Identity and Contact as exemplified by the Late Neolithic site of Çavi Tarlasi (Turkey)

本申请中提出的项目的起点是20世纪80年代在新石器时代晚期的Cavi Tarlasi遗址进行的挖掘，该遗址随后被atatatrk水库上涨的水位淹没。虽然这个遗址的起源通常与公元前6千年中期的“哈拉夫扩张”联系在一起，但该定居点未发表的陶瓷表明，哈拉夫文化早在公元前6千年初期就已经在土耳其幼发拉底河中部地区建立起来了。因此，与之前的假设相反。这个地区实际上应该被分配到哈拉夫文化的核心地区，哈拉夫文化后来从那里分散开来。Cavi Tarlasi的独特之处在于，它是迄今为止土耳其幼发拉底河中部地区唯一一个提供了跨越哈拉夫时期大部分时间的长地层序列的地点。在这个项目的框架内，将为这个重要的遗址制作一份最终出版物，其中将包括对其地层学、建筑、墓葬、陶器、小发现和石器工业的文化历史评估。然而，研究的重点将在于重新评估哈拉夫文化的区域和时间细分，我们发现哈拉夫文化在公元前6000年至公元前5300年之间分散在美索不达米亚北部的大部分地区。这里应该指出，过去30年来，在美索不达米亚北部各地区考古实地工作的增加，导致调查和公布的哈拉夫遗址数量大幅增加，从而为新的区域共时和历时比较铺平了道路。在哈拉夫文化的新出现和更加分化的背景下，必须追求与地方和区域身份，区域互动和陶器的社会意义有关的问题。除了上述目的外，还将使用x射线荧光、矿物学和岩石学分析对来自卡维塔拉西和叙利亚北部和伊拉克北部选定地点的不同陶器类型进行检查。这些科学研究将有助于得出关于生产技术及其地理分布以及转让和交换关系的关键结论。

Starting point for the project presented in this application are excavations undertaken in the 1980s at Cavi Tarlasi, a Late Neolithic site that was subsequently inundated by the rising waters of the Atatürk reservoir. Although the genesis of this site is commonly linked to the "Halaf-Expansion" around the middle of the 6th millennium calBC, unpublished ceramics from the settlement instead imply that the Halaf Culture was already well established in the Turkish middle Euphrates region as early as the incipient 6th millennium calBC. Therefore, and in contrast to earlier assumptions. this region should actually be assigned to the core area of the Halaf Culture, from whence it later dispersed. Cavi Tarlasi is unique in that it is so far the only site in the Turkish middle Euphrates region to have provided a long stratigraphical sequence spanning most of the Halaf period. In the frame of this project a final publication for this important site will be produced which will include a cultural-historical evaluation of its stratigraphy, architecture, burials, pottery, small finds and stone tool industries. The focus of the study will lie, however, on a re-evaluation of the regional and chronological subdivision of the Halaf Culture, which we find dispersed over large parts of northern Mesopotamia between c. 6000 and 5300 calBC. Here it should be noted that an increase in archaeological fieldwork over the last 30 years in various parts of northern Mesopotamia has resulted in a considerable rise in the number of investigated and published Halaf sites, thus paving the way for new regional synchronic and diachronic comparisons. In the context of a newly emerging and more differentiated picture of the Halaf culture, questions must be pursued relating to local and regional identities, regional interaction and the social significance of pottery. In addition to the aforementioned aims, different pottery types from Cavi Tarlasi and from selected sites in northern Syria and northern Iraq will be examined using X-ray fluorescence, mineralogical and petrographical analyses. These scientific studies will allow key conclusions to be drawn concerning production technologies and their geographical distribution, as well as transfer and exchange relations.