Anatolia: Bronze and Iron Ages - The Ashmolean Museum

10. Anatolia: Bronze and Iron Ages
A. Introduction
In the highland zones of the ancient Near East, modern Anatolia and Iran (cf. nos 160–184), miniature
imagery in clay, comparable to that evident in the lowland regions treated in the previous sections of this
catalogue, is elusive even in those periods after prehistory when there is some evidence of it. In Anatolia,
after the prehistoric period, stone is more evident for miniature or hand-held imagery and even then
production would appear to be sporadic, in place and time.
The terracottas of the Bronze and Iron Ages from Anatolia in the Ashmolean Museum are no more than
an appendix to this catalogue, few in number and all without archaeological contexts. They were acquired
in the early twentieth century by travellers, who recorded where they were purchased and sometimes where
the seller reported they had been found.
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ANCIENT NEAR EASTERN TERRACOTTAS
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(i) Early Bronze Age
BRONZE AND IRON AGES: CATALOGUE – ANATOLIA
Anatolia: Bronze and Iron Ages
B. Catalogue
380. Female figurine; baked; handmodelled; brownish ochre fabric, highly burnished; the
incised decoration is in deep cut lines made before firing and then filled with a white
substance of which traces remain; flat, stylized form. As a deeply incised line separates
it from the top of the head, the round flat object may be a cap rather than dressed hair.
The back of the “cap” is elaborately patterned with chevrons in four quadrants, each
band marked with incised dots; the front has a zigzag line with dots alternating in the
triangles. A similar pattern marks the hair across the brow. The eyebrows and nose are
incised lines, with the eyes, a dot within a square, drawn away to the sides of the face, no
mouth is clearly shown (a mark in the clay seems to be accidental) and no ears. There is
a necklace with linear pendants above crossing-straps, marked out with dots. On either
side rises in the clay, indicating breasts, are overlaid with incised chevrons up to the arm stubs; the navel
is indicated; there is a “girdle” with a design of chevrons, above the highly stylised genitals; at this point the
figurine terminates in a curving line. On the reverse are two tassels, pendant from the “cap”, above
crossing-straps depicted as on the front. It appears that the figure is nude.
AN1910.669; H: 9.3cm W: 4.9cm. (Bought at Adalia [modern Antalya] on the south coast of Turkey by
Hasluck and Woodward; “said to have been found at a depth of two metres from the surface at Chai-
Kenar, near Istanoz, about twelve hours north-west of Adalia”.
Peet 1909, 145–6, pl. XXVI; Bossert 1942, 44, pl. 85.
381. Female Figurine (cf. no. 380 above); baked; handmodelled; brownish ochre fabric, highly
burnished; the incised lines were deeply cut before firing and filled with a white substance
of which traces remain; unlike no. 380 above the back is entirely plain. Triangular shaped
head with dots to indicate the eyes, at the extremity of the face on each side, and the
mouth, within a pattern of converging chevrons; necklace of dots with an upper and lower
line. The remainder of the body is rendered just like no. 380 above, but the breasts are not
indicated by rises in the clay.
AN1910.668; (as no. 380 above) H: 8.2cm W: 3.8cm.
Peet 1909, 146, pl. XXVII; Bossert 1942, 44, pl. 85.
382. Worn fragment from the torso of a female figurine like nos 380 and 381
above; handmodelled of pale buff, unburnished clay; baked; stub arms with
incised chevrons over the breast area.
AN1910.579 W: 3.9cm H: 2.3cm. “From Near Adalia: Mound of “Fugla”
(finder’s note).
These two complete terracottas, and possibly the fragment, belong to a chance
find at Çaykenari, betweeen Antalya and Hacilar, in the first decade of the twentieth century from which
comparable figurines found their way into other museum collections (cf. van Loon et al. 1989,
Zimmermann 1993, nos 56–62; Møller 1995, nos 16–19). Indeed, the whole category is now often referred
to as the “Çaykenari Type”. Contemporary Early Bronze II (c.2700–2300 B.C.) dark-faced pottery is also
decorated with incised necklaces, cross-bands and dots evoking the recurrent close
connection between anthropoid pottery shapes and terracotta figurines, both probably
made by women.
383. Nude female figurine; seated; handmodelled; baked; coarse buff fabric with a
burnished red slip, worn off on the flat base; two holes are pierced in the lower back and
one in the centre of the base; the slightly damaged face was applied as a disk, tipped back
so that the chin projects, on the front of the head; the eyebrows and nose are a
continuous projecting ridge; the eyes are deep-punched holes in incised oval frames; the
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ANCIENT NEAR EASTERN TERRACOTTAS
mouth is an incised slit with vertical incisions below on the chin (“beard”); the ears and what was originally
a major protrusion (“polos”) on the head are broken off; the upper body is flattened, with triangular shape
accentuated by projecting shoulders; attenuated arms extended down either side of the body with the hands
grasping the knees; incised lines on the upper arms and shoulders; incised crossing straps and what may be
a necklace; pointed breasts with incised nipples; genitals represented by an incised rectangular with incised
dots inside it; short lower body with stump legs.
AN1910.697: H: 9.7cm. obtained at Izmir (“Smyrna”) by D.G. Hogarth as from the area of Thyateira
(Akhisar: map in Korfmann 1979).
Ormerod 1912–13, 54–5, fig. 3; Korfmann 1979, 190, 197, pl. 29; Obladen-Kauder 1996, 276, n.737).
Three miniature vessels (AN1910.694–6) were acquired with this figurine; but there is no evidence of a
direct association.
