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©The Archaeological Settlements of Turkey - TAY Project
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Kayapinar |
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For site maps and drawings please click on the picture...  |
For photographs please click on the photo...  |
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Type:
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Mound |
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Altitude:
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1320 m |
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Region:
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Black Sea |
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Province:
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Tokat |
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District:
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Artova |
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Village:
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Yenice |
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Investigation Method:
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Excavation |
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Period:
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Early Phrygian Middle Phrygian |
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| Location: It lies 5 km west of the Yenice Village; 17 km north of Artova; some 25 km southwest of the Tokat Province. It is located 3 km north of the railway running from Artova to Ulus. |
| Geography and Environment: It is a small oval mound; 45 m wide and 70 m long; with a cultural deposit of 2.5 m thick. It is 60 m higher than the stream under passing. To the 70 m north; lies a spring and Kurtini Cave on a rocky block over this spring. It is informed that the interior of the cave; not surveyed yet; is full of earth. The mound is located on the ridge of a stream originating from the Akdag range and reaching to the Bebek Stream. The underlying valley has a very fertile land. The mound has been almost demolished by the treasure hunters. |
| History: |
| Research and Excavation: It was excavated in 1949 for treasure hunting by Yusuf Erdost of the Yenice Village upon permission. The artifacts found during these excavations were brought to the General Directorate of Antiquities and Museums. Upon these finds, Raci Temizer and Mahmut Akok conducted an excavation in 1952, and determined stratification of the mound. It takes place in the registered archaeological sites list prepared by Ministry of Culture and Tourism. |
| Stratigraphy: The mound has been heavily destroyed due to illicit diggings [Temizer 1954: Pl. III]. The bedrock inclines in two directions while rising through the midline. The first cultural layer has a topographical harmony with this, the deposit gets thickened towards the edges, and tapers towards the center. The potsherds collected from the first cultural layer indicate that this level belongs to the Chalcolithic Age. The second cultural layer is thicker, and the sherds collected are dated to the Early Bronze Age. The third cultural layer which tapers toward skirts, and gets thickened towards the center is from the Phrygian Period including plenty of paint decorated and monochrome sherds. Based on the well-preserved section of the mound, it appears that the Phrygian cultural layer consists of 1.5 m thick two building levels. |
| Small Finds: Architecture: Based on the preserved northern section of the mound, the ruins revealed that the construction material of the Phrygian Period are small and large, and irregularly collected as noted in the Phrygian cities located in Central Anatolia. Pottery: Two groups of ware were found: paint decorated and monochrome undecorated. Of these pottery, the intact ones were found during the treasure excavation carried out by Yusuf Erdogan while the others were uncovered during the excavation conducted by Raci Temizer and Mahmut Akok. Majority of the painted ware are red-slipped, burnished, black and brown colored and decorated with geometric patterns. Also found are samples of greenish cream slipped and brown painted, brown slipped and dark brown decorated, and bright cream slipped and both brown and red paint decorated ware. Their paste tempered with sand was always well-sieved. Almost all of them were made in accordance with the technique of the early Phrygian Period observed at Bogazköy, Alisar and Karahöyük. Among this group of ware, bowls and jugs are the main vessel forms. The bowls have everted rims, slight necks, shallow, and flat bottom, but no handles [Temizer 1954:res.2]. The paint decoration was directly applied on the slip, on the rims and necks. The motifs include hachured triangles, interrelated nesting curves, simple wavy lines, and lozenge patterns. The jugs can be defined as having cylindrical neck and rounded belly although their rims were not preserved. They are slipped in red, and decorated with brown wavy lines, zigzag bands and concentric circles. A beautiful example of these jugs is a trefoil jug, which was torn only in the rim section [Temizer 1954:pic.3]. This red slipped and burnished jug was enclosed with dark red and brown parallel bands after being painted in whitish cream, and then the parts between these bands were decorated with a chessboard pattern. Smaller and larger forms of this jug are observed almost in all of the Phrygian cities. Some of the vessels in the monochrome and undecorated group have fine paste. Some are grit tempered while some are slipless and unburnished utencils. In this group, which are mostly in grey, dark grey and black, the main vessel forms are plates, jugs and double handled vases. The plates are of grey paste, slipped in grey and burnished [Temizer 1954:4-5]. The jugs are divided into three subgroups; trefoil, rounded and spouted pitchers [Temizer 154:6-8]. Most of them are slipped in grey, and burnished. Also found are black, light tile-red slipped and slipless samples. |
| Remains: |
| Interpretation and Dating: Among the pottery finds, the paint decorated trefoil jug is dated to the first half of the 6th century BC while the monochrome, undecorated, spouted pitchers are dated to the end of the 8th century BC. |
