Radivojević, M;
Rehren, T;
Farid, S;
Pernicka, E;
Camurcuoğlu, D;
(2017)
Repealing the Çatalhöyük extractive metallurgy: The green, the fire and the 'slag'.
Journal of Archaeological Science
, 86
pp. 101-122.
10.1016/j.jas.2017.07.001.
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Abstract
The scholarly quest for the origins of metallurgy has focused on a broad region from the Balkans to Central Asia, with different scholars advocating a single origin and multiple origins, respectively. One particular find has been controversially discussed as the potentially earliest known example of copper smelting in western Eurasia, a copper 'slag' piece from the Late Neolithic to Chalcolithic site of Catal-hoyuk in central Turkey. Here we present a new assessment of metal making at Çatalhöyük based on the re-analysis of minerals, mineral artefacts and high-temperature materials excavated in the 1960s by J. Mellaart and first analysed by Neuninger, Pittioni and Siegl in 1964. This paper focuses on copper-based minerals, the alleged piece of metallurgical slag, and copper metal beads, and their contextual relationship to each other. It is based on new microstructural, compositional and isotopic analyses, and a careful re-examination of the fieldwork documentation and analytical data related to the c. 8500 years old high-temperature debris at Çatalhöyük. We re-interpret the sample identified earlier as metallurgical slag as incidentally fired green pigment, which was originally deposited in a burial and later affected by a destructive fire that also charred the bones of the interred body. We also re-confirm the contemporary metal beads as made from native metal. Our results provide a new and conclusive explanation of the previously contentious find, and reposition Çatalhöyük in a new narrative of the multiple origins of metallurgy in the Old World.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Repealing the Çatalhöyük extractive metallurgy: The green, the fire and the 'slag' |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.jas.2017.07.001 |
| Publisher version: | http://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2017.07.001 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions. |
| Keywords: | MetallurgySlagCopper mineralsPigmentsÇatalhöyükAnatolia |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > Institute of Archaeology UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > Institute of Archaeology > Institute of Archaeology Gordon Square |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1571679 |
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