MARMARA BÖLGESİ NEOLİTİK DÖNEM ÖLÜ GÖMME GELENEKLERİNDE İLKLER: YENİKAPI KAZI BULGULARI

Abstract

The Archaeology Museums of Istanbul have been conducting large-scale rescue excavations at Yenikapi since 2004 within the construction site of the tube-tunnel project to cross the Sea of Marmara. As the site of the res­cue excavations is the now filled in ancient Byzantine harbor located within the historic centre of Istanbul, numer­ous outstanding finds, among them over 30 Late Roman-Byzantine ships, have been recovered. The recovery of a Pottery Neolithic site that was established prior to the formation of the ancient harbor when Marmara was in lacustrine stage and later inundated with the rise in the level of the sea, was another discovery of prime impor­tance. Prehistoric levels yielding assemblages representative of the various stages of the local Neolithic Fikirtepe culture (6500-5600 cal. BC) have also revealed human remains. Even if they are few in number, the diver­sity of funerary practices is surprising ranging from simple or multiple, secondary or primary burials to crema­tions, the latter being the earliest of its sort yet recovered in Turkey. Moreover, the exceptionally well preserva­tion of wood at the site provided ample evidence to reconstruct unexpected funeral practices. The analysis of the cremations is still in process. Seven urns contained remains of adults and immature indi­viduals. Burnt human bones were also found into two pits or scattered. Two of the burials are multiple. Burial 1 counts four individuals found all in primary context. Three of them were probably placed simultaneously and the last individual added somewhat later. There are two adults, a woman and probably a man, and two immature aged of 1 to 5 years old at the time of the death. Burial 2 comprises two individuals, an adult and an immature. The adult is a female found in a primary burial context. The imma­ture belongs also to the category of 1-5 years old at the time of the death and is in a secondary position. It is likely that the immature was buried into this place, then, when the adult has been added, its bones were col­lected, put into a pot and left there. The two other burials include one adult each, a male in Burial 3 and a female in Burial 4. They are primary burials and the tombs has been filled with soil after the interment of the corpse.