This paper presents a detailed investigation of an Early Bronze Age clay sealing from Boz Höyük, a settlement mound located along the Büyük Menderes valley (inland western Anatolia). The artefact, clearly local in manufacture, was employed as a stopper to seal a bottle/flask and impressed with two different stamp seals. These elements are compared to all other published contemporary sealings in western and central Anatolia, in order to understand the degree of complexity of sealing practices in the region. In turn, evidence of Early Bronze Age Anatolian sealing practices is discussed in relation to the available evidence regarding the degree of social complexity in local communities. It is suggested that, during the Early Bronze Age, sealings were employed for product branding rather than control over storage and redistribution of commodities, and only at the beginning of the second millennium BC did the region witness the introduction of complex administrative practices.

This paper provides a synthetic assessment of a peculiar Early Bronze Age ceramic production from the Konya Basin in southern-central Anatolia (Turkey), known in the literature as “Metallic Ware”. While there have been several studies on this ware, our work presents for the first time a detailed chrono-typology, a functional analysis and an evaluation of its spatial distribution employing ca 340 published and unpublished pieces. We also propose a new term to identify this production in future studies, the “Konya Basin Metallic Ware (KBMW)”.

Fourier‐transform infrared, X‐ray diffraction and chemometrics were used to characterize the mineralogical composition and firing conditions of 59 Early Bronze Age ceramic sherds from the Konya Plain (Turkey). These include the Konya Basin Metallic Ware (KBMW) and a control group of contemporary local products. The analysis indicates significant differences in mineral inclusions and firing temperatures, with KBMW generally being fired above 800°C and characterized by standardized fabric recipes. Assessed together with other published evidence, these results indicate a high degree of specialization in the production of KBMW ceramic assemblages in central Anatolia during the third millennium BCE.