Woodland modification in Bronze and Iron Age central Anatolia: an anthracological signature for the Hittite state?

The Bronze and Iron Ages of central Anatolia encompass a period of significant social and political change. In contrast to the well-documented changes in the social landscape, the environmental landscape for the region at this time is poorly understood. The limited temporal and spatial coverage from environmental records means it is difficult to understand the finer details of environmental change, especially in relation to the archaeology of specific sites. This paper offers a complete and continuous diachronic wood charcoal assemblage for the Middle Bronze Age to Late Iron Age from Kaman-Kalehöyük in central Anatolia. Results show a significant decline in taxa richness from the Middle Bronze Age to the Late Iron Age, particularly during the Hittite Empire period. The decline in richness is followed by a dramatic increase in pine use from the beginning of the Iron Age. The timing and exploitation of key taxa in the Kaman-Kalehöyük assemblage do not match that indicated in the regional pollen data but rather show a clear local signature chronologically matched to the Hittite Empire

Ceremonial plant consumption at Middle Bronze Age Büklükale, Kırıkkale Province, central Turkey

A shaft-like room at the Middle Bronze Age site of Büklükale in central Turkey preserved a rich archaeobotanical assemblage of charred and mineralised plant remains, dominated by fruits, spices and nuts mixed with probable bread and wood charcoals. The remains were recovered in association with numerous ceramic vessels, jewellery and exotic artefacts. We combine identification and analysis of the seeds and wood charcoals contained in this deposit with studies of Old Assyrian and Hittite textual records to investigate the circumstances of the assemblage’s formation and its significance for further understanding trade and plant consumption in Bronze Age Anatolia. We present the earliest archaeobotanical example in the region of rare and exotic plant species being consumed in the context of one or more social gatherings, including those possibly linked to ceremonial or ritual events. This offers new insights into the role of plants in the economic and social life of the southwest Asian Bronze Age, as well as the role of commensality and feasting in early states

Analysis of specialized Iron Age Wares at Kaman-Kalehöyük

During the Iron Age, after the collapse of the Hittite Empire, groups in central Anatolia reorganized and developed new forms of political economy (Yakar 2006). As yet, the nature of these inland political economies, their scale, and their interactions are poorly understood. The relative importance of trade vs. emulation among polities provides one means to evaluate both the nature of local political economic structures and relationships between polities in central Anatolia. In this paper we explore the ceramic evidence for the changes in types and scale of interaction during the Iron Age at the site of Kaman-Kalehöyük (Figure 1a). Kaman is one of several sites currently being excavated that were continuously occupied through this political and economic transition; it is situated between the major Anatolian Iron Age polities (Phrygia and Urartu), providing a measure of the power of local vs. non-local political economies. Ceramics, as one of the most ubiquitous items of material culture that was both locally made and traded, provide a useful avenue for investigating how Kaman-Kalehöyük interacted with its neighbours in the Iron Age

Settlement reorganisation and the rebirth of the Ottoman Empire: Bayesian modelling narrows dates for post-medieval occupation at Kaman-Kalehöyük, Kırşehir Province, Turkey

The Ottoman reoccupation of the site of Kaman-Kalehöyük (Kırşehir Province, Turkey) apparently occurred sometime during the fifteenth century CE, a time of massive territorial and administrative transformation in the Empire. A rich suite of archaeobotanical material recovered from the site offers a potentially invaluable source of information on Ottoman-era Anatolian agroeconomy, especially since historiographic research on the topic has uniformly ignored archaeological perspectives. Here we present results of a multi-proxy analysis aimed at establishing an absolute multiphasic chronology for Kaman-Kalehöyük’s Ottoman occupation, founded upon Bayesian statistical modelling of high-precision radiocarbon dates from cereal remains. We use the new chronology to position Kaman-Kalehöyük’s resettlement within a historical context, allowing a new perspective on settlement responses to large-scale Ottoman sociopolitical change in Anatolia

Woodland modification in Bronze and Iron Age central Anatolia: an anthracological signature for the Hittite state?

The Bronze and Iron Ages of central Anatolia encompass a period of significant social and political change. In contrast to the well-documented changes in the social landscape, the environmental landscape for the region at this time is poorly understood. The limited temporal and spatial coverage from environmental records means it is difficult to understand the finer details of environmental change, especially in relation to the archaeology of specific sites. This paper offers a complete and continuous diachronic wood charcoal assemblage for the Middle Bronze Age to Late Iron Age from Kaman-Kalehöyük in central Anatolia. Results show a significant decline in taxa richness from the Middle Bronze Age to the Late Iron Age, particularly during the Hittite Empire period. The decline in richness is followed by a dramatic increase in pine use from the beginning of the Iron Age. The timing and exploitation of key taxa in the Kaman-Kalehöyük assemblage do not match that indicated in the regional pollen data but rather show a clear local signature chronologically matched to the Hittite Empire

Ceremonial plant consumption at Middle Bronze Age Büklükale, Kırıkkale Province, central Turkey

A shaft-like room at the Middle Bronze Age site of Büklükale in central Turkey preserved a rich archaeobotanical assemblage of charred and mineralised plant remains, dominated by fruits, spices and nuts mixed with probable bread and wood charcoals. The remains were recovered in association with numerous ceramic vessels, jewellery and exotic artefacts. We combine identification and analysis of the seeds and wood charcoals contained in this deposit with studies of Old Assyrian and Hittite textual records to investigate the circumstances of the assemblage's formation and its significance for further understanding trade and plant consumption in Bronze Age Anatolia. We present the earliest archaeobotanical example in the region of rare and exotic plant species being consumed in the context of one or more social gatherings, including those possibly linked to ceremonial or ritual events. This offers new insights into the role of plants in the economic and social life of the southwest Asian Bronze Age, as well as the role of commensality and feasting in early states

Identification of a xanthinuria type I case with mutations of xanthine dehydrogenase in an Afghan child

Xanthinuria due to xanthine dehydrogenase (XDH) deficiency is a rare genetic disorder characterized by hypouricemia and the accumulation of xanthine in the urine. We have identified an Afghan girl whose xanthinuria could be classified as type I xanthinuria based on an allopurinol loading test. Three mutations were identified in the XDH gene, 141insG, C2729T (T910M) and C3886T (R1296W). Site-directed mutagenesis followed by expression analysis in Escherichia coli revealed that not only the frame shift mutation 141insG impairs XDH activity, but also the missense mutation C2729T, while C3886T resulted in major residual activity of about 50% of the wild type. In this report, a case of xanthinuria type I with mutations of XDH was identified and characterized by expression studies