Southwest and Northwest Anatolia 14C databases: 10th - 6th millennia cal BC

Data compiled by Laurens THISSEN
Last updated: 12/02/2006

Preliminary note
The order of sites is alphabetic, while dates are presented, wherever possible, according to the stratigraphic sequence, with earliest levels first. Dates within stratigraphic units ('phases', 'levels' or 'layers') are presented with earliest dates first, based on the calibrated age at 1sigma. The abbreviation 'nd' stands for 'no data available'. 14C data are calibrated with OxCal v3.10 (Bronk Ramsey 1995, 2001, 2005), using the most recent calibration curve IntCal04 (Reimer et al. 2004).
Many people have helped in providing us, the CANeW team, with 14 C dates, often fresh from the lab and still unpublished. A special word of thanks is due to Gülsün Umurtak and Refik Duru (Bademağacı data), and Maryanne Newton and Peter Ian Kuniholm (dendrodates from Hacılar) Any responsibility for the data presentation and interpretation remains, of course, with the author.
These 14C data are interpreted and presented in the CANeW SW and NW Anatolia chart.

I. Southwest Anatolia

Comment BADEMAĞACI
We are very grateful to Gülsün Umurtak and Refik Duru for allowing us to put on line some of the Bademağacı dates prior to publication. Underlying deposit EN I/8 is an as yet undated basal level EN I/9 before virgin soil is reached (Duru 2004). Phase attributions follow Duru (2004, 545).

Comment HACILAR
Sample P-314 was split in two parts by the Pennsylvania laboratory, half of it was given acid pretreatment, the other half received additional NaOH pretreatment. 'The difference in age (189±184 yr) is of no significance, and four counting runs were averaged' (Ralph and Stuckenrath 1962, 145). P-316 is labelled as P-326A in Mellaart 1970:93 and as P-326 in Mellaart 1975, 287. It was erroneously assigned to Level IIB by Ralph and Stuckenrath (1962, 146). Samples P-315 and P-315A are from a single sample, one half of which was given a standard acid pretreatment (probably P-315), the other half an additional NaOH pretreatment (possibly P-315A) (Ralph and Stuckenrath 1962, 146). Mellaart, publishing a BP average of 6990±121 under the name of P-315, has provided the original BP outcomes, without specifying which result belongs to which half (Mellaart 1970, 93). The association of lab.no. and BP date given in our table is thus simply a guess, and might be reversed.
The three dendrochronological samples were taken by Maryanne Newton and Peter Ian Kuniholm from Cornell University, and stem from a Level VI burnt post, from which charred wood was earlier submitted for analysis by James Mellaart (Sample BM-48).

Comment HÖYÜCEK
Three of the Heidelberg Lab. nos. are not available. The 'Shrine Phase' (Tapınak Dönemi in Turkish) has burnt. The Shrine Phase deposit is overlaid by, what is called, the 'Sanctuary Phase,' from which no 14C dates are available (Duru 1999). Below the Shrine Phase is a 4 m thick deposit not yielding any architecture, nor radiocarbon samples, labelled as 'Early Settlements Phase') (cf. Duru 1999).

Comment KARAIN
All dates are from Karain B. 'AH' stands for 'archaeological horizon'. The sequence starts with AH 32–31 (Middle Palaeolithic), followed by Upper Palaeolithic deposits AH 30–15, the radiocarbon dates of which have not been included here. The top 130cm of the Karain B sequence was dug in 1985 in a 4m² trench in several levels (AH 13–5), all of them containing pottery (Albrecht et al. 1987, 134, Seeher 1988). The earlier part of this deposit (AH 13–11) is labelled as Early Chalcolithic by Albrecht, having a 'Neolithic economy' (Albrecht et al. 1992, 140), and this is equivalent to Karain B, Period I ('Early Chalcolithic') in Seeher's pottery analysis (Seeher 1988, 221).

Comment KURUÇAY
The lab nos. from Hacettepe are not available. Seven additional dates from Kuruçay Late Chalcolithic Level 6 are not included here. The stratigraphic context of the Level 13 bones (including the sample submitted for dating) is doubted by the excavator, proposing an 'early level 12 subphase' provenance instead (Duru 1994a, 114). The young Level 7 date must be an intrusion from the Late Chalcolithic period.

Comment ÖKÜZINI
The samples are ordered according to the stratigraphical sequence (cf. Albrecht et al. 1992, 128 Fig. 3). The stratigraphical position of AH (= archaeological horizon) 8 and/or its pit is, however, unclear from the reports. AH 8 is tabulated as occurring between AH 3 and AH 2 (Albrecht et al. 1992, 131, but cf. p. 130 Fig. 4, where pit 8 seems to be situated after AH 2). Due to these contradictions, the two AH 8 dates have not been included in the chronological chart. 'Lithics phase 4' follows upon Upper and Epi-Palaeolithic strata (Albrecht et al. 1992, 131; Otte et al. 1995, 934f., 941), the 14C dates for which have not been included here, since falling outside the 10th-6th millennium timeframe. Stratigraphically, the samples quoted here all stem from layer (unit) Ib1. On top of layer Ib1, another layer, unit 0, is present. Both units 0 and Ib1 belong to lithics phase 4, which contains 'a mixture of microlithic industries … containing Neolithic elements' and 'numerous sherds' mainly associated with a burial (Otte et al. 1995, 941f., 944). Are these sherds perhaps limited to layer 0? This is not clear from the report. However, it is likely that at Öküzini we have a continued sequence running from the Aceramic Neolithic into the Pottery Neolithic.

II. Northwest Anatolia

Comment ILIPINAR
Five dates, labeled as 'discarded' (Roodenberg and Schier 2001, 267) are not included here, as neither are the two dates assigned to the Late Chalcolithic Phase IV (l.c.) since post-dating our timeframe.

Comment MENTESE
Roodenberg et al. (2003, 52, Figs 4, 11) mention an error ±60 for GrN-24463, instead of ±40 as stated in the Groningen 14C database, which we follow here. No dates are available from Menteşe stratum 2 (cf. Roodenberg et al. 2003, 23).

References