Wall painting in Turkey

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Wall Painting in Turkey often reflects influences from the eastern and western styles and subject matters that date back to the Neolithic Age as the region has been a crossroads between Europe and the Middle East.

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Neolithic Age

Wall painting of a bull, deer and man from Catalhoyuk; 6th millennium BC Museum of Anatolian Civilizations003.jpg
Wall painting of a bull, deer and man from Çatalhöyük; 6th millennium BC

The Neolithic site Çatalhöyük has a number of wall paintings depicting animals and hunting scenes. Since this region was a source for obsidian blades, these images may reflect some aspects of daily life during the 7th-6th millenniums BC. Other wall paintings at this site depict birds consuming flesh from headless bodies. These scenes may reflect Near Eastern practices of the preparation of corpses for burial. The separate archaeological finds of heads and bodies buried under rooms may also indicate the performance of this ritual. Another wall painting found at Çatalhöyük, and now on display at the Anatolian Civilizations Museum in Ankara, may be the world's oldest map. It shows a series of rectangles that may depict houses, and a possible profile drawing of a local volcanic mountain. [1] Fragments of white plaster colored with red ochre at the later site called Can Hasan indicate that wall painting in Anatolia continued into the Chalcolithic Period. [2]

Bronze Age

The evidence for wall painting during the Bronze Age is less abundant. Tiny fragments of painted plaster have been found in the Late Bronze Age levels of Troy [3] and at the Hittite capitol of Hattusa (Boğazköy). [4] The Hittites were also in contact with civilizations in Syria that had wall paintings and probably exchanged ideas with them.

Iron Age

The Iron Age provides more evidence for the decoration of walls with paint. First, the 8th-7th century BC fortified sites of the Urartian kingdom in eastern Anatolia have some paintings that combine Neo-Assyrian and Anatolian stylistic elements. Paintings from the temple at Patnos (Anzavur/Kot Tepe) depict bulls striding and kneeling. [5] At Van-Toprakkale, traces of blue and red paint were discovered in a temple. [6] Evidence for painting was also discovered at Altıntepe and Haykaberd.

Archaic Period

In the middle of the 6th century BCE, the Achaemenid Persian Empire, led by Cyrus the Great, conquered most of the polities that existed at that time across western Anatolia, most notably the Lydian kingdom of Croesus. The consolidation of this area under a single external power from the east affected the indigenous cultures. A ruling Persian elite undoubtedly brought a knowledge of imperial iconography with them from home. These outside ideas combined with local ideas as well as Greek ideas brought from the west, to form a new style used by Anatolians in the decoration of their walls. Most of our artistic evidence from this period comes from burial chambers.

For half a century before the Persians invaded, the Lydians of west-central Anatolia had been burying their rulers in stone chamber tombs under monumental tumulus burial markers, a form borrowed in part from the Phrygians. Although the Lydian tumuli become smaller after the Persian invasion, they also become more numerous. Thus a local burial tradition was allowed to continue, but with changes based on outside influences. For example, stone klinai (death couches) imitated Greek wooden originals in shape and painted decoration. Two of the known tombs of Lydian Tumuli had painted walls. Unfortunately, looting and destruction of the tombs, as well as the subsequent dispersal of the paintings and objects on the art market, has significantly limited the scientific investigation of these tombs.

The first tomb, called Harta, or Abidintepe, is located in Manisa Province and has three separate profile views of human figures. It is believed that these three persons were walking one behind the other with many additional figures in a procession around the tomb chamber, possibly bearing gifts for the deceased. This type of procession is very similar to the one carved in relief on the Apadana at Persepolis. Further Persian influence is evident from the servant costume worn by one figure that reflects costumes seen at Darius I's palace at Susa. [7]

A second Lydian tumulus, called Aktepe and located in Uşak province, has two human figures painted on opposite walls of the tomb chamber. [8] They flank and face towards where the body would have lain. Their gestures include holding a branch towards the body with one hand and holding the other hand before their mouths, possibly as a sign of silent reverence. They appear to wear Greek-style clothing.

Moving to the southeast edge of Lydia, we find a wooden tomb chamber from the Tatarlı tumulus near Dinar in modern Afyon province. The panels of this tomb were painted and include a scene of battling soldiers that is reminiscent of Greek vase painting. [7]

Two tombs from this period with wall paintings have also been discovered in Lycia. The Karaburun tomb has a scene depicting a man reclining and holding aloft a drinking bowl. This may reflect elements of the Anatolian tradition of the funerary feast, well known from tumulus burials at Gordion. The other painted Lycian tomb is Kızılbel, which depicts Greek legends from the Homeric epics, as well as aspects of kingship similar to those seen in Assyrian imagery. [9]

One unique set of wall paintings from around 500BCE was found at Gordion, the previous capital city of the Phrygian kingdom. A small building with many painted plaster fragments was discovered on the citadel between two larger megara, and was dubbed "the painted house." The fragments include pieces of human figures in profile, and thus may have been part of a procession similar to that seen in the Harta tumulus. The exact purpose of the painted house is unclear, though a ritual or even funerary function cannot be ruled out. [10]

See also

Related Research Articles

Çatalhöyük Archaeological site in Turkey

Çatalhöyük was a very large Neolithic and Chalcolithic proto-city settlement in southern Anatolia, which existed from approximately 7100 BC to 5700 BC, and flourished around 7000 BC. In July 2012, it was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Midas Mythological Greek king able to turn what he touches to gold

Midas is the name of one of at least three members of the royal house of Phrygia.

