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The Early Iron Age in the Elaziǧ Region and the Problem of the Mushkians

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

Veli Sevin
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Extract

The salvage excavations and related surveys carried out both in the Keban and in the Karakaya reservoir areas during the last twenty years have made the Elazıǧ region one of the most thoroughly examined areas of Anatolia. Our archaeological information about this region, which previously was extremely limited, has now reached a significantly high level. Surveys conducted by the present writer during 1985–87, especially in the outlying areas of the reservoir regions, have resulted in the establishment of an archaeological sequence for almost the whole of the area. In spite of all this, it cannot be said that the history of the region is yet fully understood. For example, the two questions, when did the Early Iron Age begin in the region and what were the reasons behind its beginnings, are still far from being answered.

In written documents relating to the Hittite ruler Shuppiluliuma I, the region is referred to as a kingdom, while in the time of Tudhalia IV it is clearly understood that the area, known as Ishuwa, had become a vassal kingdom of the Hittite empire, where people of Hurrian origin were living.

Type
Research Article
Information
Anatolian Studies , Volume 41 , December 1991 , pp. 87 - 97
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute at Ankara 1991

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References

1 The surveys were made possible by the grants from the Middle East Technical University, Turkish Historical Society and the University of İstanbul. I would like to take this opportunity to thank these institutions for their support.

2 See Klengel, H., Orbis Antiquus 7, 1968, 66 ff.Google Scholar; Güterbock, H. G., JNES 32, 1973, 135 ff.Google Scholar; id., Korucutepe 3, ed. M. N. van Loon, 1980, 127 ff.

3 Esin, U., Keban Project 1968 Summer Work, 1970, pl. 8/1–2Google Scholar; id., Keban Project 1969 Activities, 1971, 121 ff., pl. 92/T. 69–1449.

4 Hauptmann, H., Keban Project 1969 Activities, 1971, 82 f., pl. 56/1–6, 57/2–3Google Scholar; id., IstMit 19–20, 1969/70, 34 f., fig. 4; id., Keban Project 1970 Activities, 1972, 107 f.; id., Keban Project 1971 Activities, 1974, 89 f.

5 van Loon, M. and Buccelati, G., Keban Project 1968 Summer Work, 1970, 93 ff., fig. 8Google Scholar; Griffin, E. E., Korucutepe 3, ed. van Loon, M. N.. 1980, 74ff., pl. 18–24Google Scholar.

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7 Karaca, Ö., 4. Kazı Sonuçları Toplantısı, 1982, 71 f., fig. 11Google Scholar; id., 5. Kazı Sonuçları Toplantısı, 1983, 106.

8 Sevin, V., 6. Kazı Sonuçları Toplantısı, 1984, 94 f., fig. 4Google Scholar; Sevin, V. and Köroǧlu, K., 7. Kazı Sonuçları Toplantısı, 1985, 167 fGoogle Scholar.

9 For such wares collected from the Urartian sites in the Elazıǧ and Bingöl regions see: Sevin, V., 4. Araştırma Sonuçları Toplantısı, 1986, 285 f., fig. 14/1–4, 21–25Google Scholar; id., 5. Araştırma Sonuçları Toplantısı 2, 1987, 5 ff., fig. 45; id., 6. Araştırma Sonuçları Toplantısı, 1988, 460 f., fig. 41/1–2, 42/1; see also Winn, M., Korucutepe 3, ed. Loon, M. N. van, 1980, 173Google Scholar.

10 M. Winn, ibid., 155 ff., pl. 51–59.

11 Hauptmann, H., Istanbuler Mitteilungen 19–20, 1969/1970, 54 ff., fig. 16–19Google Scholar.

12 Esin, U., Keban Project 1968 Summer Work, 1970, 165 f., pl. 7/9Google Scholar; id., Keban Project 1969 Activities, 1971, 121. I wish to thank both Prof. Dr. Ufuk Esin and Dr. Savaş. Harmankaya for their kind permission to inspect the material from Tepecik.

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15 Sevin, V., 5. Kazı Sonuçları Toplantısı, 1983, 139 f., fig. 7Google Scholar.

16 The sample from Tülin Tepe was collected by Prof. Dr. Afıf Erzen in his survey at 1956.

17 See also Russell, H. F., Pre-Classical Pottery of Eastern Anatolia, 1980, fig. 18/282.10Google Scholar.

18 Özdoǧan, M., Lower Euphrates Basin 1977 Survey, 1977, pl. 70/2 (0 50/13)Google Scholar.

19 ibid., pl. 73/1 (P 51/1).

20 ibid., pl. 73/3 (P 51/2).

2l ibid., pl. 73/4 (P 51/5).

22 ibid., pl. 74/4 (P 51/3).

