gold jewelry, including garment pins. The director of the excavation, N. Bilgen, has
been quoted widely in Turkish news media, suggesting that these seals provide evidence
for Akkadian merchant activity on the Seyitömer citadel. Such a scenario would also
substantiate the historicity of the “King of Battle” narrative that describes Sargon’s
military adventure deep into Central Anatolia to rescue Akkadian merchants
imprisoned in the kingdom of Purusˇanda.
Cylinder seals on a citadel raise the possibility of some sort of administrative activity,
though there is only one site in EBA Anatolia where there is any evidence for cylinder
seal impressions: EB III Tarsus (Goldman 1956 : 240 – 241 , fig. 397. 12 ). Although
cylinder seals or cylinder seal-like objects have been identified at Troy and Alis ̧ar (both
of Ninevite 5 inspiration, Collon 2005 : 23 ), Poliochni (a local imitation of a cylinder
seal, with stamp seal hybrid; Kenna 1969 – 1970 ), and Seyitömer (of Akkadian
inspiration), there is no evidence that they were being used administratively. Thus the
significance of the Akkadian-inspired cylinder seals at Seyitömer should be assessed
with other possible functions and meanings in mind. Cylinder seals could have
circulated as desirable prestigious and amuletic objects in their own right. For example,
objects like seals and scarabs are often found in contexts that post-date their manu-
facture (and original use) by hundreds if not thousands of years. The Seyitömer seals
were found in a dedicatory context – intentionally deposited with gold jewelry. The
seals clearly circulated in a network of exchange, and may have even been dedicated
as an appeal to potential exchange relationships; but they cannot yet be used to identify
specific administrative practices related to sealing or the existence of foreign merchants
on EBA citadels in Anatolia.
The “Syrian Bottle”
The Syrian Bottle is shorthand for closed vessel forms with origins in northern Syria
and southeastern Turkey. Their manufacture appears to be contemporary with, and
therefore characteristic of, the expanding and energizing social-economies in this
region beginning c. 2600 BC. Syrian Bottles are ring-burnished, wheel-made, well-fired
and thin-walled vessels that are normally but not exclusively found in mortuary
contexts in the region (Sconzo 2007 : 261 ). Syrian Bottles were generally manufactured
in two forms: a long alabastron shape and a shorter, more rounded, egg shape (Figure
26. 4 ).The forms and surface treatments of Syrian Bottles are skeuomorphic; like many
fine ware repertoires in Western Asia in the EBA, they evoke the visual effect of a metal
vessel. For this reason the Syrian Bottle has long been associated with an ill-defined
category of “Syrian Metallic Wares” (see e.g. Kühne 1976 ).
It has been plausibly suggested that the Syrian Bottle was designed to contain
perfumed oils (Mellink 1989 : 323 ; Zimmermann 2005 ) or unguents, which in mortuary
contexts might have been used to anoint the dead. The concept of the Syrian Bottle
traveled far beyond its probable origins in the mortuary practices of this region (Figure
26. 4 ), raising the possibility that these forms were also used to transport and advertise
their contents over long distances. Zimmermann ( 2005 , 2006 ) has shown in a series
of studies that at least some Syrian Bottle forms in Anatolia were locally imitated.
According to Zimmermann, the Syrian Bottle in Anatolia offers evidence for the
communication of an idea, or a “transfer of fashion” (after Zimmermann 2005 : 165 ),
rather than the transport of an object and its contents.
–– Christoph Bachhuber ––