The Neolithic in Anatolia: two phases on one page

The frame

This group is not a new period but a grouping for navigation: it shows together the two Neolithic phases of the Met's timeline for Anatolia, the Pre-Pottery Neolithic, about 11,000-6900 BCE, and the Pottery Neolithic, about 6900-6400 BCE. The same source describes the Neolithic as a whole, about 11,000-6400 BCE, as the period during which humans live in villages and first domesticate plants and animals, and distinguishes the phases by whether settlements have pottery vessels. Its overview says that a shift to an economy based largely on farming occurs in this period, "perhaps" to meet the demands of a growing population. Source 1.

Boundaries and overlaps

In the Met's scheme the two phases meet at 6900 BCE, with neither overlap nor gap, and the group ends at 6400 BCE, with the start of the Chalcolithic. The overlaps appear at the sites themselves: UNESCO dates the eighteen Neolithic levels of Çatalhöyük's East Mound to 7400-6200 BC, a range that begins within the Pre-Pottery phase and runs into the Chalcolithic, while the Met gives Çatalhöyük about 6900-6500 BCE. UNESCO assigns Çatalhöyük's West Mound, 6200-5200 BC, to the Chalcolithic period, so the same site continues beyond the group. Sources 1, 2.

On this site

The group holds four articles, two in each phase. In the Pre-Pottery Neolithic: "Göbekli Tepe: monuments built by hunter-gatherers" and "Boncuklu Höyük: a village of mud-brick houses". In the Pottery Neolithic: "Çatalhöyük, East Mound: eighteen levels and two dates" and "Barcın Höyük: an early farming community in northwest Anatolia". Each phase has its own page, with its limits and the reasons for each article's placement.