A Grotesque/Ethnic Figurine Fragment from Ballıcaoluk Settlement at Mount Nif (Olympos)
Göknur BEKTAŞ
Abstract
Ballıcaoluk, one of the excavation areas of the Mount Nif (Olympos) Excavation, is a fortified settlement within the borders of Vişneli village in Kemalpaşa (Nymphaion), on the east side of Mt. Nif. The settlement, excavated from 2008 on, has yielded finds from the end from the 8th century BCE to the Byzantine Period. Settlements and necropoleis at Mt. Nif, which are not mentioned in ancient sources, are located in the Ionia-Lydia border. This paper deals with the possible production site and cultural context of a terracotta figurine fragment (inventory number: Nif.PT.22-1) recovered from a house within the settlement. Alongside the examination of the fragment, the other finds (pottery, metal finds and coins) from the residential area in Ballıcaoluk settlement, and other figurine fragments from the necropolis in Dağkızılca nearby, are taken into consideration. With reference to the building phases of the house and on stylistic grounds, the figurine fragment has been dated to the 3rd to mid-2nd century BCE. Although local clay pottery fragments are known, there is no evidence of figurine or figurine mould production in the vicinity of Mt. Nif. The results of the XRD analysis were compared with the results of other figurine producing centres and with samples taken from the neighbouring clay deposits (Bozköy), and from these a proposal is presented for the possible production site. The interactions between influential workshops in the region in terms of style and subject, and the previously published figurine fragments from Dağkızılca and Ballıcaoluk, indicate the influence of the Smyrna-Ephesus-Pergamon workshops. Although the grotesque/ethnic type figurine fragment from Ballıcaoluk is similar to the figurine “attributed to Smyrnaean”, it is similar to the Ephesus type 2 and type 4 in terms of clay structure. When both the style and clay structure of Ballıcaoluk figurine fragment are evaluated, as well as the small terracotta finds and figurine fragments from Dağkızılca are taken into consideration, it has been observed that there was cultural and commercial interaction with Smyrna and Ephesus during the Hellenistic Period.
Atalay, E. 1983. “Efes (Selçuk) Müzesinde Bulunan Karikatür Terracottalar.” Sanat Tarihi Dergisi II (2): 5-11.
Baykan, D. 2017. “Metal Buluntular ve Arkeometalurji Verileri.” Nif Dağı Ballıcaoluk (2008-2016) Prof. Dr. Elif Tül Tulunay Onuruna, Eds. M. Peker, D. Baykan and C. Baykan, 119-160. İstanbul: Homer Kitabevi.
Besques, S. 1972. Catalogue Raisonné des Figurines et Reliefs en Terre-Cuite Greccs Étrusques et Romains III: Époques Hellénistique et Romaine Grèce et Asie Mineure, 2. Paris: Editions des Musées Nationaux.
Bilgin, M. 2015. “Pottery Finds from Nif-Olympus.” Recent Studies on the Archaeology of Anatolia, Eds. E. Laflı and S. Patacı, 27-40. BAR-International Series 2750. Oxford: Archaeopress.
Bilgin, M. 2017. “Keramik Buluntular.” Nif Dağı Ballıcaoluk (2008-2016) Prof. Dr. Elif Tül Tulunay Onuruna, Eds. M. Peker, D. Baykan and C. Baykan, 32-113. İstanbul: Homer Kitabevi.
Bouquillon, A., I. Hasselin-Rous and L. Laugier, 2010. “Smyrne et ses productions artistiques. Bilan des analyses scientifiques menées sur les figurines en terre cuite et les marbres smyrniotes du Musée du Louvre.”Anatolia Antiqua 18: 321-328.
Bulgurlu-Gün, S. 2017. “Mantolu Bir Pişmiş Toprak Heykelcik Parçası.” Nif Dağı Ballıcaoluk (2008-2016) Prof. Dr. Elif Tül Tulunay Onuruna, Eds. M. Peker, D. Baykan and C. Baykan, 110-113. İstanbul: Homer Kitabevi.
Burn, L. and R. Higgins, 2001. Catalogue of Greek Terracottas in The British Museum III, Trustee of British Museum. London: British Museum Press.
Burr-Thompson, D. 1963. Troy: The Terracotta Figurines of The Hellenistic Period. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Connelly, J.B. 1990. “Hellenistic Alexandria.” The Coroplast’s Art: Greek Terracottas of the Hellenistic World, An Exhibition and Publication in Honour of Dorothy Burr Thompson, on the Occasion of Her Ninnetieth Birthday, Ed. J. Uhlenbrock, 89-92. New York: College Art Gallery.
