New Results and Remarks about Neolithic Pottery in Central Anatolia: A view from Tepecik-Çiftlik
Abstract
Only a couple of years ago, there were no excavated archaeological evidences of a Pottery Neolithic settlement in Cappadocia (Özdoğan, Başgelen (eds.) 1999; Gérard, Thissen (eds.), 2002). Despite the lack of evidence, the potentialities offered by settlements like Köşk Höyük, Pınarbaşı Bor, or Tepecik-Çiftlik were recognized but only discussed theoretically. Up to now, as already stressed by M. Özdoğan (Özdoğan 1999: 9–12; 2002: 253–261), discussions were mainly focused on the possible links between the aceramic site of Aşıklı, which ended around 7400 BC cal., and the emergence of the Pottery Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük East in the Konya plain, where earlier known dates, disregarding the probable aceramic levels, coincide with the end of Aşıklı. The archaeological facts were not homogeneous enough in time or space: the eastern part of Central Anatolia testified for the Aceramic Neolithic that shows evidences of local development leaning heavily back on Upper Mesopotamian influences, and the western part of Central Anatolia bore witness to the Pottery Neolithic period, to which one must add the excavated sites in the Lake District, showing a development pattern based on farm-like settlements (Godon 2004). Recent excavations at Tepecik-Çiftlik, in addition to the excavations at Köşk Höyük and Güvercinkayası located in the same micro-region, start to fill the gap in terms of evidences that follow the ending of Aşıklı.
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References
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