ubaid jar. Made with buff color paste and grit temper. Self slipped. Well fired. Made
on slow wheel. Rat base with bi-conical body. Short neck and flaring rim area.

Name: Miniature jar Find No: D.86-209 Location: (GK) Room GK


Dimension: Rim diameter 6,5 cm; Carination area 12 cm; Height 9,5 cm; Base diameter 3 cm.
Description: Same as above, except much wider body form.

323

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
D.86-74
D.83-2 D.81-402
(drawing Esin,
(drawing Esin 1985a) (drawing Esin 1986a)
Harmankaya 1988)

Name: Pot Stand Find No: D.84-60 Location: (I) Room U


Dimension: Rim diameter 5 cm; Height 7 cm; Base diameter 6 cm.
Description: Buff paste color with grit temper. Well fired. Bi-conical form. Both sides may have been
holding the pot while the other end functioning as the base.

Name: Pot Stand Find No: D.86-74 Location: (FC) Room ET


Dimension: Rim diameter 7,5 cm; Height 11 cm; Base diameter 7,6 cm.
Description: Buff paste color with grit temper. Well fired. Bi-conical form. Both sides may have been
holding the pot while the other end functioning as the base.

Name: Miniature Bowl Find No: D.83-2 Location: (AS) Room DA


Dimension: Rim diameter 5 cm; Carination diameter 7 cm; Height 7 cm; Base diameter 3 cm.
Description: Miniature Ubaid bowl. Pinkish-buff color paste with grit temper. Exterior coated with slip
and well smoothed. Well fired. Flat base with carinated body. Narrow neck with flaring rim. Dark brown
painted pattern until the carination line.

Name: Miniature Bowl Find No: D.81-402 Location: (BC) Room BB


Dimension: Rim diameter 4 cm; Height 6 cm.
Description: Miniture Ubaid bowl. Pink paste color with grit temper. Well fired. Wide convex base with
lowered belly form. Short neck with a beak at one side of the rim. Dark brown paint on the neck.

324

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
D.85-145 D.85-146 D.79-175

(drawing Esin, Harmankaya 1987) (drawing Esin, Harmankaya 1987)

Name: Spoon Find No: D.85 -145 Location: (FD) Room FD


Dimension: Length 13 cm; Scoop diameter 5 cm.
Description: Brown paste with grit and chaff temper. Rough surface was not burnished.

Name: Spoon Find No: D.85-146 Location: (FD) Room FD


Dimension: Length 10,5 cm; Scoop diameter 4 cm.
Description: Buff paste color with blackened scoop areas. Grit temper. Entire exterior was burnished.
End of the handle broken but it may had hook shape.

Name: Pot Stand Find No: D.79-175 Location: (I) Room 1


Dimension: Diameter 8,5 cm; Height 2,3 cm.
Description: Ring shaped pot stand. Buff paste color with grit temper. Triangular shaped section with
soft comers.

325

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Small Artifacts:

_______________ D.81-37___________________
Name: Clay object Find No: D.81-37 Location: (I) Room R
Description: U shaped clay object. Buff color paste with heavy chaff temper. Two pointy ends broken
and the entire piece has slight curvature towards back. It may have been die part of a two-piece mobile
oven carrying pots on the pointy ends because of the blackened areas, which may have resulted from
firing activity.

Name: Clay object Find No: D.85-107 Location: (EL) Room EL


Description: Pedestal fragment? Unbaked clay. Left side flat but right side is concave shaped where the
pot was probably sitting. It may have been used as spool too, but no sign of such use is visible.

326

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
F ro m left to rig h t, top row :
Name: Spindle whorl Find No: D.86-43 Location: (FC) Room FC
Description: Made with very fine clay without any temper. Bi-conical shape.

Name: Spindle whorl Find No: D.83-109 Location: (BC) Room DC1
Description: Made with very fine clay without any temper. Bi-conical shape.

Name: Spindle whorl Find No: D.86-51 Location: (EE) Room EH


Description: Made with very fine clay without any temper. Bi-conical shape.

Name: Spindle whorl Find No: D.86-184 Location: (GK) Room GK


Description: Made with very fine clay without any temper. Bi-conical shape.

Middle row:
Name: Spindle whorl Find No: D.85-111 Location: (FC) Room ES
Description: Made with very fine clay without any temper. Bi-conical shape.

Name: Spindle whorl Find No: D.86-111 Location: (GK) Room GK


Description: Made with very fine clay without any temper. Bi-conical shape.

Name: Spindle whorl Find No: D.80-27 Location: (i) Room K


Description: Made with very fine clay without any temper. Bi-conical shape.

Name: Spindle whorl Find No: D.80-1 Location: (i) Room I


Description: Made with very fine clay without any temper. Bi-conical shape.

Bottom row :
Name: Spindle whorl Find No: D.86-103 Location: (GK) Room GK
Description: Made with very fine clay without any temper. Bi-conical shape.

Name: Spindle whorl Find No: D.80-115 Location: (1) Room R


Description: Made with very fine clay without any temper. Bi-conical shape.

Name: Spindle whorl Find No: D.80-77 Location: (1) Room AD


Description: Made with very fine clay without any temper. Bi-conical shape.

Name: Spindle whorl Find No: D.81-128 Location: (BC) Room BM


Description: Made with very fine clay without any temper. Bi-conical shape.

327

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
D .8 5 -1 0 4 D .85-41
(d ra w in g s E sin, H a rm a n k a y a 1987)
0 5cm.

Name: Spindle Whorl Find No: D.85-104 Location: (EE) Room EC


Description: Made with very fine clay without any temper. Bi-conical shape.

Name: Spindle Whorl Find No: D.85-41 Location: (EE) Room EC


Description: Made with very fine clay without any temper. Bi-conical shape.

!*K3

(d raw in g Esin, H arm ankaya 1987)


D .85-68 D .79-53 D .85-40
_________ D.83-107__________D .86-109____________

Name: Spindle Whorl Find No: D.85-68 Location: (EL) Area El


Description: Made from painted pottery fragment. Circular shape was made by breaking the edges.

Name: Spindle Whorl Find No: D.79-53 Location: (1) Room i


Description: Made from painted pottery fragment. Circular shape was made by breaking the edges.

Name: Spindle Whorl Find No: D.85-40 Location: (EE) Room EC


Description: Made from pottery fragment. Circular shape was made by breaking the edges.

Name: Spindle Whorl Find No: D.83-107 Location: (BC) Room DC1
Description: Made from pottery fragment. Circular shape was made by breaking the edges.

Name: Spindle Whorl Find No: D.86-109 Location: (DU) Room EK


Description: Made from potteiy fragment Circular shape was made by breaking the edges.

328

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Name: Spindle Whorl Find No: D.85-13 Location: (1) Room U
Description: Made from pottery fragment. Circular shape was made by breaking the edges.

Name: Spindle Whorl Find No: D.85-14 Location: (i) Room U


Description: Made from pottery fragment. Circular shape was made by breaking the edges.

Name: Spindle Whorl Find No: D.85-16 Location: (i) Room U


Description: Made from pottery fragment. Circular shape was made by breaking the edges.

Name: Spindle Whorl Find No: D.85-18 Location: (I) Room U


Description: Made from potteiy fragment. Circular shape was made by breaking the edges.

Name: Spindle Whorl Find No: D.85-26 Location: (I) Room U


Description: Made from pottery fragment. Circular shape was made by breaking the edges.

Name: Spindle Whorl Find No: D.85-27 Location: (i) Room U


Description: Made from pottery fragment. Circular shape was made by breaking the edges.

Name: Spindle Whorl Find No: D.85-91 Location: (I) Room U


Description: Made from pottery fragment. No hole. Circular shape was made by grinding the edges.

329

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
FRONT BACK
D.86-83 D.84-61 D.86-104
D.84-28 D.83-163 D.83-168

Name: Stopper Find No: D.86-83 Location: (DU) Room EK


Description: Made of fine and unbaked clay. Front side was pinched by finger tips as two small hollows.
The back side is flat.

Name: Stopper Find No: D.84-61 Location: (BC) Room DH


Description: Made of fine and unbaked clay. Front side was pinched by finger tips as two small hollows.
The back side is flat

Name: Stopper Find No: D.86-104 Location: (GK) Room GK


Description: Made of fine and unbaked clay. Front side was pinched by finger tips as two small hollows.
The back side is flat.

Name: Stopper Find No: D.84-28 Location: (BC) Room DC1


Description: Made of fine and unbaked clay. Front and back are flat. Finger prints on the front is visible.
The edge of the back is thinner that probably took the shape of mouth of the jars which was sealed with
this stopper.

Name: Stopper Find No: D.83-163 Location: (BC) Room DC1


Description: Made of fine and unbaked clay. Front and back are flat. Finger prints on the front is visible.
The edge of the back is thinner that probably took the shape of mouth of the jars which was sealed with
this stopper.

Name: Stopper Find No: D.83-168 Location: (BC) Room BD


Description: Made of fine and unbaked clay. Front and back are flat. Although it may have been in
round form as others, the actual form is not clear. Finger prints on the front is visible.