Neolithic architecture

Neolithic architecture refers to structures encompassing housing and shelter from approximately 10,000 to 2,000 BC, the Neolithic period. In southwest Asia, Neolithic cultures appear soon after 10,000 BC, initially in the Levant and from there into the east and west. Early Neolithic structures and buildings can be found in southeast Anatolia, Syria, and Iraq by 8,000 BC with agriculture societies first appearing in southeast Europe by 6,500 BC, and central Europe by ca. 5,500 BC (of which the earliest cultural complexes include the Starčevo-Koros, Linearbandkeramic, and Vinča.

Tumulus Mound of earth and stones raised over graves

A tumulus is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds or kurgans, and may be found throughout much of the world. A cairn, which is a mound of stones built for various purposes, may also originally have been a tumulus.

Gallery grave Form of megalithic tomb

A gallery grave is a form of megalithic tomb built primarily during the Neolithic Age in Europe in which the main gallery of the tomb is entered without first passing through an antechamber or hallway. There are at least four major types of gallery grave, and they may be covered with an earthen mound or rock mound.

Bucranium

Bucranium was a form of carved decoration commonly used in Classical architecture. The name is generally considered to originate with the practice of displaying garlanded, sacrificial oxen, whose heads were displayed on the walls of temples, a practice dating back to the sophisticated Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük in eastern Anatolia, where cattle skulls were overlaid with white plaster.

Museum of Anatolian Civilizations Museum in Ankara, Turkey

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Tomb of the Roaring Lions

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Alaca Höyük Ancient Hittite site in northern Turkey

Alacahöyük or Alaca Höyük is the site of a Neolithic and Hittite settlement and is an important archaeological site. It is situated in Alaca, Çorum Province, Turkey, northeast of Boğazkale, where the ancient capital city Hattusa of the Hittite Empire was situated. Its Hittite name is unknown: connections with Arinna, Tawiniya, and Zippalanda have all been suggested.

Aşıklı Höyük Neolithic archaeological site near Aksaray, Turkey

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Etruscan art

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Tumulus of Bougon Tumulus in Bougon, France

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Gordion Capital city of ancient Phrygia

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Gözlükule Tumulus in Turkey

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Prehistory of Anatolia Prehistorical period in Western Asia

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Elizabeth Simpson (archaeologist) Archaeologist, art historian, illustrator

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Gökçeler relief

The Gökçeler relief is an Achaemenid-era tomb relief made in the Anatolian-Persian style. It was found in 2004 in the village of Gökçeler in Manisa Province of present-day Turkey. The area of discovery corresponds to the northern part of the historic region of Lydia, at a time when it was a satrapy (province) of the Achaemenid Persian Empire. The relief is made out of limestone and measures 1.79m × 0.55m × 0.25m. The relief is a "distinctive product of the artistic synthesis classified as Graeco-Persian or Anatolian-Persian". It was created between the late 6th century and early 5th century BC. It may be used as "yet further evidence for the presence of Persians in the region".

References

  1. ↑ Mellaart, James (1967). Çatal Hüyük: A Neolithic Town in Anatolia. Thames & Hudson. ISBN   0-07-041462-9.
  2. ↑ French, David (1998). Canhasan Sites I. British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara. ISBN   1-898249-09-1.
  3. ↑ Blegen, Carl (1958). Troy 4: Settlements VIIa, VIIb and VIII. Princeton University Press. p. 76.
  4. ↑ Bittel, Kurt; Naumann, Rudolf (1957). Boğazköy. 3, Funde aus den Grabungen 1952 - 1955. Berlin: Mann. p. 17.
  5. ↑ Mellink, Machteld (April 1963). "Archaeology in Asia Minor". American Journal of Archaeology. 67 (2): 183.
  6. ↑ Mellink, Machteld (January 1962). "Archaeology in Asia Minor". American Journal of Archaeology. 66 (1): 80.
  7. 1 2 Özgen, İlknur; Öztürk, Jean (1996). The Lydian treasure: Heritage Recovered. Republic of Turkey, Ministry of Culture, General Directorate of Monuments and Museums.
  8. ↑ "The Wall Paintings of Aktepe" . Retrieved 1 March 2015.
  9. ↑ Mellink, Machteld (1998). Kızılbel: An Archaic Painted Tomb Chamber in Northern Lycia. University Museum, University of Pennsylvania.
  10. ↑ Mellink, Machteld (1980). "Archaic Wall Paintings from Gordion". In Keith DeVries (ed.). From Athens to Gordion: The Papers of a Memorial Symposium for Rodney S. Young. University Museum, University of Pennsylvania. pp. 91–98.
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