Early Bronze Age Burial Customs in Western Anatolia Author(s): Tamara Stech Wheeler Source: American Journal of Archaeology,

Vol. 78, No. 4 (Oct., 1974), pp. 415-425 Published by: Archaeological Institute of America Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/502755 Accessed: 13/11/2008 12:41
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Early

Bronze

Age

Burial Anatolia

Customs

in

Western

TAMARA STECH WHEELER

PLATES 84-85

The typical western Anatolian burial custom in the third millennium B.C. was pithos burial in extramural cemeteries. General characteristics of the custom were defined by the excavations of Gaudin at Yortan,1 and Bittel2 and K6kten3 at Babak6y, as well as through surface observationsof

plundered cemeteries in the Burdur and Balikesir areas. (See ill. i for locations of all sites mentioned in the text.) Results of the Bryn Mawr College excavations at Karata?-Semayiik4 the highlands in of Lycia have provided specific details on each phase of the burial procedure since over 500 tombs

BABAKOY ?YORTAN

CITY *MIDAS LAKE.

CILAR e BEYCESULTAN ALAKE * KUSURA

APHRODISIAS
0 0

CAN EASAN

.TARSUS

cJ
ILL. I
1 M. Collignon, "Note sur les fouilles de M. Paul Gaudin dans la Necropole de Yortan en Mysie," CRAI 190o, 810-17. 2 K. Bittel, "Ein Graberfeld der Yortankulturbei Babak6y,"

3 K. Kokten, "1949 ylll tarihoncesi ara?tlrmalar," Belleten XIII (1949) 812-I4. 4The research on which this article is based was done as part of my dissertation,The Early Bronze Age Burial Customs of Karatas-Semayuk,presented to Bryn Mawr College. I wish

AOF I3 (1939-194I)

1-28.

to acknowledge a great debt of gratitude to Machteld J. Mellink of Bryn Mawr College who encouraged and helped me in and every phase of this work-excavations at Karata?-Semayiik the preparationof the dissertationand this article. I also wish to thank Marie-Henriette Carre Gates, Charles W. Gates, III, Marshall J. Becker, Brunilde Sismondo Ridgway and Jonathan Wheeler for reading this manuscriptand making many valuable comments.

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TAMARA STECH WHEELER

[AJA 78

were cleared,a number sufficientto insure a reliable statistical sampling. The Karatas evidence is complemented by the continuing study of prehistoric burials found on the shores of the Gygean Lake near Sardis,5 while the cist cemetery at Iasos in Caria6has added a new aspect to the study of western Anatolian burial customs which may now be put into perspective.
THE HIGHLANDS OF WESTERN ANATOLIA

Although the settlements of Yortan, Babak6y, and the Gygean Lake shore have not been excavated, the known portions of their cemeteries are not located in or among houses. At Ovabaylndlr near Yortan, house foundations dating to the Early Bronze Age were investigated by Akurgal, who also discovered several infant burials in jars among the foundations.7 Pithos sherds observed in nearby fields were probably the remains of a topographically separate, extramural cemetery.8The Karata? cemetery is certifiably extramural, although certain sections of the cemetery were placed among abandoned houses, and in one area settlement precedes and follows funerary usage; at no time however were tombs in or among occupied houses. The Kusura cemetery slightly predates the bulk of the excavated settlement, but the distinction between funeraryand domestic areasis still pertinent.9 Three tombs were found in the Kusura settlement, but only one, that of a child, was contemporary with the houses among which it was placed.10 The only tombs excavated at Beycesultan were intramural jar burials of infants in Levels XXIX,1 XXII12and XVIIa,13the last a stratum representing a lapse in occupation of the "shrine"area. Although little of the Early Bronze Age settlement was excavated, it is likely that most tombs were extramural in this period. The pithos burials found in Early Bronze Age strata at Aphrodisias are isolated from
5 D.G. Mitten and G. Yiigriim, "The Gygean Lake, 1969: Eski Ballkhane, Preliminary Report," HSCP 75 (1971) 191-95. 6 D. Levi, "Le due prime campagne di scavo a Iasos," ASAtene 23-24 (196I-I962) 555-71; D. Levi, "Le campagne 505-46. 1962-64 a Iasos," ASAtene 27-28 (I965-1966) 7 E. Akurgal, "Yortankultur-Siedlung in Ovabayindir bei Balikesir," Anadolu III (1958) I64. 8 Ibid., I57; Abb. i on I58. 9 W. Lamb, "Excavations at Kusura near Afyon Karahisar," Archaeologia 86 (1936) pl. I. 0 Ibid., Io. 11 S. Lloyd and J. Mellaart, Beycesultan I (London 1962) 23.
12 Ibid., 26. 13 Ibid., 33.

contemporary habitation debris. Two were in the Pekmez area,14the other on Ku?kalesi.1 The distance between them may indicate a sizable extramural cemetery. The Early Bronze Age cemetery of Midas City is probably extramural as it lies at the foot of the acropolis.l6 At Karatas, all children were interred in the extramural cemetery, in individual jars or in large pithoi together with adults. The rule of extramural child burial may not have been so strict at other sites. No small burial jars, which would have contained the remains of children, are mentioned in Collignon's report on the excavations at Yortan. Only one jar suitable for a single child burial was found at Babakoy.17 Since the settlements of Yortan and Babak6y have not been explored, no further comment can be made on the placement of children's tombs. One of the five tombs at Eski Bahkhane on the Gygean Lake shore contained the remains of children; a second small jar held no bones but its size implies that it was used for an infant or child burial.18Early Bronze Age settlements have been located around the Gygean Lake; they each seem to have separatecemeteries and the inhabitants of one large site may have used the cemetery at Eski Balikhane.l9 Although the burial of some children was intramural, it may be inferred that as a rule interments of adults were made in extramural cemeteries such as those of Yortan, Babakoy, Eski Balikhane and Karatas. The combined evidence from these four cemeteries can be used to describe the custom of pithos burial. The burial jars, ranging in height
from 0.20 m. at Karatas to
2.15

