By author > Poolman Laurel

Archaeological investigations at Zincirli Höyük have recently uncovered Middle Bronze Age levels with monumental architecture, and preliminary faunal results provide insight into the productive strategies employed by people once associated with these buildings. Middle Bronze contexts at Zincirli show a pattern of animal management geared towards the production of wool, with evidence of direct access between occupants of the monumental buildings and managed wool herds. This pattern parallels results from the faunal analyses of other prestigious MB contexts in Anatolia, the Levant, and Upper Mesopotamia. Our preliminary results attest to links between large, centralized institutions, sheep herding, and, ultimately, wool and textile production. Occupants attached to elite spaces of MB Zincirli and their Near Eastern peers appear to be participants in similar supraregional political economies, in which elite institutions sought to directly involve themselves in the production of wool and woolen textiles.