Figural Motifs on Halaf Pottery: an Iconographical Study of Late Neolithic Society in Northern Mesopotamia
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BAHATTİN İPEK BAHATTİN FIGURAL MOTIFS ON HALAF POTTERY: AN ICONOGRAPHICAL STUDY OF LATE NEOLITHIC SOCIETY IN NORTHERN MESOPOTAMIA A Master’s Thesis ICONOGRAPHICAL STUDY OF LATE NEOLITHIC NEOLITHIC LATE OF STUDY ICONOGRAPHICAL FIGURAL MOTIFS ON HALAF POTTERY: AN AN POTTERY: HALAF ON MOTIFS FIGURAL SOCIETY IN NORTHERN MESOPOTAMIA NORTHERN IN SOCIETY by BAHATTİN İPEK Department of Archaeology İhsan Doğramacı Bilkent University Ankara Bilkent Bilkent August 2019 University 2019 To my father and my family FIGURAL MOTIFS ON HALAF POTTERY: AN ICONOGRAPHICAL STUDY OF LATE NEOLITHIC SOCIETY IN NORTHERN MESOPOTAMIA The Graduate School of Economics and Social Sciences of Ġhsan Doğramacı Bilkent University by BAHATTĠN ĠPEK In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS IN ARCHAEOLOGY THE DEPARTMENT OF ARCHAEOLOGY ĠHSAN DOĞRAMACI BĠLKENT UNIVERSITY ANKARA AUGUST 2019 ABSTRACT FIGURAL MOTIFS ON HALAF POTTERY: AN ICONOGRAPHICAL STUDY OF LATE NEOLITHIC SOCIETY IN NORTHERN MESOPOTAMIA Ġpek, Bahattin M. A., Department of Archaeology Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Marie-Henriette Gates August 2019 Information about the lifestyles of ancient cultures, their daily activities, religious beliefs, close or long distance trade relations, or cultural interactions come from their products. Ancient material productions can be briefly mentioned by examples such as stone tools, pottery, and secular or religious buildings. Thanks to excavations or socio-cultural surveys, we are able to make comments on the ancient societies' materials. Wall paintings, motifs or scenes on pottery provide us important information about the lifestyles or religious beliefs of ancient cultures. The aim of this thesis is to give information about the motifs on Halaf pottery, which belongs to the Late Neolithic period and spread over a wide area in Northern Mesopotamia. First, the socio-cultural structure of the Halaf culture will be examined. It will turn to animal motifs, human motifs or narrative scenes on Halaf pottery for the information about Halaf culture that it presents to us. It also examines the role of dancing figures and feasting in the Halaf culture. Keywords: Halaf Culture, Halaf Iconography, Halaf Painted Pottery, Late Neolithic Society. iii ÖZET HALAF ÇANAK-ÇÖMLEĞĠ ÜZERĠNDEKĠ FĠGÜREL MOTĠFLER: KUZEY MEZOPOTAMYA'DA ĠKONAGRAFĠK (BETĠMSEL) ÇALIġMALAR Ġpek, Bahattin Yüksek Lisans, Arkeoloji Bölümü Tez DanıĢmanı: Doç. Dr. Marie-Henriette Gates Ağustos 2019 Yazıdan önceki kültürlerin yaĢan tarzları, günlük aktiviteleri, dini inanıĢları, yakın veya uzak mesafe ticari iliĢkileri veya kültürel etkileĢimleri hakkındaki bilgiler o dönem kültürlerinin ürettiği ürünlerden gelmektedir. Üretilen malzemeler kısaca: taĢ aletler, çanak-çömlekler, gündelik veya dini amaçlı yapılar ve benzeri Ģeyler örnek olarak söylenebilir. Kazılar veya sosyo-kültürel araĢtırmalar sayesinde geçmiĢ dönemlere ait toplumların ürettiği malzemeler veya toplumlar hakkında yorumlar yapabilmekteyiz. Duvar resimleri, çanak-çömlekler üzerindeki motifler veya sahneler bizlere eski kültürlerin yaĢam tarzları veya dini inanıĢları hakkında önemli bilgiler sunmaktadır. Bu tezin amacı, Kuzey Mezopotamya'da geniĢ bir alana yayılan Geç Neolitik döneme ait Halaf kültürüne ait üretilen kaplar üzerindeki motifler veya sahneler hakkında bilgi vermektir. Ġlk önce Halaf kültürünün sosyo-kültürel yapısı incelenecektir. Daha sonra Halaf kültürüne ait kapların özerinde olan hayvan motifleri, insan motifleri veya bir olayı anlatan sahnelerin bize Halaf kültürü hakkında ne tür bilgi sunulacağı araĢtırılacaktır. Ayrıca dans eden figürlerin ve Ģölenin/ziyafetin Halaf kültürü için ne anlam taĢıdığını incelemektir. Anahtar Kelimeler: Geç Neolitik Kültürü, Halaf Boyalı Kapları, Halaf Ġkonografisi, Halaf Kültürü. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all, I would like to give my endless thanks to all my teachers and friends who cannot count their names that helped me to finish my thesis. I would like to thank my thesis supervisor Assoc. Prof. Dr. Marie-Henriette Gates for her endless patience and advice. I would like to thank Assoc. Prof. Dr. Thomas Zimmermann and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Çiğdem Atakuman who are the jury members who devoted their precious time to my thesis. I also thank, as a debt of gratitude, to my family (my mother, father, brothers and sister), my wife (Medine) and my children (Abdurrahman and Tümay Elf), and my wife's sister. I would like to thanks to my teachers and my friends (especially Haluk Sağlamtimur) from Ege University Archaeology Department, my teachers and my friends from Bilkent University Archaeology Department and my teachers and my friends from Artuklu University. Luckily there are good people like you in this world. Thank you all. Yours truly. