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Eastern Highlands

The rugged terrain east of the Euphrates River did not engender a centralized authority. Instead, the greater part of the population still lived in villages, with a rural lifestyle that involved tilling the land and raising stock. Around 3500 BC, or slightly earlier, the character of the eastern Anatolian highlands began to change, reflected primarily by the appearance of visually striking pottery fired to a red and black color scheme. Handmade, well burnished, and often decorated, these ceramics form one of the most distinctive archaeological horizons of the ancient Near East, referred to in literature as Kura-Araxes, Early Trans-Caucasian, or Karaz.40 The suite of material culture stretched across a remarkably wide area, encompassing eastern Anatolia and the Turkish Upper Euphrates, southern Caucasus (except the westernmost part of Georgia), and northwestern Iran. It has also been found in considerable quantity in later Early Bronze Age contexts in the Amuq (H–I) where Robert and Linda Braidwood designated it Red-Black Burnished Ware, a term that emphasizes the distinctive color scheme.41 Further south still, a related artefact assemblage occurs in the Levant, where its conspicuous presence comes in a derivative form named after the site of Khirbet Kerak (modern Beth Yerah), in northern Israel.42 Longevity also distinguishes the Kura-Araxes horizon. In some regions like the northeastern Anatolian highlands, where we have a suite of reliable radiocarbon readings from Sos Höyük, it endured for more than 1500 years.

Even though the Kura-Araxes horizon spanned across the entire Early Bronze Age of eastern Anatolia—indeed most discussions of this horizon concern the third millennium—in recent years attention has focused on its crucial formative stage that is deeply embedded in the Late Chalcolithic period. Whereas the Kura-Araxes horizon does, at first glance, give the distinct impression of widespread homogeneity, leading some to suggest it represents the material culture of a discrete ethnic group,43 the high degree of regionalism should not be underestimated. Even so, unmistakably similar modes of architecture and artefact types are recurrent over an astonishingly wide geographical zone. These traits include: Rectilinear, subrectangular, and circular houses built of mud brick, wattle and daub, and stone; portable and fixed hearths that are often anthropomorphic or zoomorphic in style; a wide range of hand-built burnished pottery often displaying a contrasting color scheme of black, gray, brown, and red, and sometimes bearing elaborate ornamentation; a simple range of bronze objects often with a high content of arsenic; well-crafted bone implements; standardized horned animal figurines; and a standardized stone tool repertoire that is manufactured primarily from obsidian in the eastern areas and characterized by the tanged projectile point.

The Late Chalcolithic is of singular importance in addressing the perplexing question of the Kura-Araxes’ genesis. Did this ubiquitous phenomenon emanate from a single point of origin and thence spread rapidly throughout the highlands, or did the “package” of traits come together through active communication between neighboring communities? Was there a stimulus that prompted its rapid spread? Chronological issues aside, what were the internal developments of this horizon? At the moment, the starting point for a discussion of the late

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prehistory of Anatolia east of the Euphrates is the mound of Sos Höyük, near the town of Pasinler, in the province of Erzurum, which has yielded an important Late Chalcolithic deposit (Period VA).44 To this can be added the surface finds collected from surveys conducted in a number of regions—Erzurum, Bayburt, Van, and Ig˘ dır among others45—that assist in constructing the development of the highland communities east of the Euphrates.

The most conspicuous architectural feature of Sos Period VA, dated between 3500/3300 and 3000 BC, is a large, curved wall (Figure 5.9: 2–3).46 Measuring 2.5 m wide, the foundation of the wall is constructed with a packing of small stones and hard clay. Although only part of the wall has been exposed, it appears to have encircled the core of the settlement. With such a broad base, the superstructure, presumably built of mud brick and wood, must have had a commanding view of the surrounding plain. In terms of its construction, we are certain about three things. First, the earliest settlers at Sos Höyük did not build the wall—their material remains are found on floor levels that predate its construction. Second, the wall was destroyed at least twice. And, finally, after the initial collapse, possibly caused by an earthquake, the wall was not rebuilt immediately, which is attested by the remains of dwellings that are sandwiched between the two building phases of the wall.47 One other characteristic of Sos Höyük should be noted, namely the central role of the hearth in the domestic domain. This is evident not only by the quantity of hearths, portable and fixed, but also by the practice of building hearths directly above the earlier ones, highlighting the importance of place.

