The cemetery at Tekkeköy
Exceptional burials in the homeland of the Amazons
urkish archaeologists excavated an outstanding burial-ground at Tekkeköy in the early forties of this 20th century.
This place lies southeast of the provincial capital Samsun and near the important archaeological site Dündartepe - thus, in the traditional homeland of the Themiskyreian Amazons.
This cemetery which dates from the Early Metal Age (third millennium B.C.)
contained 17 bodies - 13 adults and a separate group of 4 children.
Unlike other Anatolian prehistoric burials, four of
these skeletons were extended on their backs - a position which was
quite abnormal in this period. The remaining bodies were contracted
or flexed, on back or side position. All corpses were wrapped into cloth and interred in plain earth.
The skeletons manifest that these people were of tall, long-limbed race.
body extended on its back |
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contracted skeleton |
corpse in flexed position |
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he discovery of a double burial revealed a big mystery.
Two corpses laid side by side in perfect order,
both extended on their backs. Very enigmatic is the
fact that the chests of those dead have been removed.
This fact is reminiscent of a more or less incredible detail of the Amazon myth. Some ancient writers related that the Amazons mutilated their right breast, that it might not hinder the use of the bow. This surprising discovery allows the conjecture that at Tekkeköy a burial ritual of chest removal was practised, which was possibly misunderstood by the ancient historians and thus raised the myth that the Amazons mutilated their breast! |
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mysterious double burial |
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Grave-goods: Pottery was of high quality. On the right picture you see a finely polished thin-walled jar, and on the left there is a very extraordinary fragment of a face-urn. |
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fragment of a face-urn |
a curious jar with a highly polished neck |
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