Dasen, V. 1993. Dwarfs in Ancient Egypt and Greece. Oxford Monographs on Classical Archaeology, Eds. M. Robertson, J. Boardman, J. Coulton and D. Kurtz. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Doğer, E. and İ. Gezgin, 1998. “Arkaik ve Klasik Dönemde Smyrna’nın Dış Savunması Üzerine Gözlemler.” II. Uluslararası İzmir Sempozyumu, Ed. N. Ülker, 7-30. İzmir: Ege Üniversitesi İzmir Araştırma ve Uygulama Merkezi.
Hasselin-Rous, I. 2019. “The Diffusion of Terracotta Figurines from İzmir to Tarsus: The Case of “Grotesques”.” Smyrna/İzmir Kazı ve Araştırmaları III/ Smyrna/Izmir Excavation and Research III, Eds. H. Göncü, A. Ersoy and D.S. Akar-Tanrıver, 181-188. İstanbul: Ege Yayınları.
Hasselin-Rous, I., L. Laugier and J. L., Martinez, 2009. D’İzmir à Smyrne. Découverte d’une cité antique. Paris: Musée du Louvre Edition.
Hasselin-Rous, I., M.E. Çaldıran-Işık and G. Kongaz, 2015. Musees Archeologiques D’Istanbul Catalogue des Figurines en Terre Cuite Grecques et Romaines de Smyrne: İstanbul Arkeoloji Müzeleri Yunan-Roma Dönemi Pişmiş Toprak Smyrna Figürinleri Kataloğu. Paris: De Boccard.
Havelock, C.M. 1981. Hellenistik Art the Art of the Classical World from the Death of Alexander the Great to the Battle of Actium. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.
Higgins, R.A. 1967. Greek Terracottas. London: Methuen.
Kielau S. 2020. Terrakotten aus Pergamon: Tonfiguren und -objekte aus der Wohnstadt am Südhang der Akropolis und von weiteren Fundorten. Pergamenischer Forschungen 17. Berlin: De Gruyter.
Lang-Auinger, C. 2003. “TK Terracotten (Taf. 122-133, 162, 163).” Hanghause 1 in Ephesus Funde und Ausstattung, Forschungen in Ephesus VIII/4, Ed. C. Lang-Auinger, 209-252. Wien: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften.
Lenger, D.S. 2017. “Sikkeler.” Nif Dağı Ballıcaoluk (2008-2016) Prof. Dr. Elif Tül Tulunay Onuruna, Eds. M. Peker, D. Baykan and C. Baykan, 114-118. İstanbul: Homer Kitabevi.
Meintani, A. 2022. The Grotesque Body in Greco-Roman Antiquity. Berlin: De Gruyter.
Meriç, R. 1988. “Antik Dönemde Küçük Menderes Havzasının Tarihsel Coğrafyasına Genel Bir Bakış.” Ege Üniversitesi Coğrafya Dergisi 4: 202-212.
Meriç, R. 2009. Das Hinterland von Ephesus Archäologisch topographische Forschungen im Kaystros-Tal. Erganzungshefte zu den Jahresheften des Osterreichischen Archaologischen Institutes 12. Wien: Österreichisches Archäologisches Institut.
Merker, G.S. 2000. The Sanctuary of Demeter and Kore: Terracotta Figurines of the Classical, Hellenistic, and Roman Periods. Corinth 18-4. Princeton: The American School of Classical Studies at Athens.
Miller-Ammerman, R. 1990. “The Religious Context of Hellenistic Terracotta Figurines.” The Coroplast’s Art: Greek Terracottas of the Hellenistic World, An Exhibition and Publication in Honour of Dorothy Burr Thompson, on the Occasion of Her Ninnetieth Birthday, Ed. J. Uhlenbrock, 37-46. New York: College Art Gallery.
Mitchell, A. 2013. “Disparate Bodies in Ancient Artefacts: The Function of Caricature and Pathological Graotesques among Roman Terracotta figurines.” Disabilities in Roman Antiquity Disparate Bodies A Capite ad Calcem, Eds. C. Laes, C. F. Goodey, and M. L. Rose, 275-297. Leiden-Boston: Brill.
Mitchell, A. 2016. “The Hellenistic Turn in Bodily Representations: Venting anxiety in terracotta figurines.” Disability in Antiquity, Ed. C. Laes, 182-196. London: Routledge.
