RECONSIDERING THE ANTLER Y-BOX AND ITS FINDSPOT IN AN EARLY TRIALETI BURIAL IN SOS HÖYÜK, EASTERN TURKEY

Year 2019, Issue: 1, 20 - 41, 30.12.2019

Claudia Sagona

Abstract

In 1997, we published M16-Burial 2 from Sos Höyük, Eastern Turkey in which an unusual, Y-shaped antler artefact
was found. The tomb had the hallmarks of the Trialeti period and rendered an absolute date to match (2350-1945 cal
BC). Drawing on evidence for similar antler objects from European sites of the Middle Ages, I offer a re-evaluation
of the antler object from Sos Höyük as a box in its own right and not as a part of a larger apparatus, which was our
first supposition. Though this tomb was modest in scale, it held some frit beads and a seashell ring, which point to
long distance contacts. Signs of binding the corpse in this and in a second tomb at the site invite notions of prolonged
burial practices and a mobile society, though a society still retaining a sense of homeland and belonging to a territory.

Keywords

Sos Höyük, Trialeti, antler Y-box, shell rings, ochre

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