330

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
r:

0 ,8 3 -3 6
(d ra w in g E sin 1985a) 0 .8 3 -1 6 5
(d ra w in g E sin 1 985a)

0.84 "44
0 83 115 (d ra w in g E sin , H a rm a n k a y a 1986)
(drawing Esin 1985a) Q 1 2 3 U 5_____________ 10cm .

Name: Stopper Find No: D.83-36 Location: (BC) Room DC1


Description: Made of unbaked clay with no temper. One side was pinched by finger tips.

Name: Stopper Find No: D.83-165 Location: (BC) Room BD


Description: Made of unbaked clay with no temper. It has amorphous form. Some areas were pinched by
finger tips.

Name: Stopper Find No: D.83-115 Location: (BC) Room BD


Description: Made of unbaked clay with no temper. It has amorphous form. Some areas were pinched by
finger tips.

Name: Stopper Find No: D.84-44 Location: (BC) Room DH


Description: Made of unbaked clay with no temper. It has almost square shape and the front side was
pinched by finger tips but only once.

D.81-91 D.86-142 D.84-69

(drawing Esin, Harmankaya 1986


Name: Stopper? Find No: D.81-91 Location: (DU) Room BE
Description: Made of clay. Bi-conical form.

Name: Stopper Find No: D.86-142 Location: (FD) Room GM


Description: Made of stone. Bottom is flat and the top is arched shape.

Name: Stopper Find No: D.84-69 Location: (BC) Room DC1


Description: made of clay. Bi-conical form.

331

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
I I iiii.'iT^iliriii.iiiiiiiilinJiiiil'niiiiiiliif.iiiiifeiiiiiiilmUliiiiitlm1) ill tu tu iWilmiwfe

D.84-24 D.83-137 D.83-139 D.83-138


(above left from Esin, Harmankaya 1986; the rest are from Esin 1985a)

Name: Stopper Find No: D.84-24 Location: (W of EE) Area DD


Description: Made of clay with no temper. Kind of mushroom shape.

Name: Stopper Find No: D.86-47 Location: (GK)RoomGF


Description: Made of clay with conical form.

Name: Stopper Find No: D.86-140 Location: (DU)RoomEK


Description: Made of clay. Flat shape. Top face has three hollows made by pinching with finger tips.

Name: Stopper Find No: D.83-137 Location: (BC)RoomDC2


Description: Made of clay. Bottom end is curved that is the part that got inside a small mouth of a pot.

Name: Stopper Find No: D.83-139 Location: (BC)RoomDC1


Description: Made of clay. Bottom end is curved that is the part that got inside a small mouth of a pot.

Name: Stopper Find No: D.86-101 Location: (GK)RoomGK


Description: Made of clay. Cigar shaped and the bottom was probably getting inside the mouth of a pot.

Name: Stopper Find No: D.86-69 Location: (GK)RoomGF


Description: Made of clay. Clay at the bottom end getting inside the mouth of a pot is squeezed.

Name: Stopper Find No: D.86-122 Location: (GK)RoomGK


Description: Made of clay. Clay at the bottom end getting inside the mouth of a pot is squeezed.

Name: Stopper Find No: D.83-138 Location: (BC)RoomDC1


Description: Made of clay. The bottom end is broken.

332

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
D.81-59 D.81-18 D.81-18a D.81-18b D.81-12a D.81-12b
Name: Stopper Find No: D.81-59 Location: (BC) Room AP
Description: Made of clay. Bottom end, which was probably getting into the mouth of a jar is broken.

Name: Stopper Find No: D.81-18 Location: (BC) Room AP


Description: Made of clay. Bottom end, which was probably getting into the mouth of a jar is broken.

Name: Stopper Find No: D.81-18a Location: (BC) Room AP


Description: Made of clay. Bottom end was probably getting into the mouth of a jar and it is not broken.

Name: Stopper Find No: D.81-18b Location: (BC) Room AP


Description: Made of clay. Bottom end was probably getting into the mouth of a jar and it is not broken.

Name: Stopper Find No: D.81-12a Location: (BC) Room AP


Description: Made of clay. Bottom end, which was probably getting into the mouth of a jar is broken

Name: Stopper Find No: D.81-12b Location: (BC) Room AP


Description: Made of clay. Bottom end was probably getting into the mouth of a jar and it is not broken.

Name: Figurine Find No: D.81-18c Location: (BC) Room AP


Description: Made of clay. Bottom may be implying a foot. Top part is broken.

Name: Figurine Find No: D.85-75 Location: (FC) Room ET


Description: Made of clay. Bottom area is pointy above which was designed with impressed, tiny circles.

Name: Figurine Find No: D.81-18d Location: (BC) Room AP


Description: Made of clay. Bottom area is pointy that may imply a foot. Top part is broken.

Name: Figurine Find No: D.81-18e Location: (BC) Room AP


Description: Made of clay. Bottom area is pointy that may imply a foot. Top part is broken.

Name: Figurine Find No: D.81-18f Location: (BC) Room AP


Description: Made of clay. Bottom area is pointy that may imply a foot. Top part is broken.

Name: Figurine Find No: D.81-59 Location: (BC) Room AP


Description: Made of clay. Bottom area is pointy that may imply a foot. Top part is broken.

333

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
D.86-25 D.85-67 (drawing Esin, Harmankaya 1986)

Name: Figurine Find No: D.86-25 Location:(DU)Room DU


Description: Made of clay. Partially burned. Broken animal figurine. Back leg and tail is visible.

Name: Figurine Find No: D.85-25 Location:(DU)Room DU


Description: Made of stone, probably marble. Flat back and front. Left and right sides grooved.

m m

......l I >, |{ 2,
2^3 4 5 6 7
D .81-126

D.85-108 D.85-154
(drawings Esin, Harmankaya 1987)

Name: Arrow head Find No: D.81-126 Location: (BC) Room AU


Description: Chert. Dark brown color. Carefully made, probably by pressure flaking. Complete.

Name: Large arrow head Find No: D.85-108 Location: (EL) Room EL
Description: Chert. Brown color. Leaf shaped and complete.

Name: Borer or knife Find No: D.85-154 Location: (GK) Room GH


Description: Obsidian. Solid black color. Broken into half from its middle area.

334

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
D.85-151 o 5cm.
D.85-150
(drawing Esin, Harmankaya 1986)

D .8 5 -3 1 D .8 5 -19

5cm .

(drawings Esin, Harmankaya 1987) D.86-98

(drawing Esin, Harmankaya 1988)

Name: Sickle blade Find No: D.85-151 Location: (FC) Room ER


Description: Chert. Leaf shaped wide sides with silica sheen.

Name: Sickle blade Find No: D.85-150 Location: (FC) Room ER


Description: Chert. Wide and arching sides with silica sheen.

Name: Blade Find No: D.85-31 Location: (DU) Room DV


Description: Obsidian. Black color.

Name: Core Find No: D.85-19 Location: (DU) Room DV


Description: Obsidian core. Very small and blades produced from it must also have very small size.

Name: Blade Find No: D.84-10 Location: (GK) Room GK


Description: Chert.

Name: Scraper? Find No: D.86-98 Location: (EL) Room FS


Description: Chert. Made from a core. Probably used as a scraper.

335

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Top row:
D.82-7 D-86'3 D-86'5 D.86-4 D.83-75 D.81-123D.79-104-1
Bottom row:
D.86-164 D-86-54________________ D.79-104-5 D.79-79 D.79-104-6
Name: Polishing Stone Find No: D.82-7 Location: (BC) Room BM
Description: Almost circular shaped and shiny. Both faces as well as the edges were used for polishing.

Name: Polishing Stone Find No: D.86-3 Location: (EE) Room EB


Description: Almost circular shaped shiny stone. Both faces as well as the edges were used for
polishing. Angular edges achieved from heavy polishing.

Name: Polishing Stone Find No: D.86-5 Location: (EE) Room EB


Description: Almost ovoid shaped shiny stone. Both faces as well as the edges were heavily used for
polishing. Angular edges achieved from heavy polishing.

Name: Polishing Stone Find No: D.86-4 Location: (EE) Room EB


Description: Almost ovoid shaped shiny stone. Both faces as well as the edges were heavily used for
polishing. Angular edges achieved from heavy polishing.

Name: Polishing Stone Find No: D.83-75 Location: (BC) Room BC


Description: Almost circular shaped shiny stone. Both faces as well as the edges were heavily used for
polishing. Some chipping visible that perhaps resulted from another use.

Name: Polishing Stone? Find No: D.81-123 Location: (i) Room I


Description: Ovoid shape and both faces were polished as well as the edges. A hole was made in the
center. The circular lines of drilling are visible. Due to hole, it may have served for another function too.

Name: Polishing Stone Find No: D.79-104-1 Location: (i) Room K


Description: Circular shaped and shiny stone. Both faces as well as the edges were heavily used for
polishing. Some chipping visible that perhaps resulted from another use.

Name: Polishing Stone Find No: D.86-164 Location: (GK) Room GK


Description: Circular shape. Both faces as well as the edges were heavily used for polishing. It is a shiny
and soft stone flaking easily. It must be a mixture of different minerals.

