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The Neolithic in the eastern Marmara

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The Neolithic in the eastern Marmara: two examples of settlement*

Jacob Roodenberg, Songl Alpaslan-Roodenberg
Since 1987 archaeological research has been carried out at Ilpnar, an old farming village east of the Sea of Marmara, which was founded eight thousands years ago. This hyk is situated in an alluvial plain west of Lake Iznik. The second mound of interest is Mentee, situated in the Yeniehir plain, which offered a similar environmental setting during its occupation. Soundings revealed that Mentee was already occupied by the middle of the seventh millennium, which makes it the oldest settlement so far in Northwest Anatolia. A third mound, called Haclartepe, was investigated because of its presumed links with Ilpnar due to their proximity to one another. Haclartepe turned out to have been inhabited during the Early Bronze Age (Fig 1). Since 2006 new investigations have begun at Barcn hyk (formerly called Yeniehir II), also situated in the Yeniehir plain. All of these field activities fall under a long standing project called Early farming communities in the Eastern Marmara Region which is run under the auspices of the Netherlands Institute for the Near East at Leiden and its annex, the Netherlands Institute at Istanbul.

Fig. 1. Map of the Iznik-Yeniehir region with the investigated sites of Ilpnar, Haclartepe and Mentee. Barcn hyk is under excavation since 2005.

Ilpnar: a general picture

The stratigraphy and architecture of Ilpnar X to VII, which comes almost exclusively from the investigations in the big square (W12/13 and X12/13; Fig. 2), can be summarized as follows: In its initial stage the people had settled close by the spring. The settlement, which was confined at its north and east sides by a natural water course, consisted of single-spaced, ca 30 sq meters large houses, which were built with mud slab walls or post-walls lined with mortar. Central posts supported reed-covered saddle roofs. In the rarely preserved interiors arrangements were mud floors, sometimes laid with wooden planking as well as bins and hearths, while ovens were occasionally found in courtyards. Except for its steady growth in volume, the settlement did not alter in many aspects during its first three centuries of its existence. The radial pattern of the initial village plan remained oriented to the spring as its focal point, and the buildings themselves also did not change. Although slab building fell into disuse, houses kept consistent dimensions, and were repeatedly rebuilt on the same parcels of land suggesting the transference of family property through time.

Fig. 2. Example of initial settlement dwellings: contours of dwellings marked by rows of postholes.

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Fig. 3. The boundary buildings: an alignment of two-storey buildings that probably surrounded the village during phase VI. Fourteen of these buildings were entirely excavated.

Analogous to the architecture, the mobile culture displays a gradual development, which is well illustrated in the pottery sequence of the phases X to VII. It is only when another construction mode is introduced by phase VI and especially phase VA around 5700 and 5600 cal. BC respectively, in particular with the application of moulded mud-bricks as the exclusive building material for the village houses, that more radical changes are perceptible in the material culture. This includes a shift in the pottery assemblage and the occurrence of a type of standing female figurines known from the Early Neolithic in the Balkans. Due to the larger application possibilities of building with mud-brick, the new era shows a different approach to settlement construction. Starting in phase VI, the village receives a totally different outlook in its rather small aligned mud-brick houses, which were often two-storeys high, a totally different outlook. Afterwards, during phase VA, house plans again are re-organized, this time from small single-rooms to larger and more compartmented ones, while the two-storey concept seems to have been abandoned. The shift from VI to VA architecture probably went hand in hand with a break in the occupation, because almost all of the VI buildings we excavated were destroyed in a huge conflagration. We believe that during the subsequent VA period, which lasted less than a century, this sites habitation had come to an end with the abandonment of the entire village, apparently once again due to a devastating fire. Not only did the settlement site remain nearly unoccupied, but even the remaining dwellings mere semi-subterranean shelters dug in the SW flank of the mound were not adapted to yearround habitation (Fig. 5).

Fig. 4. Ground floor of burnt down boundary building H33. The sticks mark the imprints of posts that supported the upper storey.

Altogether the settlement of Ilpnar exhibits a succession of six centuries of farming history (ca. 6000-5400 cal. BC) occasionally disturbed by unspecified incidents causing a temporary interruption of daily routine or even abandonment. We have witnessed its steady growth in population and volume due to a prosperous economy which was based on plant cultivation and animal husbandry. The causes of the final desertion of the site after an attempt at seasonal residence for the benefit of the cultivation of the surrounding fields, is beyond our comprehension. The interval stretching from this desertion until the site was reoccupied in the Late Chalcolithic period lasted in absolute Radiocarbon years from 5400 to 3600 cal. BC. This time span coincides with a period that can be best described as the dark age in the prehistory of Northwest Anatolia.

