ORIGINAL PAPER Provenance of the materials used to make some Late Hittite Monuments at the Karatepe-Aslantaş and Domuztepe sites, Cilicia (southern Turkey) Gilbert Kelling 1 & Selahattin Kadir 2 & Selim Kapur 3 & Erhan Akça 4 & Zehra Yeğingil 5 & Muhsin Eren 6 Received: 21 July 2020 /Accepted: 22 October 2020 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020 Abstract The provenance of the basaltic raw material source(s) used by Hittite sculptors to create the monuments at Karatepe-Aslantaş, Turkey, has been investigated by means of polarising and scanning electron microscopy and image analysis to determine their mineralogy, textural properties and geochemical composition. Information concerning the weathering history of these chemically co-genetic basaltic lavas has been gained using the kaolinisation/plagioclase ratios versus TL values. In total, the results reveal that raw material sources (RMS) in the Domuztepe source area were used by Late Hittite craftsmen for the production of the Karatepe-Aslantaş artefacts, whereas the nearby massive and nonporous Sabunsuyu RMS were not exploited, most probably due to their petrographic properties. The distance of Domuztepe to the Karatepe-Aslantaş site reflects the great physical effort exerted in regard to the transportation of the raw materials from Domuztepe. This in turn provides information on the skills, expertise and knowhow and the social eligibility of the contemporary Late Hittite society and their views in choices concerning their perception on the use of the correct raw materials. The distance also suggests the use of the nearby river currents for the transport of the raw materials. The problems encountered in determining the precise RMS used in making these artefacts, especially the statue of the Storm God, emphasize the need for further studies. In this respect, the weathering patterns of each mineral should be studied in the basaltic specimens in this paper and of many others to be collected from adjacent regions occupied by the Late Hittite peoples. Keywords Basalt . Late Hittite . Kaolinisation . Karatepe . Domuztepe Introduction The native basalts outcropping in Southern Anatolia were ex- tensively used in the Late Hittite period (9th–8th centuries BC) for the production of sculptures, especially at Karatepe- Aslantaş and Domuztepe in Cilicia (Çambel 1948; Bossert et al. 1950; Winter 1979). Moreover, the use of basalts as an ingredient in ancient pottery has recently been observed. Similar massive basalts and tephra are currently being used to make resistant ceramics and construction materials in Southern Turkey (Sakarya and Sakarya 1993; Kapur et al. 1995; Kelling et al. 2000). Preliminary morphological observations of the Late Hittite sculptures, reliefs and inscriptions have revealed that massive, unweathered and non-porous to slightly porous basalts were used for these monuments, whereas porous and partly weath- ered, dark brown to reddish basaltic materials were mainly used for millstones. Earlier studies on provenance were con- fined to the chemistry and/or mineralogy of soil-clay materials (Sakarya et al. 1990; Kapur et al. 1992, 1993, 1995, 1998). This study is the updated version of the earlier published paper in The Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK)–Proceedings entitled “Source determination of the Late Hittite basalt sculptures, reliefs, orthostats and * Selahattin Kadir skadir.icc@gmail.com 1 School of Geography, Geology and Environmental Sciences, University of Keele, Newcastle under Lyme, Staffordshire, UK 2 Department of Geological Engineering, Eskişehir Osmangazi University, TR–26480 Eskişehir, Turkey 3 Departments of Soil Science and Archaeometry, Çukurova University, TR–01330 Adana, Turkey 4 School of Technical Sciences, Adıyaman University, TR– 02040 Adıyaman, Turkey 5 Department of Physics, Çukurova University, TR– 01330 Adana, Turkey 6 Department of Geological Engineering, Mersin University, TR– 33343 Mersin, Turkey Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences (2020) 12:275 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-020-01232-w