Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-vdxz6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T07:34:01.338Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

An Investigation of the Sources of Bronze Age Pottery from Göltepe and Kestel, Turkey by Neutron Activation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 February 2011

E.C. De Sena  and
E.S. Friedman
E.C. De Sena
Affiliation:
Ancient Technologies and Archaeological Materials, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 116 Observatory, Urbana, IL 61801, [email protected].
E.S. Friedman
Affiliation:
Dept. of Near Eastern Languages and Civilization, University of Chicago, Chicago IL 60637, [email protected].
Get access

Abstract

As part of a broader research scheme intended to examine the relationship between the ceramic and metal industries of Bronze Age Anatolia, a program of compositional analysis by neutron activation was performed on ceramic material dated to the third millennium BC from Göltepe and Kestel, Turkey, the earliest known tin mining and processing sites in the Near East. Fifty-one archaeological samples representing five classes of pottery (crucibles, burnished ware, micaceous ware, fine-slipped ware, and metallic ware) and three local clay samples were analyzed in order to clarify problems related to the sources of the archaeological ceramics. Evidence provided by these experiments indicates that the four classes of domestic pottery and the crucibles derive from at least two distinct sources. One of these sources, the alluvial clay outcrops in the vicinity of Göltepe, was exploited for the manufacture of two types of domestic pottery (burnished ware and micaceous ware), as well as the “industrial” crucible refractories. Metallic ware appears to represent a distinct source group; however, the specific location of the source remains unclear. The geochemical relationship between fine-slipped ware and the other ceramics remains unclear.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 462: Symposium DD – Materials Issues in Art and Archaeology V , 1996 , 239
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1997

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

1. Yener, K.A. and Vandiver, P.B. (1993), “Tin Processing at Göltepe, an Early Bronze Age Site in Analtolia. American Journal of Archaeology 97: 207–238.Google Scholar
2. Yener, K.A., Sayre, E.V., Joel, E.C., Ozbal, H., Barnes, I.L., and Brill, R.H. (1991), “Stable Lead Isotope Studies of Central Taurus Ore Sources and Related Artifacts from Eastern Mediterranean Chalcolithic and Bronze Age Sites,” J. Archaeological Science 18: 541–577.Google Scholar
3. recently, Epstein, S.M. (1993), Cultural Choice and Technological Consequences: Constraint of Innovation in the Late Prehistoric Copper Smelting Industry of Cerro Huaringa, Peru. Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania.Google Scholar
4. recently, Vickers, M. and Gill, D. (1994), Artful Crafts: Ancient Greek Silverware and Pottery. Oxford.Google Scholar
5. Vandiver, P., Yener, K.A. and May, L. (1992), “Third Millenniuum B.C. Tin Processing Debris from Goltepe (Anatolia),” in Materials Research Society Symposium Proceedings: Material Issues in Art and Archaeology III (Vandiver, P.B., Druzik, J.R., Wheeler, G.S., and Freestone, I.C., eds.), pp. 545–569.Google Scholar
6. Adriaens, A., Yener, K.A. and Adams, F. (in press), “Investigation of Thin-Walled Crucibles from Göltepe, Turkey,” J. of Archaeological Science.Google Scholar
7. De Sena, E., Landsberger, S., Peña, J.T., and Wisseman, S. (1995), “Analysis of Ancient Pottery from the Palatine Hill in Rome,” J. of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry 196. 2: 223–234.Google Scholar