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with small stones, are suggestive of a special function. Meanwhile other sites of southwest— Limantepe, Bakla Tepe, and Bademg˘ acı—have an architectural traditions redolent of Thermi.126 Of these, the emerging evidence from the impressive site of Limantepe is worth mentioning. The Early Bronze Age I (Level VI) and II (Level V) settlements are encircled by massive fortifications with battered lower courses and projecting bastions.127 Today the walls rise in places to over 6 m and originally they may well have reached a height of 12 m, creating what must have been an imposing sight. Part of the site lies underwater and includes a breakwater some 30 m in length and 5m in height. This protected harbor points to the seaward orientation of the settlement, and a series of narrow storerooms may well have been used for maritime trade.128 At

Küllüoba, Efe and his team have uncovered a late Early Bronze Age II fortified settlement with a distinctively linear look (Figure 5.24: 2).129 A complex of structures is built around an open space defined along one side by a unit that contains a megaron with stone paved porch. Other regions can be discerned, but not as clearly. Among these, the Konya Plain with its plum-red pottery and Metallic Ware shows stronger affinities with Cilicia than the western regions.

In the Early Bronze Age III, Troy changed, but not markedly. Troy III is characterized by complexes of up to three rooms built entirely of stone—mud bricks ceased to be the medium of construction.130 Poliochni, on the island of Lemnos, affords a more extensive understanding of this compact settlement layout, especially in the later Early Bronze Age.131 Although it does not conform to a circular plan like Troy, it too had a fortification wall, breached by a narrow entrance that is flanked by long public buildings during the earliest phase. Thermi V shows much the same plan. Main thoroughfares and side streets separate several compact units of long houses, with no indication of any large public building. Although Thermi V has an enclosure wall and the dense plan itself provides a sense of boundary, the site lacks the fortified system so conspicuous at Troy.132 Ceramics remain largely unchanged in the Early Bronze Age III apart from the introduction of the beak-spouted jug and the increase in the amount of wheelmade, light colored vessels. A marked shift in material culture defines Troy IV–V (ca. 2100–1850 BC), which is now more aligned with the interior of Anatolia. Both levels continued to be fortified, but only traces of the walls remain. Rows of two-room houses, sharing a party wall, which face each other across a street, are now furnished with a greater number of built-in fixtures such as domed ovens, fixed hearths and benches. Pottery is now mostly wheelmade. Beak-spouted jugs with cutaway necks become popular and are associated with a new type, the red-cross bowl.

Central Anatolia

The transition between the Late Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age I in the interior of Anatolia is quite unclear. At Çadır Höyük occupation in the Early Bronze Age began with a settlement much less substantial than its earlier counterpart.133 It is only towards the middle stretch of the third millennium that developments become apparent, and only then in the area around Alis¸ar, which was a fortified settlement in contact with Cilicia. This Alis¸ar 1b ceramic horizon, found at

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Kültepe too, is distinguished by red slipped surfaces and shapes, mostly cups and jugs, with distinctive outlines—narrower necks and slanting lips help define these vessels.

A well-fired and levigated pottery, known as “Intermediate Ware,” replaces Alis¸ar 1b in Level 7M (13T), and essentially marks the beginning of the Early Bronze Age III, when the central plateau began to experience a degree of cultural unity. Although many of its forms develop from the earlier assemblage, Intermediate Ware is distinguished by painted liner designs of lozenges, chevrons, and zigzags executed in purplish brown. At Kültepe this period is represented by levels 13–11 on the mound, with Level 10 belonging to the Middle Bronze Age and the establishment of Karum IV. These important historical synchronisms will be dealt with in the next chapter, but it should be noted that contact with surrounding regions—Cilicia, Syria, and west Anatolia, specifically Troy II—are already well attested in the Early Bronze Age III. The occasional “Syrian bottle,” wheelmade corrugated buff cups also from Syria, and local imitations of the depas shape manufactured in Intermediate Ware and painted with red stripes are testimony to a wideranging network. Wheelmade depas from Kültepe Level 12, which could be accommodated comfortably in the Cilician Early Bronze Age III assemblage, are further evidence of these contacts.

Towards the end of the Early Bronze Age at both Alis¸ar and Kültepe, Cappadocian painted ware (or Alis¸ar III) gradually replaced Intermediate Ware. This new painted repertoire is often divided in successive stages of technical development that continue into the second millennium BC. Vessels have a reddish or buff surface that is decorated with dark brown to black geometric design composition, which increases in complexity through time. At a later stage, creamcolored panels may be painted onto red slipped vessels, and then ornamented with patterns painted in dark colors.

Cilicia

It is perhaps fitting to end these regional overviews of the Early Bronze Age with Cilicia, whose diverse affinities were very much shaped by the strong pulses from neighboring territories. Gözlü Kule, Tarsus, the main link between the Syro-Mesopotamian and Anatolian sequences, shows rapid and distinct shifts in cultural alignments best attested in ceramics.134 Following the Amuq F horizon in the Late Chalcolithic, the inhabitants of Tarsus looked northward towards the south Anatolian plateau, making greater use of the Cilician Gates. The clearest indicator of this change is the abrupt appearance in the Early Bronze Age I of red, gritty, handmade Anatolian wares, including the beak-spouted pitcher, which displaced pale colored, wheelmade SyroMesopotamian ceramics of Amuq G type as the main household containers. In the Early Bronze

Age II, the town of Tarsus expanded and prospered. Mud brick fortifications surrounded neatly built residential units, positioned along streets, whose household contents included tin bronzes, reflecting to the rise of metal trading communities in the Taurus. The pottery horizon continues to be varied and attests far-flung connections. From the southern plateau around Konya and

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