The Beginnings of the Use of Clay in Turkey

Abstract

Palaeolithic assemblages in the Near East do not yield any clay artifacts. During the Mesolithic period clay objects begin to appear as rarities but with the beginning of the Neolithic one witnesses a proliferation of uses of clay for architecture, house furnishings, firing devices, containers, and a variety of objects. Suddenly the villages seem to consist entirely of clay. I have been puzzled by the seemingly long indifference of man towards a material as easy to work with and as accessible as clay, followed by a suddenfloruit. I have tried to find out more about the beginnings of the use of clay and have studied Near Eastern clay collections looking for answers to three questions: (1) When did clay begin to be used? (2) What is the evolutionary pattern of the first uses of clay? (3) What gave clay its sudden importance? I first tackled these problems in the Zagros and in Syria. The present paper is a review of the first evidences of the use of clay in Anatolia.