§9 Artefacts from Kilise Tepe, 2007-2011

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––------------ Artefacts –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-------––--- §9 Artefacts from Kilise Tepe, 2007-2011 Naoíse Mac Sweeney and others Introduction This text presents descriptions of over 800 artefacts from the Late Bronze Age and Iron Age levels at Kilise Tepe (Levels II and III in the North-West corner, and Levels 2 and 3 in the Central Strip), excavated in the 2007-2011 seasons. By “artefacts” we mean all items which were created by and/or subjected to human activity, with the exception of ceramics which will be described in other chapters. Not included here are finds from the Early and Middle Bronze levels in G19 and G20, which have been studied by Dr T.E. Şerifoǧlu, and from the Hellenistic and Byzantine levels, which will be described in Dr M.P.C. Jackson’s report on these periods. In a few instances finds from Level 1 (and in the NW corner, Level I) have been included here, when it seemed possible or probable that they originated in the earlier periods with which this report is concerned. Following broadly the precedent of our report on the 1994-98 seasons at the site, the finds are numbered in a continuous sequence set up for this volume, and they are presented in sections grouping material or artefact types as follows: 1 Glyptic 1-6 N. Mac Sweeney & D. Collon 2 Clay objects 7-65 N. Mac Sweeney 3 Loomweights 67-193 N. Mac Sweeney 4 Spindle whorls 194-237 N. Mac Sweeney 5 Beads 238-295 N. Mac Sweeney & M. O’Hea 6 Metal objects 296-464 F. Cole & N. Mac Sweeney 7 Worked bone 465-540 N. Mac Sweeney, J. Jones & J. Best 8 Worked shell 541-564 N. Mac Sweeney & S. Debruyne 9 Fossils 565-604 N. Mac Sweeney & S. Debruyne 10 Lithics 605-681 N. Mac Sweeney 11 Worked stone 682-747 N. Mac Sweeney 12 Grindstones and mortars 748-806 D. Heslop Catalogue entries Each entry will normally provide in the first line the “object number” and the “unit number” as assigned by the excavator. Where relevant, a KLT number is given: these are selected items which were catalogued at the end of each season and deposited in the Silifke Museum, and are kept in the Museum’s central storage room, rather than in the annex which houses the great majority of the Kilise Tepe materials. The dimensions are given in centimetres (and grams); dimensions which are incomplete due to breakage or wear are generally enclosed in round brackets – thus “H. (2.3)” means “maximum extant height 2.3 cm”. Drawings The drawings are placed on Plates 1-31 after the catalogue (pp. 87-117). Each drawing bears the catalogue number assigned to the item in question. Where there is no drawing (as usually in sections 9 and 10, but occasionally elsewhere) the catalogue number in the text is enclosed in square brackets – [353]. We believe that grouping drawings in this way has advantages over pasting each one next to each artefact’s catalogue entry. 1 ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––------------ Artefacts –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-------––--- Photographs When disseminating artefact descriptions on-line earlier constraints on reproducing photographs no longer apply, and we have therefore aimed to provide at least one photograph of virtually every item. These are to be viewed in the folder §3-7.Photos. The photo identification number given applies to the photograph(s) which are stored on-line in a folder called KT Artefact Photos, which contains a separate folder for each section of the catalogue. Several other photographs of each object exist in the main site corpus of photographs, which will be accessible on-line in due course. Within each folder the individual photos show their artefact’s catalogue number as the first element in their file-name, followed by the photo’s identity number for internal reference (e.g. 348-2010_KT_A_1271 copy.jpg). In many cases an artefact only appears with other items in a group photo. These group shots are located after the individually illustrated items in each section of the Artefact Photos folder, and their file-names give the section number and Group letter – e.g. Group 7A. Where an artefact has not been photographed, most usually because of its poor preservation, the abbreviation “n.ph.” (no photograph) is included at the end of the catalogue entry. This artefacts chapter is the first part of the final report on our 2007-2011 seasons to be completed. It is accompanied by the account of the excavations, covering the stratigraphy and architecture. Separate reports on the micromorphology, on the molluscs, on the grindstones, and on the zoo-osteology and archaeobotany are ready or in preparation. The ceramics will be described in two chapters, covering the Late Bronze Age and Iron Age respectively. 