2.00

m. at Yortan and

m. at Karatas, were placed in earth pits on their sides with rims at a slightly higher level than bases,probablyto facilitate introduction of the body and its possessions and gifts (pl. 84, fig. I). The pithos rim usually opened to the east, the direction
14 B. Kadish, "Excavationsof PrehistoricRemains at Aphrodisias, 1967," AIA 73 (I969) 63; B. Kadish, "Excavationsof Prehistoric Remains at Aphrodisias, 1968 and 1969," AIA 75 15 B. Kadish, AJA 73 (supra n. 14) 52. 16 H. Cambel, "Frikya'da, Midas ?ehri yanlnda bulunan prehistorik mezar," IV. Tiurt Tarih Kongresi (Ankara 1952) 228-29; A. Gabriel, Phrygie II (Paris 1952) 2; C.H.E. Haspels, The Highlands of Phrygia I (Princeton 1971) 285 n. 3. 17 K. Bittel, AOF 13 (supra n. 2) 9; Abb. 14 on 19. 18 D.G. Mitten and G. Yiigriim, HSCP 75 (supra n. 5) 192. 19 D.G. Mitten, "Prehistoric Survey of Gygean Lake and Excavations at Ahlatli Tepecik," BASOR I91 (1968) Io.
(I971) I26.

1974]

EARLY BRONZE AGE BURIAL CUSTOMS IN WESTERN ANATOLIA

417

of the sunrise.20After the jar was placed in the cutting, the body was contracted on its side on the floor of the inclined burial jar and tomb gifts -jewellery, weapons, tools, figurines and potteryput in an appropriate position (pl. 84, fig. 2). At Karata?and Eski Ballkhane, the deceased wore his or her jewellery to the grave and sometimes held tools or weapons; pots were placed close to the torso (pl. 84, fig. 3). The position of tomb goods is not given in the Yortan report and most of the Babak6y tombs were plundered; so similar observations about the contents of the tombs cannot be made. After the body and possessions were placed in the tomb, the mouth of the burial jar was closed, usually with a single stone slab (pl. 84, fig. 4), although at Karata? a preference is shown for a variety of blocking materials-sherds of both small vessels and pithoi, stones and substantial portions of other vessels (pl. 85, fig. 5) as well as stone slabs. Additional small pots were sometimes placed among the blocking materials, a practice known from Yortan21 and Karatas (pl. 85, fig. 6). The earth pit was then filled to the level of the cemetery field. Since the cemeteries were laid out neatly, with the pithoi in rough rows and little overlapping of tombs, each tomb was probably distinguished by a marker on the field surface. Such markers, in the form of stone circles which may have enclosed low mounds, have been found only at Karata? (pl. 85, fig. 7); they were probably destroyed at other sites before any detailed observation took place, since a cemetery is usually noticed when tombs are exposed by weathering or plowing, therefore after markers have disappeared. At Karatas, one-quarter of the tombs contained successive multiple interments, proved by the disarticulatedyet neatly stacked skeletal remains of all individuals in the tomb except the last one buried. Although the relationship among the inhabitants of a single tomb is now being determined by skeletal analysis, in the interim it is reasonable to view tombs containing multiple burials as family vaults
20 Cf. J.W. Gruber, "Patterning in Death in a Late Prehistoric Village in Pennsylvania," American Antiquity 36 (1971) 64-76; A.A. Saxe, "Social Dimensions of Mortuary Practicesin a Mesolithic Population from Wadi Halfa, Sudan," in Approaches to the Social Dimensions of Mortuary Practices, James A. Brown, ed. (Memoirs of the Society for American Archaeology, No. 25, Washington, D.C. 1971) 48-50. Similar studies about the effect of shifts in the direction of the sunrise during the course of the year on the orientation of individual tombs have not yet been made for western Anatolian ceme-

since the individualsfrequentlyrepresentseveral age groupsand both sexes.Multipleburialsin one tomb are not anomalousin a cemeterywhere the weresingle;reuseof a tomb of majority interments have been partly a matter of convenience, could given a certainspan of time after each burial to were thus Tomb markers allow for decomposition. wheretombscouldbe used in a necessity a cemetery to for severalburials, directthe familyto its burial burialis also attestedat Babak6y22 jar. Successive and Ahlatll Tepecikon the GygeanLake.23 is This outlineof burialprocedure valid for the with some minor four majorcemeterycomplexes, variations. Although the tombs excavatedat Eski at and Balhkhane thoseobserved severalothersites on the GygeanLake shorewere pithoi, some cists Cists outwere dug at nearbyAhlatli Tepecik.24 of numberpithoi at this site, and are certifiably Bronze Age date on the basis of ceramic Early to contents comparable the Yortan material.At severalcists were found in the cemetery Babak6y, sincethey field. Their datingis howeveruncertain were not placed among the pithoi25and contain no tomb gifts. Accordingto Bittel, nothing prevents dating them to the late Roman or early The Byzantineperiod.26 one stonebuilt tomb and a few inhumationsin the Karata?cemeteryare with the pithos burials;their prescontemporary ence does not detract from the fact that the burialtype was the pithos.The elabpredominant orate built tomb may have been the result of a effortfor a specialcitizen,whoseburial community was made distinctivein orderto emphasize place his unique status,while the earthburialsmay be viewed as the work of pooror hurriedpeoplewith to the desireto conform custominsofaras possible.27 than jars may have existed in Burial types other small numbersin other westernAnatoliancemeevidenceon this point is teries;the archaeological by no meanscomplete.Pithosburialwas however the dominantcustomand may be called a typical traitof a westernAnatoliancultural complex. The Kusura cemeteryis usually consideredas
teries. 21 M. Collignon, CRAI I9oI (supra n. i) 814. 22 K. Bittel, AOF 13 (supra n. 2) Abb. 4 and 5 on 6. 23 D.G. Mitten, BASOR 191 (supra n. I9) 7-8. 24 Ibid., 7-9. 25 K. Bittel, AOF 13 (supra n. 2) Abb. 3, A and B, on 5. 26 Ibid., Io. 27 The built tomb and inhumations at Karatas will be discussed in detail in the final excavation report.

