This paper aims at evidencing the role played by metal procurement and distribution in the intense relationships established between mobile, pastoral communities of the northern and north-eastern Anatolian mountains and the Upper and Middle Euphrates populations in the second half of the 4th and first half of the 3rd millennium BC. These relations seem to have been first managed by emerging early state centers of the Euphrates Valley, such as Arslantepe, which, in the 4th millennium, was able to centralize resources and carry out autonomous strategies of political economy, controlling a wide network of relations with both the southern Late Uruk and Late Uruk-influenced societies and the northern and north-eastern populations of the mountains south of the Black Sea coast. Thanks to the development of powerful centers as Arslantepe, it seems that the Euphrates valley became an attractive place and a meeting point for these mobile populations, also creating an opportunity for them to come into contact with the Syro-Mesopotamian world. The remarkable increase in metal demand and production documented at Arslantepe and in the whole Eastern Anatolian region from the second half of the 4th millennium onwards goes hand in hand with the intensification of their relations with the northern and north-eastern pastoral groups. The author suggests that these mobile communities, thanks to their easy access to the ores and their good relations with the political centers of the valley, may have been the main mediators in the metal circuits and distribution in the whole area. The similarity in technology, metal composition, and types of metal objects in all the areas involved, as well as the continuity shown by the Arslantepe metal products at the beginning of the 3rd millennium, when Kura Araxes-linked cultures dominated the scene, support this hypothesis. It seems that, after the collapse of the Arslantepe centralized system, the Kura-Araxes groups took over the control of the metallurgical production and circulation network in the whole region, probably reaching the border of Upper Mesopotamia.

The role of metal procurement in the wide interregional connections of Arslantepe during the late 4th-early 3rd millennia BC / Frangipane, Marcella. - STAMPA. - (2017), pp. 186-210. - CULTURE AND HISTORY OF THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST. [10.1163/9789004353572_014].

The role of metal procurement in the wide interregional connections of Arslantepe during the late 4th-early 3rd millennia BC

FRANGIPANE, Marcella
2017

Abstract

This paper aims at evidencing the role played by metal procurement and distribution in the intense relationships established between mobile, pastoral communities of the northern and north-eastern Anatolian mountains and the Upper and Middle Euphrates populations in the second half of the 4th and first half of the 3rd millennium BC. These relations seem to have been first managed by emerging early state centers of the Euphrates Valley, such as Arslantepe, which, in the 4th millennium, was able to centralize resources and carry out autonomous strategies of political economy, controlling a wide network of relations with both the southern Late Uruk and Late Uruk-influenced societies and the northern and north-eastern populations of the mountains south of the Black Sea coast. Thanks to the development of powerful centers as Arslantepe, it seems that the Euphrates valley became an attractive place and a meeting point for these mobile populations, also creating an opportunity for them to come into contact with the Syro-Mesopotamian world. The remarkable increase in metal demand and production documented at Arslantepe and in the whole Eastern Anatolian region from the second half of the 4th millennium onwards goes hand in hand with the intensification of their relations with the northern and north-eastern pastoral groups. The author suggests that these mobile communities, thanks to their easy access to the ores and their good relations with the political centers of the valley, may have been the main mediators in the metal circuits and distribution in the whole area. The similarity in technology, metal composition, and types of metal objects in all the areas involved, as well as the continuity shown by the Arslantepe metal products at the beginning of the 3rd millennium, when Kura Araxes-linked cultures dominated the scene, support this hypothesis. It seems that, after the collapse of the Arslantepe centralized system, the Kura-Araxes groups took over the control of the metallurgical production and circulation network in the whole region, probably reaching the border of Upper Mesopotamia.
2017
Overturning certainties in Near Eastern archaeology. A Festschrift in honor of K. Aslıhan Yener
9789004353565
metallurgy, chalcolithic; arslantepe; anatolia
02 Pubblicazione su volume::02a Capitolo o Articolo
The role of metal procurement in the wide interregional connections of Arslantepe during the late 4th-early 3rd millennia BC / Frangipane, Marcella. - STAMPA. - (2017), pp. 186-210. - CULTURE AND HISTORY OF THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST. [10.1163/9789004353572_014].
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11573/760113
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