The Archaeology of Political Spaces by Dominik Bonatz

Author:Dominik Bonatz [Bonatz, Dominik]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Nonfiction, Social & Cultural Studies, Political Science, International, Reference & Language, Reference, Social Science
ISBN: 9781137073723
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan US
Published: 2012-10-15T04:00:00+00:00

Fig. 1 | Map of the upper Tigris valley with the geographical position of Hirbemerdon Tepe (by Jason Ur).

2. The Middle Bronze Age architectural complex at Hirbemerdon Tepe

Hirbemerdon Tepe is a small-sized site located along the western bank of the upper Tigris valley, about 90 km southeast of the modern city of Diyarbakir (Turkey) and opposite the confluence with the Batman Su in southeastern Turkey (fig. 1). The geological morphology of the area has strongly influenced the separation of the ancient settlements at the site into a High Mound (ca. 1 ha in extent) and an Outer Town (ca. 2 ha in extent), standing on the river terrace proper below the High Mound (Laneri 2005; 2008). The site is located in a strategic position near the river (to the east) and at the junction between agricultural lands (to the north) and uplands (to the south and the west). The fragmented nature of the ecological zone surrounding Hirbemerdon Tepe is an important factor in determining a mixed subsistence economy for the local population in which the combination of agricultural, pastoral, hunting, fishing, and commercial activities guaranteed a stronger resilience to climate changes and agricultural droughts, as compared to other, neighboring Mesopotamian regions (e.g., northeastern Syria).

The site is a multi-period settlement, but the Middle Bronze Age phase (i.e., ca. 2000–1600 BC) is the most important of the archaeological periods recognized during the excavation. Dating to this phase is an architectural complex that was unearthed on the northern side of the High Mound. The complex was probably not larger than 5000–6000 m2 and combined specialized work activities, located in the northern and southern sectors, with ceremonial spaces, placed in the more central part of the complex (figs. 2–3). It has been possible to excavate the northern part of the area (dedicated to work activities), which is characterized by a series of agglutinated, long, thin buildings along the main street (47), each with an entrance onto it, which are outfitted with numerous grinding stones that were used for processing food (Laneri et al. 2008).

The ceremonial sector (fig. 3) is separated from the productive areas by the previously mentioned street, running in an east-west direction, and is architecturally defined by two outdoor spaces (24 and 35) and a series of large ceremonial buildings located further east. Some of these buildings show clear elements of monumentality and of ceremonial functionality (e.g., large rooms, the use of large flagstones for some of the rooms’ floors, wide external walls, altars) when compared to the buildings of the more specialized areas. This is especially recognizable in the case of Building G, where a ritual foundation deposit of a newborn pig was found. The ceremonial sector is also characterized by the presence of discarded and purposely broken ritual objects, such as elaborately decorated ceramic vessels (e.g., a vessel painted with a stylized ‘dancing’ deer motif inserted within triangles), human and animal fired clay figurines, and numerous fragments of decorated fired clay votive plaques (fig. 4), disposed of next to a stone basin (36) in one of the outdoor spaces (35, i.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.