Abstract

      This study investigates specialized craft production at a flint sickle blade workshop at the Early Bronze Age site of Titris Höyük, southeastern Turkey. The excavation of a workshop for these blades permits the reconstruction of the steps in their production from raw material to final product. The results indicate that craft specialization in flint tools was independent of elite control, based in a domestic context, and linked to the rapid growth of urban centers like Titris.
     Research into craft production in the Early Bronze Age (3200 - 2150 BC) in southeastern Turkey has been focused on the specialized production of prestige goods under the control of an elite. Study of the utilitarian items used by the majority of the population has been neglected. One common utilitarian tool was the flint sickle, a large blade called a “Canaanean blade,” used for harvesting grain. Although these blades have been found at many sites in the Near East, there was little evidence for their production until the Titris workshop was excavated.
     More than 700 Canaanean blade cores and 22,225 flint artifacts manufactured in specialized and unspecialized production were examined to determine the raw materials used and the successive stages of the blade production sequence. The spatial distribution of these artifacts in the workshop, which was located in a household, was also analyzed to determine which rooms were used for domestic purposes and which for craft activities.
     Analysis of the raw materials of the blade cores demonstrated that they were used inefficiently and that many were recycled as building material or discarded before being fully exploited. Spatial analysis revealed that some workshop rooms contained domestic artifacts while others contained craft production waste. Study of the location of the workshop, the nature of the blades, and contemporary texts suggested that blade production operated independently of an elite. Craftsmen may have worked at Titris because of its trade connections and the demand for agricultural tools by farmers moving into this growing center. This research demonstrates a strong correlation between independent household-level craft specialization of utilitarian goods and the growth of regional centers in Early Bronze Age Turkey.