The Konya Plain is an endorheic alluvial basin with limited primary resources beyond agricultural fields, clay and reeds. From very early on, people living on the Plain created and maintained networks with neighbouring communities for the procurement of raw materials, including for building, for tools and for dress and self presentation (figure 1). Relevant materials include chipped stone (for sharp implements and weapons/hunting gear), ground stone (for axes, beads/pendants, grinding tools and building materials), pigments (for coloring pottery, textiles, skin, and walls), wood (for objects and buildings), metal (starting in the Chalcolithic) and salt (for cooking and food preservation).
Evidence from the excavations of Pınarbaşı, Boncuklu Höyük and Çatalhöyük demonstrate that such networks were in place already in the Epi-Palaeolithic (ca 14th-13th millennia BC), and became more complex throughout the Neolithic, extendingas far as 200-300 km. Some of the most pronounced patterns of early long distance exchange include the extensive use of Cappadocian obsidian, several types of cherts from various sources, as well as numerous types of ground stone for beads manufacture. Through pXRF analysis of chipped stone and pottery assemblages, KRASP is shedding light on diachronic patterns of raw material procurement and exchange.
Another strand of analysis focuses on the exchange networks of ceramic products. For example, KRASP is developing a detailed chrono-typological, techno-functional and chemical analysis of a particular Early Bronze Age II (ca 2800-2400 BC) ware group, the so-called "Konya Basin Metallic Wares" (KBMW). Our study of this ceramic tradition shows that KBMW circulated in a very large area between the Beyşehir Lake and the Niğde Plain (figure 2). Yet, its manufacture was restricted to a very few centres located in the Plain, where it was produced with a set of similar techniques and decorative motives. The high quality and standardisation of the manufacture of KBMW showcases it as the earliest example of specialised ceramic production in western and central Anatolia.
