KARATAŞ BURNU YÜZEY ARAŞTIRMASINDA BULUNAN HELLENİSTİK VE ROMA DÖNEMİ KERAMİKLERİ

Abstract

The present article deals with the Hellenistic and Roman pottery collected during the Karatas-Survey in 2007 at the site of the orthogonal settlement. Since the discovery of ruins in 1811 by F. Beaufort at Cape Karatas (Adana Provin­ce, Eastern Cilicia), scholars have discussed whether they belonged to Mallos or to its port and sanctuary Magarsos. Today it is usually agreed that the settlement encircled with fortifications on Cape Karatas belong to Magarsos. The earliest examples of Hellenistic fine ceramics from Karatas are the black-glazed pottery dating to the end of the 4th and the beginning of the 3rd century BC. The sherds, which can be compared with material from the deposits of Syrio-Palestinian sites (3rd-1st centuries BC), comprises mainly Hellenistic Colour-Coated pottery. Hellenistic and Roman Eastern Sigillata A (ESA) forms are also documented. The latest examples of Roman Period are Eastern Sigillata B (ESB) dating to the 2nd-3rd centuries AD. The coarse pottery assemblage comprises mainly storage, transport and kitchen vessels with light coloured fabric and displays a variety of forms including craters, mortaria, amphorae, and cooking vessels. The earliest examples can be compared with the ceramics of the 3rd century BC from different deposits in Syrio-Palestinian and Cypriot sites. A cooking pot (lopas), is the latest datable sherd among the coarse wares. Typological analogies with the findings from Tarsus and Knossos allow us to classify this type to Middle Ro­man Period.