Giulio Palumbi and Isabella Caneva (eds.) – The Chalcolithic at Mersin-Yumuktepe. Level XVI Reconsidered
Giulio Palumbi and Isabella Caneva (eds.) 2019 – The Chalcolithic at Mersin-Yumuktepe. Level XVI Reconsidered. Istanbul: Ege Yayınları. 192p.
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1At a time when excavations are re-starting at the most important sites in southern Mesopotamia, and when one might have expected a series of publications reassessing southern Iraq fieldwork data from many decades ago, it is a welcome surprise to see this attitude emerging for a completely different place. This final publication of Level XVI at Mersin-Yumuktepe is a little gem: it is concise, handy, simple in its organisation and packed with data, discoveries, and food for thought. The book integrates the results of the five field campaigns of the British expedition under the direction of John Garstang at the turn of the Second World War (1936-1939 and 1946-1947), with those obtained by Isabella Caneva and her team since 1993, and especially between 2002 and 2005 on behalf of Salento University. Within the long and crucial prehistoric sequence established by Garstang, the main focus of the publication is on Level XVI (and the subsequent XV), which—with its “Citadel”—has quickly become a reference in the archaeology of Western Asia and the Levant. In the deference that specialists in late prehistory have always shown towards the significance of Level XVI at Mersin-Yumuktepe (and its publication by Garstang in 1953), there has never been anything excessive. Beyond Garstang’s overly militaristic interpretation, the so-called “Citadel” (a massive stone-based mudbrick wall delimiting the top of the hill), with its series of architectural units arranged according to a radial layout, expresses an extremely high degree of organizational complexity and social integration. Moreover, the painted pottery (strongly indebted to Mesopotamian traditions), the plan of a large building in the southern sector of the fortified settlement (recalling a tripartite layout), and several copper artefacts (axes, pins, ores and slags) showed Level XVI to be an interweaving of local, Levantine and Mesopotamian experiences. In other words, Mersin-Yumuktepe immediately appeared as a successful meeting and melting point between the Mesopotamian Ubaid cultural entity and both Anatolian and Levantine traditions. The legacy of such a monumental achievement in West Asian archaeology is accepted and claimed without complexes by this volume presenting a comprehensive reassessment of ancient fieldwork data, but also a substantial enlargement of the excavated area of prehistoric levels. The aim is certainly not to compare recent and ancient results in order to bring out the allegedly more scientific nature of the latest analyses. Likewise, the perspective is never to mythologise the Garstang excavations so as to fit into a framework of continuity enhancing the fieldwork campaigns of recent years. Rather, the attitude is that of a patient rearrangement of complementary pieces, combining a careful critical revision of already available data with a simple, clear, detailed and wide-ranging recourse to the most recent archaeological and analytical practices.
2The book is structured in 3 sections and 12 chapters. The first section (The Settlement) focuses on the site (chapter 1, with the topographic survey), the village layout and architecture of Level XVI (chapter 2), and the radiocarbon dating of the structures (chapter 3). Section II (The Craft Production) pays a lot of attention to the typological, technological and archaeometric study of ceramic material (chapters 4 and 5) without marginalising other artefacts, in particular lithic industries (chapter 6), spinning and weaving tools (chapter 7), and miscellaneous objects (chapter 8). The first two chapters of this part are complementary. The ceramic study by Giulio Palumbi constitutes the longest contribution and the main node of the interpolation between old and recent data, while the archaeometric analyses by Pamela Fragnoli offer an example of chiselled work by one of the best specialists in this field. But the quality of these two contributions lies above all in their comprehensiveness. The various “wares” and ceramic traditions are not only described (which is usual) and quantified (which is less common in prehistoric pottery studies from Western Asia). Indeed, according to a (unfortunately very) rare procedure, ceramics are also examined according to their spatial distribution in the different contexts, with counting tables (see especially p. 60-61) that make functional and cultural interpretations verifiable and clear. Furthermore, the reading of these pages is not at all tiring, being rather alleviated by beautiful colour images that are very representative of the ceramic categories examined. The last section of the book (Bioarchaeology) discusses faunal (chapter 9), palaeobotanical (chapter 10) and burial remains (chapter 11) from Level XVI, before presenting final considerations by combining all the excavation data. Although Section II, both in terms of its breadth and its wide-ranging cultural perspective, is, in fact, the centre of the publication, the other parts are not a mere corolla. On the contrary, some reasonably short chapters, such as the first one on the topographic survey (by E. Brunacci), or chapter ten (by B. Ulaş) on barley cultivation as a driver for the complexification of social relationships, bring new, dense, and extremely interesting information. Moreover, the analytical grid that makes chapter 4 outstanding, with its focus on spatial distribution and quantification of ceramic remains, is also adopted by other contributions, whether for weights and loom spindles (p. 142), or metal artefacts (p. 184). Overall, this provides a remarkable unity to the analytical approach and presentation of the results, and facilitates reading.
