Bone handles discovered at Seyitömer Mound

Social and cultural structures, religious beliefs and technological status of civilizations that existed before written history can be studied through findings composed of different materials.Mankind has utilised each and every object around himself yet through a selective process and regarding particular criteria. The naturally abundant and easy to process bones have been used as raw materials since the prehistoric period. The aesthetic dimension of the tools that became an important part of daily life was also considered and several ornamentations were used.The scope of this study entitled ?Bone Handles Discovered at Seyitömer Mound? covers the bone handles among the bone objects discovered during the excavations between 1991-2010. These bone handles range from Early Bronze to Hellenistic period. The height of these findings varies between 13.2 cm to 2.6 cm while their width varies between 2.6 cm to 1.2 cm. Early Bronze and Middle Bronze bone handles are generally made of animal horns and some are some are scalped at one end, some on both ends. Advanced techniques were used in Achaemenid and Hellenistic bone handles and they display better workmanship. Bone handles were generally ornamented using concentric and single-centered circles. Such ornamentations are observed in Anatolia from Early Bronze Age to the Roman period. Remains of the tools were discovered in the mentioned bone handles. It has been confirmed that these objects were used as handles through a study of literature and comparison with other settlements in Anatolia.The mentioned objects were compared to other findings in contemporary and neighbouring cultures and each object was catalogued with detailed drawings and photographs.Keywords; Seyitömer Mound, Bone, Ornamentation, Handle