2 ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––------------ Artefacts –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-------––--- 1. Glyptic (1-6) Naoíse Mac Sweeney and Dominique Collon Previous excavation of the Stele Building area uncovered a total of six seals, four bearing Anatolian hieroglyphic inscriptions. The glyptic finds from the 2007-2011 seasons are consistent with these earlier discoveries, implying continuity in the area’s administrative functions not only throughout the various incarnations of the Stele Building but also from the time of its Late Bronze Age predecessor, the NW Building. Four seals were uncovered in 2007-2011: one ivory stamp seal with a hieroglyphic inscription in the Level III NW Building, one clay stamp seal with floral motif from beneath the Stele Building, a clay stamp seal from the later Iron Age area I18, and a copper or bronze stamp out of context in Byzantine deposits. In addition, from Level 2 in the Central Strip came a small fragment of lentoid stamp seal and a clay bulla. Level III: NW Building and surrounding area b); Brussels, Musées Royaux du Cinquantenaire: “Argent 1 I19/541 84051 KLT 182 bronze” (Speelers 1917, pp. 84, 193). Level IIId Possibly provenanced examples consist of Stamp seal; ivory Hittite ‘tripod’ stamp seal. A small Ashmolean No. 188 purchased at Bor (Hogarth 1920, see piece is missing from the edge of the base. The seal is above), an “iron” seal with a silver sealing surface from made of one piece of ivory and consists of a domed disc Çorca near Konya (Bossert 1942, Nos. 685 and 687), and on which rest three clawed feet and legs of lions which one from Çardak, also near Konya (Güterbock 1949, p. support a square tablet on which is a flattened cylinder, 62 Abb. 15:3 and 19:1). The excavated examples consist with two incised bands at each end and perforated of the lower part of a badly corroded, worn and damaged longitudinally. The sealing surface is surrounded by a bronze tripod seal with a flat base (design illegible) found notched band within which is an inscription consisting of at Boğazköy (Boehmer and Güterbock 1987, No. 238), six hieroglyphic signs. All surfaces are highly polished. and perhaps a fragment of a black stone seal found in the There are signs of wear on the perforation, suggesting 2007 excavations at Tell Açana (ancient Alalakh) that that the seal was strung and worn. may have been part of a tripod seal (one probable lion’s Tripod seals are almost exclusively made of paw survives) with a geometric pattern on its base, but metal, generally bronze. The leonine legs are usually too much is lost for this to be certain (AT07 2983; joined at the top by a cylinder for suspension that, unlike Collon, forthcoming). the Kilise Tepe seal, seems usually to be plain. In A special form of tripod seal, with a domed, almost general, the sealing surface of the tripod seals is a disc hemispherical sealing base also occurs, with the inscribed with a Luwian hieroglyphic inscription; hieroglyphic inscription surrounded by a floral motif. In Güterbock notes the similarity between the inscriptions the Ashmolean Museum there is a gold example from on the face of the tripod seals and those of the convex- Tamassos in Cyprus, with the suspension cylinder sided bi-facials (Boehmer and Güterbock 1987, p. 61). replaced by a suspension ring (Hogarth 1920, pp. 21 Fig. This also applies to the Kilise Tepe seal and would 19C, 37, and Pl. VII; Bossert, 1942, No. 701), but the indicate a date in the 13th century BC. However, the leonine paws are flimsy. From the Boğazköy excavations metal examples lack the rounded proportions and quality (Oberstadt, House 21) there is an ivory example with its of the Kilise Tepe seal. The following list of metal tripod sealing surface domed like the Tamassos example, and seals is based on that provided by Güterbock (loc. cit.). with the hieroglyphic inscription also surrounded by a There are examples from London, British Museum: ME floral motif. The exceptional shape and materials of both 102475; Oxford, Ashmolean: No. 188 of “base silver”, these seals indicate that they were destined for use in an purchased at Bor in central Turkey (Hogarth 1920 pp. 21 élite context, and such domed seals could have made the Fig. 19A, 37, and Pl. VII); No. 189 of “base silver” with deep concave impressions of royal and official seals of an inscription and a figure on the sealing surface, but also the late 14th to 13th centuries BC (e.g. Neve 1993, pp. 57- an inscription on the upper side of the disc, between the 61). lions’ feet (op. cit. pp. 37, 72 Fig. 74, and Pl. VII); No. This Boğazköy ivory seal is the only ivory tripod 190: bronze (op. cit. pp. 21 Fig. 19B, 37, and Pl. VII); example known to the authors apart from the Kilise Tepe and No. 191 (see below); Baltimore, Walters Art Gallery: seal.

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