Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Arkeoloji Dergisi, cilt.0, sa.24, ss.81-93, 2019 (Hakemli Dergi)
A salvage excavation was carried out at Uzgur Tumulus, located on a hill overlooking the Black Sea in Samsun (Turkey), by Samsun Archaeology Museum and it was understood that the mound adjacent toit continued beneath the tumulus. A small space was unearthed at the cultural level that consisted of a single layer in a narrow area and a tandoor was unearthed in the middle of the space. There are vessels which were lined up around the tandoor and a jar with a relief decoration was discovered in one of them. The jar has a hole mouth and a biconical body. An ear-/crescent-like (or snake-like) relief decoration was made on each wide face of the jar’s body and a stylized human relief in the form of a “Stick Man ”was made on each narrow face of it. Moreover, two knobbed decorations are also available between the arms of the Stick Man each. Of the relief elements, the ear-/crescent-shaped (or snake-shaped) one can be compared with its analogues at Karanovo II as well as with the Chalcolithic finds from the settlements of Köşk Höyük, Can Hasan, and Güvercinkayası in Inner Western Cappadocia. The Stick Man decoration dates back as early as the Aceramic Neolithic finds and was quite common from the Near East to Central Europe particularly in the Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods. On the other hand, the upward orientation of the arms and their depiction with two knobbed decorations were only seen at the Chalcolithic layer of Tülintepe in Eastern Anatolia as well as in Pre-Cucuteni Phase III of Tîrpeşti in the Balkans. This daterange is a reference for the dating of the Jar from Uzgur to the Early/Middle Chalcolithic Age. The jar is characterized by its hole mouth and biconical body. Analogous shape and ware qualities were found inan Altar in Phase 4 of Layer III at Site B of İkiztepe, which is dated to the Late Chalcolithic Age, and thevessels in this group continued until Phase 7 of the same layer. The analogues of the decoration on the jar from Uzgur spread from the Caucasian-Levantine line of the Coastal Section of North-Central Anatolia to the Balkans and are not different from the sense of good taste accepted in the places concerned. The decoration understandings resembled in a period when the local elements still predominated and when the cultures had not formed intensive relationships yet and the reason for this can be accepted as the commonality of the faith understanding.