Organization of Flint Sickle Blade Production at an Early Bronze Age Workshop in Anatolia

2002 ◽  
Vol 712 ◽  
Author(s):  
Britt E. Hartenberger
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Complete Sequence ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Regional Center ◽  
Period 2 ◽  
The Social ◽  
Titris Hoyuk ◽  
Administrative Center ◽  
Local Farmers

ABSTRACTA specialized workshop for the manufacture of flint sickle blades has recently been excavated at the site of Titris Hoyuk in southeastern Anatolia [1]. This paper will examine the sequence of production for the blades as well as the social context of this craft within the site. The workshop is the first example found containing evidence of the complete sequence of production for the ‘Canaanean blade,’ a type commonly used across the Near East in this period [2]. Since bronze was still new and relatively expensive, high-quality flint was used to manufacture sickle blades. Tabular flint was imported in the form of large slabs from several sources in the nearby hills. Specialists then prepared the blade cores, removed the blades, and then traded the final products to local farmers. A range of manufacturing debris has been found to illustrate the production sequence, including chunks of raw flint, core-shaping pieces, debitage pits, and stacks of exhausted and used cores. The large sample of over 1000 blade cores collected ensures a sizable data set for statistical analyses. Several types of raw flint were utilized for making the blades and production appears to vary slightly by these material types. The workshop is located within a household setting and is the only area within the excavated site containing debris from this craft. Spatial analyses of the types of flint used within the household workshop reveal its division into largely distinct areas for domestic versus specialist craft activities. The placement of the workshop in the suburbs far from the site's administrative center may indicate that its activities were independent of any elite. An estimate of the volume of blades produced combined with the location of the workshop at a major regional center suggest that it also supplied blades to other sites in the region.

scholarly journals The Social Role of Non-metal ‘Valuables’ in Late Bronze Age Britain

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 665-688 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanna Brück ◽  
Alex Davies
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Social Role ◽  
Social Identities ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Cultural Meanings ◽  
Social Agents ◽  
Prestige Goods ◽  
The Social

Bronze Age metal objects are widely viewed as markers of wealth and status. Items of other materials, such as jet, amber and glass, tend either to be framed in similar terms as ‘prestige goods’, or to be viewed as decorative trifles of limited research value. In this paper, we argue that such simplistic models dramatically underplay the social role and ‘agentive’ capacities of objects. The occurrence of non-metal ‘valuables’ in British Early Bronze Age graves is well-documented, but their use during the later part of the period remains poorly understood. We will examine the deposition of objects of amber, jet and jet-like materials in Late Bronze Age Britain, addressing in particular their contexts and associations as well as patterns of breakage to consider the cultural meanings and values ascribed to such items and to explore how human and object biographies were intertwined. These materials are rarely found in burials during this period but occur instead on settlements, in hoards and caves. In many cases, these finds appear to have been deliberately deposited in the context of ritual acts relating to rites of passage. In this way, the role of such objects as social agents will be explored, illuminating their changing significance in the creation of social identities and systems of value.

Understanding Early Bronze Age social structure through mortuary remains: A pilot aDNA study from Titriş Höyük, southeastern Turkey

2010 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 338-351 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Matney ◽  
G. Algaze ◽  
M. C. Dulik ◽  
Ö. D. Erdal ◽  
Y. S. Erdal ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Structure ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Titris Hoyuk

Figurines of the Anatolian Early Bronze Age: the assemblage from Koçumbeli-Ankara

2017 ◽  
Vol 67 ◽  
pp. 85-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Çiğdem Atakuman
Keyword(s):  
Social Status ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Near East ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
The Social ◽  
Comparative Review ◽  
Social Landscape ◽  
Social Concerns ◽  
Third Millennium Bc

