Amasya Müzesi'nden Boya Bezekli İki Çanak Işığında Kızılırmak Kavsi Geç Demir ve Helenistik Çağları Çanak-Çömleğine Yeni Bir Bakış*

Abstract

In the Late Iron Age (650- ca, 500/350 B.C.), the Central Anatolian Region was divided into two areas as mentioned in the Western ancient sources, in Western sources of which the Western part of the Kizdirmak (Halys) was known as Phrygia and the eastern part as Cappadocia. In Ancient Eastern sources the middle part of the Kizilirmak region was known as Tabal, the nort­hern part as Kashku, the south western part as Tuvana (Tukhana) and the eastern part as Melid. Due to the cosmopolitan nature of this region's population structure, the painted pottery group with stylized deer representations of silhouette technique with concentric motifs, which were fo und in the main settlements of the region and known as Alisar IV, are considered to be the ma­in characteristic pottery of the Kizilirmak Bend in the Middle Iron Age (850-650 B.C.). The effects of political developments in the Late Iron Age (650- ca 500/350 B.C) were reflected in the new techniques introduced into the pottery production of the workshops that had been the centres of the Middle Iron Age tradition. The stylized deer figures began to be produced with new line­ar- and reserve techniques and gained a more naturalized in appearance. The numbers and vari­ety of bird representations increased arid these began to be the used as the main elements of compositions consisting of representations of bulls, horses, donkeys, wild goat, roe deer; lions, dogs and fish. In addition to these, representations of hybrid creatures such as winged bulls and sphinxes and unidentifiable strange creatures also appeared. Human figures, which were very few in number and extremely stylized in the Middle Iron Age, became important in the Late Iron Age. Kybele, the mother goddess of the Phrygians who was in fact worshipped in Anatolia from Neolithic times, was portrayed on pottery in this period. It is apparent that the pottery workshops of the Kizdirmak Bend Region continued to use traditional characteristics but also incorporated external influences into their pottery production from around the beginning of the 5 th century BC. From this period onwards some noticeable differences began to occur in pottery decoration techniques, for example the number of types of animal representations lessened while series of birds began to be widely used as the main elementin compositions. Changes in plant motife al­so occur from the beginning of the 5 th century. The composition of ivy leaf seen on a bowl from Amasya Museum (Fig. 1) can be attributed - on the basis of technique to influence from the Ae­gean and must have entered the Late Iron Age pottery decoration repertoire of the Kizilirmak Bend during the first half of the 5th century BC. However it seems that, on the basis of typological and decoration characteristics, the complete bowl with a decoration of ivy leaves (Fig 2-3) be­longs to the 3th century BC. The evaluations and examples presented above suggest that the La­te Iron Age and Hellenistic Age chronology of the Kizilirmak Bend Region and the pottery ter­minology need to be reviewed. It is apparent that, in spite of some changes in the details of mo­tifs, the Late Iron Age tradition within the Kizilirmak Bend continues to be strong until around the Middle of the 4th century BC, that is up to the Hellenistic Period. It is therefore clear that there was no real gap between the Late Iron Age and the Hellenistic Age but instead a cultural con­tinuity in pottery development can be traced and the pottery workshops, in existence horn the Middle Iron Age, continued without interruption into the Hellenistic Period. In the light of this, the chronological boundary of the Late Iron Age within the Kizilirmak Bend can be said to ex­tend to the middle of the 4 th century BC.