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Beycesultan Excavations: First Preliminary Report

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

Seton Lloyd and
James Mellaart
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Extract

Beycesultan Hüyük is situated three-and-a-half miles south-west of the kaza town of Çivril in the vilayet of Denizli, and about one hundred and thirty miles east of Smyrna. The Çivril valley, of which Beycesultan must in ancient times have represented the provincial capital, is watered by the upper course of the Meander River and has an elevation of some three thousand feet above sea-level. Its length is traversed by a modern road, taking the line of a very ancient trade-route, which, at the south-west end of the valley, leaves the upland country and drops down suddenly, some two thousand feet, into the great rift of the lower Meander, whose olive groves slope towards the Aegean Sea. This must always have been one of the traditional approaches to the Anatolian Plateau from the west. The climate of Çivril is accordingly that of central Anatolia: very low winter temperatures, succeeded by perpetual summer sunshine and moderate heat.

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Type
Research Article
Information
Anatolian Studies , Volume 5 , December 1955, pp. 39 - 92
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute at Ankara 1955

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References

page 52 note 1 Burnished ware (buff core) is less common than in IV and III. Plain buff ware is not common, but several vessels were found in private houses in “A II”.

page 52 note 2 As an example, Room “J.1” contained fragments of: 35–40 fruitstands of different types (4 with solid stems, the rest with perforations in the stem); 2–3 chalices; 1 drinkwarmer, richly decorated with wavy lines; 2 quatrefoil cups; approx. 50 simple bowls with flat or roll rim; 2–3 bowls with vertical rim; 1 jug; 1 ribbed jar (also 1 clay bulla; 1 bronze spearhead; 1 lead club head with fragments of wooden handle; 2 banana-shaped clay objects and 2 loomweights).

page 53 note 1 Archaeologia 86, 1936Google Scholar, fig. 10: No. 3 and pl. VIII. 9 (different type from the one found at Beycesultan).

page 54 note 1 Handleless kylices do not seem to occur. A. Furumark, Mycenaean Pottery, figs. 16 and 17.

page 54 note 2 The base of the bowl was drawn out by the potter into a pointed knob to which the hollowed-out top of the stem was fitted.

page 54 note 3 Persson, A., New Tombs at Dendra near Midea, p. 135 f.Google Scholar, fig. 117 (silver kylices of Late Helladic II date). Metal counterparts of L H III kylixes are not known (Stubbings, , B.S.A. XLII, 1947, p. 63Google Scholar).

page 55 note 1 AS IV, fig. 342, 343, p. 231Google Scholar.

page 55 note 2 Alaca (Vol. I, 1937) tomb BM. pl. CL XIX (gold), Vol. III (1951), tomb K. pl. CLXXVII (gold and silver).

page 56 note 1 Bowl occurs by itself on a ring base (types 4 and 7).

page 56 note 2 Gold ware pieces definitely belonging to fruitstands of type 2 have not been found.

page 60 note 1 It is found from Level V onwards.

page 62 note 1 They were found nicely stacked in a deep bowl of type 5 in a corner of Room L II/3.

page 62 note 2 Blegen, Troy II, fig. 43, shape A 23. Fig. 257, Nos. 17, 18—all Troy V, Polatlı, (AS IGoogle Scholar, fig. 6, group 2, fig. 8, group 8, period II).

page 62 note 3 A very similar type is found at Geoy Tepe on Lake Urmia. Burton-Brown, , Excavations at Geoy Tepe in Azerbaijan, 1948Google Scholar, fig. 27 (44, 477, 1008, etc.).

page 64 note 1 Not found at Troy (VI).

page 66 note 1 e.g. Kusura, , Archaeologia 87, 1937Google Scholar, fig. 15: 8 and 9.

page 66 note 2 Hesperia VII, p. 434, p. 457Google Scholar, fig. 19 and 22 (Middle Byzantine glazed ware). Although Middle Byzantine pottery was discovered at Beyce on the western half of the mound (fig. 11: 14, 15, 16, 17), it must be emphasized that our specimens all come from stratified and undisturbed earlier deposits and that fragments of similar vessels were found in the other half of the mound (in E II) where there is no Byzantine layer. The possibility that these vessels are Byzantine and intrusive is therefore excluded. The ware is totally different from the Byzantine pottery at Beyce and especially fig. 11: 14 with a slight gold lustre is typical of the Late Bronze Age Level II at Beycesultan.