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The Neolithic in the eastern Marmara

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Fig. 5. Six object clusters some dug half a meter into the ground and lined with earthen benches (no 1 and 4), others on the surface and delineated by walls of wicker work (no 3). These clusters contained a standard set of items an oven, grinding installation, bins and pottery vessels. The latter two were frequently full of charred grain and other cultivated plant seeds. Interpreted as seasonal dwellings, these huts were built on the ruins of the abandoned village of Ilpnar VA.

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Mentee
Soundings at Mentee, the second site in our research plan, were started to in order to control results from Ilpnar and to add evidence for early sedentarisation in the eastern Marmara region. The mound, 4,5 m high and ca. 150 m in diameter, is situated in the plain of Yeniehir which is separated from Iznik Lake by a 600 m high mountain ridge. In the past, environmental conditions were similar to Ilpnar because Mentee was located near an ancient lake shore. The mound displays occupational remains from the 7th millennium to the Byzantine period. We will deal here with the evidence from the initial settlement to the Early Chalcolithic period. The latter comprises a level devoid of architectural remains but containing pottery of the Early Chalcolithic age that equals Ilpnar phase V A (ca. 5500 cal. BC). From this level some burial pits had been dug down destroying a level with buildings. There was half of a building with wattle-anddaub walls (Fig. 6), another building whose walls were made of mud-slabs, and a genuine mud-brick wall in section. The significance of this observation is the simultaneous occurrence of different modes of construction, of which the wattle-and-daub and mud- brick varieties were unknown in the contemporary occupation levels of Ilpnar (phases IX and X). Yet the layout and size of the buildings resemble it: rectangular single-space dwellings surrounded by courtyards. The inventories of the occupation levels also show striking affinities between both settlements. Underneath a dwelling floor, the burials of a young woman and a child were found. It cannot be proven that they belonged to the above building, but it is probable given the depth of the burial pits 60 and 80 cm below the floor. According to radiocarbon samples these dwellings can be dated to 6200-6100 cal. BC, which means it is one or two centuries before the foundation of the Ilpnar village. Next to the woman stood a ceramic box with a handle and four feet (Fig. 7). This box is decorated with white geometrical engravings that prove that the Fikirtepe culture of northwest Anatolia occurred well before Ilpnar was founded. The lower levels of Mentee revealed more building remains of the mud-slab type alternating with rubble layers and trodden surfaces probably courtyards of nearby dwellings covered with bone and stone tools, grinding stones, and traces of open fire (Fig. 8). The age of these layers, dated to ca. 6400 cal. BC, demonstrates that Mentee was established nearly half a millennium before the foundation of Ilpnar.

Fig. 6. Partly cleared Neolithic building plan with walls made of wattle and daub. Disturbances are from burials dug from Early Chalcolithic levels.

Fig. 7. Young woman buried below the floor of the building in Fig. 6. Her left arm rested on a ceramic box with geometric engravings in Fikirtepe style.

Fig. 8. The dark layers of this section represent basal Mentee. Layers of burnt rubble alternate with trodden surfaces.

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Burying the dead in the eastern Marmara region

With reference to the title of this paragraph, it is our axiom that Ilpnar and Mentee are representative for burial practices in the eastern Mamara region. The Neolithic and Early Chalcolithic communities buried their dead in the village ground. This may be at the edge, as in the case of Ilpnar, or in the built-over area, as shown at the basal layers of Mentee. Within the framework of early farming development the Marmara region is often referred to as a zone of transition between Anatolia and the eastern Balkans. As far as burying the dead is concerned, the adherence to one or the other is not unequivocal. The little information that we possess from the Balkans reveals different types of burials, i.e. under building floors as well as in open spaces. As opposed to the Balkans, burying members of the community in the houses where they probably had lived (atal Hyk) or in specially arranged buildings (ayn) was common practice in central Anatolia and further Southeast. Remarkable is the frequency of burial discoveries in Anatolian settlements of the 7th and 6th millennium cal. BC, which contrasts with the poor records of the Early Neolithic period in the Balkans. In this respect the eastern Marmara region fully represents the Anatolian tradition. The Neolithic and Early Chalcolithic levels of Ilpnar and Mentee together yielded nearly 70 burials with human remains, whereas for the entire eastern Balkans the Neolithic period counts hardly more than that amount. The relative abundance of inhumations on the eastern Marmara side enables both the anthropologist as well the archaeologist to collect data that are usually missing or easily overlooked. The time range of these burials is almost one thousand years running from the mid 7th millennium to the mid 6th millennium i.e. from the Middle Neolithic to the end of the Early Chalcolithic. The earliest human remains of Mentee were found at basal Mentee, the youngest in the middle occupation levels altogether 20 skeletons, while Ilpnar is represented by 48 individuals, all coming from a burial ground which belonged to the earliest settlement phases X and IX (Fig. 9). The human remains collected from Ilpnar and Mentee constitute a valuable sample in the early sedentary population of Anatolia. They were buried separately in single graves except in one case at Ilpnar where the burial of a woman included the bones of a newborn baby. They were considered as primary burials since the bones were still articulated. The nearly 50 individuals from Ilpnar, who were collected in the same Neolithic burial ground, presumably belonged to the families of the first settlers.

