Neither Frescoes nor Rock Reliefs : Zoomorphic plastic decorations on pottery from Western Anatolia in the second millennium BCE
Abstract
The Late Bronze Age Western Anatolia is commonly defined as a world between worlds. During the second millennium BCE, this region, still understudied but characterized by its own development and customs, is embedded in spheres of influence of two important cultural circles: Mycenaeans and Hittites.
Both these cultures are well known for their artistic expressions in a number of media, while Western Anatolia has been commonly considered almost aniconic. One of the exceptions in this narrative are zoomorphic appliqués, handles and spouts appearing in this region during the second millennium BCE.
This group of finds, while known ever since Schliemann, has not been studied on its own so far. It is even stranger when we look at the appearance of this phenomenon in many important sites of Western Anatolia where we can trace many similarities but also differences.
Aside Troy, with the largest corpus so far, the site of Kaymakci offers the second largest number, followed by sites such as Liman Tepe, Beycesultan or Seyitömer Höyük. Animal representations were found also in other regions, which were in contact with Western Anatolia but were also rarely compared.
The aim of this presentation is to present the current stage of a complete and comparative examination of this material. It will be shown that among several traditions of zoomorphic decorations on pottery we can find possible connections with Central Anatolia, and I will rise the possible link with ritual texts as known from Hittite Sources.