Stephanie Selover M.A.

Excavating War: The Archaeology of Conflict from Chalcolithic to Early Bronze Age Anatolia

My project seeks to better quantify the evidence of warfare and conflict in archaeological remains from Central and Southeastern Anatolia from the Chalcolithic (ca. 5000 BCE) to the end of the Early Bronze Age (ca. 2000 BCE).
A wide array of archaeological data, including the bioarchaeology of interpersonal violence, weapons, fortification systems, destruction levels, iconography, and the use of landscape and space, will be studied to form a more comprehensive picture. The data utilized will originate primarily from published excavation reports on Central and Southeastern Anatolian Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age sites, along with human remains from the collections at Hacettepe University in Ankara. Over the course of the Chalcolithic to Early Bronze Age periods, many settlements in Anatolia transformed from simple farming communities to early complex societies.
It was during this era that war likely intensified and became a codified part of civilization.
The project questions how warfare effected this change, and vise versa. An overview of the political history of Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age Anatolia will be undertaken in order to more fully understand the environment and conditions under which this alteration occurred.