Journal

Another Season of Material Analyses…

Gygaia Projects

With this year’s excavations behind us, we welcomed a team of researchers and graduate students to work on detailed analyses of materials. The largest effort, as measured in person hours, was dedicated to ceramics, as is typical of a Bronze Age excavation in Anatolia like Kaymakçı. Significant progress was made also with analyses of small tools in flaked stone and non-flaked stone, ground stone implements, and assorted small finds including terracotta spindle whorls, small craft tools in copper alloys like awls and chisels, and other small metal finds.

Magda Pieniążek photographs copper alloy pins and other small craft tools.

A second team picture of the year, including the “second phase” group of material analysts (from left to right: Magda Pieniążek, Kristina Doležalová, Ceren Çilingir, Ján Bobik, Atilla Vatansever, Peter Pavúk, Anna Peterková, Tunç Kaner, Nami Shin, and Chris Roosevelt).

Look forward to more posts from Gygaia Projects soon!

A Birdless Watching Tower

Gygaia Projects

The shoreline of the beautiful and ecologically important Lake Marmara has continued to recede since we last wrote about it in late June. Recriminations range from climate change, to dam and drinking-water reservoir policies, to unwise overuse for irrigation. To see the situation up close, a small contingent recently visited the bird watching tower constructed in summer and fall 2020.

The solidly built tower is flanked by well-designed signage that provides information about the lake and wetlands as well as important cautions for when to ascend the six flights of stairs and when not… when lightening is near, for example!

Signs at ground level define the protected zone of the wetland (the Marmara Gölü Sulak Alanı Koruma Alanı) and describe what types of activities are allowed and prohibited within it. One panel displays 30 examples of the more than 100 species of birds that are said to traditionally inhabit the area. Many of these are resident only seasonally during migration periods, yet they contribute to the famously rich biodiversity associated with wetland environments.

Views from the top level of the tower – to north (above left) and to east (above right) – clearly show the retreat of lake shore and the nearly birdless environment left behind. These lands have been quickly reclaimed by regional agriculturalists.

A walk out into the desiccated lakebed shows – with view again to north (above left) and to east (above right) – a mud-cracked texture with dark brown muddy depths surfaced with a dried matt of fine lake weed.

Despite the loss of avian populations, tiny frogs and new wetland vegetation reclaim newly available territory, rare remaining representatives of wetland biodiversity.

Look forward to more posts from Gygaia Projects soon!

A New Publication on Earthen Materials from Kaymakçı

Gygaia Projects

We are pleased to announce a new publication on earthen materials from Kaymakçı appearing in the latest issue of Studia Hercynia. See below for details!

Made from Mud: Functional Categorization and Analyses of Bronze Age Earthen Materials from Western Turkey

Jana Mokrišová, Christopher H. Roosevelt, Christina Luke, and Caitilin R. O’Grady

Abstract: This contribution presents the results of a pilot study of earthen materials excavated at the Middle to Late Bronze Age site of Kaymakçı, located in western Anatolia. It argues that systematic collection and analysis of fragmentary and difficult‐to‐identify earthen materials is challenging, yet crucial. These materials inform on activities of which traces are preserved in the archaeological record but which have been largely under‐researched. Flourishing studies on earthen findings foreground architectural materials, such as mudbrick, and well‐preserved features and objects. However, earthen objects and architectural features were utilized more widely than in building architecture and only a small portion of excavated sites has good preservation. We, therefore, present the different categories of earthen materials discovered at Kaymakçı, specifically architecture, installations, and portable items. Our work demonstrates that by incorporating new knowledge of archaeological remains at the site and re‐studying the earthen assemblage it is possible to gain a better understanding of the morphological, functional, and social aspects of this dataset.

Look forward to more posts from Gygaia Projects soon!