Digging Pits and Making Places at Uğurlu During the Sixth Millennium Bc

Abstract

Summary The site of Uğurlu on the island of Gökçeada (Imbros) is the earliest known Neolithic settlement within the Aegean Islands (c.6800–4500 cal. BC). In total, 37 pits, associated with a rich variety of artefacts as well as human and animal bones were excavated in the Late Neolithic and Early Chalcolithic levels of the site (c.5900–4500 BC). The pits belonging to the early sixth millennium BC levels of Uğurlu were small and located within the houses that seem to have gone through multiple episodes of house destruction and renovation rituals. During the late sixth millennium BC, this area became the focus of extensive pit‐digging activity, when large pits involving rich variety of artefacts were set within the courtyard of a special building (Building 4). Among the pits, a collective human burial pit (P188) incorporating the remains of 11 individuals and another pit (P52) involving a partial human skeleton were also found. From a comparative point of view, the construction techniques of these pits, their spatio‐temporal relations as well as their associated archaeological artefacts resemble the Anatolian and Near Eastern Neolithic practices of house destruction and renovation cycles, which are activities related to the ancestor cults of the region. We argue that all of these practices reflect public events during which social relations were negotiated through the agency of place. The differences observed during the sixth millennium BC at Uğurlu reflect the changing concepts of place and society in the immediate aftermath of the Neolithic Process, when interactions with the Balkans as well as the Aegean intensified in this region.

A Possible Case of ‘Accompanying Dead’ in the Second Half of the 6th Millennium cal BC at Uğurlu/Gökçeada, Turkey

“…Among the contents of these pits are fragments of pottery and animal bones, clay and marble figurines, bone and flint tools, fragments of shell ornaments (bracelets and rings, etc. ), and stone axes (Karamurat et al 2021). Three of these pits contained a small number of disarticulated human remains (seven pieces of human bone in pit 25, and a few others in pits 29 and 104).…”

“…In addition to human bodies, the pit contained a large amount of archaeological material, including two large broken grinding stones, a great number of pottery sherds, three pieces of red ochre, a small number of beads, and a worked bone (for details see Karamurat et al 2021). Partially articulated leg bones and the pelvis bones of two calves were also among these finds, as well as many fragments of animal bones.…”

“…The pieces were matched in the lab therefore the total number of the skeletons within this pit is 11 rather than 12, as was indicated in the previous publication (Boz, Erdogu 2019). 2 Pit 187 was directly on top of pit 188 (F88) and has been interpreted as a different pit (Karamurat et al 2021). However, further excavation revealed that human bones were extended into the assumed border of pit 187, indicating that this pit appears to be the upper part of pit 188.…”

Hasan Can Gemici and Çiğdem Atakuman. The World of Figurines in the Neolithic and Chalcolithic Aegean: the case of Uğurlu Höyük on Gökçeada (Imbros) (Oxford: BAR Publishing, BAR no. S3021, 2021, 188 pp., 12 tables, 107 b/w and colour illustr., pbk, ISBN 9781407357751)

“…It should be stressed that reference to context is by no means constrained to this section and the authors do incorporate relevant information throughout the volume. Overall, there is an understandable focus on a particular area that is characterized by intensive pit-digging, where most of the figurines were found (see also the more detailed exposition of the excavation of the area in Karamurat et al, 2021). This was an area that was clearly used to dig several pits, line them with plaster, use them for a yet undetermined purpose and for an equally undetermined period of time, and then fill them up.…”