Rana Özbal

Uniparentally-inherited markers on mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and the non-recombining regions of the Y chromosome (NRY), have been used for the past 30 years to investigate the history of humans from a maternal and paternal perspective. Researchers have preferred mtDNA due to its abundance in the cells, and comparatively high substitution rate. Conversely, the NRY is less susceptible to back mutations and saturation, and is potentially more informative than mtDNA owing to its longer sequence length. However, due to comparatively poor NRY coverage via shotgun sequencing, and the relatively low and biased representation of Y-chromosome variants on capture assays such as the

Uniparentally-inherited markers on mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and the non-recombining regions of the Y chromosome (NRY), have been used for the past 30 years to investigate the history of humans from a maternal and paternal perspective. Researchers have preferred mtDNA due to its abundance in the cells, and comparatively high substitution rate. Conversely, the NRY is less susceptible to back mutations and saturation, and is potentially more informative than mtDNA owing to its longer sequence length. However, due to comparatively poor NRY coverage via shotgun sequencing, and the relatively low and biased representation of Y-chromosome variants on capture assays such as the

The transition to sedentary life brought with it a new range of relationships among people in limited indoor spaces which in turn led to newfound organic and personal bonds prescribed by novel requirements, preferences, and likings. Understanding these connections are key to unravelling the key to life within the ancient communities. Micro-scale analyses in the spaces yielded by archaeological excavation allowed for a glimpse towards these insights. Multi-element characterization plastered/compacted floor sediments among the analytical methods that contribute to this effort and ultimately can provide data on past human activities. The wattle and daub structures from the earliest levels of Aşıklı Höyük, among the earliest known instances of such structures in Western Cappadocia, forms the foci of our study. The results of sediment geochemical analyses for two such structures show that they have been used for animal penning and storage, confirming results of micromorphological studies. Öz Yerleşikliğe geçişle birlikte insanın kapalı ve/veya sınırlandırdığı mekanlarla olan ilişkisi pekişmiş, içinde yaşadığı ve organik ilişki içinde olduğu mekanları ihtiyaçları, tercihleri ve beğenileri doğrultusunda şekillendirmiştir. Bu nedenle, arkeolojik kazılarda ortaya çıkarılan mekanların mikro ölçekli analizlerle okumasının yapılması da topluluğun yaşamının anlaşılmasında önemli katkılar sağlamaktadır. Sıvalı ya da sıkılaştırılmış toprak düzlemli mekanların tabanlarından alınan toprakların kimyasal analizleri (çoklu-element analizi) insan faaliyetlerine ilişkin veri sağlaması bakımından bu çabaya katkı sunacak analitik yöntemlerden biridir. Bu bağlamda, çalışmamız, Batı Kapadokya'da yerleşikliğe geçiş sürecine dair en erken örnekleri veren Aşıklı Höyük'ün en erken tabakalarına tarihlenen çamur sıvalı dal örgü (wattle and daub) yapılara odaklanır. Daha önce mikromorfolojik analizlerle de birbirinden farklı amaçlarla kullanılmış olduğu önerilen bu iki yapının tabanlarına uygulanan toprak kimyası analizleriyle, yapılarda hayvan tutma, depolama gibi faaliyetler tespit edilmiştir.

Yerleşikliğe geçişle birlikte insanın kapalı ve/veya sınırlandırdığı mekanlarla olan ilişkisi pekişmiş, içinde yaşadığı ve organik ilişki içinde olduğu mekanları ihtiyaçları, tercihleri ve beğenileri doğrultusunda şekillendirmiştir. Bu nedenle, arkeolojik kazılarda ortaya çıkarılan mekanların mikro ölçekli analizlerle okumasının yapılması da topluluğun yaşamının anlaşılmasında önemli katkılar sağlamaktadır. Sıvalı ya da sıkılaştırılmış toprak düzlemli mekanların tabanlarından alınan toprakların kimyasal analizleri (çoklu-element analizi) insan faaliyetlerine ilişkin veri sağlaması bakımından bu çabaya katkı sunacak analitik yöntemlerden biridir. Bu bağlamda, çalışmamız, Batı Kapadokya'da yerleşikliğe geçiş sürecine dair en erken örnekleri veren Aşıklı Höyük'ün en erken tabakalarına tarihlenen çamur sıvalı dal örgü (wattle and daub) yapılara odaklanır. Daha önce mikromorfolojik analizlerle de birbirinden farklı amaçlarla kullanılmış olduğu önerilen bu iki yapının tabanlarına uygulanan toprak kimyası analizleriyle, yapılarda hayvan tutma, depolama gibi faaliyetler tespit edilmiştir.

