Metallurgy in the Jezireh during the Third Millennium BC in Light of Archaeological Evidence and Laboratory Analysis

Despite the plethora of metallurgical finds coming from the Jezireh region since the eighties of this century as a result of the salvage excavations in Syria, Turkey and Iraq, the studies have dealt with metallurgy development in the Near East in the Archaeo-Metallurgy literature are only few.
This, in fact, has led this study to focus on the history of metallurgy development in the Near East as a multi-disciplinary, archaeo-metallurgical and archaeometric study in order to analyze all the data that come from these different disciplines.
The Jezireh region has been selected as the focus of this study because it is a key area in the study of metallurgical activity during the third millennium B.C. That allows us to achieve a better understanding of the role of metallurgy in the ancient Near Eastern societies.
The geographic framework chosen for this research goes beyond the problem of the modern borders of the three countries that share the research area.
In our study, 800 metal objects of copper-based alloys (including 250 analysed samples) and other materials related to metalworking (crucibles, molds, slag and ores) from various archaeological sites in the Jezireh region, were studied and re-evaluated to trace the development of metal industry within a geographical context that is culturally homogeneous.
Therefore, this paper discusses the findings of the metal artefacts by focusing on their archaeological, technical, and artistic dimensions. The paper also discusses the features of metal production in the Jezireh region.