Interdisciplinary approaches to understanding and preserving mudbrick architecture in regional and diachronic contexts

Mudbrick is a challenging material to interpret, maintain, and preserve in terms of planning and treatment decision-making – especially when recovered during archaeological excavation. Further challenges exist where mudbrick remains have been exposed and abandoned, as interactions with the environment (especially water and wind) introduce additional dissolution and damage of the resource. In this paper, we present multidisciplinary research focused on the interpretation and preservation of ancient and vernacular mudbrick architecture in the Marmara Lake Basin in western Turkey. Of interest is the preservation of mudbrick and stone foundations at Kaymakçı, a Middle to Late Bronze Age, ridge-top citadel. We demonstrate that utilizing multiples lines of evidence, including macromorphological, mineralogical, and chemical studies interpreted within the context of extant vernacular traditions in the region, produces a nuanced understanding of the archaeological evidence. Further, ethnographic and experimental archaeological research with local stakeholders allowed for the development of a robust template for testing and implementing sustainable site-preservation strategies for in situ architecture with immediate communities

Made from mud: functional categorization and analyses of Bronze Age earthen materials from Western Turkey

This contribution presents the results of a pilot study of earthen materials excavated at the Middle to Late Bronze Age site of Kaymakçı, located in western Anatolia. It argues that systematic collection and analysis of fragmentary and difficult-to-identify earthen materials is challenging, yet crucial. These materials inform on activities of which traces are preserved in the archaeological record but which have been largely under-researched. Flourishing studies on earthen findings foreground architectural materials, such as mudbrick, and well-preserved features and objects. However, earthen objects and architectural features were utilized more widely than in building architecture and only a small portion of excavated sites has good preservation. We, therefore, present the different categories of earthen materials discovered at Kaymakçı, specifically architecture, installations, and portable items. Our work demonstrates that by incorporating new knowledge of archaeological remains at the site and re-studying the earthen assemblage it is possible to gain a better understanding of the morphological, functional, and social aspects of this dataset

Composing communities: Chalcolithic through Iron Age survey ceramics in the Marmara Lake basin, western Turkey

Diachronic survey in the Marmara Lake basin of western Turkey confirms long-term settlement activity from the 5th millennium B.C. to the present. Here we present the results from a study of ceramics and settlement distribution pertaining to the Chalcolithic through the Iron Age periods (ca. 5th/4th'1st millennium B.C.). Our dataset confirms the value of a multi-pronged approach when establishing ceramic typologies from survey datasets, incorporating distribution in the landscape with macroscopic, microscopic (petrographic), and chemical (Instrumental Neutron Activation) analyses. Our results offer valuable insights into continuity as well as change of ceramic recipes in western Anatolia during the rise of urbanism in the Middle to Late Bronze Age followed by the establishment of an imperial realm in the Iron Age. From a methodological perspective, our results illustrate the value of macroscopic and chemical approaches, including principal component, distribution, density, and discriminant analyses that can be refined further by petrography, for the interpretation of surface survey ceramics. © Trustees of Boston University 2015

Exploring Space, Economy, and Interregional Interaction at a Second-Millennium B.C.E. Citadel in Central Western Anatolia: 2014-2017 Research at Kaymakçı

Current understandings of the archaeology of second-millennium B.C.E. central western Anatolia are enriched by ongoing research at Kaymakçı, located in the Marmara Lake basin of the middle Gediz River valley in western Turkey. Discovered during regional survey in 2001, the site offers a critical node of exploration for understanding a previously unexamined period in a well-traversed geography thought to be the core of the Late Bronze Age Seha River Land known from Hittite texts. Here we present results from the first three seasons of excavation on the citadel of Kaymakçı plus a study season (2014–2017), introducing the site’s chronology, historical and regional context, and significance through presentation of excavation areas as well as material and subsistence economies. With reference to such evidence, we discuss the site’s development, organization, and interregional interactions, demonstrating its place in local and regional networks that connected Aegean and central Anatolian spheres of interest