Christoph Bachhuber's book is a most welcome contribution not only to the archaeology of Anatolia, but also in terms of the distinct approach it features in assessing archaeological evidence within a defined geographical entity. Instead of following the conventional archaeological narrative of chronologies and typologies, the author presents his assessment of Early Bronze Age Anatolia by unscrambling the evidence into certain components. The volume consists of nine adequately illustrated chapters organized in line with the author's thematic approach, picturing the emergence of the Early Bronze Age (EBA) and its socio-economic consequences.
The prime focus of the book is western and central Anatolia during the EBA, covering the entire span of the third millennium bc—a very significant time period during which relevant changes took place in the ways of living that had been established thousands of years earlier with the onset of the Neolithic revolution. Conventionally, through most of the Near East the EBA is addressed as the time of urban revolution and the foundation of city-states. Bachhuber presents major advances that took place during the third millennium and that had long-lasting consequences, becoming the driving forces of the new socio-economic life. In this respect, the author calls attention to innovative technological practices giving rise to the ‘secondary products revolution’ (Sherratt, Reference Sherratt, Hodder, Isaac and Hammond1981). Among these, he explicitly exemplifies traction, ‘a technology that harnesses animal power to pull something along the ground (wagon, plough, sledge, chariot)’ (p. 33); newly introduced plants of considerable impact (i.e. grapes and olives); woolly sheep leading to great prosperity via textile production (‘Anatolia shows the salience of wool industry’ (p. 39)); and widespread exploitation of metal deposits, with the development of complex metallurgical technologies capable of alloys and casting. Likewise, modalities of international trade, such as caravan trade, occasionally surface through the volume when the problems of the domestication of Anatolian horses and donkeys are addressed.
Due to its geographical extent and situation between distinct cultural zones (Syro-Mesopotamia, Caucasia, and the Aegean), developing a supra-regional perspective on Anatolia is not easy. This holds true also for the EBA as, until recently, archaeological research in Anatolia had been overshadowed by the discoveries made in neighbouring regions. Southeastern Anatolia and Cilicia were customarily considered as an extension of Syro-Mesopotamia, though as an area marginal to the already developed high cultures of the South. Likewise, while cultures in northeastern Anatolia were associated with those in the Kura Aras basin in Caucasia, central and western parts of the peninsula were synchronized with the cultural entities of the Aegean. In this respect, it is worth stressing that the present volume's geographical coverage, in spite of its title Early Bronze Age Anatolia, is strictly western and central Anatolia, disregarding the other parts of the peninsula. This is already clear from the comparative chronological charts presented in the Introduction. Table 2, besides conveniently introducing chronological denominations devised by the ARCANE Project for western and central Anatolia (ARCANE, 2004‒2016), also includes EBA sequences for the neighbouring regions of Mesopotamia, the Cyclades, and Cyprus. Even though both charts are very useful, it is difficult to understand why some parts of Anatolia were omitted. The total absence of southeastern and eastern Anatolia, for instance, is crucial since they are critically located between Central Anatolia and Mesopotamia. Failure to include southeastern Anatolia in the general picture is a serious bias, considering that the sites excavated along the Upper Euphrates are now understood to have developed particular urban models bridging between the Near East and the West. Including major EBA sites such as Arslantepe or Yumuktepe, at least in the comparative charts, would have helped to orient the reader with regard to comparative models.
The aim of the book is explicitly stated in the first chapter as ‘to localize the study of EBA societies in Anatolia as a counterweight to previous cultural-historical archaeology that has been overwhelmingly diffusionary in nature’ (p. 22). The author's concern with presenting his narrative devoid of diffusionism is apparent throughout the volume, and the omission of southeastern Anatolia noted above seems to reflect Bachhuber's approach: ‘In this study, I have foregrounded data that support a more evolutionary approach to social change’ (p. 184) trying to be free from ‘diffusionist historicism’. Despite this, the author unavoidably goes into the domain of Syro-Mesopotamia, particularly in presenting centralized storage facilities, tokens, and stamp seals as the agrarian foundations of citadel elites (Ch. 6).
Even if there is a certain justification in limiting the focus of the book to western and central Anatolia, total demarcation of the eastern parts of the peninsula from the west leaves a number of questions unanswered. For example, in presenting EBA hearths as the prime symbol of communal and ritual ceremonies, one would at least expect the monumental hearths of Korucutepe, Norşuntepe, or Pulur to be mentioned. Likewise, Bachhuber denotes cremation as an act of ritual, but without even mentioning the extensive EBA cremation cemetery of Gedikli Karahöyük (Duru, Reference Duru2006); the absence of the most apparent analogous material from other parts of Anatolia is somewhat discomforting to any reader with basic knowledge of Anatolia. Similarly, in extensively bringing Alacahöyük burials into discussion, one would expect at least a brief mention of the more or less similar burial recovered at Arslantepe (Frangipane et al., Reference Frangipane, Di Nocera, Hauptmann, Morbidelli, Palmieri, Sadori, Schultz and Schmidt-Schultz2001).
