ASIA MINOR
[See the diagrams of pottery, Illustration V: ASIA MINOR POTTERY]
1. Introductory.
Travellers are more likely to make new discoveries elsewhere than on
the actual sites of ancient towns and villages. In many cases the
site is found to be entirely bare of all remains except sometimes
small fragments of pottery. In general, inscribed and other stones
have been carried away to serve as building material for mosques,
houses, fountains, bridges, &c., or as headstones for graves in
cemeteries or for other utilitarian purposes. It is, therefore, in
and near modern villages and towns that inscriptions are chiefly to
be found, as well as smaller antiquities, such as clay tablets, pots
or fragments of them, terra-cotta figures, coins, and so forth. The
smaller articles may sometimes be found in the bazaars, but they are
usually in the hands of individuals.
It should not be assumed that inscriptions which are exposed to
public view have all been copied; moreover, new stones are constantly
being turned up, especially where building is going on and where
there are old sites or cemeteries close at hand. Great numbers of
inscribed stones are hidden away in private dwellings, where they are
difficult of discovery and of access. Travellers should take
advantage of opportunities that may offer of examining antiquities in
private houses, and of visiting sites or monuments about which
information may be received, particularly if they are a little off
the beaten track. Reward will often come in the shape of valuable
discoveries, of which many remain to be made. Cilicia in particular
has been imperfectly explored, and interesting monuments and
inscriptions, particularly Hittite, may be found there.
2. Pottery Fabrics.
It is not yet possible to describe fully or accurately the succession
of styles, or even to assign all known fabrics to their proper
periods. For this reason, even the most fragmentary specimens are of
interest, provided only that:
(1) the outer surface is fairly well preserved,
(2) the place of discovery is known.
All fragments showing a rim or spout, handles or part of a base,
should be preserved until they can be compared with a more perfect
specimen.
The following fabrics, however, are widely distributed, and usually
seem to have flourished in the order in which they are here
described:
A.
Hand-made wares, rough within, but smooth or burnished surface, self-
coloured (drab or brown), or intentionally coloured black (by charred
matter in the clay, or by a smoky fire), or red (by a clear fire,
sometimes aided by a wash or 'slip' of more ferruginous clay).
Sometimes a black ware is 'overfired' to an ashy grey.
In such wares ornament is rare, and consists mainly of (a) incised
dots, dashes, or lines, in simple rectilinear patterns (chevrons,
zigzags, lozenges), often enhanced by a white chalky filling (V, Figs 5-
8); (b) ridges or bosses modelled in the clay surface, or adhering to
it. The forms are plump and globular, often round-bottomed or
standing on short feet. Rims are absent or ill-developed; necks
actually prolonged into trough-spouts or long beaks; handles are very
simple and short. Vases are sometimes modelled like animals, or have
human faces or breasts (V, Figs. 1-4).
These wares begin in the Stone Age, and seem to predominate in the
early and middle Bronze Age. Locally they may have lasted even later,
but the use of the potter's wheel spread rapidly in the early Bronze
Age.
B.
Hand-made wares of light-coloured clay, with painted decoration,
usually in black or reddish-brown. The paint is generally without
glaze, but sometimes is decayed and easily washes off.
The forms and ornaments resemble those of class A, but are less rude
and more varied. Distinct rims and standing-bases appear, and spouts
give place to a pinched lip.
C.
Hand-made wares of black or other dark clay, with painted decoration
in white or ochre. These fabrics are rather rare, and the paint is
easily washed off. The forms follow those of class B.
Classes B and C seem to begin early in the Bronze Age, and are
gradually replaced by the corresponding wheel-made fabrics of class
D.
D.
Wheel-made pottery begins in the Bronze Age, and is distinguished by
its symmetrical forms, and by the texture of the inner surface,
especially about the rim and base, where the potter's fingers have
grazed the whirling clay. Self-coloured wares still occur, and are
sometimes elegant ('bucchero' ware); but the improved furnaces now
permit general use of light-coloured clays, suited to painted
decoration. Glazed paint is still rare, and may be taken as probable
token of date not earlier than the end of the Bronze Age. The glaze-
painted wares of the Greek island-world occasionally wandered to the
mainland a little earlier than this, but not far from the coast. On
wheel-made pottery the ornament is either (a) applied while the pot
is on the wheel, and consequently limited to lines and bands
following the plane of rotation, or (b) added afterwards, free-hand,
usually between such bands, and especially on the neck and shoulder.
Simple rectilinear schemes are commonest (panels, lozenges, and
triangles, enriched with lattice and chequers) (V, Figs. 9, 10, 11, 12);
with these in the Early Iron Age appear little targets of concentric
circles drawn mechanically with compasses (V, Figs. 13-15); also, by
degrees, birds (V, Fig. 16), animals, and simple plant designs
(rosettes, lotus, palmette), and occasionally human figures. But as a
rule, the mainland pottery is very simply decorated, and insular
imports are rare, except within the area within Greek colonization.
