This is the first book to present a comprehensive, up to date overview of archaeological and environmental data from the eastern Mediterranean world around 6000 BC. It brings together the research of an international team of scholars who have excavated at key Neolithic and Chalcolithic sites in Syria, Anatolia, Greece, and the Balkans. Collectively, their essays conceptualize and enable a deeper understanding of times of transition and changes in the archaeological record. Overcoming the terminological and chronological differences between the Near East and Europe, the volume expands from studies of individual societies into regional views and diachronic analyses. It enables researchers to compare archaeological data and analysis from across the region, and offers a new understanding of the importance of this archaeological story to broader, high-impact questions pertinent to climate and culture change.
Introduction: 1. Transforming and changing the Neolithic World in the near East and Europe Peter F. Biehl and Eva Rosenstock; Upper Mesopotamia and Eastern Mediterranean: 2. The late Neolithic Site of Shir in Western Syria: The final phase of occupation circa 6000 BC Karin Bartl; 3. Containers of change: Social and material innovation in Late Neolithic upper mesopotamia Olivier P. Nieuwenhuyse; 4. Mersin-Yumuktepe in the seventh millennium BC: The social dimension of technological changes Isabella Caneva; 5. Changing with the years: Khirokitia (Cyprus) at the turn of the seventh to the sixth millennium B.C. Odile Daune-Le Brun, Fouad Hourani and Alain Le Brun; Anatolia: 6. A conspectus on the status of Tepecik-Ciftlik Excavation (Cappadocia) - intersite and regional outcomes and prospects Erhan Bicakci; 7. The downturn in Tepecik-Ciftlik's ceramic production continuity: An insight towards the rapid emergence of supra-regional homogeneity in ceramic style Martin Godon and Ozan OEzbudak; 8. Catalhoeyuk East and Koesk Hoeyuk: a grand connection? Bleda S. Du ring; 9. Abandoning Catalhoeyuk. Re-shuffling, re-location and migration as the means of mitigating social unease in the late Neolithic Lech Czerniak, Arkadiusz Marciniak; 10. Catalhoeyuk West and the late Neolithic to early chalcolithic transition in Central Anatolia Jacob Brady, Jana Anvari, Ingmar Franz, Goce Naumov, David Orton, Sonia Ostaptchouk, Elizabeth Stroud, Patrick T. Willett, Eva Rosenstock, and Peter F. Biehl; 11. The potter's riddle at Catalhoeyuk - An attempt to connect the late Neolithic and the early chalcolithic pottery assemblages from Catalhoeyuk/Turkey Ingmar Franz and Joanna Pyzel; 12. Pots for a New Millennium: Ceramics and Culture Change in Anatolia around 6000 cal, B.C. Jonathan Last; Aegean and Marmara: 13. Aegean Turkey from the mid seventh to early sixth millennium cal B.C.: A tale of change within continuity Ciler Cilingiroglu; 14. The beginning and the development of farming-based village life in Northwestern Anatolia Necmi Karul; 15. Regional provinces and supra-regional networks in the Aegean before and around 6000 cal B.C. Agathe Reingruber; 16. The turn of the 7th to 6th millennium in Greece: A quiet transition Catherine Perles; Southeast Europe: 17. Continuity and discontinuity in Eastern thrace during the Neolithic period Eylem OEzdogan; 18. Changes through time in the early Neolithic settlement of Kovacevo, Southwest Bulgaria Marion Lichardus-Itten; 19. A hybrid cultural World: The turn of the 7th to the 6th millennium BC in the central Balkans Dusan Boric and Emanuela Cristiani; Modelling the Change: 20. The Neolithisation of Europe from Anatolia: Why did they leave? Jean-Paul Demoule; 21. Modes and models of Neolithisation in Europe: Comments to an ongoing debate Wolfram Schier; Commentaries: 22. Ian Hodder; 23. Mehmet OEzdogan.
Peter F. Biehl is Professor of Anthropology and Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies at the University of California Santa Cruz. Eva Rosenstock is Scientific Coordinator and Lecturer at the Bonn Center for ArchaeoSciences, University of Bonn.
