ABSTRACT:
In this work the author analyses the development of metallurgy during the late fourth and early third millennium BC - between the Late Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age I - in the main sites of the Upper and Middle Euphrates.
The processing and use of metals, for which we have evidence from the eighth-seventh millennia BC in the Near East, undergoes pivotal changes in the second half of the fourth millennium BC. It is in this period that new and more sophisticated working techniques arise, with an increase in the extraction and use of different minerals, the emergence of the first metal alloys, and the increase in typologies of objects such as complex ornaments, working tools and weapons.
The study analyses which minerals or metal alloys were used in the production of objects and the provenance of these raw materials. It also explores what happened to the communities that populated this area during this period following a break with previous forms of socio-political organization and the arrival, in some areas, of foreign populations from the Caucasus region.
The sites considered in the work are: Korucutepe, Arslantepe, Korukutepe, Norusntepe, Tepecik, Taskun Mevkii and Hassek Höyük on the Upper Euphrates and Birecik, Carchemish and Kurban Höyük on the Middle Euphrates.
AUTHOR: Denise Ferraiuolo
REFEREE: Marcella Frangipane
UNIVERSITY: Sapienza Università di Roma. Department of Scienze dell'Antichità.
DATE OF GRADUATION: 2011
LANGUAGE: ITALIAN