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TAMARA STECH WHEELER

[AJA 78

another manifestation of the western Anatolian custom of pithos burial, but it differs from Karatas, Babakoy and Yortan in that tomb types are mixed in the excavated portion of the cemetery which may have been only a small part of the whole.28In the Kusura cemetery ceramic containersoutnumber cist and earth burials, but some of the jars are unusual compared to the pithoi in other western Anatolian cemeteries.There are four true pithoi, three pseudopithos burials (two halves of a single jar bisected longitudinally and placed lengthwise over the body) and one sherd burial.29The largest jar at Kusura is 1.40 m. in height and the rest around I.oo m. Pithoi at other sites in western Anatolia may be taller, over 2.00 m. at Karatas and about 2.00 m. at Yortan and Babakoy. Perhaps the potters at Kusura could not make such large jars. In Kusura tombs in which the position of the skeleton can be determined, the head is to the west at the base of the pithos;30such a position is never found at Yortan, Babakoy or Karatas where the head is always to the east. No multiple burials were found in the Kusura tombs. Objects in the tombs consist only of small vessels-cups, jugs and pitchers-while true pithos cemeteries contain a wider range of material. Tomb goods were usually placed behind the skul131 rather than in front of the torso as at Karatas, Eski Balikhane and Babakoy. Basic similarities between Kusura and other western Anatolian cemeteries indicate that certain features were common to extramuralcemeteries.At Kusura, the tombs are laid out in an orderly fashion with no overlapping,32 implying that markers were also used here. Orientation of the burial jar rims was generally to the east, in line with the custom in true pithos cemeteries. The typological position of the Kusura cemetery is difficult to ascertain.It is probablyEB I in date33 and thus precedes the Yortan-Babak6ytype cemeteries which may be assigned to EB II.34 Bisected jar and sherd burials might be early forms of pithos burial, the size of burial jars may be limited by the level of technology, and the lack of variety in tomb
28 W. Lamb, Archaeologia86 (supra n. 9) pl. I; 55.

goods a feature of contemporaryfashion; but these hypotheses cannot be substantiated,since no other cemetery of EB I date has been found in the west. The alternative is to view Kusura as a cemetery intermediate between two sets of burial customsthe uniform pattern of western Anatolia and the mixed burial practices of central Anatolia in the third millennium (see Appendix I). Results from new excavations therefore confirm that in western Anatolia burials were usually placed in pithoi in extramural cemeteries. Some child burials, although in jars, were exempt from the rule of extramural placement. Intramural burial of children at sites with known or presumed extramural cemeteries is documented at Kusura, Beycesultan, and Ovabayindlr,and might be inferred for Yortan and Babakoy.
THE AEGEAN COAST AND OFFSHORE ISLANDS

The mainland of Anatolia and the Aegean islands must have been in active contact in prehistoric times but the archaeological evidence is at present too scanty to allow much more than speculation on this point. The data now available indicate that burial customs on Anatolia's Aegean coast and offshore islands received influences from both the western highlands of Asia Minor and the Cycladic islands. In the southern part of this geographical zone, the majority of excavated tombs are at Iasos where a uniform burial custom prevails. All the tombs are stone cists, built either of stone slabs or field stones. A rectangular box formed of four slabs placed on edge is standard, while ovoid, trapezoidal, semicircular, polygonal, and round cists also occur.35 The appearance of the Iasos cemetery is regular; the tombs are aligned in rows with spaces between each tomb and its neighbors.36Forty of the Iasos cists are oriented along a roughly east-west axis,37 although deviation from the usual orientation is fairly frequent and often radical. Of the eighty-five tombs excavated, sixteen contain the skeletons of
37 Ibid. The orientation of each tomb is not always given in the text. On the basis of the plan cited here, the following orientations were observed: east-west, 40 tombs; northwestsoutheast, 24 tombs; northeast-southwest, I2 tombs; northsouth, 2 tombs. Three (46, 54 and 64) are round so have no particularorientation and three (5, 38 and 52) are ruined. According to the plan, two orientations are given incorrectly in the text: 5I, which the text says is east-west, should be northeast-southwest and 48 which is east-west, but called northeastsouthwest in the text.

29 Ibid., 55.

32 Ibid., fig. 25. 33 M.J. Mellink, "Anatolian Chronology," in Chronologiesin Old World Archaeology, R.W. Ehrich, ed. (Chicago 1965) II4. 34 Ibid. 35 D. Levi, ASAtene 27-28 (supra n. 6) 533. 36 Ibid., fig. I35.

30Ibid., 6I-63: Tombs 3, 6, 9, II, 31 Ibid.: Tombs 5, 6, 8 and I4.

I2

and I3.

