Long-distance interaction in Urartu?: Provenance and composition of copper alloys from Ayanis, Turkey

WOS: 000461903500011The paper analyses tin bronze weaponry found at the first-half-of-the-seventh-century-BCE Urartian fortress in the Lake Van region of eastern Turkey. Examples of finely manufactured artefacts provide evidence for the consumption of high-quality bronzes in a well-defined elite context. This study tests for the presence or absence of long-distance procurement of the raw materials used to produce status objects. The results of quantitative elemental and lead isotope abundance ratio analyses show that the bronzes were produced with varying copper tin alloys, and the copper was procured from several possible locations, including Anatolia and Cyprus.[2014 EDB 017]This work was supported by Scientific Research Project 2014 EDB 017 of Ege University, directed by Atilla Batmaz. The authors gratefully acknowledge the former director of Ayanis Excavations, Emeritus Professor Dr Altan Cilingirolu, for generously sharing the material. They also thank the current excavation director, Professor Dr Mehmet Ikl, and his team for their support. The authors thank unsal Yalcn for guidance about taking samples. They are also grateful to Yeim Batmaz for the conservation of the artefacts. Master's students Ece Sezgin and Tuce Tiri are much appreciated for their hard work on processing the archaeological data and for drawings. Thanks are also due to two anonymous reviewers whose comments and suggestions further enhanced this paper