K Aslihan Yener – författare

The results of the Amuq Valley Regional Projects (AVRP) presented in this volume are the outcome of eight seasons of intensive fieldwork (1995-2002) representing the first phase of a long-range, broadly-based archaeological investigation in the Hatay region of southern Turkey. From its inception the research was conceived as a series of coordinated field projects. The detailed and expansive scope of the regional project originated from a number of theoretical and methodological considerations. Encouraged in part by its potential for providing the examination of interactions between technological developments, complex social institutions, natural resources, and the environment, the original Oriental Institute project (then called the Syro-Hittite Expedition) in the 1930s was formally reactivated in 1995. The strategy of taking a regional approach with a series of linked field projects established an unusual multi-institutional laboratory to research key themes that it is hoped will provide explanations about regional and interregional relationships. The initial stage of the research strategy focused on contextualising the settlements by survey, followed by site-specific investigations prior to the resumption of new excavations. The regional surveys targeted the Amuq Valley (the plain of Antioch, today Antakya) and the delta of the Orontes River (today Samandag). Artifactual and micro-scale studies were the focus of the third scale of investigations.

Over the decades, Anatolian metal artifacts have been the focus of extensive scientific analysis. Now fifteen years of field work, current surveys, excavations, and analytical programs regarding transformations in metallurgy in this highly metalliferous region have enabled Aslıhan Yener in Domestication of Metals to focus for the first time on the organization of production within a broader social context.In so doing, the author introduces convincing evidence for a revision of existing models concerning the metal industry. The volume locates a core of technological innovation in the highland zones, where critical resources are in close proximity to the developing polities in the fertile, agricultural lowlands. The Early Bronze Age tin mine, Kestel, and the contemporary workshop and habitation site of nearby Göltepe, illustrate an industrial complex specializing in the production of tin metal. New metallurgical data explain the organization and management of a range of interactive technologies in prehistoric states in Anatolia from 8000-2000 B.C.