1974]

EARLY BRONZE AGE BURIAL CUSTOMS IN WESTERN ANATOLIA

419

more than one person.38 That the tombs were to thanused reopened receivea secondburialrather for the simultaneous is burialof two persons proved by the positionof the bones.Usuallythe skeletonof the firstbody buriedwas pushedto one side of the cist so its bones are disarticulated, the second but skeletonis found articulated a contracted in position.39Such Iasos cists were thereforeconsidered family vaultssinceall boneswere left in the tomb. The Iasos cists are similarto the cist gravesof in EarlyCycladiccemeteries theirform, theirposition in an extramural cemetery,and the frequent use of a single slab for a cover,40 severalimbut indicatethat,in respect burial to differences portant customsas well as geography, Iasosstandsin a position intermediatebetween the islands and the Anatolianhighlands. Doro Levi notesthata variety as of cist shapesis not as commonin the Cyclades local it is at Iasos,41wherevariations may represent of orientation the Iasostombs adaptations. Easterly
is common enough to suggest that it formed a set

successive burials;43 at Iasos almost 20% of the tombs have more than one occupant. The similarities between burial procedures at Iasos and in inland western Anatolia are striking in the face of an important basic difference-burial was made in jars in the highlands and in cists at lasos. Cemeteriesin both areas were extramuraland were laid out following an orderly plan, suggesting that tomb markers were also used at Iasos. Orientation of the Iasos tombs is not as orthodox as that of western Anatolian pithoi, but it is to a certain extent regular. Placement of the bodies in a contracted position and the presence of multiple successive burials also suggest that some burial procedures were common to the western coast and interior of Anatolia. Iasos is probably a typical site of the southern
38 Tombs I, 2, 3, I2, 13, i6, I7, 19, 28, 32, 36, 41, 44, 66,

partof the burialcustom;Cycladictombshave no standardorientation,but the topographyof each site may have been a factorin determiningalignment.42Cycladic tombs rarely contain multiple

coast, one which is peripheral to two well established sets of burial procedures.The burials found at several island sites strengthen this hypothesis. Four pithos burials found in the lower levels of the Asklepieion on Kos44 are like those in western Anatolian cemeteries, in that they contain successive burials and tomb gifts. Among these burial jars, however, was a round cist-a different tomb type in the same archaeological context. The mixture of tomb types takes a different form in the Early Bronze Age levels of the Samian Heraion. Two pithoi, each containing a child burial, are enclosed in individual pits neatly lined with flat stones45-a combination of cist and pithos to form one tomb. The burials otherwise are normal when compared to those in western Anatolia, with jar rims covered, skeletons contracted, and tomb gifts placed inside and outside the burial jars. Rectangular stone cists occur in a Troy V context in the Heraion,4 suggesting that, although mainland and island burial types were combined in an unusual manner for some child burials, the stone cist may have been the regular burial container. Extramural cemeteries, like the one at Iasos, may have existed outside the third millennium settlements at the Heraion and the Asklepieion. The custom of extramural burial was strong in the Cyclades and in western Anatolia and presumably would have been so in the intermediate area. The few tombs found at the Asklepieion are probably extramural since they are not associated with contemporary habitation. No systematic program of trenching around the periphery of the Heraion was instigated, so it is possible that a cemetery might be located away from the sea on high ground, given the ancient and modern preference for elevated cemetery locations. The northern section of Turkey's Aegean coast probably shows its preference in the matter of burial types through the few child burials in jars found at Troy47and Thermi.48The small number of burials and the lack of adult interments found in
Edgar, "PrehistoricTombs at Pelos," BSA 3 [I896-I897] 40); Paros-several of 5 tombs (E.A. Varoucha, "Kykladikoi Taphoi tis Parou," ArchEph 1926, Ioo). 44D. Levi, "Scavi e richerche a Coo, I935-I943," BdA 35 45 V. Milojici, Samos I (Bonn 1961) 6, Io-I2. 46 Ibid., 25. 47 C.W. Blegen et al., Troy I (Princeton 1950) 37, 94-95, 130, 207 and 315. 48 W. Lamb, Excavations at Thermi in Lesbos (Cambridge
1936)
II,

83 and 85. 39 For example: ASAtene 23-24 (supra n. 6) fig. 87 on 559.

40 Ibid., 561; fig. I62. 41 Ibid.,

533. 42 C. Doumas, The N.P. Goulandris Collection of Early

( 950) 323-24.

Cycladic Art (New York I969) 14 and n. 13. 43 Syros-of 600 tombs excavated (Ch. Tsountas, "Kykladika," ArchEph I899, 83-84); Amorgos, Paros, Antiparos and Dhespotikon-7 of I90 tombs (Ch. Tsountas, "Kykladika," ArchEph I898, I43-44); Pelos-several of 20 tombs (C.C.

28.

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TAMARA STECH WHEELER

[AJA 78

sitesindicatethat extratheseextensively excavated remainundiscovered mural cemeteries nearby.At cemeterywas Troy, the searchfor an extramural Schliemannand Dorpprolongedand frustrating. feld found no EarlyBronzeAge tombswithin the site,so the Cincinnati organized exploraexpedition Trenchesweremadeon the tion for the cemetery.49 lower north and west slopes of the mound and south and east of the mound on a broadplateau.

