The Domestication of Metals

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 Goltepe, 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.