The metal production at Düzen Tepe (Southwest Turkey): an archaeological and archaeometric study

Abstract

At the Classical-Hellenistic settlement at Düzen Tepe (SW Turkey), magnetite particles were observed in the majority of the excavation contexts and a considerable amount of metal production waste and metal objects was found in a wide variety of archaeological contexts. In order to find out the origin of the magnetite ore and to determine whether or not the ores, production waste and objects all originated from local metal production activities, a series of archaeological and archaeometric studies were executed. A petrographic study of production waste samples and X-ray fluorescence analysis of production waste and a magnetite ore sample indicated that indeed magnetite was used in the process from which the waste samples resulted. Several inherent characteristics of the magnetite sample used in this study, are likely reflected in the production waste samples. Through a combination of geomagnetic survey and archaeological test soundings a couple of areas probably related to iron production activities could be determined. One location was identified as an area for ore preparation. Although mutual links could not be determined for all three find categories related to metal production (ore, production waste and objects), the study yielded sufficient arguments to assume that metal was produced locally, local magnetite sources were exploited for that reason and at least part of the metal finds from the excavations resulted from that local production.