Inging graphic customs; hence it does not contribute to defining historical

:hi 2003.

[Vision of

I and. cha

Introduction

Emergence of anthropomorphic cults and the beginnings of polytheism. The author

Has deliberately avoided discussing developments is Anatolian religions after the

Fall of the Hittite Empire (their presentation in Popko’s monographic study has lost

Nothing of its value), even though he has on occasion included Information concern-

Ing the worship of particular gods at a later time, well in the first millennium BC.

In this book, he has set himself the primary purpose of painting the complexity of

The beliefs in the multi-ethnic and multi-cultural environment of Hittite Anatolia

And tracing the interpenetration and translatability of different religious and cult

Traditions. Finally, he has sought the principles determining the structure of both

The official and local pantheons and analyzed the impact that the religious policies

Of a new dynasty of kings in the Empire period had on their emergence and subse-

Quent development.

PREHISTORIC ANATQLIA

For the p-eriod before the beginning of the second millennium BC we have to deal

Soleiy with archaeological and iconographic sources. The cognitive possibilities of the

archaeological study of religiös, its theory and methodology, have excited mueh dis-

cussion among anthropologists, sociologists and historians of religiös. 1 " A cautious

Approach has predominated in the Contemporary archaeology of cult. Without the

Testimony of written sources to support it, the archaeological record is treated as

Little more than a base for understanding the ritual and symbolic aspects of ma

terial culture, even when the religious implications of analyzed objects appear seif*

Evident.

The material finde presented in this chapter concern cult practices or, to put it

More generally, magic and ritual behaviors wliich leave so doubl that already in

The Neolithic the inhabitants of Anatolia were worshiping their ancestors and later

Also hosts of nameless divinities who would keep their ano.nym.ous Status until the

Beginning of the second millennium BC. The current state of research is far fborn

Satiefactory. The archaeological map of Anatolia in this period still has many gaps,

Espeeially in the Pontic region. Even so, we are entitled to assume that the belief

Systems wbich ernerged in prehistoric times were principally the sarne as the later

Religions of Hittite Anatolia, despite undoubted development and gradual change over

The ages. In this sense, there is every reason to speak of a continuity of religious

Tradition in this region beginning from at least the later Chalcolithic.

Renfrew 1994: Renfrew — Bahn 1996: BSBff.; and now Insoll 2004 For ihn relationship between

Archaeology and religion, the history of relevant scholarship, and existing defmitions of religion

And ritual. A new approach to the archaeological study of religion is suggested.

8

Pp.EHJSTORIC AnATOUA

Neolithic

The Anatolian Neolithic demonstrates ties witii the early agricultural cultures which

developed already in the tenth millennium BC in part of the ‘Fertile Crescent,’ that

Is, in P alestine and central Syria. Two groupings of Neolithic sites are evidenced

from Asia Minor. The finds at Göbekli Tepe, 13 which lies 15 km northeast of Urfa,

Are dated to the tenth-ninth millennium BC (Pre-Pottery Neolithic A). The presence

In this region of wild einkorn wheat (Triticum monococcum), the earliest domesti-

Cated species of grain, highlights the role played by hunter-gatherer societies of

Southeastern Anatolia in the process of abandoning an intensive gathering economy

In favor of gram cultivation. The early farming settlements which appeared slightly