Lithic Strategies at the Bronze Age Citadel of Kaymakçi (Western Anatolia, Türkiye): Raw material, Technological, and Use-Wear Analyses

Abstract

Raw material, technological and use-wear analysis of lithics from settlement contexts bring detailed insight into a wide range of economic behavior of the site's inhabitants, revealing raw material preferences and distribution, household or specialized production, working activities, and tool recycling. While well preserved material culture like ceramics or spindle whorls reflects only a narrow spectrum of productive activities and metal tools are less preserved, lithics represent a valuable source of such data. Our pilot study aims to analyze the collection from the Middle and Late Bronze Age citadel Kaymak & ccedil;& imath; in western Anatolia, comparing raw material, production and functional diversity of four excavated areas: storage area, gate area and two distinct living areas. Our results suggest mostly local provenance of raw materials, the predominance of inward distribution of blanks alongside opportunistic knapping, common resharpening and remodification of the produced tools, and a wide range of activities processing organic materials.