Morphological and stylistic analysis of Anatolian idols of the K"ultepe type (early bronze age)

Alabaster idols of the Kültepe type (with disc-shaped bodies and one or moretriangular heads on long necks) can be divided into two variants: (1) with bodies of ageneralized anthropomorphic type and including female genitals (figs. 1, 2) and (2) withbodies that bear no anthropomorphic details (fig. 3, 13, 14, 17-19). Both variants includeseveral morphological-stylistic groups. The proportions of the idols vary little (Chart 1).As regards the measurements of the bodies (width and height), five sets of measurementshave been singled out for Variant 1 (Charts 2, 3). The morphology of the heads, hair-styles front and back and the arrangement of items of jewellery (fig. 3, 1-12, 15, 16) havebeen analyzed. Most of the statements made regarding the idols of the Kültepe type areinterpretations (assumptions about the phallicist nature of the triangular heads on longnecks, the androgynous nature of the figures and a cult of fertility). The author is inclinedto see a resemblance to snakes in the triangular heads. The identification of female figureand snakes can be traced from the Pre-pottery Neolithic to the Early Bronze Age. Smallsculptures found in archaic communities and traditional cultures are usually seen as partof a network of correlations covering a large territory. Idols from Kültepe constitute oneof the rarest exceptions. A common model for a transformation is found in this case inconjunction with the unique nature of a geographical distribution. This is something thathas not been convincingly explained even by the assumption that the whole of the Early-Bronze-Age settlement on Kültepe tell was of a cultic kind.