Bone implements from Chalcolithic Tepecik-Çiftlik: Traces of manufacture and wear on two classes of bone objects recovered from the 2013 excavation season

Abstract

The site of Tepecik-Çiftlik in southern Cappadocia, Turkey, has provided a rich assemblage of worked bone objects from Pre-Pottery Neolithic (PPN) levels continuing into the extensively excavated Pottery Neolithic (PN) levels and the Early Chalcolithic period (6100-5800 cal BCE). This report presents an initial study of the worked bone objects recovered from the Chalcolithic levels during the 2013 excavation season. This paper examines the methods of manufacture, use-wear traces, and animal species used in the manufacture of two types of Chalcolithic bone tools at Tepecik. The most common tools are pointed implements, primarily made on caprine metapodia, many of which appear to have been used as perforators. Other objects include “idols” made from the first phalanges of equids, including both wild horses and hydruntines.