The Metals Trade and Early Bronze Age Craft Production at Tell Tayinat

Abstract

The Early Bronze Age witnessed the development of extensive long distance trade networks between the Anatolian highlands and the Syro-Mesopotamian lowlands, driven in part by the demands of increasingly urbanized lowland communities in search of the resources needed to sustain their expanding economies. The metals trade played a particularly formative role in this drive towards complexity. This paper will explore the evidence for Early Bronze Age metal production at Tayinat, strategically situated in the North Orontes Valley at the intersection between these two regions. The evidence points to Tayinat’s emergence as an important center of metal refinement and specialized craft production.