Bronze Axes from the Erzurum-Kars Region

The ›Erzurum-Kars Plateau‹, forming the highest plains of the Anatolian Peninsula, is a natural extension of the Southern Caucasus, in geographical and cultural terms. Besides, the same region hosts the natural passages between the Caucasian World and Anatolia. Despite this particular position, the region still remains as one of the void spaces from the archaeological view. Recent studies demonstrate that the Caucasus, especially the southern part, has been an important ›metallurgical‹ region since the Middle Bronze Age. Although being a natural part of the same region, the Erzurum-Kars Plateau still cannot provide much evidence due to the lack of search. The metallurgical process can only be traced with the help of data provided by a limited number of excavations, but also unfortunately according to the illegal digs and the material seized from the pillagers. This paper aims to focus on a special group of metal findings, the bronze axes, today being preserved in the Erzurum and Kars museum, and to stage an elementary corpus for the Northeastern Anatolian region. The mainstay of this study is based on twenty-three bronze axes, nine from the Erzurum and fourteen from the Kars museum. However, only four of the Erzurum examples were uncovered at archaeological excavations, and the stratigraphical data accompanying these is insufficient and obscure. Five other examples from Erzurum and all Kars examples were ›purchased‹ or sized from the pillagers. It is for sure that a chronological sequence is hard to create with such an assemblage, and the authors are eager to point out that they do not aim to ›introduce‹ the illicitly discovered material, but to try to make an introductive study to make an understanding of the metallurgical potential of the region and its interaction with other regions, due to analogical and typological examples.