new information on burial customs. Dr. J. Lawrence Angel of the Smithsonian Institution is in the process of analysing the ancient population of Karata?,so only tentative archaeologicalconclusions can be reached at present. When the archaeological and physical anthropological data are correlated, we will gain insight into the reasons for selection of certain tomb gifts (i.e. how the age and/or sex of the deceased determined what accompanied him to Every season from I932 to I936 included a program the tomb), into the problem of "family"tombs and of tomb research, a patient effort rewarded by the "family" burial plots, and eventually into the social discovery of the Troy VI cremation cemetery near structure of the Karata? village by determining if the south edge of the plateau. Most of the area the location and equipment of the tombs reflect a around the mound of Troy was well explored,but a social hierarchyor lack of one. An example of the manner in which skeletal high point southeast of the mound was not excavated.50A further search for an Early Bronze Age analysis may be used for cultural reconstruction is seen at Ali?ar in central Anatolia. No single burial cemetery might be made in this direction. The Aegean coast and islands reveal a mixture of custom was practiced by all the inhabitants of Anatolian and Aegean burial customs, with each Ali?ar; although all the known tombs are intrasite making an independent choice of procedures mural, jar burials, earth burials, and cists are repreand types. The pithos burials found on Kos would sented among them. Of the forty-nine tombs which not be incongruous in a western Anatolian ceme- date to the third millennium B.C., including those tery, while the hybrid pithos-cists of the Samian of the "Copper Age"53 and the "Early Bronze Heraion are the most striking result of peripheral Age,"54 thirty-one are jar burials. Fourteen jars adaptation. The mixture of customs takes a dif- contain the remains of adult males; two, adults of ferent form at Iasos where burials were made undetermined sex; six, infants and children; nine, according to western Anatolian procedures in Cy- individuals of undetermined sex and age.55Adult cladic-type tombs. The north, in terms of burial females were apparently never buried in jars, but customs, may have been more closely related to the rather were inhumed in cists or plain earth. Some males were also buried in cists and in the earth, but interior of western Anatolia. there is a difference between them and the men SKELETAL REMAINS AND CULTURAL INFERENCE buried in jars. Nine men buried in jars are accomNo detailed studies of the human skeletal remains panied by metal pins, which were usually found by found in western Anatolian cemeteries have yet the upper torso of the skeleton,56while none of the appeared. The excavators of Yortan, although in- cist or earth burials contain pins. Ten of the reterested in the study of burial customs, were pre- maining pins were found in jars with skeletons of occupied by the collection of objects and saved only undeterminable age and sex; one was with a child. a few skeletons discovered in the final days of Pins may have been accessoriesto a special kind of The Babakoy skeletons were so poorly costume worn by a certain group of males within excavation.51 that only one could be analysed.52Since the Ali?ar community. Such clothing was most preserved at Karatas the human skeletal remains are often likely that worn during life rather than a shroud, well preserved,their study will contributeimportant since there is no reason to believe that pins were
49W. D6rpfeld, Troja und Ilion (Athens I902) 535-37; C.W. Blegen et al. (supra n. 47) 8-9. 50 Blegen, ibid., fig. 416. 51 Houze, "Les ossements humains d'YortanKelembo," Bulletin de la Societe d'Anthropologie de Bruxelles, I902, cvi-cvii. 52 J.L. Angel, "The Babak6ySkeleton," AOF I3 (I939-I941)
28-31.

53 H.H. von der Osten, The Alishar Hiuyik, Seasons of 54 Ibid., 223-30.
I37-50.

1930-32, Part I (OIP XXVIII, Chicago I937)

55 Results of the skeletal analysis are summarized in each entry under Copper Age and Early Bronze Age tombs. See also: W.D. Krogman, "Cranial Types of Alishar Hiiyiik and their Relations to other Racial Types, Ancient and Modern, of Europe and Western Asia," in The Alishar Hiiyii, Seasons of 1930-32, Part III (OIP XXX, Chicago 1937) 213-93. 56 Pins are in Tombs 3200, 3202, 3208, bX7, bX8, bX46, cX2o, dXi4, dXi5, dXi6, dX27, dX29, dX45, dX46, dX47, dX48, eX8 and eXg.

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EARLY BRONZE AGE BURIAL CUSTOMS IN WESTERN ANATOLIA

MESOPOTAMIA AND IRAN

421

made especially for funerary purposes.57 One group of men thus wore a costume different from that of other men at Alisar and were also buried differently. The inference is that the Alisar community was composed of several groups with different backgrounds or affiliations.It is interesting to note that no women were included in the jar burial group. Thus, a documented case exists at one site in Anatolia that sexual differences, and perhaps differences in group affiliations,determined the burial type of some individuals. Although the burial practices of Alisar do not explain the burial customs of western Anatolia, where almost everyone was buried in a jar, they do indicate some of the potentials of skeletal analysis. Complete study of extramural pithos cemeteries may eventually reveal subtle differences in the treatment of the two sexes and provide information which can be compared to the Alisar data.
WESTERN ANATOLIA AND THE NEAR EAST, EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN, AND THE AEGEAN

Jar burials are typical of western Anatolia in the Early Bronze Age and as such are the basic units which may be used for comparison with other complexes of burial customs. Central Anatolia has a mixture of burial customs, like that seen at Alisar, which requires special analysis (see Appendix I below); the pattern of burials there is not comparable to western Anatolia where a single custom can be called a definitive trait. In spite of the small number of Neolithic and Chalcolithic tombs excavated, some precedents do exist for Early Bronze Age burial customs in the west. At Hacilar, twentytwo individuals were interred within the site,58a relatively small number which indicates that an extramural cemetery may lie nearby.59No tombs have been discovered in the Chalcolithic settlement of Can Hasan I and, although tombs were found at Beycesultan,none of them may date to the period before 3000 B.C.60 In southeastern Turkey, an extramural cemetery of jars and earth burials was found at Tarsus,61a site not in western Anatolia but pertinent because of the type of cemetery.
57 It is interesting to note that pins were usually part of the female costume at KarataS. 58 J. Mellaart, Excavations at Hacilar (Edinburgh 1970) 889i. 59 There is no need to assume that the Hacllar cemetery has been discovered and plundered, contra Mellaart, ibid., 90. See P.J. Ucko in Aitken, Moorey and Ucko, "The Authenticity of Vessels and Figurines in the Hacilar Style," Archaeometry

