Tarsus-Gözlüküle Höyüğü Geç Tunç IIB Katmanında Rastlanan Seramik Devamlılıkları

Abstract

The period extending from the end of the Bronze to the Iron Age is one of the most discussed in the East Mediterranean, marked by the collapse of re­gional powers, a shift from urban and centralized or­gan­i­za­tion to a more rural one, migrations, and an over­all heterogeneity in material culture. However, in the last three decades many new excavations in the region and the re-evaluation of past excavations has confirmed that the narrative of this period is more nuanced. This article investigates the local pottery tradi­tion of Tarsus-Gozlukule in the Cilician Plain during the Late Bronze Age IIb Period. This settlement is at an important cross-roads linking the Syro-Anato­lian world with Central Anatolia and to maritime trade routes opening into the Mediterranean. Both continui­ties and divergences from the earlier Late Bronze Age pottery traditions of this settlement are studied, with the aim of understanding the reconfigura­tions of various networks during this period, tumultu­ous for the entire eastern Mediterra­nean region. The results indicate that this is a period of both instability and continuity eventu­ally taking the different regions in their distinc­tive trajectories, each determined by a wide variety of var­ia­bles, the combina­tion of these variables being specific to each region.