Weapons, warfare, and women: the dangerous lives of Early Bronze Age women in central Anatolia

In 1991 a crew of American, Canadian, and Turkish researchers began a new and comprehensive survey in the Muş Province of Eastern Turkey. The goal of the survey was to study the evolution of settlement and landuse in a marginal zone at the intersection of four great culture areas of the Middle East: Central Anatolia, Western Iran, the Transcaucasus, and Mesopotamia.This area of Eastern Turkey had been visited previously by I. K. Kökten in 1940s (1947) and Charles Burney in 1950s (1958). Given the large area these surveyors covered and their limited means of transportation, and given the newly excavated material coming from north of the great Taurus mountain massif and from Van (e.g., Sagona 1994, Sagona et al 1992, Çilingiroğlu 1987, 1988), a more comprehensive effort appeared warranted. The first season was six weeks in duration. During that time we re-visited 17 of the sites found by Kökten and Burney, and located 11 new sites. A second season was launched in 1993 with the aim of covering areas not surveyed previously (see Figure 1), mostly in the northern foothills and higher elevations near Hamurpet Lake. Unfortunately, conditions did not permit us to do a second season, nor is a season in the very near future likely. We, therefore, will be publishing the results we have already arrived at, aware that our sample is not complete.

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Reassessing western and central Anatolian Early Bronze Age sealing practices: a case from Boz Höyük (Afyon)

Anatolian Studies ◽

10.1017/s0066154619000048 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 69 ◽

pp. 59-75

Author(s):

Michele Massa ◽

Yusuf Tuna

Keyword(s):

Bronze Age ◽

Social Complexity ◽

Local Communities ◽

Central Anatolia ◽

Early Bronze Age ◽

Western Anatolia ◽

Administrative Practices

AbstractThis paper presents a detailed investigation of an Early Bronze Age clay sealing from Boz Höyük, a settlement mound located along the Büyük Menderes valley (inland western Anatolia). The artefact, clearly local in manufacture, was employed as a stopper to seal a bottle/flask and impressed with two different stamp seals. These elements are compared to all other published contemporary sealings in western and central Anatolia, in order to understand the degree of complexity of sealing practices in the region. In turn, evidence of Early Bronze Age Anatolian sealing practices is discussed in relation to the available evidence regarding the degree of social complexity in local communities. It is suggested that, during the Early Bronze Age, sealings were employed for product branding rather than control over storage and redistribution of commodities, and only at the beginning of the second millennium BC did the region witness the introduction of complex administrative practices.

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Early Bronze Age metalwork in Central Anatolia – An archaeometric view from the hamlet

Praehistorische Zeitschrift ◽

10.1515/pz-2014-0019 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 89 (2) ◽

pp. 280-290

Author(s):

Evren Y. Geniş ◽

Thomas Zimmermann

Keyword(s):

Bronze Age ◽

Central Anatolia ◽

Early Bronze Age ◽

Tin Alloys ◽

Metal Artefacts ◽

Spectroscopic Analyses ◽

Sont Encore ◽

De Se ◽

A Minor ◽

Bronze Ancien

Zusammenfassung: Folgender Beitrag diskutiert die Ergebnisse von an Metallfunden der frühbronzezeitlichen Nekropole Kalınkaya-Toptaştepe in Zentralanatolien vorgenommenen Spektralanalysen. Da archäometrische Daten für Zentralanatolien im 3. Jahrtausend immer noch lückenhaft sind und bevorzugt Fundkomplexe früher Zentralorte berücksichtigt, Assemblagen aus dörflichen Ansiedlung jedoch bislang weitgehend unerschlossen sind, ist diese Studie in erster Linie als dringend benötigte Verbreiterung der Quellenbasis zu verstehen. Arsen-Kupferlegierungen bestehen neben „echten“ Bronzen (Kupfer-Zinn), Kontaminationen wie Nickel mögen Rückschlüsse auf bestimmte Lagerstätten zulassen. Die erzielten Resultate ergeben somit einen guten Einblick in Metallverwendung und Legierungstraditionen einer Kleinsiedlung in der jüngeren anatolischen Frühbronzezeit Résumé: L’article ci-dessous présente les résultats d’analyses spectroscopiques menées sur un ensemble d’objets de l’âge du Bronze Ancien provenant de la nécropole de Kalınkaya-Toptaştepe en Anatolie centrale. Vu que les données archéométriques concernant le 3e millénaire av. J.-C. en Anatolie centrale sont encore fort rares, qu’elles proviennent surtout de grands centres occupés précédemment et que les ensembles provenant d’établissements ruraux n’ont presque pas fait l’objet de recherches, l’intention primaire de l’étude que nous présentons ici est d’attirer l’attention sur les données qui sont à notre disposition. Les alliages de cuivre et d’arsenic existent à côté de ‘vrais’ bronzes (alliages de cuivre et d’étain), et la contamination, par exemple par le nickel, peut fournir de nombreux indices sur la présence de dépôts spécifiques. Les résultats permettent de se faire une bonne idée de l’emploi des métaux et des techniques traditionnelles d’alliage utilisés dans un habitat mineur d’Anatolie vers la fin de l’âge du Bronze Ancien. Abstract: The following contribution discusses the results of spectroscopic analyses carried out on metal artefacts from the Early Bronze Age cemetery of Kalınkaya-Toptaştepe in central Anatolia. Given that archaeometric data from 3rd- millennium BCE Central Anatolia are still quite sparse, tend to stem mainly from earlier central places, and the assemblages from village sites have so far remained largely unexplored, the study we present here is primarily intended to draw much needed attention to the data that are available. Copper-arsenic alloys exist alongside ‘true’ bronzes (copper-tin alloys), and contamination, for example by nickel, can yield much information about specific deposits. The results obtained provide good insights into the use of metals and traditional alloying techniques on a minor settlement at the end of the Anatolian Early Bronze Age.

