Anthropology

Archaeologists interested in primary and secondary state formation have often focused their research on inter-regional exchange and cross-cultural interaction. The organization of exchange in the Uruk expansion -the world's first colonial trading system -was examined in a collaborative project of archaeologists and geochemists to determine sources of ancient bitumen (natural petroleum tar) artifacts from an early Mesopotamian trading colony in southeastern Turkey.

Throughout the prehistory and history of the Near East, natural petroleum tar or bitumen was commonly used for waterproofing, mastic, sealing, mortar, medicine, magic and even warfare. The people of ancient Mesopotamia manipulated this adhesive to lower its melting temperature in order to conserve fuel in an area where timber was a scarce resource. Not only was heat employed to change the chemistry of the bitumen to make it more workable, but the bitumen's chemistry was manipulated so less heat was required to re-melt it. Since the widely-accepted theory that bitumen was a recycled utilitarian good is based upon modern ethnographic examples, the purpose of this paper is to present data and a methodology which will enable a reconstruction of patterns of reuse and bitumen in the archaeological record. Résumé Au cours de la préhistoire et de l'histoire du Proche-Orient, le goudron naturel ou bitume a été couramment utilisé pour différents usages : étanchéité, mastic, scellement, mortier, médecine, magie et même armement. En Mésopotamie on a traité cet adhésif pour en abaisser la température de fusion et ainsi pouvoir conserver ce combustible là où le bois faisait défaut. Non seulement la chaleur a été employée pour changer les propriétés chimiques du bitume et le rendre plus maniable, mais on a modifié celles-ci pour que moins de chaleur soit requise pour le liquéfier à nouveau. Parce que fondées sur des exemples ethnographiques modernes et sur la théorie largement acceptée que le bitume est un matériau que l'on recycle, le but de cet article est de présenter et des données et une méthodologie permettant une reconstitution des modes de réutilisation et de recyclage du bitume dans le domaine archéologique.

This research addresses issue of inter-regional trade for the world’s first colonial trading system, the economic expansion of state societies from southern Mesopotamia into southwest Iran and southeast Anatolia, through the use of stable carbon and deuterium isotope analyses of bitumen artifacts. The key goal of the project was to get beyond simply the identification of trade (Schwartz, M., Hollander, D., Stein, G., 1999. Pale ́ orient 25 (1), 67–82) and examine broad regional patterns in the exchange system. To this end, the methodological approach of this research was focused on the reconstruction of general ex- change patterns using a large sample set. The results of these analyses suggest the utility of bulk isotopic analyses in the identification of broad regional patterns, serving as a complement to detailed isotopic and molecular work on asphaltene extractions of bitumen (Connan, J., Nishiaki, Y., 2003. Vol. II: Chalcolithic Technology and Subsistence. The University Museum – The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, pp. 283–306). Some of the data indicate changes in the organization of trade at the site of Hacinebi in southeast Turkey and suggest large economic changes in Anatolia associated with the Uruk expansion.

The spread of Early Transcaucasian (ETC) pottery, portable hearths and archi tecture across a vast swath of the ancient Near East from northeast Anatolia to the southern Levant during thefourth and third millennia BC, has been an issue ofintense research and debate. Recently scholars have suggested a combination of factors such as migration ofpopulations, diffusion, and local emulation offoreign styles to explain this cultural phenomenon. One productive way to examine this problem is with an analysis ofthe chemistry and mineralogy ofETC style pottery to address issues such as geological source, manufacturing techniques and regional diffrences. This paper presents the results of a petrographic analysis ofpottery from Malatya-Elazf region of Thrkey and suggests most ETC style pottery in Anatolia was manufactured locally while a small portion appears to have either been made of imported materials or technology. *

The fourth and fifth seasons of archaeological work at Hirbemerdon Tepe have been crucial for further developing the three major research objectives of the Hirbemerdon Tepe Archaeological Project, which can be summarized as follows: 1) the definition of a clear chronological sequence of occupation at the site; 2) a more complete understanding of the function of the Middle Bronze Age 'architectural complex' located in the High Mound; and 3) the initiation of an intensive survey that will interpret the site catchment and exploitation area (5 km radius on the Tigris' right bank totaling 48 km 2 ).