Name: Polishing Stone Find No: D.86-54 Location: (EL) Room FR


Description: Ovoid shaped and shiny. Both faces as well as the edges were heavily used for polishing.
Angular edge was achieved from heavy polishing.

Name: Polishing Stone Find No: D.79-104-5 Location: (i) Room K


Description: Circular shaped and shiny stone. Both faces as well as the edges were used for polishing.
Some chipping visible that perhaps resulted from another use.

Name: Polishing Stone Find No: D.79-79 Location: (I) Room K


Description: Ovid shaped stone. Both faces as well as the edges were heavily used for polishing.

Name: Polishing Stone Find No: D.79-104-6 Location: (I) Room K


Description:Both faces as well as the edges were used for polishing. Some chipping visible on the edges.

336

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
D. 86-85 (drawings Esin,Harmankaya 1988) D.86-77
Name: Pounding stone/Hammer Find No: D.82-12 Location: (GK) Room CY
Description: Basalt stone with oval shape. Bottom edge was for hammering and perhaps for grinding.

Name: Hammer Find No: D.79-84 Location: (I) Room K


Description: Basalt stone with oval shape. Both bottom and top was used for hammering.

Name: Hammer Find No: D.86-97 Location: (EL) Room FS


Description: Basalt stone with oval shape. A hole was made in the center for handle.

Name: Hammer Find No: D.86-174 Location: (GK) Room GK


Description: Basalt stone with oval shape. A hole was made in the center for handle.

Name: Hammer Find No: D.86-85 Location: (DU) Room EK


Description: Gray color stone with oval shape. A hole was made in the center for handle. Broken.

Name: Hammer Find No: D.85-69 Location: (EL) Area El


Description: Basalt stone with oval shape. A hole was made in the center for handle.

Name: Hammer Find No: D.86-53 Location: (DU) Room EK


Description: Basalt stone with oval shape. A hole was made in the center for handle.

Name: Hammer Find No: D.85-105 Location: (EL) Room EL


Description: Basalt stone with oval shape. A small hole was made in the center for handle.

Name: Hammer Find No: D.86-24 Location: (DU) Room BE


Description: Basalt stone with oval shape. A small hole was made in the center for handle.

Name: Long Hammer Find No: D.86-77 Location: (FC) Room GE


Description:Gray color stone. Oval shape with long front and short back. Hole is in the center for handle.

Name: Hammer Find No: D.81-123 . Location: (I) Room i


Description: White color stone. Almost oval shape and a hole was made in the center.

Name: Hammer Find No: D. 81-27 Location: (I) Room I


Description: Gray stone with oval shape. A hole was made in the center. Both ends were used for
hammering.

337

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
rs_a.4'.i'd'7 si(:lj
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9ffl]l 2 3.<

D.80-88 D.79-85 D.86-15 D.84-25


Name: Net weight Find No: D.80-88 Location: (I) Room O
Description: Gray color stone with carefully made hole in the center.

Name: Net weight Find No: D.79-85 Location: (I) Room I


Description: Unfinished and amorphous beige color stone.

Name: Net weight Find No: D.86-15 Location: (EE) Room EE


Description: Basalt stone with a hole in the center.

Name: Net weight Find No: D.84-25 Location: (BC) Room BD


Description: basalt stone with a hole in the center.

^ 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

(drawings Esin, Harmankaya 1988)

Name: Celt Find No: D.81-46 Location: (BC) Room AP


Description: Black color stone. Some chipping at back and front ends seems to have occurred during use.

Name: Celt Find No: D.81-50 Location: (BC) Room AP


Description: Gray color stone. Complete.

Name: Celt Find No: D.79-135 Location: (I) Room K


Description: Black color stone. Some chipping at the front end seems to have occurred during use.

Name: Celt Find No: D.86-138 Location: (GK) Room GK


Description: Black color stone. Complete.

Name: Celt Find No: D.86-139 Location: (GK) Room GK


Description: Black color stone but broken.

Name: Celt Find No: D.85-162 Location: (EL) Room FR


Description: Black color stone. Complete.

Name: Celt Find No: D.86-176 Location: (EE) Room EE


Description: Greenish-gray color stone. Complete but some chipping at the front end resulted from use.

338

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
D.79-86 D.84-90 D.85-2 D.82-5
Name: Axe Find No: D.79.86 Location: (1) Room K
Description: About 30 cm long, greenish-blue stone. Long edges and top end were chipped either during
giving its shape or use. Probably used as a cutting wood. It may also have been used for a kind of mulling
with its top end, or for chopping rather soft items by its long edges, such as chopping bones.

Name: Mortar/Hammer Find No: D.84-90 Location: (I) Room U


Description: About 30 cm long hammer. Probably used to beat not very hard items, such as meat.

Name: Mortar Find No: D.85-2 Location: (I) Room U


Description: Lower end might have used as mortar.

Name: Mortar/Rubbing Stone Find No: D.82-5 Location: (BC) Room BM


Description: About 15 cm long mortar. Perhaps used for rubbing as well.

Name: Celt Find No: D.86-163 Location: (GK) Room GK


Description: Almost complete celt.

Name: Chisel Find No: D.86-11 Location: (FC) Room ET


Description: Small celt, probably used during more delicate woodworking tasks.

D.83-75 D.83-177
(drawings Esin, 1985a)

(drawing Esin, Harmankaya 1988)


'fame: Hammer Find No: D.83-75 Location: (BC) Room BC
Description: Round shaped hammer stone probably used by hand without addition of a handle.

Name: Hammer Find No: D.83-177 Location: (GK) Room GK


Description: Round shaped hammer stone probably used by hand without addition of a handle.

Name: Hammer Find No: D.86-123 Location: (FC) Room FC


Description: Round shaped hammer stone probably used by hand without addition of a handle.

339

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
D.83-80 D.79-43 D.79-42 D.79-4I D.86-70 D.86-124
Bottom Row:
D.80-24 D.81-17 D.80-9 D.85-5 D.85-99 D.85-155
Name: Hammer Find No: D.83-80 Location: (EE) Room DB
Description: Round shaped hammer stone probably used by hand without addition of a handle.

Name: Hammer Find No: D.79-43 Location: (i) Room I


Description: Round shaped hammer stone probably used by hand without addition of a handle.

Name: Hammer Find No: D.79-42 Location: (i) Room I


Description: Round shaped hammer stone probably used by hand without addition of a handle.

Name: Hammer Find No: D.79-41 Location: (1) Room I


Description: Round shaped hammer stone probably used by hand without addition of a handle.

Name: Hammer Find No: D.86-70 Location: (FC) Room FC


Description: Round shaped hammer stone probably used by hand without addition of a handle.

Name: Hammer Find No: D.86-124 Location: (FC) Room FC


Description: Round shaped hammer stone probably used by hand without addition of a handle.

Name: Hammer Find No: D.80-24 Location: (BC) Room BB


Description: Round shaped hammer stone probably used by hand without addition of a handle.

Name: Hammer Find No: D.81-17 Location: (BC) Room AP


Description: Round shaped hammer stone probably used by hand without addition of a handle.

Name: Hammer Find No: D.80-9 Location: (i) Room I


Description: Round shaped hammer stone probably used by hand without addition of a handle.

Name: Hammer Find No: D.85-5 Location: (i) Room U


Description: Round shaped hammer stone probably used by hand without addition of a handle.

Name: Hammer Find No: D.85-99 Location: (EL) Room EO


Description: Round shaped hammer stone probably used by hand without addition of a handle.

Name: Hammer Find No: D.85-155 Location: (1) Room P-L


Description: Round shaped hammer stone probably used by hand without addition of a handle.

340

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
^ 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 W (Jl 2 3

D.86-20
(drawings Esin, Harmankaya 1988)
Name: Mace head Find No: D.86-20 Location: (FC) Room ET
Description: Made from marble. Conical shaped top and flat bottom or vice versa.

Name: Mace head Find No: D.85-106 Location: Room FA


Description: Greenish-gray stone. Spherical shape.

Name: Mace head Find No: D.86-53 Location: (DU) Room EK


Description: No information available.

D.82-44 D.85-139 D.83-2 D.80-109


Name: Ground stone Find No: D.82-44 Location: (GK) Room CM
Description: Basalt stone with rectangular shape bottom. The one on top did not come from a good
context.

Name: Metate Find No: D.85-139 Location: (EL) Room EL


Description: Basalt stone. Circular shaped and broken at one side.

Name: Mano Find No: D.83-24 Location: (EE) Room DB


Description: Basalt stone. Conical shape with rounded bottom.

Name: Mano Find No: D.80-109 Location: (I) Room K


Description: Basalt stone.

341

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
4.-V

8057166710688331

Name: Game piece Find No: D.86-82 Location: (GK) Room GF


Description: A cylindrical shaped possible game piece made from a very light, chalky stone.

Name: Game piece Find No: D.81-134 Location: (!) Room R


Description: A cylindrical shaped possible game piece made from a black colored polished stone.

Name: Game piece Find No: D.85-76 Location: (DU) Room DU


Description: A round button shaped possible game piece made from clay.

Name: Game piece Find No: D.85-84 Location: (DU) Room DU


Description: A round button shaped possible game piece made from clay.

