Research

Interactions of Prehistoric Pyrotechnics in Crafts and Trades: Sources of Raw Materials, Technological Choices and Influences on ÇUKURİÇİ HÖYÜK

The project focuses on the study of interaction in pyrotechnic crafts at Çukuriçi Höyük in western Anatolia, a hitherto singular and extensive metallurgical center of the early 3rd millennium BC. Through the analysis of objects that can be associated with metal workshops and pottery production, a possible exchange between the craftsmen of both branches will be revealed.

Early Bronze Age metallurgical ensemble from Çukuriçi Höyük (© ERC Prehistoric Anatolia/N. Gail)

The project focuses 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 Çukuriçi 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 will be traced. Furthermore, a hitherto neglected prehistoric cultural landscape will be investigated with archaeometric studies for the first time.

The project focuses 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 Çukuriçi 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 will be traced. Furthermore, a hitherto neglected prehistoric cultural landscape will be investigated with archaeometric studies for the first time.

Thin-section of the most common early Bronze Age pottery ware from Çukuriçi Höyük, a technique applied to a range of different samples (pottery and metallurgical equipment). This ware is characterized by inclusions of quartz-mica schist, mica schist, quartzite, alkali feldspar, muscovite, occasionally epidote, calcite, micrite and augite (© ERC Prehistoric Anatolia/L. Betina)

The project further aims to analyse newly identified raw material sources in the areas surrounding Çukuriçi Höyük in more detail, and compare them with existing geological data. Geological fieldwork combined with laboratory analyses enable the identification of deposits of clays and ores and thereby allow 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 can be clarified by these methods.

In the course of this project, chemical and petrographic data of all specialists involved will be evaluated in an interdisciplinary way. The focus of the research project is craftspeople whose technological skills have been influenced by their qualifications and the resources available in the landscape. Unifying processes of metal and pottery workshops are the knowledge of appropriate sources of raw materials, their procurement, subsequent processing and production, and the exchange of these materials. Effects of both crafts on social, economic and cultural-historical phenomena are to be explained. The expected results of the project can be integrated into ongoing studies of the Research Group »Prehistoric Anatolia« from both a scientific and practical point of view.

Publications

Publikationen

  • B. Horejs – S. Japp – H. Mommsen, Early Bronze Age Pottery Workshops Around Pergamon. A Model for Pottery Production in the 3rd Millennium BC, , in: E. Alram-Stern – B. Horejs (eds.), Pottery Technologies and Sociocultural Connections Between the Aegean and Anatolia During the 3rd Millennium BC, OREA 10 (Vienna 2018) 25–61.
  • L. Peloschek, Marble-Tempered Ware in 3rd Millennium BC Anatolia, in: E. Alram-Stern – B. Horejs (eds.), Pottery Technologies and Sociocultural Connections Between the Aegean and Anatolia During the 3rd Millennium BC, OREA 10 (Wien 2018) 63–76.
  • M. Röcklinger – B. Horejs, Function and Technology. A Pottery Assemblage from an Early Bronze Age House at Çukuriçi Höyük in: E. Alram-Stern – B. Horejs (eds.), Pottery Technologies and Sociocultural Connections Between the Aegean and Anatolia During the 3rd Millennium BC, OREA 10 (Wien 2018) 77–104.
  • L. Peloschek, Social Dynamics and the Development of New Pottery Signatures at Çukuriçi Höyük, Seventh to Third Millennium BC, in: B. Horejs, Çukuriçi Höyük 1. Anatolia and the Aegean from the 7th to the 3rd Millennium BC, OREA 5 (Vienna 2017) 125–137.
  • L. Peloschek, Verarbeitungsprozesse von Tonrohstoffen im prähistorischen und frühkaiserzeitlichen Ephesos, in: K. Piesker (Hrsg.), Wirtschaft als Machtbasis. Beiträge zur Rekonstruktion vormoderner Wirtschaftssysteme in Anatolien, BYZAS 22 (Istanbul 2016) 187–205.
  • M. Mehofer, Çukuriçi Höyük. Ein Metallurgiezentrum des frühen 3. Jts. v. Chr. in der Westtürkei, in: M. Bartelheim – B. Horejs – R. Krauß (eds.), Von Baden bis Troia. Ressourcennutzung, Metallurgie und Wissenstransfer. Eine Jubiläumsschrift für Ernst Pernicka, OREA 3 (Rahden/Westf. 2016) 359–373.
  • L. Peloschek, Archaeometric Analyses of Ceramic Household Inventories. Current Research in Ephesos and at Çukuriçi Höyük, 31. Kazı Sonuçları Toplantısı, 11th–15th May, Erzurum 2015 (Ankara 2016) 253–260.
  • B. Horejs – M. Mehofer, Early Bronze Age Metal Workshops at Çukuriçi Höyük. Production of arsenical copper at the beginning of the 3rd mill. BC., in: A. Hauptmann – D. Modarressi-Tehrani (eds.), Archaeometallurgy in Europe III, Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference, Deutsches Bergbau-Museum Bochum, 29th of June – 1st of July 2011, Der Anschnitt Beiheft 26 (Bochum 2015) 165–176.
  • M. Mehofer, Metallurgy during the Chalcolithic and the Beginning of the Early Bronze Age in Western Anatolia, in B. Horejs – M. Mehofer (eds.), Western Anatolia before Troy. Proto-Urbanisation in 4th Millennium BC? Symposion Proceedings of the International Symposium held at the Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, Vienna, Austria, 21th–24th November 2012, OREA 1 (Vienna 2014) 463–489.

