Exploring the Culture Landscape of Neolithic Hacılar (6500-6100 BC), Southwestern Turkey

Abstract

It has been argued that the Late Neolithic (6500–6100 BCE) settlement pattern in southwestern Turkey is dominated by small farming settlements (mound sites/höyüks) lo- cated in the most optimal zones of the landscape, that is, it exhibited a nucleated settlement pattern. On the basis of new intensive field-walking data from the Burdur Plain, which is known for the Neolithic sites of Hacılar and Kuruçay Höyük, it was possible to test this sup- position and examine to what extent this pattern is biased by research methods rather than reflecting ancient realia. However, the survey failed to revealed any new Neolithic sites, thus largely corroborating the nucleated settlement pattern. These results are in contrast with the succeeding Early Chalcolithic (6100–5600 BCE) period where a number of new sites have been detected that indicate a more dispersed settlement pattern. I argue that the socioeconomic organization of the Neolithic community itself may explain this absence of a dispersed and differentiated settlement pattern during the LN in southwestern Turkey. Considering the developments taking place around the second half of the seventh millen- nium BCE, I argue that this period in southwestern Turkey is a transitional one, during which the Neolithic way of life became established in the region.