Southwest and Northwest Anatolia chronological chart: 10th - 6th millennia cal BC

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

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This chart is based on the CANeW SW and NW Anatolia 14C database

                        
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Comments to the SW and NW Anatolian 14C chart

All calibrated data quoted at 1sigma. Calibration curve used is IntCal04 (Reimer et al. 2004). Calibration program used OxCal v3.10 (Bronk Ramsey 1995, 2001, 2005).

Öküzini: Of the five Öküzini dates belonging to the Holocene, two have not been used on the chart since deriving from an insecure context (AH 8 pit). The three remaining dates stem from AH 5 (HD–14364/13887), AH 3 (ETH–8031), and AH 2 (HD–14363/13884). We have not attempted to sum them, since all three are mutually exclusive on the 1sigma level.

Aceramic Hacılar: There are lots of doubts concerning the status of aceramic Hacilar as indeed representing a settlement lacking pottery. The (single) 14C date would make it the earliest farming village west of Central Anatolia.

Bademağacı: Four dates (levels Early Neolithic II/4A, II/4, II/3) overlap fully, while two other dates (Hd–22339 and Hd–20910) from the same general deposit are slightly earlier. These six dates together sum at 6450–6260 cal BC. Compatible with this range is the single date presently available for the youngest EN level of the site (Early Neolithic II/1) covering the 62nd century cal BC. The date from level Early Neolithic I/8, near virgin soil, represents a flat portion on the calibration curve, ranging from 7030–6690 (at 2sigma) despite its small error of ±31.

Höyücek: All six Höyücek dates stem from samples of timber, viz. posts from a single, burned level. These dates fall in two mutually exclusive age groups at 1sigma, each containing three nearly identical dates. Would we combine the posterior probability distributions of the earlier group (HD–14219/14007, HD–14218/14002, HD–?) – assuming the samples to stem from a single event – they yield a range of 6445–6410 cal BC (with an agreement of 162.0%). The later group combines to a range of 6250–6200 (49.6%) and 6140–6100 cal BC (18.6%) with an overall agreement of 160.6%. The ranges indicated on the chart for the 'Early Settlements Phase' as well as for the later 'Sanctuary Phase', lacking radiocarbon dates, are tentative.

Karain B: At 1sigma, the five 14C dates from Karain B are mutually exclusive apart from the two youngest ones, forming four independent units on the chart, where we have refrained from summing them. The later three units do not contradict the pottery evidence as published by Seeher (1988), where the earliest two of these three units (6380–6230 and 6050–5900 cal BC, resp.) might be contemporaneous to parts of the Bademağacı and Höyücek sequences (Seeher's 'Period I'), and where the last unit (5470–5070 cal BC) may well date the Middle Chalcolithic assemblage denoted by Seeher as 'Period II'.

Ceramic Hacılar: Of the six available 14C dates from Hacılar, only two are from samples of short-lived material (ashes from hearths), to note: Level IX, P–314 (7340±94 BP) and Level VI, P313+P313A (7266±64 BP [combined date, cf. database comments]). The four other dates are all from burned posts or roof beams, and are therefore potentially liable to the 'old wood' problem. That we deal with old wood is definitely the case for Level VII date BM–125 (7770±180 BP) and for Level VI date BM–48 (7550±180 BP). Being too old, they have been left out of consideration here. This results in an earliest possible start of Hacilar Level IX at about 6350 cal BC, though if we sum P–314 and the combined date P–313-313A we get a range set between 6240–6060 cal BC within which Hacilar IX–VI most likely might have occurred. For the second part of the Hacılar sequence (Levels II–I) the two dates (P–316 and P–315A-315 combined) sum at 6050–5730 cal BC, but note that provenance is from roof beams. For arguments to consider Hacılar Levels V–III at best as a (series of) minor stage(s) within the orginal Level IIA settlement, see Thissen 2000, 136ff.

Kuruçay Höyük: Of the five dates available, one is certainly intrusive (Hacettepe–?, 5170±70 BP), and not used in assessing the sum value. The other Hacettepe date from Level 7 (7214±38 BP) contradicts the sequence and is as old as the two dates from Levels 13/12 and 12 (cf. comments to database), and more likely should be assigned to the earlier levels. Given the correspondence in material culture and architecture between Hacilar II–I and Kuruçay Level 7, we tentatively extended the site's range to 5700 cal BC on the chart.

Menteşe: The younger age cluster is stratigraphically and chronologically discontinuous with the older cluster.

Ilıpınar: Sixty-six dates from this site document a nearly unbroken sequence running over seven phases, and totalling to 18 or 19 individual building levels. The sum total ranges at 6000–5510 cal BC (exclusive of GrN–16146 (5320±80 BP, phase VIII) which is obviously too young). Six short-lived samples (grain and figs), that certainly stem from a single event, i.e. the burning of the habitations in this area, have their posterior probability distributions combined as 5555–5520 cal BC (agreement 113.4%), tying the end of Ilıpınar phase VB securely to the third quarter of the 56th C cal BC.

References