Abstract
The following account of the origin, development and diffusion of certain metal types, which appear in Anatolia mainly before 2000 B.C., represents the first part of a larger study of Anatolian metalwork in the Bronze Age. The objects of this study are to bring the corpus of published material more up-to-date; to examine the typological development of the main types; to relate these types to local chronological and cultural divisions; and to indicate the wider relations of the Anatolian metal industry with other centres of production.The need for such a study is illustrated by the fact that S. Przeworski's standard work on this subject, Die Metallindustrie Anatoliens in der Zeit von 1500–700 vor Chr., was published almost twenty years ago, at a time when modern excavation had only begun to lay the foundations of Anatolian archaeology.More recently, Mrs. Maxwell-Hyslop has included some of the Bronze Age metalwork from Anatolia in wider schemes of typological development. But as this treatment tends to compress certain details of local evolution, which are important in a study such as this, I have often had to introduce a fresh classification in order to clarify the development of the Anatolian material. To avoid confusion I have used the prefix “Western Asiatic” to distinguish Mrs. Maxwell-Hyslop's types from my own.