This contribution aims to provide a first critical overview of alloying practices at Kinet Höyük, a multiperiod site located in the eastern extent of Cilicia (southeast Turkey) that was occupied from the Early Bronze Age to the Crusader Era. The paper will review the results of p-XRF bulk analysis of several hundred copper-based items from the 3rd millennium BC to the Early Medieval period, with the historical dynamics of a harbour site as a convenient backdrop to trace continuity and change in Anatolian metalworking on a grand chronological scale.