Name: Pot stand fragment Find No: D.86-121 Location: (GK) Room GK
Description: Made of clay. It is a part of a ring shaped stand. It has triangular shaped section with soft
comers. A similar and more complete piece (D.79-175) is presented above at the end of pots.

Name: Bead Find No: D.85-103 Location: (FC) Room GE


Description: Made of black stone. Ovoid shaped. Unfinished since the ends were prepared for drilling
but the holes were not made.

Name: Bead Find No: D.85-102 Location: (FC) Room GE


Description: Made of red color stone. Ovoid shaped. Unfinished since the ends were prepared and the
holes partially made but not completed.

Name: Small pendant Find No: D.86-84 Location: (GK) Room GK


Description: Made from black stone. A hole was made at the top part Amorphous.

Name: Shell bead Find No: D.85-109 Location: (EL) Room EL


Description: Shell. A hole was made at the top part. Complete.

Name: Shell pendant Find No: D.86-78 Location: (FC) Room GE


Description: Shell fragment. Two holes were made at the ends.

342

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
D.86-161
(drawings Esin, D
Harmankaya 1988)
Name: Needle Find No: D.79-87 Location: (I) Room K
Description: Bone needle. Broken at the hole area. Less than 3 cm long.

Name: Needle Find No: D.86-161 Location: (GK) Room GK


Description: Bone. About 8 cm long. Complete.

Name: Needle Find No: D.86-160 Location: (GK) Room GK


Description: Bone. About 9,5 cm long. Complete.

B '0
D.85-144 D.86-167 D.86-60 D.83-103 D.86-39 D.80-43
(drawings Esin 1985a; Esin, Harmankaya 1987;1988)
Name: Awl Find No: D.85-144 Location: (DU) Room DU
Description: Bone. Made near the joint part of a bone.

Name: Awl Find No: D.86-167 Location: (GK) Room GK


Description: Bone. Made near the joint part of a bone.

Name: Awl Find No: D.86-60 Location: (FC) Room FC


Description: Bone. Made near the joint part of a bone.

Name: Awl Find No: D.83-103 Location: (BC) Room DC1


Description: Bone. Made near the joint part of a bone.

Name: Awl Find No: D.86-39 Location: (FC) Room FC


Description: Bone. Made near the joint part of a bone.

Name: Awl Find No: D.80-43 Location: (1) Room AD


Description: Bone. Made near the joint part of a bone.

343

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
D.84-5 D.86-180 D.84-6 D.86-30 D.83-108 D.86-105
(draw ings Esin 1985a; Esin, H arm ankaya 1986;1988)
Name: Awl Find No: D.84-5 Location: (GK) Room GK
Description: Bone. Made near the joint part of a bone.

Name: Awl Find No: D.86-180 Location: (GK) Room GK


Description: Bone. Made near the joint part of a bone.

Name: Awl Find No: D.84-6 Location: (GK) Room CM


Description: Bone. Made near the joint part of a bone.

Name: Awl Find No: D.86-30 Location: (FC) Room FC


Description: Bone. Made near the joint part of a bone.

Name: Awl Find No: D.83-108 Location: (BC) Room DC1


Description: Bone. Made near the joint part of a bone.

Name: Awl Find No: D.86-105 Location: (GK) Room GK


Description: Bone. Made near the joint part of a bone.

D.79-132 D.81-117 D.81-39 D.81-84


Name: Awl Find No: D.79-132 Location: (I) Room K
Description: Bone. Complete.

Name: Awl Find No: D.81-117 Location: (I) Room I


Description: Bone. Complete.

Name: Awl Find No: D.81-39 Location: (I) Room R


Description: Bone. Complete.

Name: Awl Find No: D.81-84 Location: (I) Room I


Description: Bone. Complete.

344

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
D.84-63

D.84-23 D.84-54 D.84-39

(drawings Esin, Harmankaya 1986) D.84-38


Name: Awl Find No: D.84-23 Location: Area DD (west of EE)
Description: Bone. Top end is broken.

Name: Awl Find No: D.84-54 Location: (BC) Room DH


Description: Bone. Made near the joint part of a bone.

Name: Awl Find No: D.84-39 Location: (BC) Room DH


Description: Bone. Made near the joint part of a bone.

Name: Awl Find No: D.84-38 Location: (BC) Room DC1


Description: Bone. Probably made from a long bone.

Name: Awl Find No: D.84-63 Location: (BC) Room DH


Description: Bone. Made near the joint part of a bone.

D.85-138 D.85-137 D.86-14


(drawings Esin,Harmankaya 1987; 1988)
Name: Awl Find No: D.85-138 Location: (FC) Room FC
Description: Bone. Made near the joint part of a bone.

Name: Awl Find No: D.85-137 Location: (FC) Room FC


Description: Bone. Made near the joint part of a bone.

Name: Awl Find No: D.86-14 Location: (EE) Room DF


Description: Bone. Made near the joint part of a bone.

Name: Awl Find No: D.86-13 Location: (EE) Room EA


Description: Bone. Broken.

345

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
D.86-102 D.86-181 D.86-31

,\

D.86-31
(drawing Esin, Harmankaya 1988)

Name: Awl Find No: D.86-102 Location: (GK) Room GK


Description: Bone. Made near the joint part of a bone.

Name: Awl Find No: D.86-181 Location: (GK) Room GK


Description: Bone. Made near the joint part of a bone.

Name: Awl Find No: D.86-31 Location: (FC) Room FC


Description: Bone. Made near the joint part of a long and large size bone.

346

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Seals and sealings:

(drawings Esin 1994)

Name: Seal Find No: D.86-33 Location: (DU) Room DU


Description: Gray stone. Diamond shape. Slightly raised, carinated back was made to accommodate the
hole throughout the seals length.

Name: Seal Find No: D.80-94 Location: (I) Room I


Description: Chalk, and burned. Triangle shaped. Hole at the back is broken. Design: Hatched lines

Name: Seal Find No: D.80-111 Location: (i) Room 1


Description: Chalk and burned. Broken. Design: Hatched lines.

Name: Seal Find No: D.82-41 Location: (BC) Room BD


Description: Black stone. Round shape with a Hole on its axis. Design: Geometric.

Name: Seal Find No: D.86-136 Location: (GK( Room GK


Description: Black-brown color stone. Round shape with a hole on its axis. Design: Geometric.

Name: Seal Find No: D.86-50 Location: (BC) Room BC


Description: Beige color stone. Round shape with a hole on its axis. Design: Geometric.

Name: Seal Find No: D.86-16 Location: (EE) Room EE


Description: Black stone. Round shape with a hole on its axis. Design: Homed animal surrounded by
vegetation,

347

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
D.85-79 N-->" D
D.85-74 D.86-172
(drawings Esin 1994)

Name: Seal Find No: D.85-113 Location: (BC) Area FB


Description: Black stone. Round shape with a hole on its axis. Design: Leafs surrounded with geometric
engravings,

Name: Seal Find No: D.85-117 Location: (I) Room AC


Description: Black stone. Diamond shape with a hole on one of its axis. Design: Geometric or heavily
schematized bird(s).

Name: Seal Find No: D.85-79 Location: (I) Room L


Description: Black stone. Round shape with a hole on its axis. Design: Heavily schematized human
figure.

Name: Seal Find No: D.85-74 Location: (DU) Room DU


Description: Black stone. Round shape with a hole on its axis. Design: Heavily schematized human
figure.

Name: Seal Find No: D.86-172 Location: (GK) Room GK


Description: Black stone. Round shape with a hole on its axis. Design: Homed animal surrounded by
vegetation. Heavily schematized.

Name: Seal Find No: D.85-82 Location: (BC) Room BM


Description: Black stone. Diamond shape with a hole on one of its axis. Design: Geometric or heavily
schematized leafs.

Name: Seal Find No: D.81-92 Location: (BC) Room AU


Description: Black stone. Diamond shape with a hole on one of its axes. Design: Geometric.

Name: Seal Find No: D.80-20 Location: (I) Room i


Description: Black stone. Rectangle shape with a hole on its short axes. In a very general sense it may
be called as butterfly shape, although butterfly is not depicted. Design: Geometric. One of the few large
seals.

348

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
D.81-152 D.81-63 D.81-266 D.81-272
Name: Sealing Find No: D.81-152 Location: (BC) Room BB
Description: Group of animals. Rows of string impression at back.

Name: Sealing Find No: D.81-63 Location: (DU) Room DU


Description: Geometric design.

Name: Sealing Find No: D.81-266 Location: (BC) Room AU


Description: A person figuratively depicted from rectangular seal. Wrinkled cloth and two rows of string
impression at back.

Name: Sealing Find No: D.81-272 Location: (BC) Room AU


Description: Front: Part of a seal on which a person figuratively depicted. Back: Two rows of string
impression.

W W M

D.81-18 D.81-88 D.81-164 D.81-166


Name: Sealing Find No: D.81-18 Location: (BC) Room AP
Description: Front: Geometric design. Triangles filled with diagonal lines.

Name: Sealing Find No: D.81-88 Location: (BC) Room AU


Description: Front: An oval shape seal filled with crosshatched design. Back: Sting impression. Probably
attached to the rim area of a pot.

