Comments on the Early/Middle Iron Age Chronology of Lake Van Basin

In the Van Lake basin, or in Northeast Anatolia in general, Early Iron Age denotes pre-Urartian times. Although the beginning of this age is rather obscure, it is generally accepted that it came to an end with the establishment of the Urartian Kingdom in the middle of the ninth century BC. Following the focus on a number of large, well-planned Urartian sites over the last hundred years or so, there has been a shift in the last twenty years to small, rural settlements and necropoleis, like Dilkaya, Karagunduz and Yoncatepe in the hope offinding preUrartian Early Iron Age remains. In this paper we shall discuss 'grooved pottery' and other important finds used to date these sites and necropoleis to the Early Iron Age, and suggest a new chronology for them. Accordingly, we will determine whether these necropoleis really belonged to the ancestors of the Urartians, or to a rural village population contemporary with the Urartian Kingdom.