Korfmann (1979) was the first to place this figurine in its chronological and cultural context by
comparison with terracottas from Demircihüyük, to the north west of Akhisar, whence it was reported
to have come. Akhisar is some thirty-five kilometres south of Yortan (east of Pergamon), where in 1901
French archaeologists excavated an extra-mural cemetery yielding finely made pottery of Troy I–II type,
comparable in some cases to the miniature vessels reported with this figurine. The parallel figurines at
Demircihüyük, were attributed to levels L and K (Korfmann 1979, 187, 191; see now Obladen-Kauder
1996). Surviving undamaged heads of comparable figurines from other west Anatolian sites of the Early
Bronze Age allow for reconstruction of a cylindrical projection at the back of the head, behind the diskshaped
face (cf. Korfmann 1979, fig. 1: 1, 3; fig. 3,5,6). A very similar, more complete figure of the same
seated type as no. 383 is illustrated as from Çikick, some two hundred and fifty kilometres east of Akhisar,
by Korfmann (1979, fig. 6). It is difficult to establish whether the projection is a headdress or whether it
is the hair dressed into a high knot, or a combination of the two (cf. Obladen-Kauder 1996, 267). There
is no certainty as to whether such figurines represented a goddess or a female member of the local
community (cf. Obladen-Kauder 1996, 257–9). Korfmann (1979) identified her as a goddess.
(ii) Iron Age
384. Upper part of a warrior, broken off at the waist; baked; crudely modelled by hand;
burnished, chocolate brown fabric wears a partly broken conical helmet or leather cap;
pierced eyes; pointed nose; roughly indicated mouth, chin and beard; spear held in right
hand, round shield with boss in left.
AN1911.311 (“bought in the bazaar at Isbarta”, southwest Turkey) H: 6.9cm W: 3.3 cm.
Ormerod 1912–13, 53–4, fig. 2a.
This figurine is so crudely made that little may be said about it beyond an attribution to the
mature Iron Age, when the warrior’s equipment is most readily paralleled; but whether it is
of the Achaemenid Period, or somewhat earlier, is uncertain. There are no obvious grounds for doubting
its antiquity.
385. Horse-rider: male; head detached from body when acquired; baked; handmodelled; coarse
orange fabric with polished slip originally; head, nearly globular, has large ears, prominent eyes
beneath arched brows, passing directly into a prominent straight-edged nose; mouth slightly
indicated; chin damaged; wears a prominent “Phrygian” cap, depressed at the sides, with a
high ridge front to back; the left arm and the right below the elbow are missing; the width and
distortion of the groin indicate that it was made to be mounted as a rider; the trunk of the
body is a flattened cylinder; very worn surface, but simple geometric designs in black are still
evident in traces on the top and sides of the back, indicating a garment; black is also still
evident on the eyes and cap rim; at the base of the back is a broad triangular patch of brown
colour. Myres (AN1903.399) thought this might indicate a “saddle”, of which there may also
be painted traces at the front. It could, however, simple indicate the groin area of the costume.
AN1909.943 (“from the Hammam or hot springs 1½ miles east of Keuhne, near the site of
MITHRADATEION on the border between Galatia, Cappadocia, and Pontus... secured by Mr Anderson”
(Myres 1903, 378–9); given by J.W. Crowfoot. H: 20.5cm. W: 6.3cm (base).
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BRONZE AND IRON AGES: CATALOGUE – ANATOLIA
"Keuhne Hammam”, on the central Anatolian plateau east of Ankara is most likely to be the modern town
of Sorgun, east of Yozgat on the road towards Sivas (Mason 1943, II, 457–8, fig. 104; Summers: personal
communication). There were once Roman baths there; but, so far nothing earlier has been reported and
there is said to be no sign of a tell. It is likely that the figure came from a site not too far distant from the
place where it was bought; Kerkenes Dag has been suggested. The painted pottery of which it is
manufactured relates it to the pottery of Alishar, where fragments of similarly painted terracotta statuettes
were found (Von der Osten and Schmidt 1932, 38, frontispiece; Von der Osten 1937, 410, fig. 474: d
1618). It may be dated to the period between about 650 and 550 B.C. If it is correctly identified as a
horseman, it is an elaborate example of the rider type of figurine widely distributed across the Near East
at this time.
(iii) Roman (?)
386. Quadruped; possibly a sheep; baked; hand-made; coarse red fabric with
prominent grits; the surface is very worn, possibly rubbed down to smooth it;
the two legs on the right side are broken off; the neck is extended forward with
a triangular shaped head; ears, eyes and nostrils punched, gash for mouth; a
series of linear characters are incised along the back after baking and after the
surface was smoothed; others, more fresh looking in appearance run along the
left flank. They have in the past been identified as Cretan Linear A.
AN1933.451 (Bequest of A.H. Sayce; attributed to “Old Samsun”, Pontus).
A. Evans 1935, 768, fig. 749; Brice 1961, 23, pl. XXIX (as Linear A); Godart and Olivier 1982, XXI
(regarded the inscription as non-Aegean and not Linear A.). In a personal communication Professor Anna
Morpurgo Davies agreed with Godart and Oliviers’ conclusion. As the result of a thermoluminescence test
of this animal “using standard methods and techniques it was estimated that the date of the last firing was
between 1100 and 1700 years ago,” (Doreen Stoneham 1997). This suggests a date of manufacture in the
first millennium A.D.
If this figurine does indeed come from the reported area, it might be from the sanctuary of Zeus at Asar
Tepesi in the hills between Gerze and Samsun, where a number of animal figurines have been reported
(Isin 1998, 109, pl. 23: 4–5). Even so, the inscription would appear to be a recent addition, perhaps to
increase its value on the antiquities market.
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