Name: Sealing Find No: D.81-164 Location: (BC) Room AU


Description: Front: Square shaped seal engraved with a group of triangles. Back: It has an impression of
reed mat.

Name: Sealing Find No: D.81-166 Location: (BC) Room BB


Description: Front: Square shaped seal engraved with a two rows of triangles. Back: Impression of string
lines is visible.

349

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
D.79-136 D.80-14 D.81-274 D.81-276
Middle:
D.81-100 D.81-199 D.81-280 D.81-193
Bottom Row:
D.81-355 D.81-161_______ D.81-103_____________________________________________
Name: Sealing Find No: D.79-136 Location: (I) Room I
Description: Front: Incomplete seal impression with a geometric design. Back: Robe impression.
Name: Sealing Find No: D.80-14 Location: (I) Room i
Description: Front; Incomplete seal impression with a geometric design. Back: Impression of basket.
Name: Sealing Find No: D.81-274 Location: (BC) Room AU
Description: Front: Incomplete seal with impression of geometric design. Back: Two rows of string
impression.
Name: Sealing Find No: D.81-276 Location: (BC) Room AU
Description: Front; Multiple impressions of a same seal with geometric design. Back: One row of string
impression.
Name: Sealing Find No: D.81-100 Location: (BC) Room BB
Description: Front: A large size seal with squares filled with crosses. Back: Unclear.

Name: Sealing Find No: D.81-199 Location: (BC) Room BB


Description: Front: Small, diamond shape seal with geometric design. Back: Unclear.

Name: Sealing Find No: D.81-280 Location: (BC) Room AU


Description: Front: Small, round shape seal with crosshatches. Back: Two rows of string impression.

Name: Sealing Find No: D.81-193 Location: (BC) Room BB


Description: Front: Multiple impressions of a same seal with geometric design. Back: Unclear but the
sealing may have been attached to the rim area of a pot.

Name: Sealing Find No: D.81-355 Location: (I) Room R


Description: Front: Seal impression with geometric design. Back: Tiny rows of string lines.

Name: Sealing Find No: D.81-161 Location: (BC) Room BB


Description: Front: Square shaped seal engraved with a two rows of triangles. Back: Two rows of string
impression. The sealing may have been attached to the rim area of a pot.

Name: Sealing Find No: D.81-103 Location: (BC) Room BB


Description: Front: Square shaped seal engraved with a two rows of triangles. Sealed twice. Back:
Unclear.

350

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
V V 'ly r' -

*- / i\ : <*n*
**s*.-<*<#uf
4T Ai *<\ * >r
% **f

Vi* v .
V'i 1v ' \ f r u'' - J ' . ,"' >!
>* > * \ "L\ . r ,f - n;^v* - s '
' ' * ''
' a w l - : I :'& *
, yf- 5 , SS'c* */* - r 1 .
* s t " J w w-* V
1 i I 1\ 1
f ,, . ' i.l, 1 it I, < ^X$* a
^TtC'ijv, ' *l*
1 r, L '
- Au ,
*' 4f *J
Top Row:
D.80-59 D.80-60 D .81-62 D.81-339
Bottom Row:
D.81-342 D 81 -366 D.81-201 D.81-196

Name: Sealing Find No: D.80-59 Location: (i) Room AD


Description: Front: Small seal with geometric design impressed twice. Back: One line of string
impression. Sealing may have been attached to the rim area of a pot.

Name: Sealing Find No: D.80-60 Location: (I) Room AF


Description: Front: Small seal with geometric design. Back: Two lines of string impressions.

Name: Sealing Find No: D.81-62 Location: (DU) Room DU


Description: Front: Small seal with geometric design impressed twice. Back: Unclear.

Name: Sealing Find No: D.81-339 Location: (BC) Room BC


Description: Front: Fragmentary impression of geometric design. Back: Two lines of string impression.

Name: Sealing Find No: D.81-342 Location: (BC) Room BC


Description: Front: Small seal with geometric design. Back: Unclear but string lines vaguely visible.

Name: Sealing Find No: D.81-366 Location: (I) Room I


Description: Front: Small seal with geometric design.Thestring holding the seal is also impressed on
the clay. Back: Unclear.

Name: Sealing Find No: D.81-201 Location: (BC) Room BB


Description: Front: Small seal with geometric design.Back: Unclear.

Name: Sealing Find No: D.81-196 Location: (BC) Room BB


Description: Front: Small seal with geometric design impressed twice. Back: Impression of a thicker
string line is visible. The sealing may have been attached to the rim area of a pot.

351

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
FRONT:

Name: Sealing Find No: D.81-359 Location: (i) Room I


Description: Front: Round seal with animal design. Back: Unclear.

Name: Sealing Find No: D.81-202 Location: (BC) Room BB


Description: Front: Round shape seal with schematized animal design. Seal impressed twice. Back:
Unclear.

Name: Sealing Find No: D.81-191 Location: (BC) Room BB


Description: Front: Round shape seal with schematized animal design. Back: Impressions of a string line
and reeds or mat are visible.

Name: Sealing Find No: D.81-185 Location: (BC) Room BB


Description: Front: Small seal with schematized animal design impressed twice. Back: Unclear.

Name: Sealing Find No: D.81-203 Location: (BC) Room BB


Description: Front: Small seal with schematized animal design. Back: Unclear.

Name: Sealing Find No: D.81-180 Location: (BC) Room BB


Description: Front: Small oval shaped seal with unclear design impressed twice. Back: Impression of
three string line is visible.

352

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Name: Sealing Find No: D.81-90 Location: (BC) Room BD
Description: Front: Probably round seal with animal design. Back: Impression of string lines are visible.
The sealing may have been attached to the rim area of a pot.

Name: Sealing Find No: D.81-298 Location: (BC) Room AU


Description: Front: Small seal with probably figurative design. Back: Impression of a basket.

Name: Sealing Find No: D.81-288 Location: (BC) Room AU


Description: Front: Rectangular shape but the seal design is unclear. Back: Impression of string lines and
knotted textile are visible.

Name: Sealing Find No: D.81-205 Location: (BC) Room BB


Description: Front: Round shape seal with tree design. Tree trunk and leafs are visible. Back:
Impression of a string line is visible.

Name: Sealing Find No: D.81-204 Location: (BC) Room BB


Description: Front: Round shape seal with tree or plant design. Back: Impression of a string line is
visible.

Name: Sealing Find No: D.81-236 Location: (BC) Room AU


Description: Front: Round seal with figurative but undetermined design. Back: Impression of a string
line is visible. The sealing must have been attached to the neck area of a jar where the jar was tied with
string.

353

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Name: Sealing Find No: D.81-296 Location: (BC) Room AU
Description: Front: Round shape seal with bird (eagle?) design impressed twice. Back: Impression of
string lines visible.

Name: Sealing Find No: D.81-167 Location: (BC) Room BB


Description: Front: Small seal with schematized human design. Back: Unclear. The sealing may have
been attached to the rim area of a pot.

Name: Sealing Find No: D.81-268 Location: (BC) Room AU


Description: Front: Rectangular seal with schematized human design that impressed twice. Back:
Impressions of string lines visible.

Name: Sealing Find No: D.81-269 Location: (BC) Room AU


Description: Front: Round shape seal with schematized human design. Back: Impression of string lines
and wrinkled textile are visible.

Name: Sealing Find No: D.81-206 Location: (BC) Room BB


Description: Front: Round shape seal with schematized human design that impressed twice. Back:
Impression of basket is visible.

Name: Sealing Find No: D.81-304 Location: (BC) Room AU


Description: Front: Small seal with schematized human design. Back: Impression of basket is visible.

Name: Sealing Find No: D.81-306 Location: (BC) Room AU


Description: Front: Small seal fragment with schematized design. Back: Impressions of string lines
visible.

354

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
trtC
'v. >v
IK

D.83-31 D.85-21 D.83-171 D.83-175 D.85-35 D.85-48 D.86-112 D.86-114 D.86-188

Name: Sealing Find No: D.83-81 Location: (EE) Room DB


Description: Front: Small seal with geometric design that impressed more than twice. Back: Unclear.

Name: Sealing Find No: D.85-21 Location: (DU) Room DV


Description: Front: Small oval shape seal with geometric design that impressed three times. Back:
Unclear but it must have been sealed the rim area of a jar.

Name: Sealing Find No: D.83-171 Location: (BC) Room BD


Description: Front: Small fragmentary seal with schematized design. Back: Impression of string lines are
visible.

Name: Sealing Find No: D.83-175 Location: (BC) Room DC1


Description: Front: Small oval shaped seal with geometric design. Back: Impression of string lines are
visible.

Name: Sealing Find No: D.85-35 Location: (EE) Room EB


Description: Front: Seal with a geometric design. Undeterminable shape Back: Impression of wrinkled
textile is visible.

Name: Sealing Find No: D.85-48 Location: (EE) Room EB


Description: Front: Seal with a geometric design. Undeterminable shape. Back: Impression of string
lines and wrinkled textile are visible.

Name: Sealing Find No: D.86-112 Location: (GK) Room GK


Description: Front: Rectangular seal with geometric design. Back: Impression of string lines and
wrinkled textile are visible. Almost identical with D.86-114 below.