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Patterns of metal procurement, manufacture and exchange in Early Bronze Age northwestern Anatolia: Demircihüyük and beyond

Anatolian Studies ◽

10.1017/s0066154617000084 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 67 ◽

pp. 51-83 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Michele Massa ◽

Orlene McIlfatrick ◽

Erkan Fidan

Keyword(s):

Bronze Age ◽

Central Anatolia ◽

Early Bronze Age ◽

Composition Analysis ◽

Central Plateau ◽

Anatolian Plateau ◽

Chemical Composition Analysis ◽

Prehistoric Mining ◽

Manufacturing Techniques ◽

Mould Casting

AbstractThis paper adds a new interpretive layer to the already extremely well-investigated site of Demircihüyük, a small Early Bronze Age settlement at the northwestern fringes of the central Anatolian plateau. It presents a reassessment of the evidence for prehistoric mining in the region, as well as a new programme of chemical composition analysis integrated with an object functional and technological typology of the site's metal assemblages. The results reveal complex manufacturing techniques (such as bivalve mould casting, plating and lost wax) and the co-occurrence of several alloying types, including the earliest tin bronzes in the region. Object typology further indicates that the Demircihüyük community was at the intersection of two distinct metallurgical networks: one centred on the western Anatolian highlands, the other spanning the northern part of the central plateau. Additionally, several strands of evidence suggest that the beginning of interregional exchanges, linking central Anatolia to northern Levantine and Mesopotamian societies, may have started at an earlier date than the commonly assumed ca 3000–2800 BC.

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Kaman-kalehöyük Excavations in Central Anatolia

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195376142.013.0051 ◽

2012 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Sachihiro Omura

Keyword(s):

Bronze Age ◽

Iron Age ◽

Central Anatolia ◽

Early Bronze Age ◽

The North

This article discusses findings from excavations at Kaman–Kalehöyük. Between 1986 and 2009, four main strata were identified in the North Trench: Stratum I, the Ottoman Period, fifteenth to seventeenth centuries CE; Stratum II, the Iron Age, twelfth to fourth centuries BCE; Stratum III, Middle–Late Bronze Ages, twentieth to twelfth centuries BCE; and Stratum IV, the Early Bronze Age, twenty-third to twentieth centuries BCE. The article mainly reports on architectural discoveries.

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Anatolia as a bridge from north to south? Recent research in the Hatti heartland

Anatolian Studies ◽

10.1017/s0066154600008504 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 57 ◽

pp. 65-75

Author(s):

Thomas Zimmermann

Keyword(s):

Bronze Age ◽

Black Sea ◽

Central Anatolia ◽

Early Bronze Age ◽

The Black Sea ◽

Southeast Europe ◽

The Caucasus ◽

Black Sea Region ◽

The Third ◽

The North

AbstractThis paper aims to reappraise and evaluate central Anatolian connections with the Black Sea region and the Caucasus focusing mainly on the third millennium BC. In its first part, a ceremonial item, the knobbed or ‘mushroom’ macehead, in its various appearances, is discussed in order to reconstruct a possible pattern of circulation and exchange of shapes and values over a longer period of time in the regions of Anatolia, southeast Europe and the Caucasus in the third and late second to early first millennium BC. The second part is devoted to the archaeometrical study of selected metal and mineral artefacts from the Early Bronze Age necropolis of Resuloğlu, which together with the contemporary settlement and graveyard at Kalınkaya-Toptaştepe represent two typical later Early Bronze Age sites in the Anatolian heartland. The high values of tin and arsenic used for most of the smaller jewellery items are suggestive of an attempt to imitate gold and silver, and the amounts of these alloying agents suggest a secure supply from arsenic sources located along the Black Sea littoral in the north and probably tin ores to the southeast of central Anatolia. This places these ‘Hattian’ sites within a trade network that ran from the Pontic mountain ridge to the Taurus foothills.

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Early Bronze Age burial customs on the central Anatolian plateau: a view from Demircihöyük-Sarıket

Anatolian Studies ◽

10.1017/s0066154614000064 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 64 ◽

pp. 73-93 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Michele Massa

Keyword(s):

Bronze Age ◽

Cultural Context ◽

Central Anatolia ◽

Early Bronze Age ◽

Funerary Practices ◽

Anatolian Plateau ◽

Burial Customs ◽

Complex Picture ◽

Selection Of

AbstractThis paper focuses on the analysis of the cemetery of Demircihöyük-Sarıket, for which exists one of the largest Early Bronze Age funerary datasets published to date in Anatolia. The size and quality of the sample allow the dataset to be approached quantitatively, to determine both normative and anomalous funerary practices, and to detect distinct patterns of burial treatment for different segments of the population represented in the cemetery. Despite the small size of the community (ca 100–130 people), the results suggest a rather complex picture, in which the choice of specific burial containers, the relative wealth of grave assemblages and the selection of particular sets of items were dependent on differences in the age, gender, occupation and achieved status of the deceased. Comparison with other contemporary funerary assemblages helps to place Demircihöyük-Sarıket and these community-scale observations within their wider cultural context in central Anatolia.

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