Economies in Transformation: A Zooarchaeological Perspective from Early Iron Age Arslantepe (South-Eastern Turkey)

The transition from the Late Bronze to the Iron Age is considered a period of great turmoil and profound changes in the whole eastern Mediterranean. Large political and cultural transformations are attested as well as mobility and interrelations of human groups. But how these affected the subsistence economy of the societies involved is a topic that has not yet been precisely discussed in the literature. Recent excavations carried out at the site of Arslantepe have generated interesting new data that can shed fresh light on this question. This article presents the main characteristics of the Early Iron Age zooarchaeological remains unearthed at Arslantepe. A diachronic analysis of the Late Bronze Age material and comparisons with other sites and regions will help to highlight wider potential transformations in agropastoral habits and associated craft productions during the last centuries of the second millennium BC. The contribution improves our understanding of the changes that occurred in the agro-production patterns of a site that was first at the margin of the Hittite sphere of influence and later the capital of one of the most influential independent Iron Age kingdoms