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Bulgarmaden: Thoughts about iron, Bolkardağ and the Taurus mountains

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

K. Aslihan Yener
K. Aslihan Yener*
Affiliation:
Alalakh Excavations Hatay and Amuq Valley Regional Projects, Koç University, Department of Archaeology and History of Art, Rumeli Fener Yolu 34450, Sariyer, Istanbul, Turkey, www.alalakh.org
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Abstract

It has long been suspected that the use of iron predated the so-called meteoric and smelted iron of the later stages of prehistory. Certainly small objects of iron such as awls and pins are found from the Chalcolithic period onwards and the rightly famous iron swords from Alaca Höyük demonstrate skills in making larger weapons in the Early Bronze Age. I document the use of iron ore for hammers and maces at Early Bronze Age sites in the Taurus Mountains and early Chalcolithic Tell Kurdu in the Amuq valley. This intensive understanding of materials and their properties led, millennia later, to the ability to smelt terrestrial iron.

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Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 72 , 2010 , pp. 183 - 191
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 2010

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