Prelude to village life. Environmental data and building traditions of the Epipalaeolithic settlement at Körtik Tepe, Southeastern Turkey

Benz, Marion; Deckers, Katleen; Rössner, Corinna; Alexandrovskiy, A.L.; Pustovoytov, Konstantin; Scheeres, Mirjam; Fecher, Marc; Coşkun, Aytaç; Riehl, Simone; Alt, Kurt W.; Özkaya, Vecihi

doi:10.3406/paleo.2015.5673

Cited by 30 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…Körtik Tepe is composed of two main cultural layers: one dates to the Middle Ages and the other spans from the Late Epipaleolithic through to the Early Neolithic eras (Özkaya, ; Özkaya & Coşkun, ). A sequence of more than 20 radiocarbon dates places its occupation from 10400 to 9250 cal BC (Benz et al, , ; Benz, Willmy, Doğan, Şahin, & Özkaya, ). The people of Körtik Tepe lived at a time of fundamental social changes, the transition from mobile hunter‐gatherer communities to life in permanent villages (Benz et al, ).…”

Section: Archaeological Context Of Körtik Tepementioning

confidence: 99%

“…All these data suggest that the people from Körtik Tepe exploited all of the available ecological zones such as open forest, river, and steppe environments. The location of the settlement provided an abundance of locales for potential resource exploitation such as freshwater sources for obtaining fish and as watering places for hunted animals, and a large range of plants growing on the river banks and in the fertile hinterland (Benz et al, ; Özkaya & Coşkun, ). The archaeological data reveal that the Körtik Tepe population lived in an ecologically diverse and rich environment (Coşkun et al, ).…”

Section: Archaeological Context Of Körtik Tepementioning

confidence: 99%

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Auditory exostosis: Exploring the daily life at an early sedentary population (Körtik Tepe, Turkey)

Koruyucu

Şahin

Delibaş

et al. 2018

Intl J of Osteoarchaeology

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Auditory exostosis (AE) is a bony anomaly located on the tympanic portion of the temporal bone. Cold water, wind chill, and the effects of temperature are considered to be contributors to the development of AE. It is frequently encountered among surfers, lifeguards, whitewater kayakers, swimmers, and divers. Accordingly, there is a strong relationship between prolonged exposure to cold water and the frequency and grade of AE. For this reason, AE can be accepted as an occupational anomaly.In this study, AE from Körtik Tepe, Turkey, were analysed to understand the lifestyle of early hunter gatherer populations from Anatolia. One hundred twenty-eight individuals and 174 temporal bones from Körtik Tepe were examined for the frequency and severity (graded) of AE. Forty-five individuals (35.2%) have exostosis of various sizes. Half of 40 male individuals and 42.5% of females (n: 40) have AE with no statistically significant difference between the sexes. First observed in individuals 7 years of age, severity and frequency of AE increase with age. Besides increasing in frequency, the increase in size of AE suggest a continuous and prolonged exposure to cold water.The people of Körtik Tepe, which is surrounded by numerous freshwater sources, must have been subjected to cold water through activities such as bathing, cleaning, swimming, and playing in the water, as well as fishing. Our results suggest that the lifestyle of early sedentary people in Körtik Tepe was rather egalitarian with little or no gender differences and was closely connected to aquatic sources.Bioarchaeological data suggest that Körtik Tepe can be accepted as a community of hunter-gatherer-fishermen.

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Section: Archaeological Context Of Körtik Tepementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Archaeological Context Of Körtik Tepementioning

confidence: 99%

Auditory exostosis: Exploring the daily life at an early sedentary population (Körtik Tepe, Turkey)

Koruyucu

Şahin

Delibaş

et al. 2018

Intl J of Osteoarchaeology

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“…Last but not least, the discovery of Epipalaeolithic layers at Körtik Tepe, near Diyarbakır, and the 10th millennium B.C. layers at Hasankeyf offered new insights into the last foragers in southeastern Anatolia (Benz et al 2015;Kartal et al 2018;Miyake et al 2012;Maeda 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Between Anatolia and the Aegean: Epipalaeolithic and Mesolithic Foragers of the Karaburun Peninsula

