Mavi rengin ardında: Kuzeybatı Anadolu'daki neolitik Barcın höyükte bulunan turkuaz renkli boncukların sosyal ve metodolojik bir incelemesi

Items of personal ornamentation can reveal much about past societies. This thesis investigates turquoise-blue colored beads found in the seventh millennium B.C.E. site of Barcın Höyük in northwest Anatolia, to reveal the raw material and the techniques involved in the manufacture of the artificially-produced turquoise color. Similar beads are also found in nearby contemporaneous Neolithic and/or Early Chalcolithic sites, sometimes along with genuine turquoise-stone. Considering the similarity in color and shape with beads of turquoise stone, and that turquoise sources lie long distances away from Anatolia, the possibility of imitation is examined. Possibility for imitation also leads to a consideration of imbalances with regard to access to raw materials, and what this could mean for social differentiation in Neolithic Anatolia. A range of different instrumental analyses were conducted on Barcın beads, including optical microscopy, Raman, FTIR (Fourier transform infra-red spectroscopy) and SEM with EDX (Scanning electron microscopy with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy). The analyses revealed that the beads were made of fluorapatite, resulting from the natural transformation of the bone matrix. Laboratory experiments were further conducted on modern and archaeological bones and similar materials, to attempt to replicate the turquoise-blue color of the beads and to understand the production process.