Name: Sealing Find No: D.86-114 Location: (GK) Room GK


Description: Front: Rectangular seal with geometric design. Back: Impression of a string lines and
wrinkled textile are visible. The sealing must have been attached to the neck area of a jar where the jar
was tied with string. Almost identical with D.86-112 above.

Name: Sealing Find No: D.86-188 Location: (GK) Room GK


Description: Front: Rectangular seal with a figurative but undetermined design. Back: Impression of a
string line is visible.

355

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
083-116 D.83-142 D.83-151 D.86-152 D.86-187 D.84-27

Name: Sealing Find No: D.83-116 Location: (BC) Room DC1


Description: Front: Oval shape seal with animal design. Back: Impression of string lines are visible. The
sealing must have been attached to the neck area of a jar where the jar was tied with string.

Name: Sealing Find No: D.83-142 Location: (BC) Room BD


Description: Front: Round seal with figurative animal design that impressed twice. Back: Impression of
wrinkled textile is visible. The sealing must have been attached to the neck area of a jar where the jar
was tied with string.

Name: Sealing Find No: D.83-151 Location: (BC) Room DC1


Description: Front: Seal with figurative but undetermined design. Back: Impression of wrinkled textile is
visible.

Name: Sealing Find No: D.86-152 Location: (GK) Room GK


Description: Front: Round seal with animal design. Back: Impression of basket is visible.

Name: Sealing Find No: D.86-187 Location: (GK) Room GK


Description: Front: Round seal with animal design. Back: Impression of basket is visible.

Name: Sealing Find No: D.84-27 Location: (BC) Room BD


Description: Front: Round shape seal with animal design that was impressed twice. Back: Impression of
reeds or a reed mat is visible.

356

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Name: Sealing Find No: D.83-150 Location: (BC) Room DC1
Description: Front: Round shape seal with schematized human design with other geometric designs.
Back: Impression of string lines is visible.

Name: Sealing Find No: D.83-167 Location: (BC) Room BD


Description: Front: Round seal with a schematized human design and figurative animals (not flying) that
impressed twice. Back: Impression of five string lines is visible. The sealing must have been attached to
the neck area of a jar Where the jar was tied with string.

Name: Sealing Find No: D.86-189 Location: (GK) Room GK


Description: Front: Round seal with a schematized human design and a figurative animal design. Back:
Impression of string lines as well as the tied area are visible.

Name: Sealing Find No: D.86-26 Location: (EL) Room EL


Description: Front: Round seal with figurative animal design (eagle man?). Back: Impression of string
lines as well as the wrinkled textile is visible. The sealing must have been attached to the neck area of a
jar where the jar was tied with string.

Name: Sealing Find No: D.84-18 Location: (West of EE) Area DD


Description: Front: Rectangular seal with schematized human design. Back: Impression of string lines as
well as the wrinkled textile are visible.

357

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Name: Sealing Find No: D.83-140 Location: (BC) Room BD
Description: Front: Two seal impression one with plant the other with geometric design. Back:
Impression of a string line is visible.

Name: Sealing Find No: D.85-61 Location: (DU) Room DU


Description: Front: Seal with geometric design. Back: Unclear.

Name: Sealing Find No: D.83-119 Location: (BC) Room DC1


Description: Front: Seal with geometric design. Back: Unclear.

D.85-110 0 _ _ ______________ 5cm .


(drawing Esin, Harmakaya 1987)
Name: Sealing Find No: D.85-110 Location: (EL) Room EL
Description: Back of a sealing. Knot area of the tied string is visible. The front face where the actual
seal impression is not preserved. Esin interprets this piece as door handle and the drawing was made
accordingly to imply such use. It may still be from the neck area of a jar.

358

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Ctn
_______________(drawings Esin, Harmankaya 1986)__________
Name: Sealing Find No: D.84-17 Location: (GK) Room GK
Description: Front: Round seal with figurative animal design. Back: Impression of string lines is visible.

Name: Sealing Find No: D.84-42 Location: (BC) Room DH


Description: Front: Small sealing fragment with figurative animal design. Back: Impression of reed mat.

Name: Sealing Find No: D.84-58 Location: (I) Room AF


Description: Front: Round seal with figurative animal design. Back: Possibly impression of more seals.

Name: Sealing Find No: D.84-41 Location: (BC) Room DH


Description: Front: Seal with geometric design. Back: Unclear.

D.81-229
D.81-217

(drawings Esin 1984)

D.80-68'

(drawings Esin 1986a)


Name: Sealing Find No: D.81-229 Location: (BC) Room BB
Description: Front: Round seal with figurative animal design. Back: Impression of string lines is visible.

Name: Sealing Find No: D.81-217 Location: (BC) Room BB


Description: Front: Round seal with geometric design. Back: Unclear.

Name: Sealing Find No: D.80-68 Location: (i) Room AD


Description: Front: Oval shape seal with geometric design impressed twice. Back: Unclear.

Name: Sealing Find No: D.81-296 Location: (BC) Room AU


Description: Front: Round seal with figurative animal design (eagle?). Back: Unclear.

359

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
D.85-20
D.85-53 D.85-62
(drawings, Esin Harmankaya 1987)
999999

D.86-89 D.86-118
D.86-23
10 cm

D.86-190 D.86-195
D.86-192
(drawings Esin, Harmankaya 1988)
Name: Sealing Find No: D.85-20 Location: (DU) Room DV
Description: Front: Seal with schematized human design (eagle man?). Back: Impression of string lines
as well as the wrinkled textile is visible.

Name: Sealing Find No: D.85-53 Location:(EL) Room EL


Description: Front: Round seal with plant design. Back: Another seal impression with geometric design.

Name: Sealing Find No: D.85-62 Location:(DU)Room DU


Description: Front: Ovoid shaped seal with geometric design. Back: Impression of string lines is visible.

Name: Sealing Find No: D.86-23 Location:(DU)Room DU


Description: Front: Seal with geometric design. Back: Impression of a string line is visible.

Name: Sealing Find No: D.86-89 Location:(GK)Room GK


Description: Front: Ovoid shaped seal with figurative animal design impressed twice. Back: Impression
of string lines is visible.

Name: Sealing Find No: D.86-118 Location:(GK)Room GK


Description: Front: Rectangular shape seal with figurative animal design. Back: Impression of string is
visible.

Name: Sealing Find No: D.86-190 Location:(GK)Room GK


Description: Front: Small fragmentary seal with geometric design. Back: Unclear.

Name: Sealing Find No: D.86-192 Location:(GK)Room GK


Description: Front: Fragmentary seal impression with figurative animal design. Back: Impression of
reeds is visible.

Name: Sealing Find No: D.86-195 Location:(GK)Room GK


Description: Front: Fragmentary seal impression with figurative animal design. Back: Impression of
reeds is visible.

360

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
PLATES

361

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Eridu^ ~

JaersianJ

Plate 1: Map of Mesopotamia and Eastern Anatolia (image: Landsat-7 circa 2000, NASA).

362

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Plate 2: Elazig and Malatya plains in Eastern Anatolia (image: Landsat-7 circa 2000, NASA)

363

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
LEGEND FOR PLANS LEGEND FOR SECTIONS

EXCAVATION LIN E EXCAVATION LINE

GRAVEL Hl' I I DEBRIS

FLOOR F LO O R

PLASTERED SURFACE ASHY S O IL /


OF A H E A R T H BURNED A REA

B IN B IN

DOORW AY/
P IT PASSAGEWAY

d^ d c j Cd
T o o c
M U D -B R IC K WALL NICHE

D HORIZONTAL
STONE WALL POST HOLE

UN PRESERVED WALL SURFACE

DOORWAY /
PASSAGEWAY

NICHE

V E R T IC A L
POST HOLE

C O M P LETE POT

Plate 3: Legend for plans and cross section drawings.

364

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
DEG1RMENTEPE
CHAICOUTHC BULtVCS \ \ \.uu

late 4: Master plan of Degirmentepe. See the sections in plate 5

365

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
C -C '

Plate 5: Section views of the settlement. Top: A-A section. Middle: B-Bsection. Bottom: C-C section.

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
c-c

ection.

366

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
>D ;

ES

ET

100*3
10 9 ' 3 20

>D'

Grave! Itywjabove
the Ubakl room*

Plate 6: Plan of the basement of Building I. For cross section views, see plate 32.

367

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
HEARTH i

FeiFftT
487

e - e'

PASSAGE

5m
F-F'

Plate 7: Cross section views of the basement of


Building i.

368

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Reproduced
with permission
of the copyright owner.

136
Further reproduction

COLLAPSED HEARTH
146 OF UPPER FLOOR

LO (sec pi. 34)


Os
VO (see pi. 35)

107
BIN
prohibited

ROOM I (BUILDING I ) LOOKING EA ST WALL


without permission.

