Interaction of Prehistoric Pyrotechnological Crafts and Industries

The proposed project is focused on two pyrotechnological industries in prehistory and their specific interaction at one site. The settlement hill ukuriçi Höyük in Western Anatolia revealed an important and extensive metallurgical centre at the beginning of 3rd millennium BC (Early Bronze Age 1) as well as a large spectrum of pottery related to this distinct living and working area. A thorough analysis of cultural objects associated with both of these industries will raise awareness on the interrelation of craft technologies and their dependencies, and the potential of a prehistoric region, which has not received major attention by means of archaeometric research compared to prehistoric sites in the Mediterranean or the Balkans will be demonstrated. The interdisciplinary studies of archaeologists, geologists, metallurgists and archaeometrists are based on already excavated, studied and dated assemblages of metals and pottery and can moreover use already exported samples of pottery as well as of metal mines and ores on site. The project offers the opportunity to study various newly identified raw material sources in the hinterland of ukuriçi Höyük and combine these results with already documented results and data of an important prehistoric production site. Based on geological fieldwork and analytical laboratory results, mining areas for clay and ores/metals should be identified. Therefore the data obtained will be helpful to reconstruct the possible supply with raw materials used in prehistoric times. It would help to enlarge our knowledge on regional relations as well as other questions, like the spread of knowledge and technological transfer between crafts. These discussions could be set on a broader archaeological and archaeometric basis in order to understand how different crafts developed and influenced each other at one specific site in prehistory. The applied project offers the chance to create a database, in which both chemical and petrographic data of different production industries will be analysed in combination. With craftsmen being in the focus of the proposed project, their challenge for technological choices can be evaluated. A systematic, interdisciplinary and holistic study on the questions of identification (exploration and access), extraction, processing, production and exchange of raw materials and their impact on particular social phenomena and structures are planned. This enables us to draw conclusions about social-cultural issues of a prehistoric society and explain cultural historical phenomena from a novel, hitherto unusual, perspective. The studies can be further integrated in successful ongoing research at the specific site in scientific and practical sense. The new proposed studies about interaction of pyrotechnical crafts perfectly enlarge the focus of a current ERC project about cultural developments, societies and their environment as well as interregional relationships.

The project focused on the study of the interaction between pyrotechnic crafts in a specific prehistoric settlement. A hitherto singular and extensive metallurgical centre of the early 3rd millennium BC (Early Bronze Age 1) was found on the settlement hill of ukuriçi Höyük in western Anatolia, at which a large number of ceramic artefacts were found in the working and residential areas. Through a comprehensive and comparative analysis of objects that can be associated with metal workshops and pottery production, knowledge exchange between craftspeople of both specialisations could be traced. Furthermore, a hitherto neglected prehistoric cultural landscape was investigated with archaeometric studies for the first time.The project further aimed to analyse newly identified raw material sources in the areas surrounding ukuriçi Höyük in more detail, and compared them with existing geological data. Geological fieldwork combined with laboratory analyses enabled the identification of deposits of clays and ores and thereby allowed the reconstruction of the internal and external organization of an important prehistoric production centre. Questions about regional exchange relations of the prehistoric population and transfer of technology between crafts could be clarified by these methods.In the course of this project, chemical and petrographic data as well as C14 data were evaluated in an interdisciplinary way by all specialists involved. The focus of the research project was on craftspeople whose technological skills have been influenced by their qualifications and the resources available in the landscape. Effects of both crafts on social, economic and cultural-historical phenomena could be explained. The results of the project could be integrated into ongoing studies of the Research Group Prehistoric Anatolia from both a scientific and practical point of view. The results of the project could be put into a wider supra-regional context including further research data from geology and lithics.