In spite of my uneasiness at the disregard of eastern Anatolia, the volume is an extremely useful work, meticulously prepared, coherent with the author's paradigm of drawing an up-to-date picture of the western parts of the peninsula during the third millennium bc. Chapter 1, titled ‘Four Proto-histories’, introduces the reader to the EBA cultures of Anatolia through extensive narratives about four iconic entities that are not only the cornerstones of the Anatolian Bronze Age but also stand as the proto-history of archaeological research. Three selected sites, Troy, Alacahöyük, and Kültepe, are placed into the general picture of the history of research with a special focus on the interaction and/or impact of Mesopotamian-Akkadian enterprise in Anatolia. Following the narrative based on these three sites, Bachhuber concludes the chapter by looking into the Indo-European problem, correlating linguistic evidence with archaeology. Likewise, in defining the cultural setting of EBA Anatolia, the narrative is not built on conventional modalities of archaeological research, such as artefactual assemblages, but on distinct settlement types, defined as the ‘village’ and the ‘citadel’. The distinction between citadels and villages is extensively defined in Chapter 3, titled ‘Villages’. Here the village is taken as ‘a community and much more than simply a place where farmers live and work’ (p. 53), but a site where relationships between inhabitants and the ‘land they farmed were mediated by more than subsistence and/or economic needs: they were also mediated by a shared identity’ (p. 53). The author presents an explicit and easy to follow description covering various modalities giving rise to the socio-economic system of the EBA, illustrating them by case studies mainly from the EBA settlement sites of Troy, Demircihöyük, and Karataş, all extensively excavated and published, providing solid data.
Chapters 4 to 9 (‘Cemeteries’, ‘The Monumental Choreography of Citadels’, ‘Connectivity and Refinement on Citadels’, ‘Spectacle and Communion on Citadels’, and ‘Metahistory and the Bronze Age in Anatolia’) cover central issues such as burial customs, rituals, and technologies—mainly metallurgy, household economy, etc. In exemplifying prestige objects that signify the elites or the culture of the citadels, the author's main focus is the ‘Wheel-made Plain Wares (WPW)’ rather than the conventional two-handled goblets and the depas amphikypellon. In this respect, stressing WPW is an interesting novelty that is certainly worth considering seriously. Bachuber's reluctance to address conventional symbolic finds is reflected in figurines and idols being only briefly mentioned by connotation to gender, despite EBA assemblages of western and central Anatolia comprising a rich variety of stone, clay, and metal figurines (Bilgi, Reference Bilgi2012). Additionally, issues related to metallurgy and its impact on the social life of the EBA communities and the stimulus for supra-regional exchange mechanisms are explicitly noted. The author is critical of earlier assessments and approaches to metallic assemblages: ‘The positivism entrenched in the methodology of cataloguing the deposits and measuring trends within them has largely distorted the significance of metal assemblages in EBA citadels and cemeteries’ (p. 156), declaring his own stance as ‘I embrace a more “actor-” or- agent-based approach to the exchange and consumption of metal’ (p. 157). Likewise the author presents his criteria for distinguishing egalitarian and stratified communities, which makes following his narrative easier. Multifarious entries on environment, subsistence, and exploitation of natural resources that appear in different parts of the book are worth acknowledging, presenting an up-to-date picture of the interaction between the culture and natural settings of EBA communities. Although Bachhuber is presenting a conspectus, all points are clearly exemplified. In spite of the author's desire to avoid historicism and diffusionism, the impact of Syro-Mesopotamian high culture emerges on various occasions: ‘the more the administrative strategies of Anatolian citadels resemble those of contemporary Syro-Mesopotamia, the more direct the lines of communication’; ‘citadels were familiar with, if not engaged with a Mesopotamia-derived administrative practice’ (p. 157).
Bachhuber, with justification, makes a distinction between German and Anglophone schools of archaeological thinking; it is a fact that the foundations of Bronze Age studies in Turkey were laid mainly by German scholars working in Anatolia and had ‘a corpus that remains on the margins of Anglophone archaeology’ (p. 22). Even if the works of German archaeologists and of the Turks who studied with the Germans displayed ‘diffusionist historicism’, meticulously describing instead of theorising, it is due to their arduous efforts that we now have concrete evidence dependable enough to assess. Likewise, the first generation of British archaeologists, Seton Lloyd, John Garstang, David French, and James Mellaart, were also involved in procuring new data; their assessments, as with German scholars, were for establishing chronological sequences and typological classifications, and for cross-matching comparisons—what nowadays we criticize as ‘cataloguing’. Perhaps, now that we have substantial data, it is time to proceed to the stage of contemplating on ‘universalist evolution’. In this respect, so as to avoid misunderstandings, it is worth noting that Bachhuber's work is truly exceptional and unlike several works written under the impact of ‘Anglophone’ approaches, as it is based on solid facts, all of which are well exemplified and discussed in detail.
Certainly it is not the first work to draw a picture of the social life of a particular region, but it is one of the very few where the author has an excellent grasp of the evidence. We can only hope that the author will resume his work by including the evidence of southeastern and eastern Anatolia into this picture.
A rich bibliography has been included in the volume, also covering the most significant of the earlier studies. Accordingly, more recent ones (Umurtak, Reference Umurtak2013; Özdoğan, Reference Özdoğan, Renfrew and Bahn2014; Bilgen, Reference Bilgen2015, Umurtak & Duru, Reference Umurtak and Duru2015; Reference Umurtak and Duru2016) have been added by the reviewer to the list of references below for the interested reader to update his or her knowledge.