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................ iii ÖZET........................................................................................................................... iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ......................................................................................... v TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................................................................... vi LIST OF TABLES ..................................................................................................... ix LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................... x CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................. 1 CHAPTER 2 CHRONOLOGY AND PERIODISATION OF THE HALAF CULTURE ................................................................................................................... 6 2.1 First Excavations and Studies on the Halaf Culture.............................................. 6 2.2 Geographic Distribution of the the Halaf Culture .................................................. 7 2.3 Chronology and Periodisation of the Halaf Culture ............................................... 8 2.3.1 Chronology of the Halaf Culture ............................................................. 8 2.3.2 Phasing the Halaf Culture ..................................................................... 10 2.4 Origin of the Halaf Culture .................................................................................. 11 2.5 Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 13 CHAPTER 3 CULTURAL FEATURES AND LIFESTYLE OF HALAF CULTURE .................................................................................................................................... 14 3.1 Halaf Environment and Subsistence Economy .................................................. 14 3.2 Halaf Settlement Pattern ...................................................................................... 15 3.2.1 The "Mega Halaf Sites"-Really Big or Segmented? ............................. 16 3.2.2 Short-Lived Halaf Sites ..................................................................... ..17 3.3 Halaf Architecture ............................................................................................... 17 3.4 Halaf Burial Practices .......................................................................................... 19 3.4.1 Mass Burials .......................................................................................... 19 3.4.2 Cremation .............................................................................................. 21 3.4.3 Skull Burials .......................................................................................... 21 3.5 Social and Political Organization of Halaf Culture.............................................. 22 3.6 Conclusion ........................................................................................................... 25 CHAPTER 4 HALAF PAINTED POTTERY ........................................................... 26 4.1 General Features of Halaf Pottery ....................................................................... 26 4.2 Recent Archaeological Studies and Archaeometric Studies on Halaf Pottery ..... 28 4.2.1 Previous Studies on Stylistic Evolution of Halaf Pottery ..................... 28 4.2.2 Recent Archaeometric Research ........................................................... 30 4.3 The Emergence of Halaf Pottery and Its Diagnostic Features ............................. 31 4.4 Conclusion ........................................................................................................... 33 CHAPTER 5 NORTH MESOPOTAMIAN SITES WITH FIGURAL HALAF POTTERY .................................................................................................................. 34 vi 5.1 The Northern Tigris Valley .................................................................................. 34 5.1.1 The North Iraq Jezirah ........................................................................... 34 5.1.1.1 Kharabeh Shattani ................................................................. 34 5.1.1.2 Tell Arpachiyah ...................................................................... 35 5.1.1.3 Tepe Gawra ............................................................................ 35 5.1.1.4 Yarim Tepe I-II-III. ................................................................ 36 5.1.1.5 Tell Hassan ............................................................................. 37 5.1.2 The Tigris-Eastern