The Earliest Neolithic Levels at Barcın Höyük, Northwestern Turkey
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ANATOLICA XXXIX, 2013 THE EARLIEST NEOLITHIC LEVELS AT BARCıN HÖYÜK, NORTHWESTERN TURKEY 1 Fokke A. Gerritsen, Rana Özbal and Laurens C. Thissen Abstract This article presents the current state of research on the two earliest levels encountered at Barcın Höyük, Located in the Yenişehir Plain, Barcın Höyük is excavated as part of a long-term research project on early farming communities in the southern Marmara Region. Even though the exposures are small, excavations have uncovered notable differences between the phases termed VIe and VId. The two phases are compared in terms of pottery traditions, cooking practices, bone tools, beads and stone artifacts, ultimately allowing us to understand some of the key changes that were taking place among the earliest permanently settled communities of this region. The article places the stratigraphy and relative ceramic chronology into a chronological and regional context. Eleven radiocarbon determinations demonstrate that Barcın VIe and VId date to the 66th through 64th centuries BC. INTRODUCTION The study of the neolithization of northwestern Anatolia, and in particular of the Marmara Region, has gained momentum in the last ten years, with new evidence provided by ongoing excavations at Aktopraklık (Karul and Avcı, 2011) and Barcın Höyük, both situated at inland locations to the south of the Sea of Marmara, and at Yenikapı (Kiziltan 2010: 5-14; Algan et al. 2011) on its northeastern shore in Istanbul. Renewed interest in the question of the spread of farming to Europe, driven partly by the application of bioarchaeological techniques (Evershed et al., 2008; Lillie et al., 2012; Budd et al., 2013), has also directed attention to the region as a zone connecting Anatolia to the southeast and the Balkans to the northwest. The Barcın Höyük excavations began in 2005 and stem from a long-term research project in the southeastern Marmara Region that started in 1987, led by the Netherlands Institute in Turkey and the Netherlands Institute for the Near East (Fig.1). The sequence documented in the course of this project at Ilıpınar (phases X through V) forms the backbone of our understanding of the development of material culture, architectural forms and subsistence practices during the first half of the sixth millennium BC in northwest Anatolia (Roodenberg, 1995; Roodenberg and Thissen, 2001; Roodenberg and Alpaslan Roodenberg, 2008). Soundings at Menteşe Höyük provided evidence for the presence of 1 F.A.G.: Netherlands Institute in Turkey, Istanbul; R.Ö.: Koç University, Istanbul; L.C.T.: TACB, Amsterdam. The Barcın Höyük Excavations are carried out with financial support from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO). Affiliated organizations are the Netherlands Institute in Turkey, the Netherlands Institute for the Near East, CLUE Research Institute of VU University Amsterdam, Koç University and Boğazıçı University. 54 F.A. GERRITSEN, R. ÖZBAL, L.C. THISSEN earlier sedentary farming communities, and the choice to excavate at Barcın Höyük followed from the ambition to elucidate the nature and development of such a settlement during the seventh millennium BC. A report on the 2005 and 2006 seasons of excavations at Barcın Höyük appeared in this journal in 2008 (Roodenberg, van As & Alpaslan Roodenberg 2008). From 2007 onwards, the Barcın Höyük excavations have been directed by the first two authors of this article (Gerritsen and Özbal, 2009; Gerritsen, 2010; Özbal and Gerritsen, 2011; Gerritsen and Özbal, 2012; Gerritsen, Özbal, and Thissen, 2013). This report presents a brief overview of the phases of occupation at the site, and discusses the evidence for the earliest phases, VIe and VId, dating to the middle of the seventh millennium BC. THE SITE AND ITS LANDSCAPE Barcın Höyük is a small mounded site in the Yenişehir Valley east of Bursa. Its Neolithic occupation was recognized from surface finds during several surveys carried out from the 1950s onwards (Mellaart, 1955; French, 1967; Özdoğan, 1986). The site consists of two mounds separated by a low saddle (Fig. 2). The larger, eastern, mound has a diameter of ca. 120m and rises about 4 meters above the current level of the surrounding plain, the western mound is about 50 meters in diameter and 2.5 meters high. Excavations have focused on a 20 meter wide and 50 meter long north-south oriented strip on the southern flank of the eastern mound. Virgin soil has been reached in soundings in trenches L13 and L14, while excavations higher up on the slope aim to expose habitation levels over a larger horizontal extent. The site is located on Quaternary deposits that fill the valley floor, consisting of silt, clay, sand and gravel. The hills surrounding the valley consist of pre-Neogene outcrops of schists, marble, trachyte, andesite and limestone, as well as siltstones, sandstones and gravel-stones of Neogene date (Topal et al., 2003; Yaltırak 2002; Künzel 2012). A modest stream, the Kocasu, drains