P late 8: Cross section view o f ea st w all (120) with w all paintings and the collapsed h earth (146) a t left.
I.
of room
east w a ll (1 2 0 )
on the
found
9: W a ll p ain tin g
Plate

370

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
i.
of room
east w a ll (1 2 0 )
of the
end
south
at the
found
10: W a ll painting
Plate

371

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
219

ROOM U (BUILDING i) LOOKING NORTH WALL

229

121

ROOM U ( BUILDING 11 LOOKING E A ST WALL

P l a t e 1 1 : C ro s s s e c tio n v i e w s o f th e n o r th w a l l ( 2 2 9 )
a n d t h e e a s t w a l l ( 5 1 7 ) in r o o m U . T h e e a s t
w a l l h a d th e b e a m s h o le s , w h ic h c a r r ie d th e
c e i li n g o f th e r o o m a n d th e f l o o r o f th e s e c o n d
s to ry .

372

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
a c z K - .
r-D O O O .
O c D .

111

109
BIN -----------------------
ROOM K (B U IL D IN G I ) L O O K IN G EAST W ALL

P la t e 1 2 : C ro s s s e c tio n v i e w o f e a s t w a l l ( 1 1 0 ) in r o o m K .

373

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
BIN
5.0 5.0
ROOM AD ( BUILDING I) LOOKING EAST WALL

- t i i '( " , i
I,'1! ' 1 ' / I' l'
/ I I I, 1 | 1 M

Mud-brick platform
5U
ROOM AD ( BUILDING I ) LOOKING WEST WALL

Plate 13: Cross section views of east wall (127)


and west wall (110) in room AD.

374

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
damaged u5

room R ( RUILDINGI) LOOKING SOUTHJVALL

of the south wall (126) in room R.


Plate 14: Cross section view

375

of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.


Reproduced with permission
{

A-A

B-Bf
Plate 15: Plan of the second story of Building i. Room O was built on top of the
basement rooms AC and AD. Hearth (146) belongs to the second story
room built above the room i, but it collapsed into the basement room i.
The plans of the other rooms in the second story are unknown. They
probably had room plans similar to the ones found immediately below
them.

376

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
20

10

35
A -A

tu C-C'

Plate 16: South exterior area of Building i showing the hearth G-131, bins
(N), (M ), (130), (202), and the gravel layer that was preserved
above these Ubaid features.

377

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
a< ;

:o

'.O H

193

AG

A-A

Plate 17: Plan of Building BC.

378

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
NICHE POSSIBLY USED HEARTH 505
AS A SHELF RELATED STRUCTURE SEVERELY
WITH THE HEARTH SOL BURNED

ROOM DH ( BUILDING BC ) LOOKING SOUTH WALL

RENOVATED W HITE BURNED


PLASTER
5
ROOM DH ( BUILDING BC ] LOOKING WEST WALL

5 RENOVATED 5
ROOM DH ( BUILDING B C ) LOOKING W EST WALL EXTERIOR VIEW

P late 18: Cross section view o f south and w est


w alls o f room DH.

379

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
CM

to D
< <
LU TO
CO
C3
S
2
iC m
O CQ
O CO
E
o
O
CD 2
O <0
z &
Q Itx
_J o

CD
S3
&
4 -
O cd
O
o
JS
-fa*
4-
o
o
o St
ce .2
>
c
.2
*4o-*
o
CO

GO
o
Vn
U
6\

o
cs
s
CM in

380

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
312
353
DAMAGED

ROOM BM (BUILDING BC) LOOKING NORTH WALL

315

HEARTH 390

BADLY DAMAGED

ROOM BM (BUILDING BC) LOOKING EAST WALL

Plate 20: Cross section views of east and north walls of room BM.

381

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
MUDBRICK
DOOR S T E P

ROOM BD (BUILDING BC) LOOKING EA ST WALL

3.5

HEARTH 455

DOOR

ROOM BD (BUILDING B C ) LOOKING WEST WALL

DOORWAY

HEARTH 4 5 5
MUDBRICK
DOOR STE P

ROOM BD ( BUILDING BC) LOOKING NORTH WALL

Plate 21: Cross section view of east, west,


and north walls of room BD.

382

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Reproduced
with permission
of the copyright owner.

613

557 E5.
612
702

GO GE

703

FO 700 i
v5-08
704
Further reproduction

679
ET'
FM
$70

00

17F [17 E 17 E j 17 D
prohibited
without permission.

GO

PETEK 700 PETEK PETEK GE

a -A

Plate 22: Plan of Building FC. Hearth (570) in room ET is deliberately added into this
plan to indicate the second story. Also see the text and the cross section
view in pi. 46.
2.5

X D O

611

700
PINKISH W HITE PLASTER
OCCASIONAL RED PAINTING

ROOM FC (BUILDING FC) LOOKING SOUTH WALL

I---- 1

JC J

611
BIN

ROOM GE ( BUILDING FC) LOOKING SOUTH WALL

Plate 23: Cross section views of the south wall of the room FC (top), and the
south wall (678) of the room GE (bottom).

384

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
2.5

3Z Z

700

5.0
ROOM ER (BUILDING FC) LOOKING SOUTH WALL

700
704

ROOM ER (BUILDING FC) LOOKING NORTH WALL

Plate 24: Cross section view s o f the south wall (top) and the
north wall (bottom) of the room ER.

385

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
ROOM ER AND ES (BUILDING FC) LOOKING EAST WALL

X2
700 704

ROOM ES (BUILDING FC) LOOKING NORTH WALL

Plate 25: Cross section views of the east wall (704) of the rooms ER
and ES (top), and the north wall of the room ES (bottom).

386

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
P IT ?
UPSTAIRS'
DOOR?

703

55 ROOM ET (BUILDING FC) LOOKING WEST WALL *55

POST HOLES

CD
o

70 L
700

ROOM ET (BUILDING FC) LOOKING NORTH WALL

Plate 26: Cross section views of the west wall (700) and
the north wall (703) of the room ET.

387

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Building EE Building EL

Building FC

Building FD

Plate 27: Reconstruction of the floorplan of the room FC based on the locations of
platforms and the proportions of the central rooms in other buildings.

388

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
T7IjITJ 1 7 J - J - I7 K

^ ^ W .
2
tfr'
3

Plate 28: Plan of Building EE.

389

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Reproduced with permission
of the copyright owner.
Further reproduction

652

W H IT E P IA S T E R

ROOM EE (BUILDING E E ) LOOKING NORTH WALL


prohibited

Plate 29: North wall (532) of the room EE with the door at left and the large niche at right.
without permission.
Reproduced
with permission

N
of the copyright owner.

f *
Further reproduction

CO
VO
prohibited without permission.

R O O M EE (BUILDING EE)
SOUTH WALL

10 20 30 40 50 cm

Plate 30: W all painting found on the interior face of the wall (529) in room EE. Probably more than one layer of
painting is represented here.
529 524

R O O M E A ( B U ILD IN G E E ) L O O K IN G EAST WALL

P la te 3 1 : E a s t w a ll ( 5 2 5 ) an d th e door.

392

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
529
Aft:*.*'*.&</' 524

ROOM E B (B U IL D IN G E E ) L O O K IN G E A S T W A LL

Plate 32: East wall (526) and the sealed door.

393

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
2

So

529
DOOR ST E P BEAM
HOLES

ROOM EC (B U IL D IN G E E ) LOOKING EAST WALL

521.
529
BEAM
H OLES
U
ROOM EC (B U IL D IN G E E ) L O O K IN G W E S T WALL

Plate 33: Top: East wall (527), the door communicating with room EB, and the
beam holes of the staircase remaining on the walls face.
Bottom: West wall (528), the sealed door between rooms EC and DF,
and the beam holes of the staircase remaining on the walls face.

394

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
GRAVELS
DG
35
AREA DD AND ROOM DG ( BUILDING EE) LOOKING NORTH \AALL

Plate 34: North wall of room DG and area DD.

395

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
]AB A ! B C | D ! E F J G H 1 K j L M N 1
1

1 ; | ^ r
i
2 : 1
~ s IK ----ft T A n D IR

10 /V r
11
rT
12
MUNZUROGLU KOYU ft
3 iBRAHiM TEKEVi a

14

AH1R STA 8LE kO k u m e s COCP


A VA XYC XU TCHLET L TA K A - L A M 3 A U K P L A C E F O R T V L A M 9
0 BACA C H IM N E Y M U TFA K K IT C H E N
CCARK W A SH N G P L A C E OOCAK HEA RTH
C IS tR -M E R T E K B E A M , C R O S S B E A M OY ONA R L A N YER R E S T O R E D
D lK M E PO ST PO SO RLK - STRA W -
0 OOLAP cu bboard SAM ANUCAM UR TE M PE R E D MUD
HATH RUNNER BEAM O H :;:.: SAM A N U K BARN
HHAVAUX V EN TILA TIO N H O L E S E D IR BENCH
1 !S U K W D RK IN G S P O T S W A K -S V A PLASTER
KY K A P I Y E R i B L O C K E D D O O R W A Y SEK l PLATFORM
K K A S A lS l Y E R I P L A C E F O R THE C U R R V C O H S SUNDURM A PORCH
< V E S E 'V A P R A K U D A L F R E S H B R A N C H T T E S n Y ER I P L A C E F O R T I C P IT C H E R
K lR A N -K IR IS
K U 5A K
JO IS T
C R O SS BEAM
GIRI$ CEPHES!
m. Y A W K O Q A S!
YEM UK
BEDROOM
TROUGH
ENTRANCE ELEVATION

m m > .
1.1 KESlTl I-I SECTION II - U KESiTi II - II SECTION
ib ra h im T e k e v i. a d ev resi, plan, c e p h e ve k e sltle ri
Ib rahim T e k h o u s e . P e rio d V . Plan, facade an d s e c tio n s

Plate 35: Ethnographic example of a mud-brick house from East Anatolia in


1970s (from Koyunlu 1976).
Top: Plan of the house. See the cross section lines I-F and E-IT.
Middle: Entrance area of the house.
Bottom: Cross section view of I-F at left, and section view of II-IF at
right.Notethe various roof thicknesses with centimeters at different
locations of the house.

