Finds 856
Main Information
| Finds ID | 856 |
| Site |
Cayönü |
| Area |
ID 363 undefined |
| Research event | excavation: research The Cayönü Excavations 1964 - 1991 |
| Finds type | small finds |
| Small finds category | jewellery |
| Small finds type |
Bead Earring Other Pendant Ring |
| Botany species | |
| Animal remains species | |
| Animal remains completeness | None |
| Animal remains part | |
| Lithics technology | |
| Lithics industry | |
| Lithics cores and preparation | |
| Lithics retouched tools | |
| Lithics unretouched tools | |
| Lithics raw material | |
| Obsidian | None |
| Obsidian amount | None |
| Pottery form | |
| Pottery detail | |
| Pottery decoration | |
| Pottery type | None |
| Amount | |
| Material |
bone clay copper limestone obsidian quartz serpentine shell stone tooth |
| Confidence | 5 |
| Comment | Twisted thin rings are thought to have been used as earrings, finger rings, or nose rings. Typical for the First Evolutionary Stage, especially the Round Building Subphase, are beads made from freshwater gastropods and from the tusks of wild boar. Made from soft stones found in teh vicinity, simple round beads or pear-shaped pendants with a single or double hole were also common. Over time, the sontes were given a variety of forms such as oval, rhomboid, flat rectangle, trapezoid, and cylinder, and the production of spacer beads with two parallel holes perforated with flint drills developed. Spacer beads with double holes were folowed by multi-holed beads and those with holes connected inside. Different kinds of stones, mainly soft or medium-soft stones, as well as hard stones like serpentine, quartz, and obsidian were used. All of the beads are plain and had been highly polished by soft materials such as bone and leather. Even the smallest beads were perforated from either end. Beads were mostly geometric; figural beas were quite rare. Oval and rhomboid beads and spacer beads with double holes were new shapes that appeared in stone towards the end of the First Evolutionary Stage, contiued to be popular throughout the Third Evolutionary Stage, but lost popularity in the first half of the Fourth Evolutionary Stage. Spacer beads, with single, double, or multiple holes, and cylindrical, barrel-shaped, oval, or rhomboid beads are typical of the Second Evolutionary Stage. Multiple-pierced spacer beads, amog the typical beads especially of the Channeled Building Subphase, were totally out-of-fashion by the beginning of the Third Evolutionary Stage. In the Fourth Evolutionary Stage one comes across only simple round beads and pendants. Strands of simple round beads made from various colored stones were recovered as burial gifts in the early (c1) cell buildings. There are only two fragments of the butterfly beads (Abu Hureyra type, winged beads). Bone ornaments are few. Bone beads from long bones of small mammals were common towards the end of the Second Evolutionary Stage but, in time, long and flat bones were also utilized in the making of beads and pendants. Plain small beads (?) were the earliest forms; large ones with deep grooves at both ends were seen in the later phases. Bone belt hooks and pins might have been used both as personal ornaments and for holding clothing together. Even though bone belt hooks occur rather randomly during the Fourth Evolutionary Stage, they are actually are among the elements of the material assemblage of the first two stages. They were used also in the Pottery Neolithic period. Pendants from boar tusk and the teeth of other animals are seen in all phases, but in the Fourth Evolutionary Stage they are not common. Freshwater bivalves (Unio) were preferred to gastropods for ornaments in the Second and Third Evolutionary Stages. They were also shaped into buttons and probably used for inlays. Sea shells of Mediterranean origin were first used towards the end of the First Evolutionary Stage, becoming more common (especially the bivalves) in the Cell Building Subphase. In the later phases, such as the Large Room Building Subphase, their numbers decrease as do those of stone beads. Shells were turned into pendants mainly by piercing two holes side by side near their hinge. Malachite, worked as a stone, was used in the production of different shaped beads and inlays. It might also have been used as the dye. Although there are also pear-shaped pendants made from malachite, it is mostly used in the production of small or medium-sized ring beads. The pear-shaped pendants of copper and malachite are imitations of the stone ones that are the main forms in the late grill buildings. Copper beads were manufactured by coiling small flat sheets, which are produced by hammering, around a stick. Production of copper beads starts as early as the middle of the First Evolutionary Stage, but, together with malachite beads, they are more widely used during the Second and Third Evolutionary Stage; they are very rare in the Fourth Evolutionary Stage. In the Channeled Building Subphase malachite beads are more fashionable than the copper ones. Except for a few copper beads found in the Skull Building, only natvie malachite lumps were found in graves. Rings of various sizes are sometimes plain and sometimes decorated with grooves and carinated ridges. They are highly polished. The simple plain ones were mostly made from white limestone whereas the decorated ones are mainly from dark colored stones (red, dark grey, and black). The small plain rings with four perpendicular perforations were probably sewn on clothing; those that are large (round, oval, rectangular, and polygonal in section), and grooved and carinated ones were worn as bracelets. It is highly probably that some were used as nose or ear rings. Those that were used as bracelets, especially the plain ones, are also perforated. The fact that the bracelets were always found in fragments usually broken at the place of perforations suggests "intentional breaking". The simple plain ones were widly sed and increased in number throughout the entire Pre-Pottery and Pottery Neolithic periods. The grooved-carinated rings appeared during the Channeled Building Subphase; they became common in the first phase (c1) of the Cell Building Subphase and decreased much in number in the large Room Building Subphase. The fragments of plain rings retrieved from the walls of the two late cobble paved buildings had been deliberatly left in those locations. Objects with both ends slightly pointed or one end "nail headed", made of stone, bone, and clay could be nose studs or inlay. Boar tusks, worked into nose ornaments are traditionally worn in some modern tribes. This type is seen mostly in the Second Evolutionary Stage at Cayönü. Clay appliqué, which increased in number over time, is first seen in the Channeled Building Subphase and became common in the Large Room Building Subphase. Clay beads are few in number, but starting with the r3 phase there are one or two in almost every subphase. It is not clear whether these were decorative elements or personal ornaments. |
Bibliography