Middle Bronze Age Pottery Kilns at Şaraga Höyük

Abstract

As a result of archeological research conducted on prehistoric and protohistoric periods in Anatolia a limited number of ceramic kilns were found. Therefore, two kilns, which have been found during the 2003 excavation season in Saraga Hoyuk and which belong to MBA II, are of great importance because they provide information regarding the ceramic production technology in the 2nd millennium B.C. One of these kilns is of big (Kiln 1) and the other is of small (Kiln 2) size. The both kilns show the similar work systems but both of them show same different features as the typologically. The kilns consist two chambers, in which the combustion and firing chambers. The kilns have heat transmission duct for the transfering of heat between combustion and firing chambers. Kiln 1 was used for firing of big size vessels and Kiln 2 for small size vessels. A few Middle Bronze Age pottery kiln were found in Southeast Anatolia and culturally related neighboring regions. Although, when we look Bronze and before age pottery kilns, we can say no radical shift has been empirically observed in the pottery firing techniques in the region. Kilns of Saraga Hoyuk proved that grooved rim ceramic group found along the Euphrates Valley has been produced locally at Saraga Hoyuk. The Middle Bronze Age level of Şaraga Höyük yielded material evidence for all stages of ceramic production at the site, including rotary stone, lumps of unbaked clay, pottery kilns of small and large sizes, scatters of ceramic wasters concentrated around the kilns, as well as intact ceramic vessels found in situ in the kilns.