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Articles

• Erdoğu, Burçin
• Uysal, I., Tonguç
• Özbek, Onur
• Ulusoy, Ülkü

Speleothem samples such as flowstone, stalagmite and stalactites are one of the important finds at Ηatalhφyόk, which they have been carried hundreds of kilometers from its source. The “Ηatalhφyόk Speleothem Project” have been initiated with the aim of investigating Ηatalhφyόk’s speleothems and identifying their provenance. In order to achieve this, speleothem samples at Ηatalhφyόk have been recognized and documented, and caves around Ηatalhφyόk have been investigated. Later, both selected Ηatalhφyόk speleothem and cave samples of flowstone, stalagmite and stalactites have been analysed by ICP-MS to recognize similar trace elements. In addition, the ages of samples have been obtained by U-Th method to find similarities between the Ηatalhφyόk samples and speleothem deposits from surrounding caves. The comparative results have been used to identify the sources of Ηatalhφyόk’s speleothems.

• History and Archaeology

• Αρχαιολογία

Çatalhöyük, Cave, Speleothem, ICP-MS, U-Th

Corresponding author: Burçin Erdoğu (berdogu@gmail.com), We wish to express our deepest thanks to Ian Hodder for making available speleothem samples from Ηatalhφyόk. Special thanks are due to Gόlgόn Gόrcan. Without her help the project would not have been possible. Thanks also Serdar Bayarı of Hacettepe University, Mustafa Aktar of Bosphorus University, Chris Doherty of Oxford University and Jian-xin Zhao of Queensland University. The Ηatalhφyόk Speleothem Project was made possible by generously grants from TUBITAK Project no 108K436, and permission from the Turkish Institution of Mining and Technical Research (MTA).

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