Metals without ores : the metallurgy of 3rd Millennium Upper Mesopotamia with special focus on the Jezirah
Within the last 30 years, intensive archaeological work in Upper Mesopotamia showed specific regional characteristics in terms of urbanisation, state formation and material culture. Despite the lack of ores within the region most sites show a variety of metal artefacts of partly excellent craftsmanship. This research aims to increase our understanding of the urbanisation process by exploring metal artefacts and metallurgical debris of especially the sites Tell Chuera, Tell Kharab Sayyar, Tell Mozan, Tell Bderi, Tell Beydar and Tell Raqa'i. It will also look at major similarities and differences between the metallurgy of specific sites and regions. The metallurgical inventories are examined with the help of state of the art technologies (pXRF, EPMA, SEM-EDS, LIA) to reveal their elemental compositions, the technologies employed in their production and their possible provenance. It is aimed to unfold differences and similarities in metal production and metal consumption on the studied sites with special focus on the Jezirah to understand its position among the 3rd millennium tell societies. This thesis discusses on-site metal production, access to sources, trading connections and exchange patterns. A significant
Franke, Kristina A.
Metals without ores : the metallurgy of 3rd Millennium Upper Mesopotamia with special focus on the Jezirah. Within the last 30 years, intensive archaeological work in Upper Mesopotamia showed specific regional characteristics in terms of urbanisation, state formation and material culture. Despite the lack of ores within the region most sites show a variety of metal artefacts of partly excellent craftsmanship. This research aims to increase our understanding of the urbanisation process by exploring metal artefacts and metallurgical debris of especially the sites Tell Chuera, Tell Kharab Sayyar, Tell Mozan, Tell Bderi, Tell Beydar and Tell Raqa'i. It will also look at major similarities and differences between the metallurgy of specific sites and regions. The metallurgical inventories are examined with the help of state of the art technologies (pXRF, EPMA, SEM-EDS, LIA) to reveal their elemental compositions, the technologies employed in their production and their possible provenance. It is aimed to unfold differences and similarities in metal production and metal consumption on the studied sites with special focus on the Jezirah to understand its position among the 3rd millennium tell societies. This thesis discusses on-site metal production, access to sources, trading connections and exchange patterns. A significant
without ore metallurgy millennium upper_mesopotamia special focus within intensive archaeological work upper_mesopotamia show specific regional characteristic term urbanisation state_formation material_culture despite lack ore within_region site show variety metal artefacts partly excellent aim increase urbanisation process explore metal artefact metallurgical_debris especially sit tell tell tell tell tell tell also_look major similarity_difference metallurgy specific site_region metallurgical inventory examine help state_art technology pxrf epma sem_eds reveal elemental_composition technology_employ production possible provenance aim unfold difference_similarity metal_production metal consumption study site special focus position among tell society discus site metal_production access source trade connection exchange pattern significant