396

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
v lO O

v !3 0

DB

(2 0
v 3 .1 1

(50 CC

3m

i
Plate 36: Plan o f room DB.

397

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
S2S

A-A

Plate 37: Plan of Building EL.

398

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Q
co co

C
uO
CO
UJ 0
5 O
TS
O O
z
X. *
o
o <D
4-t
T3
UJ C
o S
2
Q si
bfl
CD c
UJ
9
2
O PQ
O C4H
cr o
cn
M-
u->

s

-M
o

66
CO
o
M
S
Oh
o
cm'

399

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
EK

GY

i - j - 181
t
2

3
BALK I

A-A

Plate 39: Plan of Building GK.

400

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Plate 40: Wall painting found on the interior face of the east wall (466) in room GK.

401

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
ROOM CM (BUILDING GK) INTERIOR V IE W O F TH E NORTH W M L U64

Plate 41: Cross section view o f the wall (464) in room CM.

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
cz

cn
FH
FA
FK

G - f - 'B H

BALAK

W HEARTH

Plate 42: Plan of the early building phase of Building DU and Building
BY1 to the north. The late building phase of DU did not provide
sufficient evidence to produce a complete plan.

403

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
50 cm

Plate 43: Wall painting found at the south wall (506) in room DU. The
painting was made over thick, white colored plaster.

404

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
REDOISH PLASTER
W HITISH PLASTER
W ITH ASH
4.0
ROOM DU ( BUILDING DU) LOOKING EAST WALL

RED PA IN TING
OVER W H IT E PLASTER W H IT E PLASTER
40
ROOM DU ( BUILDING DU ) LOOKING SOUTH WALL

P late 44: Top: Cross section view of the east wall in room DU and the
door.
Bottom: Cross section view of the south w all (506) in room
DU and two niches.

405

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Reproduced
with permission
of the copyright owner.

' CHALCODTHfC

C D FLOOR
CJC3
oo
Further reproduction

O C ROOM
CD
ROO M
DU AY
RO O M B E
ROOM
CD CD AT
FLOOR CD CD
C O CDCD
FLOOR
CDC
OO
305

2 63
prohibited

D.81-113
POT BURIAL
D.81-137 GRID 17 G
POT BURIAL
SOUTH SECTION
V____
1981
A SH PIT 332
without permission.

k h 9 f e d c

P l a t e 4 5 : S o u th s e c tio n o f g r i d 1 7 G s h o w in g r o o m s D U , B E , A Y , a n d A T . T h e to p f l o o r w it h t h e u p p e r
w a l l b e lo n g s t o t h e l a t e b u i l d i n g p h a s e , a n d t h e t w o l o w e r flo o r s r e p r e s e n t t h e e a r l y b u i l d i n g
phase.
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GRAVELS
GRAVELS
BF
AV

ROOMS BF-A V (17G ) LOOKING SOUTH WALLS '45

<'J <I,n*toV^^fcj*c./y dj ' ;s/i

I 308
GRAVELS
GRAVELS

ROOMS-AV-BF(17G) LOOKING NORTH WALLS

Plate 46: Top: Cross section view of the rooms BR and AV with two floors
and late phase walls. Looking south.
Bottom: Cross section view of the same rooms. Looking north.

407

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
66?

556.

F0

FG

160 I 156

4
5 PLATFOR M
667

A-A

P la te 4 7 : P la n o f B u ild in g F D .

408

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vl.57
HL

JB26

FO

627

660,

: FN
HK
HL
664 OUTSIDE
baulk
GL
OF THE
SETTLEMENT

Dm A-A

Plate 48: Plan of Building FN.

409

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Unexcavated area

Plate 49: A reconstruction of the north portion of Building FN. The location of the exterior
north wall is speculative, but the form and the size of Rooms FN, HK, and HL
is extrapolated by extending the walls already excavated.

410

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
\7 a

BU

EG

15J|16J

BAULK

Ar&

Plate 50: Plan of Building AS and the single room DA to the south representing
the later architectural phase at the site.

411

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Reproduced
with permission
of the copyright owner.
Further reproduction

Gravel layer above


the Ubaid architecture
prohibited without permission.

Sterile soil with


d en se gravels _

0 5 10 15 20m

Plate 51: Multi-room buildings at the south end of the settlement. Each building was separated from
its neighbors by double walls. The buildings are distinguished by thick lines and two tones
of gray for clarity.
Plate 52: Wall painting found on the interior of the west wall of room Bi.

413

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
DEGIRMENTEPE
Chalcolithic Buildings

Estimated edge
Hypothetical edge
EEEH

Plate 53: An estimation of the location and size of the earliest Ubaid occupation
at Degirmentepe.

414

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Plain Bowl K Hammer
o Painted bowl * N et weight / Loom weight
A Jar & Celt
A Cooking pot e Mano / Metate
Miniature cu p /jar Game piece
Pot stand m Awl
* Portable oven s Needle
Spindle whorl Q Seal
# Polishing Stone Sealing

Plate 54: Distribution of artifacts found in Building i.

415

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Plain bowl # Polishing Stone
O Painted Bowl * Net weight / Loom weight
A Jar * Celt
A Cooking pot Mortar
Miniature cup / Jar JC Hammer
Spindle whorl m Awl
0 Stopper Q Seal
Figurine Sealing
O Arrow head Burial

Plate 55: Distribution of artifacts found in Building BC.

416

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Plain bowl Sickle blade
Jar n Hammer
Miniature cup / jar X Chisel
* Pot stand + Macehead
Spindle whorl Bead, pendant or shell
m Awl

Plate 56: Distribution of artifacts found in Building FC.

417

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 m

Plain bowl # Polishing Stone


A Jar Celt
A Cooking pot ft Hammer
H Miniature cup / jar M ano/M etate
Spindle whorl 12 Awl
O Stopper Q Seal
"k Net weight *P Sealing
HJ1 Burial

Plate 57: Distribution of artifacts found in Building EE.

418

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 m

Jar # Polishing stone


A Cooking pot 7t Hammer
Miniature jar & Celt
Pot Stand Mano / Metate
Spindle whorl & Bead, pendant, shell
O Arrow head Sealing
+ Scraper

Plate 58: Distribution of artifacts found in Building EL.

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Plain bowl 71 Hammer
A Cooking pot & Celt
A Jar Game piece
R Miniature cups / Jar Pot stand
Spindle whorl & Bead, pendant,
Stopper El Needle
Knife . . m Awl
* Sickle Blade n Seal
# Polishing Stone 'V Sealing
Si- Burial SS Ground stone

Plate 59: Distribution of artifacts found in Building GK.

420

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
cz

BY1

CH

667.
vflB A K : 593

FA FE
FK

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10m
1--- ---------- UMIIU IWIIW----- mim-----"mm
Plain bowl x Core Burial
A Cooking pot U Hammer 1
Miniature cup / jar 4 Macehead f
Spindle whorl > Game piece l
O Stopper El Awl
Figurine 2 Seal
Sickle blade 4 Sealing

Plate 60: Distribution of artifacts found in Buildings DU, BY1, FA, and FK.

421

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Spoon
Spindle whorl
9
O
Plain Bowl
Stopper
]
Plate 61: Distribution of artifacts found in Building FD.

422

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
d e SI r m e n t e p e
CH4LC0UTMC BUIOWSS

sgi

Plate 62: Location of houses with platforms.

423

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Reproduced
with permission

^IPPl
of the copyright owner.
Further reproduction
prohibited without permission.

Plate 63: An experimental reconstruction of the village. Only House I is shown with a two story plan; the others
are imagined as single story. The multi-room buildings at the south edge of the village are not
reconstructed because of poor preservation.
References:

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Cameron, C. M. 1993.
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427

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1980.
Degirmentepe Kazisi 1979, II. Kazi Sonuclan Toplantisi. pp. 91-99 (in Turkish).

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1980 Yili Degirmentepe (Malatya) Kazisi Sonuclan, HI. Kazi Sonuclan Toplantisi.
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English).

428

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1989.
Prehistorik Anadolu ve Giineydogu Avrupa Radyoaktif (14C) Tarihlerinden
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430

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432

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Huot, J.-L. 1989.
Ubaidian Village of Lower Mesopotamia. Permanence and Evolution from Ubaid 0
to Ubaid 4 as Seen from Tell elQueili, in Upon This Foundation: The Ubaid
Reconsidered, ed. by E. F. Henrickson and I. Thuesen, Museum Tusculanum Press,
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Structure and Function in an Ubaid Village, in Upon This Foundation: The Ubaid
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