After the first collapse of the wall residents built a circular freestanding house that was constructed entirely of mud bricks (Figure 5.9: 1). An almost complete refit of an obsidian pebble reconstituted from the flakes collected on the floor (Locus 4244) demonstrates that stone working activities were clearly carried out in the house.48 In the center of the house and built into the floor was a circular hearth that would have caught the eye as one entered the doorway on the western side. Portable hearths, ceramic vessels, and other items were on the floor. Radiocarbon analyses of charcoal place this round house within the period 3350 to 3000/2900 BC.

Although Kura-Araxes ceramics have been much discussed, they do not constitute the only repertoire of pottery during the Late Chalcolithic. Indeed, the relationship between the earliest Kura-Araxes pottery and contemporary pottery horizons provides the clearest indicator of change in this formative period. Several distinct ware types have been identified (Figure 5.10):

1Sioni ware, named after the eponymous site in Georgia, has distinctive features that include very decorative rims—incised, impressed, serrated, or wavy—and broad bands of combed decoration.49 Ornamentation on uncombed vessels is incised after firing. The small sample of body sherds at Sos VA probably marks the approximate western border and very tail end of this tradition.50 Further east, however, it has been found in the province of Ag˘ rı, generally in small amounts, except at Sarıgül and Çetenli.51 More recently it has appeared in excavations at Kohne Pasgah Tepesi in the Koda Afarin Valley, northwestern Iran.52

2“Drab” ware is the term assigned to a local pottery tradition found throughout northeastern Anatolia, but it does not occur in the Lake Van basin.53 Some vessels from Sos Höyük have

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Figure 5.9 Late Chalcolithic Sos Höyük, Level V: 1 Plan of round house (adapted from Sagona and Sagona 2000). 2, 3 Segment of the circular stone wall that surrounded the centre of the village (Photo: Bronwyn Douglas)

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textile impressions either on the interior surface, or sandwiched between two layers of clay, a method that continued into the third millennium.54

3Chaff-Faced Ware, the hallmark of Amuq E/F and widespread through northern Mesopotamia and northern Syria, has turned up in considerable quantities around Dog˘ ubayazit and Lake Van.55 These discoveries fill a crucial gap and make sense of the long known Amuq parallels in Caucasus, including those at Maikop, in the northwestern corner.

4Another ware is named after Tilki Tepe, near Van, where it was first identified; it also occurs in considerable quantities at nearby Yılantas¸.56 Vessels are built from a chaff-tempered buff clay, and have a well-polished outer surface. Some pieces also bear painted decoration, often in fugitive red or black. Presently, Tilki Tepe ware is restricted to sites located east of Lake Van, and at Tekhut in Armenia, suggesting a small distribution zone, extending to the middle Araxes Valley.

5Black burnished ware has a well-levigated paste and a polished surface. The radiocarbon analysis of a charcoal sample from an exploratory trench at Pulur (Erzurum) produced a reading of 4242–4075 BC (OZG 367) at one sigma confidence, suggesting that this ware could be pushed back to the fifth millennium BC.57

6The final group represents the formative stages of the Kura-Araxes tradition and has been provisionally termed “proto-Kura-Araxes.”58 Its contrasting scheme of black and red surfaces is easily recognizable as a Kura-Araxes attribute, and points to experimentation with a controlled firing atmosphere. Its exterior surface is generally black and well burnished. Yet it differs from “classic” Kura-Araxes pottery of the Early Bronze Age in two ways: First, certain pieces display incised ornamentation that is a more typical attribute of Sioni pottery, and, second, the vessel walls tend to be thinner than those produced in the third millennium BC. Noteworthy is the jar type with a globular body and comparatively tall neck that can be either convex or slightly swollen, which foreshadows its popularity in the third millennium. Hemispherical bowls and flat lids with a loop handle at the centre are also part of the repertoire.

From this mix, we can detect a number of dynamics at play. Radiocarbon dates place the earliest Late Chalcolithic levels at Sos Höyük (VA) on a par with the columned building at Arslantepe VII at around 3550 BC.59 Importantly, whereas proto-Kura-Araxes and black burnished wares were recovered in the earliest Sos VA deposits, they are not present in the Arslantepe columned building. At Arslantepe, red-black ware appears in the very latest phase of Period VII sandwiched between the columned building and the VIA complex. Equally significant is the appearance of red-black and black burnished pottery in Trans-Caucasus around 3350–3000 BC. This suggests that eastern Anatolia currently has earlier contexts for red-black and black burnished wares than does Trans-Caucasus. However, this evidence does not imply that the Kura-Araxes horizon originated in eastern Anatolia. The picture is far more complicated than that. New information is accelerating a shift from the single homeland hypothesis to one that views cultural interaction across the highland, stretching from the Euphrates to the southern Caucasus, as

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