In Mesopotamia and Iran,62 no well defined pattern of tomb distribution exists. No single type of tomb was ever dominant throughout the area or in any particular temporal span. Several types of tombs are usually found in a single site in any given time period. Burials in various types of ceramic containers are common, but only children were placed in small jars. Since these household jars, never over 0.80 m. in height, were not large enough for the burial of adults, other arrangements had to be made for their interment. Composite tombs of two jars placed rim to rim, first used in Mahmur and Gawra XII, solved this problem in one way. Sometimes the corpse was arranged with arms and legs drawn close to the torso and perhaps bound in this position, then covered with a tilted pot. Sherds were placed under and over some bodies. These methods do not however allow for complete enclosure of the body by its container. Perhaps the most practical ceramic container developed for adult burials was the sarcophagus, which is not related to household vessels in form or function, but which is a sensible means of burying adults in a land where stone is not plentiful. The custom of pithos burial, as practiced in western Anatolia, is clearly a development separate from Mesopotamia. Pithoi in western Anatolian cemeteries, in sizes suitable for child or adult burial, may have been made especially for funerary usage rather than being appropriated from the house, a fact indicated by their good preservationin situations where they have not been subjected to human or natural abuse. The weight of the evidence indicates that Mesopotamia cannot be considered as the site of origin for the western Anatolian custom of pithos burial, except perhaps for the chronological priority of the general type.
SYRIA AND PALESTINE

The best foreign parallel to western Anatolian cemeteries is found in Syria at Byblos. The Byblos cemetery is however not representativeof Syria and Palestine where cave burial and inhumation were
13/2,

60 M.J. Mellink (supra n. 33) II4. 61 H. Goldman, Excavations at Gozlii Kule, Tarsus, vol. II (Princeton 1956) 6-7. 62 E. Strommenger,"Grab(I. Irak und Iran)," Reallexikonder Assyriologie und vorderasiatischenArchdologie (Berlin I971)
581-93.

I25-26.

422

TAMARA STECH WHEELER

[AJA 78

common through the Neolithic period.63Collective burials, such as those found in caves, continued through the Early Bronze Age in specially prepared shafts and chambers. At Byblos, a cemetery of jar burials has been a subject of study since I931. The cemetery is called but "eneolithique"by the excavators,64 its use probcontinued through the third millennium.65 ably A final publication of the over 1500 tombs has not yet appeared,so considerationof many details must be left aside for the present. The Byblos tombs are almost all jars; fewer than ten are inhumations.66 The Byblos burial jars are related to western Anatolian pithoi by their size, with heights as great as 1.86m.67 Jar size is pertinent because a large jar was necessary to accommodate an adult burial; large pithoi may have been made especially for adult and multiple burials. Many of the Byblos tombs contain multiple burials,68 but it has not been stated whether they were successive. The rims of the Byblos tombs were usually covered with bowls, large sherds, jar bases, and stone slabs, although poor preservationof many tombs makes the nature of the closure uncertain.69 Gifts, as in western Anatolia, were placed close to the body. Pots often lay in front of the chest, and jewellery, tools and weapons were in appropriatepositions for symbolic use. Although the similarities cited above are strong and numerous, certain differences between the cemeteries of western Anatolia and Byblos must also be considered. Dunand says that the tombs are mingled with houses,70 but does not discuss the comparativedating of tombs and associatedhouses; judgment on the relation of Eneolithic tombs to contemporary houses should be reserved until the final excavation report appears. At Byblos there was no fixed orientation for the burial jars,71although the publication of the complete cemetery plan may reveal some degree of internal organization. Bodies were placed in the Byblos tombs
63 B. Hrouda, "Grab (II. Syrien und Palastina)," Reallexikon der Assyriologie, 593-603. 64 This term may be equated with the more usual "Chalcolithic." 65 E.D. Oren, "The Early Bronze IV Period in Northern Palestine and its Cultural and Chronological Setting," BASOR 2I0
66

indifferently, with head toward rim or base,72 unlike the custom used in western Anatolia. The openings of the Byblos burial jars were often found too narrow for the placement of the body; so additional windows were made in the jars.73 Such alteration of the jars used for burials is seldom found in western Anatolia. The Byblos cemetery cannot at present be considered a typical Syrian burial ground of the fourth and third millennia, nor can the precise nature of its role in relation to western Anatolian pithos cemeteries be assessed. The similarities between burial customs in these two areas cannot however be discounted as separateindigenous developments. Specific elements of the custom-large burial jars, some multiple burials, uniformity of burial type in large cemeteries-are unique and are not paralleled elsewhere in the Near East, eastern Mediterranean or Aegean. Byblos and western Anatolia may have been sites in a continuous coastal series which practiced similar burial customs; the Byblos cemetery and contemporary settlement areas are not sufficiently published for other aspects of material culture-building types, pottery, metal objects, figurines, trade goods, and technological achievements -to be compared with the western Anatolian complex. Only when these comparisons can be made will this tantalizing evidence of prehistoric interaction be understood.
THE CYCLADES

Cycladic cemeteries and tombs have already been discussed briefly in connection with the Iasos cemetery. Extramural cemeteries of stone cists are customary. The origin of the Cycladic-type cist is unknown, but it may have developed locally due to an abundance of easily worked stone. Cycladic cists are now known to have local predecessors of a Neolithic date. The cemetery at Kephala on Kea74 contains the earliest Cycladic stone tombs, although only two of forty are slab
Byblos en I948," BMBeyrouth IX (I949-I950) en I949," BMBeyrouth IX (1949-1950)

69 M. Dunand, "Rapportpreliminairesur les fouilles de Byblos

68, pl. 112.

55.

70 M. Dunand, "Rapportpreliminairesur les fouilles de Byblos

(I973)

33-34.

