The Role of Metal Procurement in the Wide Interregional Connections of Arslantepe during the Late 4th–Early 3rd Millennia bc

A remarkable increase in metal demand and production at Arslantepe Mound, dating from the second half of the fourth millennium BCE, coincides with intensified interregional connections between mobile pastoral communities in northern and north-eastern Anatolia and populations along the Upper and Middle Euphrates. These relationships were likely facilitated by emerging early state centers like Arslantepe, which served as a hub for cultural exchange with the Syro-Mesopotamian world. The study reveals striking similarities in metal technology, composition, and object types across these regions, alongside continuity in Arslantepe's metal products into the early third millennium BCE, when Kura-Araxes-linked cultures dominated. This suggests that metal procurement played a pivotal role in fostering wide-ranging interregional networks during this period.

(Ed.). (2017). The Role of Metal Procurement in the Wide Interregional Connections of Arslantepe during the Late 4th–Early 3rd Millennia bc. Overturning Certainties in near Eastern Archaeology, 186–210. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004353572_014