The Early Bronze Age in Western Anatolia

Edited by Laura K. Harrison, A. Nejat Bilgen, and Asuman Kapuci

Subjects: Archaeology, European History, Anthropology
Series: SUNY series, The Institute for European and Mediterranean Archaeology Distinguished Monograph Series
Hardcover : 9781438481777, 356 pages, April 2021
Paperback : 9781438481784, 356 pages, January 2022

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Table of contents

Illustrations
Acknowledgments

Introduction: The Early Bronze Age in Western Anatolia
Laura K. Harrison, A. Nejat Bilgen, and Asuman Kapuci

Part I: Chronology and Regional Survey

1. Certain Issues of the Western Anatolian Early Bronze Age Awaiting Solutions
Turan Efe

2. Çivril Plain in the Transition Period from the Early Bronze Age to the Middle Bronze Age
Rabia Akarsu

3. Survey of Kanlitaş Mound and Its Environs (Eskisehir/Inonu): The Settlements and Pottery of the Early Bronze Age
Ali Umut Türkcan and Cansu Topal

4. A Look at the Process of Transition from the Chalcolithic Age to the Early Bronze Age in Central Western Anatolia in Light of New Data
Tayfun Caymaz

5. Northwest Anatolian Influences on Early Bronze Age Cultures of Gökçeada (Imbros)‑Yenibademli Höyük
Halime Hüryılmaz

6. A New Contribution to the Western Anatolia Early Bronze Age Chronology: Volute Vessels
Derya Yilmaz

7. Küllüoba Early Bronze Age III Pottery
Murat Türkteki

8. The Figurine/Idol Types of Western Anatolia in the Early Bronze Age and Their Relationship with Cultural Regions
Deniz Sarı

9. Distribution and Characteristics of the Beycesultan Early Bronze Age I Pottery
Sinem Üstün Türkteki

Part II: Architecture, Settlement, and Sociopolitical Organization

10. Urbanism in the Western Anatolian Early Bronze Age
Erkan Fidan

11. Seyitömer Mound during the Early Bronze Age
A. Nejat Bilgen

12. Power and Ritual Practice in the Early Bronze III Period at Seyitömer Höyük: An Integrative Analysis of Movement, Interaction, and Visual Perception
Laura K. Harrison

13. On the Perceptions of Sacred Space during the Early Bronze Age: The Case of Beycesultan
Fulya Dedeoğlu

14. Defense Systems Dated to the Early Bronze Age at Liman Tepe
Ayşegül Aykurt and Hayat Erkanal

15. Sociopolitical Organization and Territories in Western Anatolia during the Early Bronze Age
Ralf Becks

16. Early Bronze Age Graves from Kubad Abad (Toprak Tol Höyük)
Derya Yalçıklı

17. An Early Bronze Age Cemetery in the Caria Region: Kumyeri
Onur Kara

Part III: Material Culture

18. Textile Production and Fishing Technologies at Early Bronze Age I Çukuriçi Höyük
Barbara Horejs and Christopher Britsch

19. A Preevaluation of Libation Vessels Discovered at Seyitömer Mound Early Bronze Age Layer III Sanctuaries
Zeynep Bilgen

20. Seyitömer Höyük Early Bronze Age III Platters
Asuman Kapuci

21. A Group of Stamp Seals from the İzmir Archaeology Museum
Halil Hamdi Ekiz, Neşide Gençer, and Selma Kaya

22. Acemhöyük Early Bronze Age Pottery
Yalçın Kamış

Contributors
Index

Examines the culture and chronology of increasingly complex urban societies in western Anatolia during the Early Bronze Age.

Description

Bringing together expert voices and key case studies from well-known and newly excavated sites, this book calls attention to the importance of western Anatolia as a legitimate, local context in its own right. The study of Early Bronze Age cultures in Europe and the Mediterranean has been shaped by a focus on the Levant, Europe, and Mesopotamia. Geographically, western Anatolia lies in between these regions, yet it is often overlooked because it doesn't fit neatly into existing explanatory models of Bronze Age cultural development and decline. Instead, the tendency has been to describe western Anatolia as a bridge between east and west, a place where ideas are transmitted and cultural encounters among different groups occur. This narrative has foregrounded discussions of outside innovations in the prehistory of the region while diminishing the role of local, endogenous developments and individual agency.

The contributors to this book offer a counternarrative, ascribing a local impetus for change rather than a metanarrative of cultural diffusion. In doing so, they offer fresh observations about the chronology and delineation of regional cultural groups in western Anatolia; the architecture, settlement, and sociopolitical organization of the Early Bronze Age; and the local characteristics of material culture assemblages. Offering multiple authoritative studies on the archaeology of western Anatolia, this book is an essential resource for area research in western Anatolia, a key reference for comparative studies, and essential reading for college courses in the archaeology and anthropology of sociopolitical complexity, European and Mediterranean prehistory, and ancient Anatolia.

Laura K. Harrison is Research Assistant Professor at the University of South Florida. In the Department of Archaeology at Dumlupınar University, Turkey, A. Nejat Bilgen is Professor and Asuman Kapuci is Assistant Professor.