Peker, M. 2017. “Yerleşim Düzeni ve Mimari.”, Nif Dağı Ballıcaoluk (2008-2016) Prof. Dr. Elif Tül Tulunay Onuruna, Eds. M. Peker, D. Baykan and C. Baykan, 5-7. İstanbul: Homer Kitabevi.
Peker, M., D. Baykan, G. Bektaş, C. Baykan, M. Bilgin, and D.S. Lenger. 2022. “Nif (Olympos) Dağı Araştırma ve Kazı Projesi: 2020 Yılı Kazısı.” 2019-2020 Yılı Kazı Çalışmaları 3, Ed. A. Özme, 351-368. Ankara: Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı.
Peker, M., D. Baykan, G. Bektaş, C. Baykan, and D.S. Lenger. 2023. “Nif (Olympos) Dağı Araştırma ve Kazı Projesi: 2020 Yılı Kazısı.” Kazı Sonuçları Toplantısı 42(4): 185-204.
Pollitt, J.J. 1986. Art in The Hellenistic Age. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Rumscheid, F. 2006. Die Figurlichen Terrakotten von Priene: Fundkontexte, Ikonographie und Funktion in Wohnhäusern und Heiligtümern im Licht antiker Parallelbefunde. Priene 22-1. Weisbaden: Reichert Verlag.
Sayın, E. 2018. “Antik Çağ’ın Grotesk Figürinleri.” Akademik Sanat: Sanat, Tasarım ve Bilim Dergisi 3(6): 29-48.
Smith, R.R.R. 2002. Hellenistik Heykel. Translated by A. Y. Yıldırım. İstanbul: Homer Kitabevi.
Süvegh, E. 2014. “Hellenistic grotesque terracota figurines. Problems of iconographical interpretation.” Dissertationes Archaeologicae 3(2): 143-156.
Süvegh, E. 2017. “The Role of Find-Spot and Archaeological Context in the Interpretation of Grotesque Terracotta Statuettes.” Alia Miscellanea Antiquitatum proceedings of the 2nd Coratian-Hungarian PhD Conference on Ancient History and Archaeology, Ed. D. Banjok, 175-187. Budapest: KÓDEX KÖNYVGYÁRTÓ KFT.
Töpperwein, E. 1976. Terrakotten von Pergamon. Ed. E. Boehringer. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
Trentin, L. 2016. The Hunchback in The Hellenistic and Roman Art. Oxford: Bloomsbury Academic Publishing.
Tulunay, E.T. 2010. “Nif (Olympos) Dağı Araştırma ve Kazı Projesi: 2008 Yılı Kazısı.” Kazı Sonuçları Toplantısı 31(2): 387-408.
Tulunay, E.T., M. Peker, D. Baykan, D.S. Lenger, M. Bilgin, and C. Baykan, 2020. “Nif (Olympos) Dağı Araştırma ve Kazı Projesi: 2018 Yılı Kazısı.” Kazı Sonuçları Toplantısı 41(2): 11-32.
Türkmen, M. 2011. “İzmir Nif Dağı Ballıcaoluk Yerleşimine İlişkin Gözlemler.” Eds. Y.G. Ergin, M. Doğan-Alparslan, M. Alparslan, and H. Peker, Colloquium Anatolicum/Anadolu Sohbetleri X: 261-275.
Türkmen-Peker, M. 2015. “A Site in the Territory of Nif-Olympus: Ballıcaoluk.” Recent Studies on the Archaeology of Anatolia, Eds. E. Laflı, and S. Patacı, 19-27. BAR- International Series 2750. Oxford: Archaeopress.
Uhlenbrock, J.P. 1990. “East Greek Coroplastic Center in the Hellenistic Period.” The Coroplast’s Art: Greek Terracottas of the Hellenistic World, An Exhibition and Publication in Honour of Dorothy Burr Thompson, on the Occasion of Her Ninnetieth Birthday, Eds. J. Uhlenbrock, 72-80. New York: College Art Gallery.
Voegtle, S. 2016. “A Grotesque Terracotta Figurine of the First Century C.E. from Muralto, Ticino, Switzerland: Function, Use, and Meaning.” Les Carnets de I’ACoSt (Association for Coroplastic Studies) 15: 1-19. https://doi.org/10.4000/acost.945
Wace, A.J.B. 1903/04. “Grotesques and the Evil Eye.” BSA 10: 103-114.
Bektaş, G. 2024. “A Grotesque/Ethnic Figurine Fragment from Ballıcaoluk Settlement at Mount Nif (Olympos).” Arkhaia Anatolika 7: 1-13. https://doi.org/10.32949/Arkhaia.2024.62