23 The sherds from İzoli/Habibuşaǧı were collected on the peak of the rocky hill during our surveys of 1980–81.

24 M. Özdoǧan, ibid., 40 (P 50/8).

25 See Umurtak, G., Hitit İmparatorluk Çaǧında Ishuva Ülkesi Çanak Çömleǧi Üzerine Bir Araştırma (Unpublished doctoral thesis) (İstanbul 1988), 19 ffGoogle Scholar.

26 Grayson, A. K., Assyrian Royal Inscriptions 2, 1976, § 12. (ı 62)Google Scholar.

27 AnSt 30, 1980, 166 f.Google Scholar; see also Burney, C. A. and Lang, D. M., The People of the Hills, 1971, 98Google Scholar.

28 Russell, H. F., AnSt 34, 1984, 180 ffGoogle Scholar.

29 Cf. Akurgal, E., Phrygische Kunst, 1955, 24, 111 ffGoogle Scholar. Various considerations on Mushkians see Barnett, R. D., The Cambridge Ancient History 2/2, 1975, 420 ff.Google Scholar; Nizette-Godfroid, , L'Antiquité Classique 44, 1975, 500 ffCrossRefGoogle Scholar.

30 Dark-faced and hand-made pottery from the earliest level at Gordion immediately overlay the Hittite which dated late twelfth to early eleventh century B.C. see DeVries, K., Anatolian Iron Age, ed. Çilingiroǧlu, A., 1987, 6 f., pl. 1/1–2Google Scholar; Sams, G. K., Source VII/3–4, 1988, 9, fig. 1Google Scholar.

31 Sorokin, V. S., Sovietskaia Arkheologiia 1958, no. 2, 149 ff., fig. 2/1–3Google Scholar.

32 de Morgan, J., Mission Scientifique au Caucase 1, 1889, pl. 4/1–3Google Scholar.

33 Pizchelauri, K., Jungbronzezeitliche bis ältereisenzeitliche Heiligtümer in Ost-Georgien, 1984, 42 ff., fig. 40, 66 ff., fig. 61/2–3, 9, 89 f., fig. 62/5, 10Google Scholar.

34 Koşay, H. Z. and Vary, H., Ausgrabungen von Güzelova, 1967, pl. 41/G. 330, 35 middle row at rightGoogle Scholar.

35 Koşay, H. Z. and Vary, H., Die Ausgrabungen von Pulur, 1964, pl. 31/P 3Google Scholar.

36 Burton Brown, T., Excavations in Azarbaijan, 1948, fig. 36/643, 915Google Scholar; 39/23.

37 A., Çilingiroǧlu, 9. Kazı Sonuçları Toplantısı 1, 1987, 234, fig. 19Google Scholar.

38 French, D., 8. Kazı Sonuçları Toplantısı 1, 1986, 206Google Scholar, fig. 4. According to the excavators, at Tille ribbed ware only occurs in Neo-Hittite levels of the eighth century B.C. I am indebted to Drs. D. French and G. Summers for providing me with details of the excavation and copies of the pottery drawings before the publication of their work.

39 In the Van Museum there are numerous grooved cups originating from illicit digging in the Aǧrı and Patnos areas. See also Bartl, K., To the Euphrates and Beyond: Archaeological Studies in honour of M. N. van Loon, Haex, O.M.C. et al. (eds.), 1989, 257 ffGoogle Scholar.

40 See Young, T. C., Iran 5, 1967, 11 ff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Dyson, R. H., CAH 2/1, 1973, 686 ff.Google Scholar; Cf. Medvedskaya, I. N., Iran: Iron Age 1, 1982Google Scholar.

41 C. A. Burney and D. M. Lang, ibid., 116.

42 Bozkurtlar, C., AnSt 26, 1976, 45 ffGoogle Scholar. I here recall with gratitude the late Mr. Cevad Bozkurtlar, director of the Van Museum, for permission to inspect the material from Kertenkale.

43 Carbon samples taken from the layers in O 21 which had yielded the bullae have provided two dates 1162 ± 57 and 1108 ± 63 B.C. A carbon sample taken from the layer in H 17 and H 18 which belongs to the end of the second millennium and the beginning of the first millennium B.C. has provided the date of 1159 ± 71 B.C.; see van Loon, M., Keban Project 1969 Activities, 1971, 67 note 24 and 68 note 26Google Scholar.

44 For similar considerations see Mellink, M. J., Jahrbuch für Kleinasiatische Forschung 2/1–2, 1965, 317 ff.Google Scholar; Çilingiroǧlu, A., Anatolian Iron Age, ed. Çilingiroǧlu, A., 1987, 109Google Scholar.

45 A. K. Grayson, ibid., § 476. (r. 33); 547. (ı 69).

46 Luckenbill, D., Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia, 2, 1927, § 8, 16, 18, 42–3Google Scholar and passim; Saggs, H. W. F., Iraq 20, 1958, No. 39CrossRefGoogle Scholar; see also Meriggi, P., Athenaeum 42, 1964, 52 ff.Google Scholar; Postgate, N., Iraq 25, 1973, 21 fGoogle Scholar.