Çilingiroğlu

Kaczanowska

Kozłowski

et al. 2020

Journal of Field Archaeology

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The Epipalaeolithic and Mesolithic periods of Turkey are poorly understood. The discovery of two sites (Kocaman and Kayadibi) in the Karaburun Peninsula in coastal western Turkey opens a whole new window into our understanding of these periods in Turkey and beyond by providing the first solid evidence for pre-Neolithic foragers. This article presents typological and technological properties of the lithics from these two open-air sites in terms of raw material selection, tool types, and technological preferences and discusses the results in relation to contemporary Anatolian, Aegean, southwest Asian, and southeast European industries. Typological and technological analyses suggest that Kocaman lithics were part of the eastern Mediterranean and northern Aegean Epipalaeolithic traditions; the Kayadibi lithics, on the other hand, correspond well with the Aegean Mesolithic assemblages. The lack of any affinity between the Kayadibi and Initial Neolithic lithic assemblages from western Turkey has important implications about the Neolithization process of western Turkey and the Aegean.

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“…The distribution areas of the wild forms of einkorn, emmer wheat, barley and other ‘Neolithic founder crops’ overlap here and DNA fingerprinting has pinpointed the transition of two wild wheat variants to domesticated crops to this part of the Fertile Crescent [35–39]. Systematic early plant use has been found at a variety of sites, like Cafer Höyük [40], Çayönü [41], Hallan Çemi [42], Jerf el Ahmar [30], and Körtik Tepe [43, 44]. Some of these sites have produced large quantities, in some cases several hundreds, of items for plant food processing (handstones, large grinding bowls and slabs as well as mortars and pestles) [30, 45].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cereal processing at Early Neolithic Göbekli Tepe, southeastern Turkey

et al. 2019

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We analyze the processing of cereals and its role at Early Neolithic Göbekli Tepe, southeastern Anatolia (10th / 9th millennium BC), a site that has aroused much debate in archaeological discourse. To date, only zooarchaeological evidence has been discussed in regard to the subsistence of its builders. Göbekli Tepe consists of monumental round to oval buildings, erected in an earlier phase, and smaller rectangular buildings, built around them in a partially contemporaneous and later phase. The monumental buildings are best known as they were in the focus of research. They are around 20 m in diameter and have stone pillars that are up to 5.5 m high and often richly decorated. The rectangular buildings are smaller and–in some cases–have up to 2 m high, mostly undecorated, pillars. Especially striking is the number of tools related to food processing, including grinding slabs/bowls, handstones, pestles, and mortars, which have not been studied before. We analyzed more than 7000 artifacts for the present contribution. The high frequency of artifacts is unusual for contemporary sites in the region. Using an integrated approach of formal, experimental, and macro- / microscopical use-wear analyses we show that Neolithic people at Göbekli Tepe have produced standardized and efficient grinding tools, most of which have been used for the processing of cereals. Additional phytolith analysis confirms the massive presence of cereals at the site, filling the gap left by the weakly preserved charred macro-rests. The organization of work and food supply has always been a central question of research into Göbekli Tepe, as the construction and maintenance of the monumental architecture would have necessitated a considerable work force. Contextual analyses of the distribution of the elements of the grinding kit on site highlight a clear link between plant food preparation and the rectangular buildings and indicate clear delimitations of working areas for food production on the terraces the structures lie on, surrounding the circular buildings. There is evidence for extensive plant food processing and archaeozoological data hint at large-scale hunting of gazelle between midsummer and autumn. As no large storage facilities have been identified, we argue for a production of food for immediate use and interpret these seasonal peaks in activity at the site as evidence for the organization of large work feasts.

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Prelude to village life. Environmental data and building traditions of the Epipalaeolithic settlement at Körtik Tepe, Southeastern Turkey

Cited by 30 publications

References 28 publications

Auditory exostosis: Exploring the daily life at an early sedentary population (Körtik Tepe, Turkey)

Auditory exostosis: Exploring the daily life at an early sedentary population (Körtik Tepe, Turkey)

Between Anatolia and the Aegean: Epipalaeolithic and Mesolithic Foragers of the Karaburun Peninsula

Cereal processing at Early Neolithic Göbekli Tepe, southeastern Turkey

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