M. Dunand, "Rapport preliminaire sur les fouilles de Byblos en 1949," BMBeyrouthIX (I949-I950) 68. 67 M. Dunand, "Rapport preliminaire sur les fouilles de Byblos en I955," BMBeyrouthXIII (I956) 82. 68 M. Dunand, "Rapport preliminaire sur les fouilles de

72 M. Chehab, "Tombes de chefs d'epoque eneolithique trouvees a Byblos," BMBeyrouthIX (I949-I950) 75-76. 73 N. Jidejian, Byblos through the Ages (Beirut I968) I2. 74 J. Coleman, The Kephala Cemetery, manuscript of final excavation report. I thank Prof. Coleman for generously making this manuscript available to me.

en 1955," BMBeyrouth XIII (I956) 82. 71 M. Dunand, Fouilles de Byblos I (Paris I939) 365 passim.

1974]

EARLY BRONZE AGE BURIAL CUSTOMS IN WESTERN ANATOLIA

423

sided and one of these is a triangular enclosure around a burial jar containing the remains of a child, a combination of tomb types similar to that found at the Samian Heraion. Five burial jars were found in the Kephala cemetery, the rim of each covered with a stone slab; only infants were buried in jars. Ten of the Kephala tombs contain multiple burials, unlike their Early Cycladic successors.75 The Kephala cemetery probably representsa phase in the development of typical Early Cycladic burial customs-an experimentation in the use and construction of stone tombs, especially slab-sided cists which were built only in small sizes for child burials. One might speculate that the Neolithic inhabitants of the Cyclades knew of the custom of pithos burial, witnessed by the few burial jars in the Kephala cemetery and perhapsby the frequency of multiple interments, but rejected it because the pithos was not as congenial as the cist with Cycladic terrain and natural resources. The Kephala cemetery is at present the only known Neolithic burial ground in the Cyclades; we must study more preBronze Age cemeteries before a clear understanding of the affinities of the Kephala jar burials emerges. In the Cyclades, attempts were made at marking the location of some cists by using stones in various fashions. At Akrotiri on Naxos, one of the vertical slabs of each cist was taller than the others so that it projected above the field surface.76Projecting piles of stones (platforms) lay above the Kephala tombs, although they may not have been visible above the ground.77The cemetery at Aghioi Anagyroi on Naxos was surrounded by an enclosure wall; Renfrew notes that flat stones were placed above each tomb,78but Coleman reports that these markers were incorrectly described. The area of the Aghioi Anagyroi cemetery is covered with small flat stones except above each tomb where there is a layer of river pebbles.79 Markers, a necessity in extramural cemeteries, are thus confirmed as existing in Cycladic cemeteries. The appearance of extramural cemeteries containing a single type of tomb is similar to that of cemeteries in western Anatolia, even though the tomb types themselves are different. Cycladic tombs in the Early Bronze Age are of a size comparable
75 Supra n. II.

to western Anatolian pithoi but, in spite of their size, were usually not used as family tombs.
CRETE

Burial jars are rarely found in an Early Minoan context80and are frequent in the Middle Minoan period. Most tombs in Crete-caves, rock clefts, cists, larnakes, and tholoi-show a regional pattern of distribution which is probably not related to Anatolian customs. Since burial in jars is not unknown before the Middle Minoan period, this burial type may have developed locally, perhaps with some encouragement from western Anatolia.
CONCLUSIONS

The closest known relative of western Anatolian pithos cemeteries is the prehistoric necropolis at Byblos. These two areas may represent distant geographical examples of a series of similar pithos cemeteries along the Mediterranean coast of Anatolia and the Levant, but there are not enough excavated sites in the intermediate section of this coastal zone to prove this suggestion. Only at Tarsus is some evidence relevant to western Anatolian and Byblite burial customs available. Although the Chalcolithic cemetery, as excavated, is small and seems to contain mostly child burials, it is important because it is extramural and does contain jar burials. The Early Bronze Age necropolis of Tarsus has not been found, but we might assume that it is an extramuralpithos cemetery.The custom of pithos burial in extramural cemeteries may have spread to the Cyclades. The Kephala cemetery has shown that jar burials were used in the islands in Neolithic times, although their geographical extent is not known; they may have gone out of fashion because the stone cist was more practical in the environment of the Cyclades. Much of the communication along the Mediterranean coast of the Levant and Anatolia and in the Cyclades probably took place by sea; it would be natural for the people along the coasts to develop and share certain customs which may not have been those of the people inland. Pithos burial may be one of these.
SWARTHMORE COLLEGE

C. Renfrew, The Emergence of Civilization-The Cyclades and the Aegean in the Third Millennium B.C. (London 1972)
158.

76

78 Renfrew, supra n. 76.

77 J. Coleman, supra n. 74.

79 Coleman, supra n. 74.

80 I. Pini, Beitrige zur minoische Grdberkunde (Wiesbaden

I968) II-I3.

AppendixI. Catalogueof EarlyBronzeAge Tombs in Anatolia (Other than those in westernAnatolia)

A. Between the Sangarios (Sakarya) and the Halys (Kizil Irmak) I. Gordion-one stone cist
ILN 3.I.I953:
2I,

at M.J. Mellink,A Hittite Cemetery Gordion,

(Philadelphia I956) i.

23, fig. 6.

5. Yankkaya-several pithos burials K. Bittel et al., BogazkdyIV. Funde aus den Grabungen1967 und 1968 (Abhandlungen der Deutschen Orientgesellschaft Nr. 14, 6. Kanlica-one stone cist H.H. von der Osten, Explorations Central in Anatolia (OIP V, Chicago 1929) 95. 7. Hashiiyiik-more than four earth burials L. Delaporte,"Grabung Hashiiyiik 193I," am 8. Kiiltepe-jar and cist tombs T. Ozgiic, Die Bestattungsbrduche vorgeim
AnatSt

Berlin I969) 66-69.

