Table 1. Percentages of post-Roman ceramic finds from the surveyed area of Akyamac by sherd count and sherd weight.
The fourth post-Roman ceramics study season commenced on June 21 and was completed on July 9, 2009. The aim of this season was the study of pottery sherds from (a) sites identified during the course of previous surface survey fieldwork in the suburban territory of the ancient city-site of Sagalassos (the area of Akyamac), and (b) the study of post-Roman ceramic finds from excavations at the site of Sagalassos (the so-called “Fortified Gate”).
This season’s detailed study of surface ceramics by A. Vionis focused in the area of Akyamac (east of the village of AÄŸlasun). This is an area with evidence for human activity at 21 find-spots, where the early and middle Ottoman periods (ca. 15th-16th and 17th-18th centuries A.D.) are the most well-represented in the surface ceramic assemblages, with a total of approximately 40% of finds (by sherd count and sherd weight) dated to that period (Table 1).
The middle Byzantine period (11th/12th-mid 13th c. A.D.) is also represented in the survey area, with 15% of the total ceramic finds (Table 1), as is the case with other areas in the territory of Sagalassos, testifying to habitation continuity after the end of the so-called “Dark Ages” (7th-9th c. A.D.) and contemporary to the middle Byzantine occupation on Alexander’s Hill. It seems that the succeeding Seljuk period (mid 13th-mid 15th c. A.D.) is probably for the first time evidenced in the territory, as is attested by pottery fragments most possibly dated to that period; 26% of surface finds can be attributed a date between the 13th and 15th centuries (Table 1).
Table 2. Percentages of different pottery types of the Ottoman period by sherd count and sherd weight.
It should be noted that the bulk of the post-Roman ceramic finds from Akyamac belong to common-ware vessels (e.g. cooking pots, storage and transport vessels), in most cases non-diagnostic in nature since there are no ceramic assemblages of those periods from excavated contexts in the region to compare our ceramic finds with. The problem of identifying and dating more accurately fragments of a coarse nature is partly solved in this case by the so-called “horizontal chronology.” According to this method, it is assumed that common-wares found together with diagnostic glazed tableware vessels in single-period sites, should be dated roughly to the same period; most of the find-spots from Akyamac comprise of potsherds in similar fabrics and ceramic forms, that should represent a single period.
It is worth noting that the presence of glazed open table vessels of the Ottoman period is surprisingly very limited. The bulk of ceramics of the 15th-18th centuries belong to closed vessels such as cooking pots, storage and transport vessels, as well as unglazed jugs probably associated with food processing and serving rather than beverage consumption (Table 2).
Figure 1. Representation of a mid-late 19th-century dinner table-setting at the Suna and Inan Kirac Kaleici Museum, Antalya.
This “absence” of open tableware shapes of the Ottoman era in Akyamac is indeed problematic, since decorated fragments of pottery would be really hard to miss by walkers in the field. There may be other explanations to this absence of tableware shapes, with possibly metal vessels playing an important role in household serving and consumption of the period. It cannot yet be determined whether 18th-19th-century copper bowls and trays for food consumption (Figure 1) displayed in local museums of the region (e.g. Isparta, Antalya) would have been expensive items for Ottoman peasant households in Akyamac to acquire in other to fulfill their daily household needs. The question of copper or even wooden table vessels having replaced glazed table-wares in the Ottoman Anatolian countryside remains open, but still a rather logical explanation to the near absence of ceramic table forms.
Figure 2. Ottoman pottery fragments from the survey area: a. glazed bowls, b. glazed jugs, c. cooking pot and unglazed jugs, d. internally-glazed storage jars, e. transport vessels and storage jars.
It seems that nearly all common-ware vessels of the Ottoman period in Akyamac are made from local clay, very possibly from Canakli. It is a coarse reddish-brown fabric, slightly micaceous, with limestone inclusions and shiny black specks. The commonest cooking-pot-shape has a flat base, strap handle, relatively high neck and simple rounded rim. Closed vessels of bigger dimensions, such as transport and storage jars have thick walls and thick flat bases, while their body is sometimes decorated with abstract incised straight and wavy lines. It is worth noting that in some cases storage vessels have plain glazed interiors (possibly intended for food storage such as olives, cheese, pastes and yogurt). Jugs have most often thin walls and their exterior surface is either simply smoothened or applied with an off-white slip (Figure 2).
The commonest glazed table-ware shape is a rather large and deep bowl with a relatively large and thick ring-base, plain rim; their interior surface is applied with a pinkish or off-white slip and pale or dark green glaze (Figure 2). The fabric of these glazed vessels is usually fine, with a few limestone inclusions but their origin is unknown, although it is very possible that a production place in the province or most possibly Antalya must have been engaged in glazed pottery production for local distribution.
