Meskell - Nakamura — King - Fand 2008: 144.

72 For the chronology of Early Bronze Age Änatolia, see now Becker 2007: 93 Hg.

43.

)

Chalcolithic and Earlv Bronze Aoe

A long period of time, would differentiale and split up into three separate ethno-

linguistic entities: Hittites, Palaians and Luwians*’) changed the ethnic Situation

In the Western, Southern and central part of the peninsula, but without written sour

Ces it is impossible to say anything about the gods worshiped during this period. It

Can be assumed, however, that many of the divinities known from Cappadocian (2.1)

and Hittite (3.1 & 2) texts from the second millennium BC made up the local

pantheons of central and northern Änatolia already in the later phase of the Early

Bronze Age.

Social stratification was reflected also in a differentiated Status of the dead.

A community of ancestors stopped being worshiped by all inhabitants of the village.

The dead besame instead part of the family whose living members were required to

Officiate at their cult, The fates of the ruler and the ordinary person after death

Were different. These changes were reflected in the funerary rites and forme of

burial. Cemeteries located outside the Settlements, veritable ‘towns of the dead’ with

Social stratification occasionally reflected in their topography, appeared in Western

Änatolia as early as the Chalcolithic. They are also known from central and north

ern Änatolia starting from EB III (c. 2300/2200-2000 BC), although in these regions

The custom of burying the dead beneath house floors lasted until the beginning of

The second millennium BC. The dead therefore stopped being present among the

Living. Differences in grave goods also became more pronounced. Very wealthy

‘royal tombs’ are evidenced on the Upper Euphrates already in the final phase of

the late Chalcolithic, while in Western and central Änatolia they occur but in the

EB III period.

One of the houses from the Chalcolithic village of layer II at Hacilar was recog-

Nized as a sanctuary because of the rieh equipment composed of clay figurines and

Pottery decorated with motifs of ritual significance. A stone stela, placed in a paint-

74

Ed niche in the wall of the main room, may have been an object of cult, ’ The Inter

pretation of a find from Chalcolithic Gözlükule near Tarsus in Ciiicia poses more

Difficulties. A piece of a stone pillar (stela?) lay on the floor of one of the rooms and

next to it, was a pair of deer antlers and pottery fragments,' J

See, e.g., Stefanini 2002: 787 with n. 7, and Carruba 2003 for a review of the debate,

Mellaart i960: lOOff,; cf. Popko 1995a: 36; Sharp Joukowsky 1936: 121.

Goldman 1956; of.

Prehistoric Anatolia

An imposing ‘ceremonial’ building XXIX frora Period VII at Arslantepe-Malatya,

76

C. 3600-3500 BC, measured on the whole 20.7 by 19 m. It has a tripartite plan

With a large central room (17.6 by 7 m) resembling Mesopotatnian temples, although

its cultural context shows no links to the Southern Mesopotamian world.'' The build

Ing stood in Isolation on a raised platform, about fifty centimeters high. Two later

Temples, forming pari of a palatial complex (Building IV) from Period VIA, are dated

To the end of the late Chalcolithic. Both display very similar floor plans. Temple B,

Measuring 12 m in length, has a large extended rectangular room flanked by small

Rooms along one side. It was windowed with wooden frames still presei’ved. In the

Cella there was a niche with wall paintings in red and black, which represented

a frontal figure with a stylized triangulär human face, eyes and a rectangular body,

Seated on a bench or throne below what appears to be a canopy of branches. In front

Of the figure was a so-called fruit stand with a perforated base, which in this con

Text might be interpreted as a cult object. Moreover, an aitar was identified for the

First time with certainty in this temple/ 8