Uruk Colonies and Anatolian Communities: An Interim Report on the 1992-1993 Excavations at Hacinebi, Turkey

Abstract

The first Mesopotamian city-states in the Uruk period (ca. 3800-3100 B. C.) pursued a strategy of commercial expansion into neighboring areas of the Zagros Mountains, Syria, and southeastern Anatolia. Recent research in these areas has located several Uruk outposts, in what is apparently the world's earliest-known colonial system. Although some Uruk "colonies" have been excavated, virtually nothing is known about either the operation of this system or its role in the development of local polities in Anatolia. Excavations at the site of Hacinebi, on the Euphrates River trade route, investigate the effects of the "Uruk Expansion" on the social, economic, and political organization of southeastern Anatolia during the fourth millennium B. C. Hacinebi has two main Late Chalcolithic occupations -a pre-contact phase A and a later contact phase B with high concentrations of Uruk ceramics, administrative artifacts, and other Mesopotamian forms of material culture. The Hacinebi excavations thus provide a rare opportunity to investigate the relationship between the Uruk colonies and the local populations with whom they traded, while clarifying the role of long-distance exchange in the development of complex societies in Anatolia. Several lines of evidence suggest that the period of contact with Mesopotamia began in the Middle Uruk period, earlier than the larger colonies at sites such as Habuba Kabira-South and Jebel Aruda in Syria. The concentrations of Uruk material culture and the patterns of food consumption in the northeastern corner of the Local Late Chalcolithic settlement are consistent with the interpretation that a small group of Mesopotamian colonists lived as a socially distinct enclave among the local inhabitants of Hacinebi. There is no evidence for either Uruk colonial domination or warfare between the colonists and the native inhabitants of Hacinebi. Instead, the presence of both Anatolian and Mesopotamian seal impressions at the site best fits a pattern of peaceful exchange between the two groups. The evidence for an essential parity in long-term social and economic relations between the Mesopotamian merchants and local inhabitants of Hacinebi suggests that the organization of prehistoric Mesopotamian colonies differed markedly from that of the better-known 16th-20th century European colonial systems in Africa, Asia, and the Americas. Author(s)Gil

Archaeological fuel remains as indicators of ancient west Asian agropastoral and land-use systems

“…1, Table 2). The Euphrates sites are, from south to north, Sweyhat (Zettler, 1997), Hacınebi (Stein et al, 1996), Kurban Höyük (Algaze et al, 1986), and Gritille (Miller, 2002;Redford, 1998). Two other sites, Gordion, Turkey (Marston, 2010;Miller, 2010) and Malyan, Iran (Miller, 1982(Miller, , 1990, are in relatively dry zones but in relatively close proximity (20 km) to wooded uplands.…”

Bulk stable carbon and deuterium isotope analyses of bitumen artifacts from Hacinebi Tepe, Turkey: reconstructing broad economic patterns of the Uruk expansion

“…3800-3700 BC) and during the Uruk expansion (Phase B2 ca. 3700-3300 BC) (Table 1), make it is an ideal community to look directly at the impact of Mesopotamians on local Anatolian economies (Stein, 1999a,b;Stein and Misir, 1994;Stein et al, 1996aStein et al, ,b, 1998). …”

“…The range of forms -reed impressed, bowl/container impressed, disk-shaped plugs-at the site suggests that it was used for different purposes. Some bitumen was probably brought to Hacinebi in blocks, and then melted down at the site for specific uses by the residents (Stein et al, 1996a) evidenced by bitumen residues on the broken surfaces of sherds and residues found in lip spouts of conical cups (Stein et al, 1996a). The different economic stages of bitumen artifacts from production to finished products are therefore represented at the site.…”

Archaeological and Geological Concepts on the Topic of Ancient Mining

“…Trade was no doubt a factor in the development of the urban site of Arslantepe near Malatya and where elements of Mesopotamian culture are evident, as well at Hac›nebi Tepe, Hassek Höyük and other sites situated along the Euphrates (Stein et al, 1996;Stein 2001). It has not been determined to what extent the large site of Arslantepe was involved in the metals trade, but it is likely that it was a part of the regional network that traded metals down the Euphrates to eager sites in southwest Anatolia, Syria and Mesopotamia.…”