Reflection on the Sunrise Positions in Early and Middle Bronze Age Extramural Cemeteries in Anatolia

Abstract

In Early and Middle Bronze Ages extramural cemeteries in Anatolia, burials are occasionally oriented towards the rising sun in various seasons. The orientations of Early Bronze Age burials cluster towards the sunrise in autumn and winter; however, this differs in Middle Bronze Age cemeteries. Burials in Çavlum are mainly oriented towards the rising sun in summer, those in Yanarlar in spring, and in Gordion the winter months. The orientations towards the sunrise from the equinox to the summer solstice in Yanarlar, Tatıka and Çavlum may reflect the superiority of light to darkness, or life to death. Only a few burials are oriented towards the rising sun during the harvest period. In the Early Bronze Age cemeteries of Gre Virike, Aşağı Salat, Elmalı-Karataş and Babaköy, sunrise positions during one month after the autumn equinox dominate. In this month, fields are sown; henceforth, seeds wait for sprouting until the following spring. The rising sun between the equinox and winter solstice is preferred in the Middle Bronze Age, making a peak during the month prior to the winter solstice when animals mate. These give birth after around five months. This natural cycle might have been associated with the dead waiting in the grave like seeds in the ground or like the fetus awaiting life in the spring.