3In the end, the integration of the Garstang excavations and the new campaigns produced some considerable acquisitions. The discontinuity between the Early Chalcolithic phase (with a strong Halaf presence and influence) and Level XVI (with the impact of the Ubaid cultural entity) is very clear, perhaps suggesting a hiatus in the sequence of occupation. The Early Chalcolithic settlement extended for about 1 ha over the mound of Mersin, while Level XVI was not limited to the “Citadel” and included large extramural residential districts. The latter respect a well-ordered and integrated settlement plan, but are also characterized by some specific features, maybe due to some chronological mismatch between quarters, or perhaps depending on specific functions of the various districts.
4It is very difficult to find arguments to criticise any aspect of this publication. One may, perhaps, regret that, in the encounter taking place in Level XVI between Mesopotamian Ubaid and Levantine traditions, the Levant is sometimes overshadowed. This is actually understandable, since Level XVI offers an insight into the ability of Ubaid 4 to “infiltrate” Cilicia and the northernmost fringes of the Levant. Rather than a proper Ubaid expansion, it is—as this publication shows very well—an ongoing extension of relations between Ubaid communities and other distant societies. It is a process that does not stop at all with the end of the Ubaid (or rather, using the terminology that this book correctly adopts, of the Middle Chalcolithic). In fact, the appearance of scraped bowls, a local version of North Mesopotamian Coba bowls, in Level XVI and their generalisation in Level XV occurs at exactly the same pace observed in Northern Mesopotamia between the end of Late Ubaid (Ubaid 4) and LC1. This densification of local relationships with Ubaid and post-Ubaid communities constitutes the core cultural meaning of the evolution witnessed in Levels XVI and XV. However, the same rhythm can be observed in the Levant where painted pottery of Mesopotamian tradition disappears at the end of the Middle Chalcolithic (at Arjoune, at Tell Ard Tlaili), while other productions (such as Black/Brown Burnished Ware) and shapes (such as jars with shrinking necks) evolve in the transition between Néolithique Récent and Énéolithique Ancien at Byblos, or between phases G and E at Teleilath Ghassul in the same way observed in Levels XVI-XV at Mersin.
5But rather than a criticism, this is yet another subtle quality of this publication, which stimulates a great deal of curiosity and reflections on the relations between the Levant and Northern Mesopotamia. In this sense, it is one of the very few works showing how, in late prehistory, between Levantine, Anatolian and Mesopotamian worlds, there were not mere “contacts” (namely sporadic, occasional, and discontinuous interactions), but rather structural relationships. For this also, we must thank the authors.
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Johnny Samuele Baldi, « Giulio Palumbi and Isabella Caneva (eds.) – The Chalcolithic at Mersin-Yumuktepe. Level XVI Reconsidered », Paléorient, 47-2 | 2022, 111-112.
Référence électronique
Johnny Samuele Baldi, « Giulio Palumbi and Isabella Caneva (eds.) – The Chalcolithic at Mersin-Yumuktepe. Level XVI Reconsidered », Paléorient [En ligne], 47-2 | 2022, mis en ligne le 02 mars 2022, consulté le 21 avril 2026. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/paleorient/1352 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/paleorient.1352
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