AbstractThrough analysis of a figurine assemblage from the site of Koçumbeli-Ankara, this study aims to re-evaluate the origins, meanings and functions of the Early Bronze Age (third millennium BC) anthropomorphic figurines of Anatolia. Conventional typological approaches to figurines are often focused on their origins and sex; however, such approaches hinder an understanding of the context of the norms of production, display and discard within which the figurines become more meaningful. Following an examination of breakage patterns and the decorative aspects of the Koçumbeli assemblage, a comparative review of figurine find contexts, raw materials and abstraction scales in Anatolia is provided, so that the social concerns underlying the use of these figurines can be explored. It is concluded that the origins of the figurines are difficult to pinpoint, due to the presence of similar items across a variety of regions of the Near East from the later Neolithic onwards. The sex of the figurines is equally ambiguous; while some human sexual features can be discerned, it is difficult to decide whether these features are ‘male’, ‘female’, both or beyond classification. Alternatively, the decoration, breakage and find contexts of the figurines suggest that the imagery was embedded in more complex perceptions of social status, death and social regeneration. The need for materialisation of these concerns in the form of the figurines could be related to the development of a new social landscape of interaction leading to political centralisation by the second millennium BC. Furthermore, the figurines were produced through a meaningful linking of particular raw materials and particular abstraction scales to particular use contexts, which seems to have shifted during the centralisation process.

scholarly journals Argonauts of the North Sea - a Social Maritime Archaeology for the 2nd Millennium BC

2006 ◽  
Vol 72 ◽  
pp. 267-287 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Van de Noort
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Maritime Archaeology ◽  
Social Identities ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Social Dimensions ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
The North ◽  
The Social ◽  
The North Sea

This paper aims to offer a new analysis of the social dimensions of seafaring in the 2nd millennium BC and a consideration of the role of seafaring in (re)creating the social order at the time through its economic, sociopolitical and ritual significance. It revisits the sewn-plank boats from Ferriby, Kilnsea, Dover, Calidcot, Testwood Lakes, Goldcliff and Brigg, and aspects of the way in which seafarers signified themselves and their world through their imagined relationship with the environment are illuminated. The study argues that in the Early Bronze Age, sewn-plank boats were used for directional, long-distance journeys, aimed at the ‘cosmological acquisition’ of exotic goods, and the contexts of these boats link the overseas journeys to the ancestors. In the Middle and Late Bronze Age, sewn-plank boats were used for down-the-line exchange, and fragments of sewn-plank boats were included in structured deposits, within or near river crossings, reflecting the idioms of transformation and regeneration which are well established for this period. Through the reconstruction of the boats' crews, it is suggested that the development of a retinue was a prerequisite for the successful completion of the long-distance journeys, and the social identities that were cultivated during these voyages are recognised as a potentially important element in the rise of elite groups in the Early Bronze Age.

Divergent Pottery Firing Practices at the Advent of the Early Bronze Age: The Social Integration of Crafts and Craftspeople at Kura-Araxes Sites in the Northeastern Caucasus

2011 ◽  
Vol 1319 ◽  
Author(s):  
MaryFran Heinsch
Keyword(s):  
Social Integration ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Pottery Production ◽  
The Caucasus ◽  
The Social ◽  
Production Regime ◽  
Higher Temperature ◽  
Complex Relationships

ABSTRACTTwo separate pottery types, Kura-Araxes and Velikent Fine Wares can be found together at a number of Early Bronze Age sites in the Northeastern Caucasus. These ceramics are strikingly different in their appearance. Velikent Fine Ware bears indications that it may have been fired at a much higher temperature than Kura-Araxes wares. The obvious contrasts in their production raised suspicions that Velikent Fine Wares represented either an import or an intrusive production regime perhaps linked to the advent of Bronze metallurgy in this region or at least relying on a shared pyrotechnology. Prior results of Xeroradiographic analysis and INAA are merged with recent re-firing analysis to examine these hypotheses. The findings suggest that while a specific link between metal and pottery production cannot be confirmed, the emergence of divergent firing practices within an otherwise unified production tradition speaks to complex relationships between craftspeople within Early Bronze Age communities in the Caucasus.

scholarly journals Ordinary or Extraordinary? Redressing the Problem of the Bronze Age Corded Skirt

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-96
Author(s):  
Sophie Bergerbrant
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Social Role ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Married Women ◽  
Small Sample ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Entire Data ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Bronze Age

This article uses previously overlooked evidence to discuss the social role of the Bronze Age corded skirt found in Scandinavia. This skirt type has been interpreted in many different ways through the years, from a summer dress to the attire of un­ married women, and more recently the popular la­ bel “ritual dress” has been applied. The aim of this article is to critically review the various interpreta­ tions of the use and social role of the corded skirt, drawing on the entire data set available for study rather than just a small sample of the known traces of corded skirts. Here it is shown that there is evi­ dence indicating that the corded skirt was used at more times, and by more people and age groups, than previously thought, suggesting that it might have been an ordinary, everyday garment rather than something extraordinary.

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