In the Later Iron Age or Historic Period, from the seventh century
onward, the pot-fabrics of Asia Minor rapidly assimilate two main
classes of foreign fashions, Greek and Oriental.
E.
The Oriental types (mainly from Syria) are all plump and heavy
looking, usually in coarse buff or cream-coloured ware, almost
without paint. The Greek forms are more graceful, varied, and
specialized; light-coloured clays predominate, with simple bands of
black ill-glazed paint, absorbed by the inferior clays.
After Alexander's time the Greek and the Oriental forms became
confused; the general level of style and execution falls, painted
decoration almost disappears, and the outer surface is often ribbed
by uneven pressure of the fingers on the whirling clay. This fashion
is a sign of late Hellenistic or Graeco-Roman date.
F.
Meanwhile, the black-glazed Greek (mainly Athenian) wares spread
widely for table use, and were imitated locally from the fourth
century onwards. The clay is pale or reddish (genuine Greek fabrics
are usually quite red within) and the glaze thick, black, and of a
brilliant glassy smoothness. Imitations are of all degrees of
inferiority.
G.
Other late fabrics have smooth ill-glazed surfaces, of various red,
brown, or chocolate tints, over hard-baked dull-fractured paste not
unlike modern earthenware, but usually dark-coloured. These wares
begin in the Hellenistic period, and go on into the Roman and early
Byzantine Ages. They have sometimes a little ornament in a hard white
or cream 'slip' which stands up above the surface of the vase. These
fabrics are all for table use, or for tomb-furniture, and are usually
of small size.
H.
Pottery with vitreous glaze like modern earthenware only appears on
Byzantine and Turkish sites. There a few late Greek and Roman fabrics
of glazed ware, mostly of dark brown and olive-green tints; but they
are rare, and usually found in tombs. The earlier glazes are applied
directly to the clay; later a white or coloured slip is applied
first, and a clear siliceous glaze over this.
3. Inscriptions and Monuments.
A. Hittite Civilization. (See figures, Illustration VI: Hittite
Inscriptions, etc.)
(1) From 2000 B.C. onwards baked clay tablets with cuneiform (or
wedge-shaped) writing (Illustration VI, Fig. 1) to be found anywhere
in Eastern Asia Minor, within the Halys bend and south of it, in
Southern Cappadocia, in Cilicia, and in North Syria up to the
Euphrates.
(2) 1000-700 B.C. probably: inscriptions generally cut on stone, dark
and hard (black basalt), or on the living rock, in hieroglyphic
writing. The hieroglyphs are either cut in relief (VI, Fig. 4) or
incised (VI, Fig. 2). Found in the same region and sporadically west
of the Halys.
(3) From 1400 B.C. and 900 B.C. onwards monuments and sculpture.
Human figures are short and thick, generally wearing boots with toes
turned up (VI, Fig. 3.) Found in the same regions as the inscriptions
and also west of the Halys to the sea.
B. Lydian inscriptions.
From about 500 B.C. Letters mostly like Greek capitals (sometimes
reversed); (Illustration IV, at bottom).
C. Lycian inscriptions and monuments.
From about 500 B.C. inscriptions, sometimes with a Greek translation.
(IV, at bottom.)
Monuments, mostly with inscriptions, are generally tombs in stone,
built to imitate wood, with the ends of beams projecting or showing.
D. Greek antiquities.
(1) Early period to 323 B.C. the great Greek colonies on the seaboard
and in the coast valleys really formed an outlying part of Greece,
and for them the section on Greece should be consulted.
(2) Periods of Seleucid and Pergamene rule, 323-130 B.C.
Inscriptions of these periods to be found mostly in the coastal
region, rarely on the plateau. Chiefly royal ordinances, thank
offerings, municipal honorary inscriptions, decrees, covenants, and
the like.
(3) Graeco-Roman period, 130 B.C.-A.D. 400.
Language of inscriptions remains normally Greek, though the lettering
gradually assumes a different character from century to century,
steadily deteriorating. The Phrygian language, written in Greek
letters, survives for several centuries in epitaphs, part of the
inscription often being in Greek.
Latin inscriptions are not common except in Roman colonies during the
earlier centuries of their existence. Elsewhere they are chiefly
official documents of various kinds (e.g. imperial ordinances,
milestones usually of columnar shape with the Emperor's titles,
boundary stones, &c.), or expressions of homage to Emperors, honorary
inscriptions to governors and other officials, dedications, epitaphs,
&c. Sometimes a Greek version is added.
Latin inscriptions of the Republican period (recording decrees of the
Senate) are extremely rare.
[ILLUSTRATION VI: HITTITE INSCRIPTIONS, ETC.]