The younger Dryas layer at Boncuklu Tarla and the beginning of village life in the upper Tigris Basin

Abstract

Recent archaeological excavations in the Boncuklu Tarla, Çemka Höyük, and Körtik Tepe settlements in the Upper Tigris Basin have provided a number of finds from the pre-PPNA Period, the Younger Dryas. The new data also opens up the concept of the Proto-Neolithic Period to discussion again, which has been controversial for a long time in the East Jazeera and Northwest Zagros Region. In this context, architectural remains and other small finds discovered in the Boncuklu Tarla settlement area make it possible to re-examine the transition to sedentary life in the Upper Tigris Basin during the Late Epipalaeolithic/Proto-Neolithic Period and the PPNA Period. These archaeological finds show that there were some semi-sedentary or sedentary communities in the Upper Tigris Basin, which exhibits unique geographical and climatic features, starting with the Younger Dryas Period. This is different from the Natufian culture that is thought to have emerged in the Mediterranean temperate climate zone and is known only in the Southern Levant Region.