Metal weapons from Karagündüz Necropol

This thesis focuses on the examination of the total of thirty iron artifacts that were recently found during the archaeological excavations at the Early Iron Age cemetery at Karagündüz in the Van region. The examination of these artifacts provides information on the earliest stages of the eastern Anatolian archaeology in the Early Iron Age,a which is one of the least understood periods of the region's cultural history. In this thesis, the total of nine graves and the thirty iron artifacts found in them were examined from a numerous perspectives, including the ways how these artifacts were manufactured and used. The iron artifacts were typologically divided into 5 classes: 1 -daggers, 2-knives, 3-spear head, 4-mace head, and 5-bars with circled endings. The low level of technology involved in their manufacture demonstrates that these artifacts were the products of craftsmen experiencing with metal working techniques. The chemical examinations of the iron samples from the selected artifacts indicates mat they were not manufactured from meteoric iron ores. Instead, they appears to have been produced in a high-temperature atmosphere under slowly cooling conditions. As a consequence, this thesis sheds new light on the development of iron technology in the Lake Van area. It is hoped that further excavations in the region will enhance our understanding of the rise of iron industry in Anatolia.