Paper short abstract:

Within the ethnographic record, metalworking has been cross-culturally attested as typically male expertise. In this contribution, the organization of metalworking as (male?) craft expertise will be discussed through historical anthropology and prehistoric archaeological data.

Paper long abstract:

In the Aegean prehistory, during the Early Bronze Age, in particular, metal objects have long been studied as markers of rank, craft specialization, and socio-political change. A prominent prehistoric archaeologist of his time, Gordon Childe, claimed that the first smiths were the first to abandon kinship ties. According to him, male itinerant smiths worked in exchange for shelter and food and were the first independent craftsmen. New data emerging from excavations of settlement in Early Bronze Age western Anatolia and eastern Aegean, however, shed new light onto craft specialization and early metalworking in this region and period. In this contribution, the organization of metalworking as (male?) craft expertise will be discussed through historical anthropology and prehistoric archaeological data.

At the Early Bronze Age settlement of Çukuriçi Höyük in western Anatolia, metal production was not only attested in single workshops but was overall village expertise. At this site, metalworking was associated with other domestic activities, within houses. The Early Bronze Age settlement of Çukuriçi Höyük, therefore, provides evidence for metalworking as a part-time, generalized craft, that was integrated into the domestic mode of production. At Çukuriçi Höyük, metalworking cannot be understood as typically a male craft, commonly identified as such within the ethnographic record. Instead, metalworking at this site appears to cross-cut gender and age differences within and between houses. As this contribution shows, metalworking at Çukuriçi Höyük may not have led to the abandonment of kinship ties but their reinforcement, through cooperation and knowledge sharing between houses.