The Early Bronze Age II Settlement at Bademağacı Höyük: An Evaluation of the Pottery and Beak Spouted Jugs

Authors : Gülsün Umurtak, Fatih Çongur

Pages : 1-24

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Publication Date : 2021-05-31

Article Type : Research

Abstract :Bademağacı Höyük is located 52 km from Antalya on the Antalya-Burdur highway. The new communities that came to the region around 2700 BCE must have chosen this old settlement area, which at that time had become a flat mound / höyük. The settlement of this period, which can be called a town or even a city, is in the shape of an elongated oval or almond that reflects the shape of the mound. The settlement of this period was probably the centre of a 'Local Principality' ruled by a dominant ruler or elite class, and this principality would also have controlled the surrounding area. During the Early Bronze Age II period the settlement megaron-like structures were arranged adjacent to one another in a row on the outermost circle. These houses, which were undoubtedly inhabited, closely resemble each other with only small differences in plan. With the exception of one row of houses on each of the eastern and western sides, building density is low in this half of the mound. In contrast, the southern half of the town has a high building density and most of the buildings are generally in very good condition, which suggests this was probably a neighbourhood inhabited by the elite. In this area there are megarons on the outer ring, and a storage building consisting of rows of adjacent rooms in the inner section. A building complex with an intricate plan uncovered during the excavations in this area indicates the general layout of the Bademağacı EBA II settlement, which was surrounded by rows of adjacent houses, was pre-planned and demonstrates a deliberate attempt to provide protection for the central area. Seventeen rooms of this multi-roomed building thought to have been built for the rulers of the society or palace complex have now been excavated. Among the pottery finds from the EBA II / 3-1 settlement period at Bademağacı, there is a group of several complete vessels that have been studied in detail. This pottery tradition has a rich and sophisticated form repertoire, which reflects a continuation from old to new in terms of the pottery production characteristics and techniques (the paste, shaping of the forms, firing and surface treatments). A large amount of pottery was found in almost all parts of the settlement, and the quality and variety of this pottery differed according to the location of the building within the city. In the megarons of the northern neighbourhood, where the ordinary people are thought to have lived, there were fewer high-quality pottery forms in good condition when compared to the number found in other parts of the settlement. The pottery vessels recovered from around fifty megarons in the settlement that are thought to have been used as residences and from the special buildings or storage rooms, are of the type and variety used to carry out various daily life activities. With the exception of a silver bowl found in the southern neighbourhood of the town, no metal vessels were found. However, the vertical reliefs resembling orange slices on the body sections of some the jug forms and the shape of the neck and rim of some of the beak spouted jugs suggest that these vessels were based on original metal equivalents. While excavations at Bademağacı were still in progress, we identified eight ware groups from the pottery assemblage of the EBA II settlement. Most of the Bademağacı beak spouted jugs are from the Ware 1 pottery group. Beak spouted jugs were also found in the Ware 2, Ware 3, Ware 4 Ware 5 and Ware 6 groups. The examples from Ware 3 and Ware 4 are a very high quality and display careful workmanship. The Ware 4 beak spouted jugs are especially striking and the quality of the paste, the fine rims of the jugs, the standard of the firing and the well burnished glossy surfaces would suggest these could be an imitation of metal jugs. Bademağacı has yielded 186 examples of beak spouted jugs, one of the most common forms among the EBA II pottery. This number makes up approximately 23% of all the pottery material examined and 93% of all the jugs. Most of the beak spouted jugs uncovered in the excavations are whole or almost complete. We have divided this jug repertoire into main form groups and subtypes according to their varying form features. Differences such as the pointed or splayed / shallow spouts of the jugs, the spherical or squat bodies, rounded or flat bases made these distinctions necessary. It is clear that the Bademağacı beak spouted jugs are not dissimilar to the common pottery forms and practices that were fashionable in the Aegean World during the EBA. In this context, it can be assumed that the similarity between the beak spouted jug groups found at Western Anatolian settlements emerged as a result of direct or indirect relations between the centres in the region.
Keywords : Bademağacı, Early Bronze Age, ware, pottery, beak spouted jug, megaron