Prehistoric Pottery from the Antitaurus

Abstract

This article presents some results of a survey of early sites begun in the summer of 1962 within the area bounded by the modern towns of Kayseri, Sivas, Malatya and Maraş. Only a small body of relevant published material from within this area is available, and of that the bulk is datable to the later part of the Early Bronze Age, the earlier date of the remainder being variously interpreted. By undertaking this survey it was hoped to establish two things: the distribution of prehistoric pottery “cultures”; and the kind of imports from the south and east into this boundary region, which may accordingly be expected also in the deeper levels of Central Anatolian sites now being excavated, and be of assistance in dating the earliest phases of Central Anatolian prehistory.The Antitaurus is the general name for that part of the Taurus mountain chain which separates Inner Anatolia from Cilicia, northern Syria and Mesopotamia. It comprises the sector of mountain terrain between Niğde and the Cilician Gates in the west, and the Sivas–Malatya road in the east; the southern boundary of the mountains being formed by the plains of Maraş, and Cilicia, separated by the steep Amanus ridge which runs down to the sea behind İskenderun. This extensive mountainous area, broken by steep-sided valleys and relieved by upland plains and pastures, was the barrier which, in the past as now, cut off the population of Central Anatolia from the open lands of the so-called Fertile Crescent to the south.