Çukuriçi Höyük & Arvalya Höyük
The oldest traces of settlement in Ephesos can be found about 1 km south-east of the Hellenistic-Roman city limits on Çukuriçi Höyük. Human traces on this artificial tell date back to the Neolithic period, i.e. the phase in which humans settled in Anatolia in the 7th millennium BC. The Çukuriçi Höyük quickly developed into a trading hub between the Aegean and Central Anatolia, with valuable raw materials being traded thousands of kilometres away.
Co-Creative Forces?
Across Anatolia and the Fertile Crescent, it was common to find traditions centered on the veneration of the generative forces within the human body. At this 9,000-year-old settlement near Ephesus, similar practices may have taken place, where the reproductive organs were regarded not simply as functional, but as sacred—expressions of the divine itself.
Stating that experts had worked on the figure to determine its history, Topal said: “According to their evaluations, the figure dates back to the seventh century B.C., the Neolithic Age. At the time, the history of the settlement in and around Ephesus dated back to 7,000 B.C. The details on the figure completely have the traces of the Neolithic Age. Elements like breasts and hips on the figure are exaggerated; they were made with an engraving technique. The face is not detailed. Since it was used as an amulet, it has a hole in its neck part.”
Extensive Trade Routes over Land and Seas
The sites Çukuriçi Höyük & Arvalya Höyük
The settlement mound of Çukuriçi Höyük is located at the central Aegean coast in Western Turkey. According to the reconstruction of the prehistoric coastline, the settlement can be defined as a coastal site (Stock et al. 2013). Subsequent to initial excavations by the Selçuk Müzesi (Evren 1999; Evren & İçten 1998), systematic archaeological investigations at the site, and the vicinity, were conducted between 2006 and 2014 under the licence of the Austrian Archaeological Institute (OeAI). This work was funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) and the European Research Council (ERC; see Horejs 2017 for a presentation of the Çukuriçi Höyük Research Project).Large parts of the tell settlement were destroyed in the course of modern agricultural activities in the area.
However, paleogeographic studies suggest a former settlement size of 200 to 100 meters with 8.5 meters of occupation layers (Stock et al. 2015). The settlement phases excavated at Çukuriçi Höyük date from the Neolithic period in the 7th millennium, the Late Chalcolithic period in the second half of the 4th millennium and the Early Bronze Age 1 period in the first quarter of the 3rd millennium BCE, according to the common terminology used in Anatolia (Horejs 2017: 17, fig. 1.5). Within the distinct occupation levels, various stone tool assemblages produced from a wide range of raw materials have been discovered, including chipped stones, axes, pounders, grinding stones, and mortars. Altogether, circa 23790 stone tools were archaeologically investigated (obsidian and chert: circa 23000, small finds: circa 750, grinding stones and mortars: 40).2. Local rock sources (0-5 km) To assess the accessibility and variability of local rock types used by the prehistoric inhabitants of Çukuriçi Höyük, a geological survey in the vicinity of the settlement was conducted, in addition to the examination of published data (Çakmakoğlu 2007: 2, fig. 1a; Wolf 2017: 26, fig. 6.1.3). The regional geology of this area is defined by different tectono-stratigraphical units composed of marble, cherty marble, metavolcanic rocks, phyllites, schists, metabauxites, amphibolites and eclogites. 2.1
Rock and clay sourcesSurveys conducted within this project revealed the presence of a variety of local rock sources close to Çukuriçi Höyük in the Derbent Valley (Wolf 2017: 11-16). These detailed studies have shown that the majority of the rock types used for the construction of buildings, as well as the production of tools from the Neolithic period onwards, crop out within a range of 3-4 km from the settlement. Due to gravitational and fluvial transport, stones of different sizes were available in the direct vicinity of the settlement.
These local raw materials include different types of carbonate rocks (i.e., marble and schist), as well as quartz, amphibolite, peridotite, gneiss and emery (Wolf 2017: 22-30) (Figure 1). The artefacts made of these rock types have been studied macro- and microscopically to determine the variety of lithotypes used, and to evaluate changes over different settlement phases.
Within occupation layers corresponding to the Early Neolithic period (ÇuHö XIII-XII; n=42), 15 lithotypes have been recorded. In comparison, 37 lithotypes are present for the Late Neolithic period (ÇuHö XI-VIII; n=587), attesting to an increasing diversity in the rock resources used. Interestingly, in the Late Chalcolithic (10 types; ÇuHö VII-Vb; n=23) and Early Bronze Age periods (23 types; ÇuHö Va-III; n=99) a significant reduction of raw material lithotypes can be noted in contrast to the Late Neolithic period (Schwall 2018: 241-243, 564-578; Wolf 2017: 55-59).For assessing raw material choices, it is necessary to examine the different stone types, their characteristics and use for the production of distinct objects. During the Neolithic period at Çukuriçi Höyük, the high amount of stone beads made of mica schist, quartz-rich mica schist, marble, serpentinized peridotite and peridotite is striking and maybe connected with favoured aesthetic characteristics of the beads (e.g., Wolf 2017: 62-65 for further examples). In the Late Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age periods, rocks with high hardness and density (e.g., milk quartz, emery, serpentinite, metabasalt) were favoured for pounders or hammerstones.
This is especially notable for the use of emery to produce hammerstones, adzes and axes, since the Late Chalcolithic time onwards (e.g., Wolf 2017: 59-62 for further examples).In general, carbonate rocks-marble, schist (metapelites), ultramafics or metaultramafics (peridotite, amphibolite) and milky quartz are the dominant lithotypes used for the production of stone tools and ornaments at Çukuriçi Höyük, with a decreasing number especially of carbonate rocks-marble (42.9%) and metapelites (21.5%) from the Early Neolithic to the Early Bronze Age (carbonates: 32.2%; metapelites: 7.5%) period.
Concerning the Early Bronze Age, the increasing number of emery tools (13.9%), is remarkable since it is in clear contrast to the preceding periods (Neolithic period: max. 3%) (Schwall 2018: 241-243, 564-578; Wolf 2017: 66-67).The selective choice of emery for the production of extremely tough stone tools during the Late Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age phases could possibly reflect the need and importance of such materials in the context of a metal working community: For the later occupations at Çukuriçi Höyük extensive metallurgical activities are confirmed.
Since the Late Chalcolithic period, in the 4th millennium BCE, the production of arsenical copper is attested and the site evolves into a metal production centre with numerous metallurgical workshops in the settlements ÇuHö IV-III (Horejs & Mehofer 2015; Mehofer 2014).Figure 1. Geological map of the vicinity of Çukuriçi Höyük (map by D. Wolf with modifications after Çakmakoğlu 2007; Vetters 1975).
Arvalya Höyük, an unexcavated Turkish mound, shows promise for revealing early settlement history through geophysical surveys (GPR, magnetometry) that mapped substantial structures, multiple layers (3.5m+ thick), pits, hearths, and a defensive rampart-ditch, indicating a significant prehistoric settlement likely from the Neolithic period, possibly similar to nearby Çukuriçi Höyük.
