Abstract
The process of Near Eastern neolithization and its westward expansion from the core zone in the Levant and upper Mesopotamia has been broadly discussed in recent decades, and many models have been developed to describe the spread of early farming in terms of its timing, structure, geography and sociocultural impact. Until now, based on recent intensive investigations in northwestern and western Anatolia, the discussion has mainly centred on the importance of Anatolian inland routes for the westward spread of neolithization. This contribution focuses on the potential impact of east Mediterranean and Aegean maritime networks on the spread of the Neolithic lifestyle to the western edge of the Anatolian subcontinent in the earliest phases of sedentism. Employing the longue durée model and the concept of ‘social memory’, we will discuss the arrival of new groups via established maritime routes. The existence of maritime networks prior to the spread of farming is already indicated by the high mobility of Epipalaeolithic/Mesolithic groups exploring the Aegean and east Mediterranean seas, and reaching, for example, the Cyclades and Cyprus. Successful navigation by these early mobile groups across the open sea is attested by the distribution of Melian obsidian. The potential existence of an additional Pre-Pottery Neolithic (PPN) obsidian network that operated between Cappadocia/Cilicia and Cyprus further hints at the importance of maritime coastal trade. Since both the coastal and the high seas networks were apparently already well established in this early period, we may further assume appropriate knowledge of geographic routes, navigational technology and other aspects of successful seafaring. This Mesolithic/PPN maritime know-how package appears to have been used by later groups, in the early 7th millennium calBC, exploring the centre of the Anatolian Aegean coast, and in time establishing some of the first permanent settlements in that region. In the present paper, we link this background of newcomers to the western edge of Anatolia with new excavation results from Çukuriçi Höyük, which we have analysed in terms of subsistence strategies, materiality, technology and symbolism. Additionally, further detailed studies of nutrition and obsidian procurement shed light on the distinct maritime affinity of the early settlers in our case study, something that, in our view, can hardly be attributed to inland farming societies. We propose a maritime colonization in the 7th millennium via routes from the eastern Mediterranean to the eastern Aegean, based on previously developed sea networks. The pronounced maritime affinity of these farming and herding societies allows us to identify traces of earlier PPN concepts still embedded in the social-cultural memories of the newcomers and incorporated in a new local and regional Neolithic identity.
Highlights
The process of neolithization has been a hot topic in archaeology ever since V
Viewed from the perspective of Anatolian and Levantine Neolithic trajectories, it has often been stated that the Aegean confronts us with a delayed initiation of neolithization
We are not able to fill the well-known gap between the Mesolithic evidence in the Aegean, northwest and southwest Anatolia and the first farmers and herders in the early Neolithic period
Summary
The process of neolithization has been a hot topic in archaeology ever since V. The pattern of land choice by pioneer farmers in the central and western Mediterranean might be comparable to the process in other parts of the central Aegean coastal zone of western Anatolia (cf Pearce 2013) In this context, the lack of Mesolithic groups (that is, precisely the absence of other populations) might have been an important reason for the newcomers’ choice of this area. Cukurici Hoyuk is situated in a fertile basin of around 10 km, on the southern shore of what in prehistory was a shallow coastal inlet characterized by lagoons and swamps, reaching nearly 20 km inland along the axis of what is the Kucukmenderes river and its deltaic plain (Fig. 1) Such a micro-region was probably an optimal habitat for mobile groups seeking new land for settling, farming and herding. The high-quality polished surface and the convex and V-shaped crosssection of the latter are reminiscent of the stone bracelets with convex and profiled sections
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