The Frankfurt University's Southeast Anatolia Project (SOAP): Archaeometric investigations on Early Bronze Age pottery (original) (raw)
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Pottery Technologies in the Aegean and Anatolia During the 3rd Millennium BC: An Introduction
Eva Alram-Stern – Barbara Horejs (Eds.) Pottery Technologies and Sociocultural Connections Between the Aegean and Anatolia During the 3rd Millennium BC, 2018
After several decades of archaeometric investigations on Early Bronze Age pottery, now is the time to bring these manifold results and experts together for a holistic approach of a broader region through socio-cultural interpretations. The archaeometric approach to pottery in the (Greek) Aegean is based on a long tradition and nowadays forms a well-established scientific field in Bronze Age archaeology in that region. Thanks to various research groups and their longterm engagement in developing the methodological and theoretical background – such as the Fitch Laboratory of the British School and the Demokritos lab in Athens, the University of Bonn, and Sheffield University – pottery experts in the Aegean are now able to use various scientific methods based on a well-established scientific framework and comparable data. This state-ofthe-art interdisciplinary approach for Aegean ceramics not only produces a large amount of new and complex data, which are mainly used by specialists in this field, but also leads to a multifaceted picture hardly manageable by non-experts for their socio-cultural follow-up interpretations. Our main aim is focused on combining the archaeometric experts and their scientific questions and data to gain a broader archaeological-cultural contextualisation within one particular time horizon.
We present the results of a comprehensive mineralogical and geochemical (archaeometrical) investigation of ceramics dating to the Early Bronze Age II (2600/2500-2200 BC) and the Middle Bronze Age (2000-1600 BC) from sites located in the Upper Meander Basin of Denizli province in southwestern Anatolia. We analyzed the mineralogical and petrographical characteristics of the samples using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and optical microscopy, and we examined the chemical compositions with X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF). In general, the primary components of the ceramics include coarse-grained quartz, biotite, muscovite, pyroxene, plagioclase, and metamorphic rock fragments; we estimate a firing temperature under 800°C. The ceramics appear to be locally manufactured, given the close relationship between their mineralogical properties and the local geological structure and topography. Our analysis indicates that people living in the mountainous, plateau, and lowland areas each preferred different clay deposits in their pottery production. All of these areas, however, shared similar production technologies.
Pottery Technologies in the Aegean and Anatolia During the 3rd Millennium BC
Pottery Technologies and Sociocultural Connections between the Aegean and Anatolia during the 3rd Millenium BC, 2018
After several decades of archaeometric investigations on Early Bronze Age pottery, now is the time to bring these manifold results and experts together for a holistic approach of a broader region through socio-cultural interpretations. The archaeometric approach to pottery in the (Greek) Aegean is based on a long tradition and nowadays forms a well-established scientific field in Bronze Age archaeology in that region. Thanks to various research groups and their longterm engagement in developing the methodological and theoretical background – such as the Fitch Laboratory of the British School and the Demokritos lab in Athens, the University of Bonn, and Sheffield University – pottery experts in the Aegean are now able to use various scientific methods based on a well-established scientific framework and comparable data. This state-ofthe-art interdisciplinary approach for Aegean ceramics not only produces a large amount of new and complex data, which are mainly used by specialists in this field, but also leads to a multifaceted picture hardly manageable by non-experts for their socio-cultural follow-up interpretations. Our main aim is focused on combining the archaeometric experts and their scientific questions and data to gain a broader archaeological-cultural contextualisation within one particular time horizon.
2018
We present the results of a comprehensive mineralogical and geochemical (archaeometrical) investigation of ceramics dating to the Early Bronze Age II (2600/2500-2200 BC) and the Middle Bronze Age (2000-1600 BC) from sites located in the Upper Meander Basin of Denizli province in southwestern Anatolia. We analyzed the mineralogical and petrographical characteristics of the samples using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and optical microscopy, and we examined the chemical compositions with X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF). In general, the primary components of the ceramics include coarse-grained quartz, biotite, muscovite, pyroxene, plagioclase, and metamorphic rock fragments; we estimate a firing temperature under 800°C. The ceramics appear to be locally manufactured, given the close relationship between their mineralogical properties and the local geological structure and topography. Our analysis indicates that people living in the mountainous, plateau, and lowland areas each preferred different clay deposits in their pottery production. All of these areas, however, shared similar production technologies.
This article appeared in a journal published by Elsevier. The attached copy is furnished to the author for internal non-commercial research and education use, including for instruction at the authors institution and sharing with colleagues. Other uses, including reproduction and distribution, or selling or licensing copies, or posting to personal, institutional or third party websites are prohibited. In most cases authors are permitted to post their version of the article (e.g. in Word or Tex form) to their personal website or institutional repository. Authors requiring further information regarding Elsevier's archiving and manuscript policies are encouraged to visit: http://www.elsevier.com/authorsrights This paper is a first report on the chemical analyses carried out on samples of North-Mesopotamian Metallic Ware from Southeast Anatolia and on clay samples from the Pütürge Massif area, southeast of Malatya (Turkey), collected in the framework of the Southeast Anatolia Project (SOAP) of the Goethe University of Frankfurt/M. The chemical data obtained by applying wavelength dispersive X-ray fluorescence (WD-XRF) spectrometer were used to locate the provenance area of the raw clay source of non-calcareous North-Mesopotamian Metallic Ware, which is a characteristic major feature of the population groups settling in Southeast Anatolia and Northeast Syria in the 3rd millennium B.C. The analytical results show that the raw clay source of the pottery derived from metamorphic rocks with felsic affinity (e.g., schist/slate or similar parent rocks). It is suggested that the similar metamorphic rocks exposed in the Pütürge Massif area may be the source for the non-calcareous clay of the North-Mesopotamian Metallic Ware.