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Metallurgy along the East Aegean-West Anatolian Interface in the Second Mill. B.C

Publication at Faculty of Arts |
2016

Abstract

This paper aims at typologically analysing collected bronze objects from the area of the East Aegean-West Anatolian Interface in the second millennium B.C. This area was defined by Penelope Mountjoy in 1998 which based on ceramics, settlements and funeral activities argued that the territory differs from the current powerful centres like island of Creta, Greek Mainland and Central Anatolia.

She also argued the Interface itself can be divided into Lower part and Upper one. Based on closer typological assessment and comparanda, the question of eventual local specific production along the Interface, different from the Aegean or Eastern Mediterranean, is being investigated here.

Metallurgy of 2nd Millennium B.C. in the Interface was not sufficiently dealt yet and from up to 217 collected items, indeed many types of bronzes show a set of specific features. Swords seem to be in many cases more or less same as in Crete or Greece.

However, same Dodekanese swords of type B appear more likely to be a "transitional" type between Karo's type B and Sandar's type C. The only really unique type is Sandar's type H or so called Siana group, which seems to occur only in the Interface and represents interesting mixture of aegean and near eastern influences.

As for knives, the situation might be same, only unique type could be the type also called in this work Siana, based on same long tang on haft for fixation of pommel, as the Siana swords have. Also siana knives contain same central European influences.

Types of spears follow the same typology as those from Crete and Mainland, althought same might appear to be locally producted, especially in the Dodekanese area. The same situation could be for razors, where some of them show slightly typological differences.

Also, the characteristic of bronze metals differs in Lower Interface with stronger minoan-mycenaen influnce from items in Upper Interface which seems to be following more anatolian features.