page 68 note 1 See Bittel, in MDOG 72, 1933, p. 30Google Scholar, f. 13. This type occurs at Boǧazköy, Alişar, Kültepe, Tyana, i.e. in the central Anatolian and Konya plain.

page 68 note 2 This exaggeration of the neck and spout is a south-west Anatolian feature and is found on the well-known EBA ribbed and fluted jugs from the cemetery of Göndürle (north of Isparta). See Bittel, K., Kleinasiatische Studien, 1942Google Scholar, and others in Afyon Museum.

page 70 note 1 Kusura, , Archaeologia 86, 1936Google Scholar, pl. VIII, No. 10, fig. 15: 9.

page 70 note 2 Found by the writer during a survey in south-west Anatolia in 1952.

page 70 note 3 Lamb, W. in PZ 1932Google Scholar, fig. 11.

page 70 note 4 Thermi, pl. XIX.6 (has rivets like the south-west Anatolian specimens).

page 70 note 5 Excepting the beak-spouted jugs of precious metal in the Alaca tombs, which in my opinion are probably imports from south-west Anatolia (see AS IV, p. 212Google Scholar).

page 72 note 1 Furumark, , Mycenaean Pottery, fig. 20: 195, p. 68, 617Google Scholar.

page 72 note 2 Blegen, , Troy, III, fig. 293, shape B 41Google Scholar.

page 78 note 1 Kusura, C.Archaeologia 86, 1936Google Scholar, fig. 17: 1, 3, 4; 87, 1937, fig. 14: 1.

page 78 note 2 Kusura, C.Archaeologia 86, 1936, fig. 17: 7Google Scholar.

page 78 note 3 Found at Beycesultan, Çivril, Yassi H., Mancarli H. and Kusura (surface sherds).

page 81 note 1 JHS, LXXII, p. 42Google Scholar, fig. 10.

page 81 note 2 AJA, LIII (1949), p. 222Google Scholar (review). The original publication by Boehlau, J., Schefold, K., Larisa am Hermos, III (Kleinfunde), 1942Google Scholar, is not available here.

page 81 note 3 Stubbings, F., Mycenaean Pottery in the Levant, p. 21 fGoogle Scholar.

page 81 note 4 Blegen, , Troy III, p. 16Google Scholar, fig. 323, 324, 330, 382, and 402–422.

page 81 note 5 Stubbings, op. cit. p. 22, and especially VI. Internat. Kongress für Archaeologie, Berlin, 1939, pp. 323, 325 ff.Google Scholar, pl. 24 (some sherds in Izmir Museum and others on a dump at Miletus).

page 81 note 6 Stubbings, op. cit. p. 21.

page 81 note 7 Bolletino d'Arte 35, 1950, pp. 320 ff.Google Scholar, Stubbings, op. cit. p. 21.

page 81 note 8 Stubbings, op. cit. pp. 5 ff.

page 82 note 1 J. Garstang, Prehistoric Mersin.

page 82 note 2 Unpublished material in Adana Museum.

page 82 note 3 Responsible for Chalcolithic painted wares, painted vessels of final Early Bronze Age at Tarsus and the fine Middle Bronze Age painted ware.

page 82 note 4 Belleten XII, 1948, p. 267Google Scholar.

page 82 note 5 Brit. Mus. Cat. I, p. 199Google Scholar (A 10321–4).

page 82 note 6 JHS, 1904, p. 128Google Scholar.

page 82 note 7 AS, IV.

page 82 note 8 A doubtful 2nd millennium sherd was found at Bodrum (Halicarnassos).

page 82 note 9 See map in Antiquity XXVIII, 1954, p. 217Google Scholar, for distribution of 2nd millennium sites in southern Anatolia.

page 84 note 1 Pottery of this period (all wheelmade) is found in an unburnt room of a private house in A I, in a re-used room in Trench M, and sherds were found in all the trenches on the eastern half of the mound (Trench J, H, K, L and M).

page 84 note 2 Pottery resembling Central Anatolian occurs in the Konya plain and our foreign class (all found in Room M I) may be derived from there.

page 84 note 3 MDOG, 1953, p. 40Google Scholar, f. 18, 14–13 century cemetery.

page 86 note 1 Alaca III (1951)Google Scholar, pl. XLI.1, Al/C, 348.

page 86 note 2 Bittel, Kleinfunde, pl. 37, 1 (date not indicated), pl. 34: 33, 34 (14th/13th century), pl. 34: 36 (incised).

page 86 note 3 Occur also in the Konya plain.

