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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, edesena@students.uiuc.edu.
E.S. Friedman
Affiliation:
Dept. of Near Eastern Languages and Civilization, University of Chicago, Chicago IL 60637, esfl@midway.uchicago.edu.
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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

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References

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