Lectures

Vorträge

  • Wien, ÖAW – Pathways to the Late Neolithic of Central and Western Anatolia. The Case Studies of Çukuriçi Höyük and Çatalhöyük between 6500 and 6000 calBC. Initial Workshop of Scientific Cooperation between Çatalhöyük and Çukuriçi Höyük Teams, 18.–19.10.2018: B. Horejs – C. Burke, Neolithic pottery typology and technology.
  • ÖAW Vienna, Seminar “Pottery as Tools” with P. Day (Univeristy of Sheffield), 17.03.2016: S. Eder – L. Peloschek – M. Röcklinger – Ch. Schwall, Diachronic pottery studies at Çukuriçi Höyük. Shapes, Function and Functionality.
  • Wien, ERC – Prehistoric Anatolia Closing Workshop, 20.10.2016: M. Mehofer, Metallurgical evidence of LC and EBA Çukuriçi Höyük.
  • Wien, ERC – Prehistoric Anatolia Closing Workshop, 21.10.2016: D. Wolf – G. Borg, Geological studies (Çukuriçi Höyük and Kaikos valley).
  • ÖAW Wien, OREA, Households in Prehistory, 28.1.2016: L. Peloschek, The relevance of ceramic fabrics for the reconstruction of household activities at EBA 1 Çukuriçi Höyük.
  • Lyon (Frankreich), Invited lecture at the Université Lumiere Lyon 2, 05.02.2015: L. Peloschek – J. Burlot – Y. Waksman, Archaeometric ceramic analyses in Ephesos. A diachronic perspective.
  • Erzurum (Türkei), 37th International Symposium of Excavations, Surveys and Archaeometry, 11-15 May 2015, Culture and Exhibition Center of Atatürk University Erzurum, organised by the General Directorate for Cultural Heritage and Museums, 15.05.2015: L. Peloschek, Archaeometric ceramic analyses in Ephesos 2015.
  • Wien (Österreich), International Workshop “Pottery Technologies and Sociocultural Connections between the Aegean and Anatolia during the 3rd Millennium BC”, Austrian Academy of Sciences, 21th-23th October 2015, Vienna, 22.10.2015: L. Peloschek, Marble-tempered ware in third Millennium BCE Anatolia.
  • London (England), University College London, Institute of Archaeology, 11.11.2015: L. Peloschek, Beyond regionalism. Foreign elements in the ceramic repertoire of Çukuriçi Höyük (Western Anatolia).
  • Athen, British School at Athens, Fitch-Wiener Labs Seminar Series, 19.03.2013: L. Peloschek, Cross-Craft Interactions at EBA1 Çukuriçi Höyük (Western Anatolia)? Petrographic and Geochemical Analysis of Domestic and Metallurgical Ceramic Assemblages.
  • ÖAI Wien, Geoarchäologie-Workshop, 17.-18.05.2013: D. Wolf, Ephesos in der Prähistorie. Erze und nichtmetallische Rohstoffe.
  • Istanbul, 4. DAI Netzwerktreffen  „Produktion: Stätten, Organisation und Ablauf“, 22.-23.11.2013: L. Peloschek, Verarbeitungsprozesse von Tonrohstoffen in Ephesos.

 

 

Principal investigator

Team

    • Lisa Betina
    • Danilo Wolf (Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg)

    Cooperations

    Funding

    FWF [Project P 25825]