Investigating Upper Mesopotamian Households using Micro-Archaeological Techniques

Lynn Rainville's revised thesis uses 'micro-debris analyis' to investigate aspects of domestic life in three Early Bronze Age sites, two urban and one rural, in southeastern Turkey. More than 370 micro-debris samples (objects under 10 mm in size) taken from these three sites, Titri Hoyuek, Kazane Hoyuek and Tilbes Hoyuek, are analysed as Rainville tests the application of this approach for revealing daily activities in urban settlements. What she concludes is that studying large, macro finds and features is not sufficient and it is only through recovering and analysing the micro-archaeology, and studying it in tandem with the macro finds, that we can begin to investigate the detailed, multiple, domestic activities going on within urban sites.