Current research at Kültepe-Kanesh : an interdisciplinary and integrative approach to trade networks, internationalism, and identity / edited by Levent Atici, Fikri Kulakoğlu, Gojko Barjamovic and Andrew Fairbairn.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction : Integrating Current Research at Kültepe-Kanesh / Levent Atici, Fikri Kulakoğlu, Gajko Barjamovic and Andrew Fairbairn -- 1. Kültepe-Kanesh in the Early Bronze Age / Sabahattin Ezer -- 2. The Lower Town of Kültepe : Urban Layout and Population / Thomas Klitgard Hertel -- 3. The Size of Kanesh and the Demography of Early Middle Bronze Age Anatolia / Gojko Barjamovic -- 4. Considerations on the Assyrian Settlement at Kanesh / Celine Michel -- 5. Kanesh after the Assyrian Colony Period : Current Research at Kültepe and the Question of the End Bronze Age Settlement / Fikri Kulakoğlu -- 6. An Archaeological Survey in the Vicinity of Kültepe, Kayseri Province, Turkey / Ryochi Kontami, Hiroshi Sudo, Yuji Yamaguchi, and Takahiro Odaka -- 7. The Old Assyrian Glyptic Style : An Investigation of a Seal Style, Its Owners, and Place of Production / Agnete Wisti Lassen -- 8. Behind the Scenes : A Look at Seal Carvers as Artists and Artisans in the Old Assyrian Period / Oya Topcuoğlu -- 9. Metal Technology, Organization, and the Evolution of Long-Distance Trade at Kültepe / Joseph W Lehner -- 10. Human Remains from Kültepe-Kanesh : Preliminary Results of the Old Assyrian Burials from the 2005-2008 Excavations / Handan Üstündağ -- 11. Preliminary Archaeobotanical Investigations of Plant Production, Consumption, and Trade at Bronze Age Kültepe-Kanesh / Andrew Fairbairn -- 12. Food and Ethnicity at Kültepe-Kanesh : Preliminary Zooarchaeological Evidence / Levent Atici -- Concluding Remarks : Kanesh, the City / Norman Yoffee -- Source Index -- Subject Index.

The material remains and the more than 23,500 cuneiform tablets unearthed at the site of Kultepe (ancient Kanesh) shed light on social, political, and economic aspects of the Middle Bronze age (ca. 2000-1700 years BC) in central Anatolia, but also in Upper Mesopotamia. The rich textual record provides ample information on a very sophisticated supraregional market economy, representing one of the best-documented historical cases of long-distance trade in the ancient world. Although the site was first excavated in 1893, followed by intermittent excavations between 1906 and 2005, modern scientific and interdisciplinary excavations have only been undertaken since 2006. The new scientific research at Kultepe-Kanesh has already begun amassing new data and providing us with a unique opportunity to generate new perspectives and to challenge previous models and assumptions about, for example, trade, colonialism, ethnicity, art, religious ideas, identity, and patterns of social, political, and economic organization in the Near East during the Middle Bronze Age. A primary goal of this special volume is to integrate the work of scholars in archaeology, archaeometry, bioarchaeology, geoarchaeology, and history to develop a new synthetic research paradigm for investigating issues of trade, colonialism, ethnicity, art, identity, and urbanization in the Near East in a unified fashion.