2.

Polatll-one stone cist and one jar burial S. Lloyd, "Excavations Polatli," AnatSt I at
(195 I) 25-26.

3. Sanyar-two pithos burials (no dimensions given) B. Tezcan, "Nalllhan-Beypazarl cevresinden getirilen kaplar hakkinda," Belleten XX
(1956) 345-

AA I932, 230-33.

4. Ahlatllbel-six pithoi, five stone cists, two inhumations, one stone chamber and four too damaged to discern the type H.Z. Ko?ay, "Ahlathbel Hafriyati," TiurkTarDerg 2 (1934) 88-Ioo.

schichtlichen Anatolien (Ankara 1948) I55.

13 (1963) 22.

5. Kogumbeli-one round cutting covered with slabs M.J. Mellink, "Archaeology in Asia Minor," 6. Karayav?an-stone cists (number not given) M.J. Mellink, "Archaeology in Asia Minor,"
AJA 70 (I966) 148. AJA 70 (I966) I48.

C. The Pontic area i. Horoztepe-two shaft tombs and one inhumation T. Ozgiic and M. Akok, Horoztepe (Ankara
2.

Ma?athiiyiik-7 inhumations

I958)

40-60.

3. Kaledorugu(Kavak)-13 inhumations
kara 1948) 414-I5.

Haberler, Belleten X (1946) 220-22.

T. Ozgiic, "Samsun hafrlyatin 1941-42 yill

III. Tiur Tarih Kongresi (Anneticeleri,"

7. Karahiiyiik-Konya-two pithoi, two cists and one composite jar burial M.J. Mellink, "Archaeology in Asia Minor," AJA 70 (1966) 146; AJA 71 (1967) i6i. B. East of the Halys I. Alisar-3I jar burials, 14 inhumations, 3 stone cists and i mudbrick cist H.H. von der Osten, The Alishar Hiiyiik,
Chicago,
2.

4. Diindartepe-one inhumation K. Kokten et al., "Samsunkazilart,"Belleten

IX (i945)

Alaca Hiiyiik-13 shaft tombs, one pithos burial, one stone cist and 3 inhumations R.O. Ark, "Les premiers Resultats des Fouilles d'Alacah6yiik," Belleten I (1937) 226. , Les fouilles d'Alacahoyiik 1935 (AnH.Z. Kosay, Alaca Hoyiik Hafriyat: 1936 K. Bittel, "Beitrige zur kleinasiatischen Archiologie," AOF 1I (936-I937) 48. (Ankara I944) 80-88. kara I937) 53-116.

Seasons of 1930-32, Part I (OIP XXVIII, 1937) 135-50, 223-30.

5. Tekek6y-I7 inhumations K. K6kten et al., ibid. 384-86. D. EasternAnatolia I. Keban, Pagnlk Oreni-inhumations in pits R. Harper, "Pagnik Oreni Excavations," Keban Projesi 1969 9alzimalarz (Middle East Technical University Publication i, Ankara 1971) 95. 2. Pulur (Erzurum)-3 stone cists,2 rectangular H. Kosayand H. Vary,PulurKazisi (Ankara 3. Alaca Han-stone cists (number not given); the largest 6.60 m. by 3.25 m. by 2.80 m.,
with steps
AOF 21 (1966) i68. 1964) 98-I02.

398.

and i square; the largest 2.00 m. in length

3. Eskiyapar-one pithos burial, 0.65 m. in height W. Orthmann, "Beobachtungen an dem HiiAbb. 8. 4. Bogazk6y, Biiyiikkale-three inhumations K. Bittel, "Vorliufiger Bericht iiber die Ausgrabungen in Bogazk6y 1935," MDOG 74
(I935) 9-10. yiik in Eskiyapar," IstMitt
12

and 4. Tilkitepe (?amramalti)-six inhumations two infant burials in jars E.B. Reilly, "Tilkitepedekiilk kazilar, I937," E. Syro-Cilicia I. Gedikli-almost 200 cremation burials, inhumations and chambertombs U.B. and H. Alkim, "Gedikli (Karahiiyiik)
TiirTarDerg 4 (1940) 151-62. T. Ozgiic, Bestattungsbrduche, op. cit., 29.

(1962)

I0,

1974]

EARLY BRONZE AGE BURIAL CUSTOMS IN WESTERN ANATOLIA

425

kazisi birinci on-rapor," Belleten XXX

2.

3. Carchemish-I5
1.20 m.

stone cists; largest 2.00 m. by

Tilmen Hiiyuk-two stone cists and a chamber tomb of hypogaeaumtype U.B. Alkim, "Tilmen Hiiyuk call?malarl
(1958-I960)," Belleten XXVI (I962) 455-

(1966)

40-52.

L. Woolley, Carchemish 111 (London 1952)

218-22.

56.

, "Islahiye b6lgesinde ara?tirmalarl,"

Atatiirk Konferanslarz (Ankara 1964) 169-

4. Amuq-one child in a jar and one inhumation at Judeideh; one inhumation at Tainat R. Braidwood, Excavations in the Plain of Antioch (OIP LXI, Chicago 1960) 343, 497.

78.

F.

2.

Karata,

FIG. 2. Karata?, FIG. i. Karata?,southeast cemetery trench, cleared to

bedrock with ancient pit cuttings excavated

FIG. 3. Karatae, Trench 98, Tomb 322. Note that mandible has fallen on tomb gift

FIG. 4. Karatas

WHEELER

PLATE

85

FIG.5. Karatas, Trench 98, Tomb 226

FIG.6. Karata?,Trench 98, Tomb 280