A new paradigm for the future of archaeometallurgy in Anatolia: review of Thai archaeology monograph series (TAM)

Year 2022, , 209 - 214, 20.04.2022

Gonca Dardeniz

https://doi.org/10.19111/bulletinofmre.990063

Abstract

This article reviews the Ban Chiang, Northeast Thailand, Volumes 2A, 2B, and 2C edited by Joyce C. White and Elizabeth G. Hamilton with the aim of bringing a new perspective to the understanding of archaeometallurgy in Anatolia. Regardless of specific subject focus such as geology, geomorphology, archaeology, or anthropology, any scholar interested in the field of archaeometallurgy will find a comparanda of their research in the Thai archaeology monograph volumes. White and Hamilton suggest a new paradigm favoring diversity and an anthropological technology-driven model for archaeometallurgical research, which I believe presents an excellent case to change and revise the presumptions of scholars studying metals’ role in ancient Anatolia.

Keywords

Archaeometallurgy, Thailand, Bronze Age, Anatolia, New Paradigm.

Thanks

I thank Rebecca BIERMANN - GÜRBÜZ for editing this manuscript. I acknowledge the three anonymous reviewers of the manuscript for their constructive comments.

References

• Costin, C. L. 1991. Craft specialization: Issues in defining, documenting, and explaining the organization of production. In: Schiffer, M. B. (Ed). Archeological method and theory, 3. University of Arizona Press, Tucson, 1-56.
• Dalton, G. 1977. Aboriginal economics in stateless societies. Earle, T. K., Ericson J.E. (Ed). Exchange Systems in Prehistory. Academic Press, New York, 191- 212.
• Dardeniz, G. 2020. Why did the use of antimony-bearing alloys in Bronze Age Anatolia fall dormant after the Early Bronze Age?: A case from Resuloğlu (Çorum, Turkey). PLoS ONE 15 (7) e0234563.
• Earle, T. K. 1991. The evolution of chiefdoms. Earle, T. K. (Ed). Chiefdoms: Power, Economy and Ideology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 1-15.
• Pigott, V. C. 1999. Reconstructing the copper production process as practiced among prehistoric mining/ metallurgical communities in the Khao Wong Prachan Valley of central Thailand. Young, S. M. M., Pollard, A. M., Budd, P., Ixer, R.A. (Eds). Metals in antiquity. BAR International Series 792, Archaeopress, Oxford, 10–21.
• White, J. C. 1982. Ban Chiang: discovery of a lost Bronze Age. The University Museum, University of Pennsylvania and the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, Philadelphia.
• White, J. C. 1988. Early east Asian metallurgy: The southern tradition. Maddin, R. (Ed). The beginning of the use of metals and alloys: papers from the second international conference on the beginning of the use of metals and alloys, Zhengzhou, China, 21- 26 October 1986. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 175-181.
• White, J. C. 1995. Incorporating heterarchy into theory on socio-political development: The case of South- east Asia. In: Ehrenreich, R. M., Crumley, C.L. and Levy, J. E. (Ed.). Heterarchy and the analysis of complex societies. Archeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association 6, 101– 123.
• White, J. C. 2017. Changing paradigms in southeast Asian archeology. Journal of Indo-Pacific Archaeology 41, 66-77.