EARLY BRONZE AGE DAGGERS IN CENTRAL ... - Bilkent University

XXIII through XXXI represented the Middle and Late Bronze Age Hittite period
(Lloyd-Gökçe, 1951: 21).
Phase I and Phase II are separated in level XI by the sudden disappearance of
what is called “local ware”. Unlike what the name suggests, however, “local ware” in
Polatlı was also recovered in Karaoğlan, Etiyokuşu and elsewhere, including Alaca
Höyük and Alişar I (Lloyd-Gökçe, 1951: 55). The closest parallels, however, come
from Ahlatlıbel (Lloyd-Gökçe, 1951: 55).
In the later levels of Phase I, the firing techniques advances and the percentage
of the black, coarse sherds become rare and the proportion of the burnished wares rises
considerably (Lloyd-Gökçe, 1951: 45). The “depas amphikypellon” from the later
levels of Phase I is the earliest wheel made vessel known from Polatlı (Lloyd-Gökçe,
1951: 46). As depata are known from many other sites, including Troy, they play a
major role in assigning dates for the levels which they were found in. Exact parallels
of the depata found in Polatlı occur in EBA Troy II and III, and therefore the date for
the Phase I is correlated to those phases in Troy (Lloyd-Gökçe, 1951: 56).
The transition from the Phase I to Phase II is marked by two types of pottery.
The first of these is the “multiple-crossed bowl”. The particular feature of these red
painted vessels is the ornamentation of the interior with radiating lines, rather than
decorating the exterior of the vessel. The second type of pottery is black burnished
ware which has incisions filled with white paint. Curiously, one of the vessels found in
the earliest levels of Phase II had the white paste filled incisions as a decoration in the
interior of the vessel (Lloyd-Gökçe, 1951: 46).
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