the valley to the east. Until drainage canals were dug in the mid-20th century, the low-lying parts of the valley consisted of marshland and small lakes, following an older stage when the valley was presumably filled by a lake. A pollen core taken from a remnant of marshland in the Yenişehir valley has allowed a paleo-environmental reconstruction (Bottema and Woldring 1995; Bottema, Woldring and Kayan, 2001). An almost treeless landscape existed at the end of the last glacial period. From around 10,000 BP onwards, steppe plants were gradually replaced by deciduous trees such as hazel, beech, deciduous oak, lime and elm. This created an open forest landscape including plant species associated with open areas such as centaurea. A period of high centaurea values has been radiocarbon dated to 8500-6400 BP. This includes the period of Neolithic habitation at Barcın Höyük. A geomorphological study of the direct surroundings of the site is ongoing. Two hand-augering campaigns have identified a sequence of sediments ranging from clays to fine gravels below and around the site. They indicate a complex history of sedimentary and hydrological changes, dominated by lacustrine and marsh conditions (Künzel 2012; ANATOLICA XXXIX, 2013 55 Groenhuijzen, in prep.). Clay deposits suitable for pottery making were encountered directly below the site. GENERAL HISTORY OF OCCUPATION The excavations have demonstrated evidence for habitation and other human activities at the site during several periods between the seventh millennium BC and the Byzantine period (not counting the current agricultural use). As a way of designating the different periods for which there is evidence for occupation, a division into six main periods is used (Table 1). I Byzantine II Hellenistic/Roman III Iron Age IV Bronze Age V Chalcolithic VI Neolithic Table 1. Barcın Höyük. General periods of occupation. It should be stressed that this does not represent an uninterrupted occupation sequence throughout these periods. On the contrary, the current evidence for periods I to V points to brief periods of occupation separated by long periods without evidence for habitation or other activities. What factors were responsible for the abandonment and renewed occupation events at the site is still a matter of research. The site’s history may have been closely connected to changing water levels, shorelines, stream energy and sedimentation processes of the adjacent lake/marsh in the center of the Yenişehir Valley. In some periods, the location of Barcın Höyük may have been unattractive as a habitation site due to the high water level, possibly even surrounding the mound with water. I Byzantine Over 70 graves representing a Middle Byzantine cemetery have been encountered in trenches L10, L11, L12 and L13, with some additional graves in M11. It is likely that further graves were destroyed, as the upper southern slope was lowered by about 50 centimeters for agricultural purposes before excavations began, and the uppermost, poorly preserved graves were found directly below the plow zone. Surface scatters of roof tile fragments extend over of the saddle between the eastern and western mounds, suggesting that the cemetery extends further west. The graves of this cemetery that were uncovered in 2005 and 2006 were published in Roodenberg (2009) and Aplaslan Roodenberg (2009). 56 F.A. GERRITSEN, R. ÖZBAL, L.C. THISSEN II Hellenistic/Roman In situ evidence for habitation during period II comes from the southeastern quadrant of trench L13. Here a southeast-northwest mudbrick wall was found, with a series of three loam-lined bins and one mudbrick-built installation abutting its southern face. The northern side of the wall was set against or very close to the artificially steepened slope of the prehistoric mound. This indicates that a form of terracing was created to make a level space for, presumably, a house. Pottery found on the indoor/courtyard floor and in the bins has not been studied in detail, but is dated preliminarily to the Hellenistic period. In trench L14, to the south of this structure, several pits and a series of intercutting ditches date to period II. It is possible that one or more of the east-west or southeast- northwest ditches are contemporary with the architecture. III Iron Age A pit (or possibly several intersecting pits) with Neolithic material in trench L12 included sherds from a handmade vessel in a brittle, coarse grit tempered ware with strap handles. Although the identification of this vessel is uncertain, it may hint at an, otherwise elusive, occupation phase during the Iron Age. IV Bronze Age At least one phase of occupation, and possibly more, dates to the Early Bronze Age. A straight-sided pit with a diameter of approximately 2.60 m was encountered directly below the plow zone in trench M11. Excavated to a depth of 3.90 m below the surface, its bottom has not yet been reached. The fill of the pit is fairly rich in pottery, including numerous bowls in Yenişehir black-topped ware, beak-spouted jugs, and an occasional sherd of İnegöl Grey Ware.