The archaeometallurgical and archaeological research carried out in Anatolia has provided numerous examples of diverse alloying practices representing different levels of societal interaction, from the extraction of ores to the trade of finished goods and high level gift exchange among elites. While discussions abound about the exploitation of mines, mining settlements, possible origins of artifacts, resources of copper, arsenic, and especially tin to improve our knowledge about Anatolian Bronze Age mining and metallurgy, uncommon alloying practices including the use of antimony, nickel, or lead have long remained in the shadows of scholarly research. With the aim of bringing attention to the diversity in alloying practices in Anatolian metallurgy, this article focuses on the use of antimony through an appraisal of archaeological and textual evidence from Bronze Age Anatolia. Archaeometric data from several Early Bronze Age sites are re-examined alongside new data emerging from Resuloğlu (Çorum, Turkey) to explain the reduction of the variety of alloy types used. Portable-XRF analysis of artifacts from Resuloğlu and mineralogical analysis of an antimony-bearing ore fragment present evidence of use of antimony at the region during the Early Bronze Age. This period is followed by disappearance of antimony in material record until the Iron Age, while textual records weakly refer to its circulation within the region. This paper considers geological, technological, and socio-economic factors to explain why the use of antimony alloys falls dormant after the Early Bronze Age. The political and economic change towards centralization over geological and technological factors is proposed as an explanation.
This study investigates the faience and frit artefacts of Acemhöyük (Aksaray, Turkey) dated to the Early Bronze Age and Assyrian Trading Colonies Period, when vitreous materials were among the rare materials within Anatolia and its neighbouring regions. The chemical compositions and use of colourants are determined with the aid of portable X-ray fluorescence (p-XRF). Archaeometric analysis demonstrates the use of copper and manganese for blue and black colours, respectively. The results of the elemental analysis suggest at least two different workshops for the Acemhöyük vitreous materials. The archaeological and archaeometric data strongly support the existence of an Anatolian workshop for vitreous materials in the early Second Millennium BC.
Modern‐day Çorum is the homeland of the Hatti people, the culture that went on to form the Hittite Empire. Resuloğlu, which dates back to the latter half of the Early Bronze Age (ca. 2,500/2400–2,100/2050 BC), is a unique Hatti site with its settlement and cemetery areas systematically excavated. Among thousands of beads found at Resuloğlu, various materials were identified such as ceramic, copper and its alloys, carnelian, shells, and blue, green, and white‐colored beads. The microstructure and chemical compositions of 26 morphologically similar, colored beads were analyzed by optical microscopy, ICP–MS, XRD, and EPMA and are the focus of this paper. The results demonstrate faience bead production with efflorescence and cementation glazing techniques. The abundance of the raw materials at the Halys Basin (Central Anatolia) signals a local production, and there is a suggestion of a relationship with copper metallurgy.
Geological and archaeological research on ancient mining and metallurgy are actually targeting the same goals: understanding the nature and value of a mining operation. Geologists are intent on locating and qualifying ores and minerals for future use, whereas archaeologists strive to link ores to relevant historic and prehistoric metal artifacts and activities. This article discusses research into ancient Anatolian metallurgy by underscoring the overlap between geological and archeological practices. The work of archaeologists and geologists can be mutually beneficial through a close collaboration on the collection and analysis of field data. Their accumulated and combined knowledge would accelerate the progress towards placing ancient mining activities in a chronological and meaningful context.
This article discusses the socioeconomic dynamics of metal consumption patterns in the 3rd millennium BC north-central Anatolian site of Resuloğlu (Çorum, Turkey). The socio-political structure of the site confirms a nonstate, socially complex community with a range of hierarchical and heterarchical expressions. This study presents the results of archaeological, compositional (n = 307), and isotopic (n = 45) analyses of the complete metal collection of Resuloğlu uncovered through two decades of systematic excavations with a well-established chronology. The elemental compositions of metal objects obtained with pXRF combined with lead isotope analysis denote a high diversity in alloy types and sources. The compositional analysis highlights the consumption of various binary and ternary alloys for different object types. The lead isotope ratios confirm the use of both in proximity to metallic sources and access to macro-regional trade extending from the Black Sea coast towards the Taurus Mountain range. The site appears as a part of linkages whereby goods and valuables were exchanged within decentralized networks of middle-range societies. The diversity in metal consumption suggests group-driven choices and networks rather than top-down control of social elites. This allows us to confront the conventional approach to the role of metals as the primary motivator for social complexity and inequality in all parts of the 3rd millennium BC Anatolia.
This paper presents archaeological and analytical data on metal artefacts from Hüseyindede (Çorum, Turkey), dated to the Old Hittite period (ca 16th century BC). Hüseyindede, which is set in a rural landscape, demonstrates continuity in alloying traditions from the Early Bronze Age III (ca 26th/25th–22nd/21st century BC) and the Assyrian Trading Colonies period (20th–18th century BC) to the emergence of the Hittites. In addition to known alloying practices of the period, the site presents, for the first time, evidence of the existence of copper-nickel alloys, namely cupronickels, which so far have been documented only at the Late Bronze Age capital of the Hittites, Boğazköy/Hattuša. The Hüseyindede cupronickel objects now pinpoint the presence of this technology to regions spreading out from the Halys basin from the Old Kingdom Hittite period.
The paper analyses tin bronze weaponry found at the first-half-of-the-seventh-century-BCE Urartian fortress in the Lake Van region of eastern Turkey. Examples of finely manufactured artefacts provide evidence for the consumption of high-quality bronzes in a well-defined elite context. This study tests for the presence or absence of long-distance procurement of the raw materials used to produce status objects. The results of quantitative elemental and lead isotope abundance ratio analyses show that the bronzes were produced with varying copper tin alloys, and the copper was procured from several possible locations, including Anatolia and Cyprus.
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