Fig. 9. Burials in the right half of the Big Square belonging to Ilpnar X and IX. The amount of infants and children is very high.

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Fig. 10. Two pendants of pierced mussel shell accompany a female adult in a burial of Ilpnar X.

Fig. 11. Woman buried in a half sitting position, Ilpnar X.

Life expectancy of adults, who were primarily females, was almost equal for both sexes between 23 and 43 years; the average stature of females and males was 155 and 169 cm respectively. Child mortality was high, especially the death rate of newborn babies. The contracted position was common practice for adults and children, who were found in oval grave pits. Some were even laid in a strongly flexed position, from which we conclude that they were tightly wrapped up before rigor mortis had occurred (Fig. 10). As for Ilpnar, there was a tendency to bury adult males and females on their right sides in a south-north orientation. Adult graves were between 60 and 90cm deep, and in a few cases laid with wooden planks on the bottom suggesting that the dead had been laid to rest on some sort of bier. Funeral gifts such as pottery vessels or personal belongings including necklaces of stone beads and pendants occasionally accompanied the deceased. Among the prehistoric villagers osteoarthritis and anaemia were common diseases. Osteoarthritis was a general health problem, a disorder caused by hard labour and increasing age. At Ilpnar this illness had struck both sexes almost equally, while at Mentee especially males had suffered from it. Anaemia caused by iron deficiency was particularly frequent among the children and adult females from Ilpnar. Indeed, as it could be expected, a diet principally based on cereals may have led to iron deficiency. The people from both settlements constituted no exception to the bad dental health which is a characteristic for prehistoric populations. Dental caries occurred from early childhood to old ages. In some cases caries was associated with severe abscess cavities. Food preparation methods play a role in the frequency of caries and dental attrition. Due to coarse food and abrasive residual from grinding tools their teeth showed strong wear, as could be expected. In addition, quite a few women (nearly half of the females of Ilpnar and one from basal Mentee) had grooves at the back of their front teeth which were probably the effect of holding fibres in their mouths during the process of weaving, twining and basketry making. These grooves were never found on male teeth indicating that this activity was a womens job. Women with bad dental health and skeletal disorders were presumably physically unable to do such work, and therefore these grooves were not observed on individuals of this category. A few cases of arthritic changes were noticed. Among them a middle aged female from Ilpnar struck with a severe joint disease. Her mobility would have been so limited at the end of her life that she had to be buried in a half sitting position (Fig. 11).

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Literature
Alpaslan-Roodenberg, S., 2006 Death in Neolithic Ilpnar. In: I. Gatsov and H. Schwarzenberg (eds.), Aegean Marmara Black Sea: present state of research of the Early Neolithic. ZAKS-Monographs 5; 47-57. Karul, N., Z. Eres, M. zdo an und H. Parzinger, 2003 g Asa Pnar I. Einfhrung, Forschungsgeschichte, g Stratigraphie und Architektur. Archologie in Eurasien, Band 15. Studien im Thrakien-Marmara-Raum, Band 1. Von Zabern, Mainz am Rhein. Lichter, C., 2001 Untersuchungen zu den Bestattungssitten des sdosteuropischen Neolithikums und Chalcolithikums. Von Zabern, Mainz am Rhein. Matthews, R. 2000 The Early Prehistory of Mesopotamia 500,000 to 4,500 BC. SUBARTU V,. Brepols, Turnhout . Roodenberg, J.J. (ed.), 1995 The Ilpnar Excavations I. Five seasons of fieldwork in NW Anatolia, 1987-91. PIHANS vol. LXXII, Istanbul. Roodenberg, J.J. & C.L. Thissen (eds.), 2001 The Ilpnar Excavations II. PIHANS vol. XCIII, Leiden. Roodenberg, J., A. van As, L. Jacobs, M.-H. Wijnen, 2003 Early settlement in the plain of Yeniehir (NW Anatolia). The basal occupation layers at Mentee. ANATOLICA XXIX, 2003. Thissen, L., 2001 The Pottery of Ilpnar, Phases X to VA. In: The Ilpnar Excavations II. PIHANS vol. XCIII, Leiden; 3-154. Wright, G.R.H., 2000 Ancient Building Technology. Vol. 1: historical background. Brill, Leiden.

* Manuscript prepared for the revised edition of M. zdogan and N. Bagelen, Neolithic in Turkey (Arkeoloji ve Sanat Yaynlar, Istanbul 1999). All drawings by Ben Claasz Coockson.