Abstract:

The ongoing excavations at Akarçay Tepe, which first started in 1999, has exposed that the site was settled down about two thousand years, during the Pre-Pottery and Pottery Neolithic Periods. On the East Sector of the site, remains from the Pre-Pottery and Transition (from Pre-Pottery to Pottery Neolithic) Periods and on the West Sector, remains from the Transition and Pottery Neolithic Periods are unearthed. In this article, three zoomorphic miniature vessels from that Transition Period are presented. One of the vessels is complete or nearly complete, the other one is preserved in three-quarters, and the third is not completely * Arş. Gör., Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi, Edebiyat Fakültesi, Arkeoloji Bölümü, Tınaztepe Yerleşkesi, Buca / İzmir. [email protected] processed. The species of the represented animals can not be defined clearly, because the descriptive parts of the animals like the head, neck etc. are missing. However, it is very likely that two of them represent sheep and goat, while the third represents a different kind of animal. All of the vessels are shaped from a small limestone block by a flint blade. Chronologically, the most closest examples of these Akarçay Tepe zoomorphic vessels are known from the Pottery Neolithic levels of Hacılar, Höyücek and Kuruçay Höyük, the sites which located in The Lake District, and also from Niğde-Köşk Höyük. Zoomorphic vessels are found in most of the sites dated to the era of Assyrian Colony Trade and the Hittite Period in Anatolia. This type of vessels are called Rhyton or BIBRU, and are used in ritual ceremonies as stated in the Hittite texts. Some researchers asserted that this type of vessels might have also been used in some kind of ritual ceremonies during the Neolithic Period. For the time being, the data is not enough to claim that Akarçay Tepe samples are used in ritual ceremonies. The contexts of the vessels are also don’t give any clues for their functions. There are no resembling examples from the other Neolithic sites of East and Southeast Anatolia and North Syria, or if found, they have not yet been published. When the intensive interrelation between the Neolithic sites of the region take into consideration, it is fair to suggest that this type of vessels are not only peculiar to Akarçay Tepe, and will soon have their place in the assemblage, as long as they are identified in other sites and published.

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