Citadel and Cemetery in Early Bronze Age Anatolia is the first
synthetic and interpretive monograph on the region and time period (ca.
3000-2200 BCE). The book organizes this vast, dense and often obscure
archaeological corpus into thematic chapters, and isolates three primary
contexts for analysis: the settlements and households of villages, the
cemeteries of villages, and the monumental citadels of agrarian elites.
The book is a study of contrasts between the social logic and
ideological/ritual panoply of villages and citadels. The material
culture, social organization and social life of Early Bronze Age
villages is not radically different from the farming settlements of
earlier periods in Anatolia. On the other hand the monumental citadel is
unprecedented; the material culture of the Early Bronze Age citadel
informs the beginning of a long era in Anatolia, defined by the
existence of an agrarian elite who exaggerated inequality and the degree
of separation from those who did not live on citadels. This is a study
of the ascendance of the citadel ca. 2600 BCE, and related consequences
for villages in Early Bronze Age Anatolia.