Current Research and New Evidence for the Neolithization Process in Western Turkey

Abstract

Increasing research in western Anatolia since the 1990s onwards shows that the Neolithic way of life in this region emerged in the first half of the seventh millennium BC and evolved rapidly in the same millennium. Current data indicate western Anatolia, which is located alongside the primary zone of Neolithization in the Near East, has a complex constitution rather than being a bridge or barrier between east and west. In this article, data from past and current excavations in western Anatolia are discussed over time and space. In this context, eastern Thrace, where there are strong connections with west Anatolia, is also included.