page 86 note 4 Bittel, Kleinfunde, pl. 20, Nos. 8, 10 (Boğazköy 3b–13th century), cf. Alaca, (AJA, 1947, p. 157, fig. 5)Google Scholar. Al. c. 367.

page 86 note 5 AJA, 1947, pl. XCIX, No. 9.

page 88 note 1 Not yet analysed—some of it may be copper.

page 88 note 2 Flint knives are very rare in Beycesultan.

page 88 note 3 Or their enemies. Arrowheads found in a burnt building may belong to the arrows of the attackers or the defenders. A club head was found in a store-room, but a woman in Room I in L had been clubbed by the attackers.

page 90 note 1 Karo, Schachtgräber, pl. LXXVI, No. 486 (Late Helladic I).

page 90 note 2 BSA, 1952, p. 273Google Scholar, f. 15 (Late Minoan II).

page 90 note 3 Karo, Schachtgräber, pl. LXXVI, No. 487 (also Nos. 484, 485) (Late Helladic I).

page 90 note 4 Persson, A., The Royal Tomb at Dendra near Midea, p. 35Google Scholar, pl. XX, 3, XXII, XXV (Late Helladic III–14th century).

page 90 note 5 Prehistoric Mersin, f. 158.3 (Late Bronze Age, Level VI).

page 90 note 6 Archaeologia, 87, 1937Google Scholar, fig. 21.1.

page 90 note 7 BSA, 1952, p. 261–2Google Scholar, fig. 8 A–J.4.

page 91 note 1 Prehistoric Mersin, fig. 158.8 (Mersin VIII and VII) and 9 (Mersin VII), all Late Bronze Age.

page 91 note 2 Alaca, Vol. I, pl. LXI (Al. 26), Alaca Level 2 or 3a, i.e. Late Bronze; Alaca. Vol. III, pl. LXXVI, 2nd and 3rd from left.

page 91 note 3 Archaeologia, 86, 1936Google Scholar, fig. 19: 2–5.

page 91 note 4 BSA, 1952, p. 270Google Scholar, fig. 12, III. 18a (9·2 cm. long, leaf-shaped, flat blade and tang, Late LMII) and Isopata tomb (LM IIIa), PM, IV, fig. 820a.

page 91 note 5 Archaeologia, 86, 1936Google Scholar, fig. 19 (less curved).

page 91 note 6 Bittel, Kleinfunde, pl. 13, No. 1, 9, identical shape.

page 91 note 7 Alaca III, pl. LXXXV, No. 4.

page 91 note 8 Prehistoric Mersin, fig. 158, 12 (Mersin VII, LBA).

page 91 note 9 Archaeologia, 86, 1936Google Scholar, fig. 18: 1, 2. Kusura A–C (3rd and 2nd millennium).

page 91 note 10 Belleten, IX, 1945Google Scholar, pl. LXXI, 7. “Hittite.”

page 91 note 11 Alaca I, pl. LXI, Al. 34.

page 91 note 12 Archaeologia, 86, 1936Google Scholar, fig. 18, 19. 87, 1937, fig. 21, 18.

page 91 note 13 Alaca, III, pl. LXXXVII, No. 3. 278, 247, 248.

page 91 note 14 Archaeologia 86, 1936Google Scholar, fig. 18, 11, 13 (Kusura C), 87, 1937, fig. 21, 20–22.

page 91 note 15 Alaca, I, pl. LXI, Al. 26, 33 (MBA–LBA), III, pl. LXXXVIII, Nos. 280, 327.

page 91 note 16 Belleten, IX, 1945Google Scholar, pl. LXXI, 6. “Hittite.”

page 92 note 1 OIP, XXIX, fig. 200, 1286 (MBA).

page 92 note 2 Archaeologia, 86, 1936Google Scholar, fig. 18: 17 (Kusura B–C, 3rd and 2nd millennium).

page 92 note 3 Alaca, III, pl. LXXXVII, 1, No. 268, 317, 308? LXXXVII, 2, Nos. 305, 328.

page 92 note 4 Kültepe, I, pl. LXIII, 379 (MBA).

page 92 note 5 Alaca, I, pl. LXIII, Al. 672, Al. 1840 (MBA).

page 92 note 6 Preh. Mersin., f. 158, II (Mersin VII–LBA).

page 92 note 7 Archaeologia, 86, 1936Google Scholar, fig. 18: 12–13. (A–C), 87, 1937, fig. 21: 17.

page 92 note 8 Alaca, II, pl. L, 50. III, pl. LXXVI, I, LXXXVII, I, 284–85.