The transition to sedentary life brought with it a new range of relationships among people in limited indoor spaces which in turn led to newfound organic and personal bonds prescribed by novel requirements, preferences, and likings. Understanding these connections are key to unravelling the key to life within the ancient communities. Micro-scale analyses in the spaces yielded by archaeological excavation allowed for a glimpse towards these insights. Multi-element characterization plastered/compacted floor sediments among the analytical methods that contribute to this effort and ultimately can provide data on past human activities. The wattle and daub structures from the earliest levels of Aşıklı Höyük, among the earliest known instances of such structures in Western Cappadocia, forms the foci of our study. The results of sediment geochemical analyses for two such structures show that they have been used for animal penning and storage, confirming results of micromorphological studies.

Presented here are a pair of preserved footprints discovered in 2014 at the site of Barcın Höyük, a Neolithic site located in northwestern Turkey. Found within the entrance of Structure 2a, the footprints date to approximately 6400 cal. BC. Footprints are rarely discovered in prehistoric settlements, adding significance to their study and to the conditions that led to their formation and ultimate preservation. This article provides anthropological estimations for the individuals who left the footprints and discusses the possibility of symbolism using contextual information and ethnographic and archaeological parallels. The measurements and analyses confirm that the footprints are the bare left and right foot of a single individual and provide clues about the biological profile of the individual. The footprint of the right foot produces various measurements such as footprint length, breadth and heel breadth. When compared with known standards, the print appears likely to be of an adult male 169.9 cm tall (with a 16.78 CI at 95% ranging from 153.1-186.66 cm) and weighing 71.9 kg (with a 31.14 kg CI at 95% ranging from 40.76 – 103.04 kg).

This article investigates beads, turquoise-like in color, which may be deliberate imitations of genuine semiprecious stone. Although beads from
the seventh-millennium B.C.E. site of Barcın Höyük, located in northwest Anatolia, comprise the focus of this case study, examples of similar blue imitation turquoise beads from nearby contemporary Neolithic and/or Early Chalcolithic sites provide a comparative overview. The fact that turquoise sources lie far away not only likely imbued this semiprecious stone with spiritual importance, as argued by Mary Helms, but also allowed it presumably to function as a way of differentiating the
wearer from others.1 Such a situation evokes ideas of inequality with regard to access to raw materials, supporting Brian Hayden’s claim that social differences started well before the Neolithic.2 The blue beads from
Barcın Höyük, dating to the seventh millennium B.C.E., were created in imitation of turquoise. Our analyses, aimed at identifying the raw material, have demonstrated that a type of bone or fossil bone must have been
used and treated in various ways to achieve the blue color.

This article investigates the process of Neolithisation of the eastern Marmara region of north-west Anatolia by discussing the results of a pilot study to define the development of the clay preparation methods of the first ceramics at Barcın Höyük. We used petrographic analysis on a sample of sherds (n = 34) from Neolithic levels (c. 6600–6200 cal. BC) at the site, and compared our findings with the ceramic technology of Neolithic settlements in neighbouring regions. The results suggested that the composition of the clays used changed over time, moving from the use of heterogeneous metamorphic clays in the first phase of the settlement, to the extensive use of crushed calcite temper in later phases. The development in clay recipes may have involved changes in the strength, toughness and thermal behaviour of the ceramic vessels when used for cooking or boiling over fire. Although the development of cooking ware is seen in Central Anatolia at about the same time as the beginning of the settlement at Barcın Höyük, the use of crushed calcite temper may be specific to the eastern Marmara region and adjacent inland areas. The use of crushed calcite temper may therefore represent a local innovation, although future petrographic studies of early ceramics in Anatolia are necessary to support this interpretation.

Virtual reconstruction of archaeological artifacts has been a challenge in archaeology. Common
reconstruction methods include photography and 3D drawings of the objects from various perspectives.
However, these methods are time consuming and often lack the depth perception needed. Reflectance
Transformation Imaging (RTI) is a novel technique to overcome these obstacles [1], [2]. This easy and
inexpensive technique produces high-resolution 3D images[3], enabling archaeologists to examine artifacts
in fine details.
RTI technique includes two methods: using a dome [4] or using highlights. In this work the dome
method was employed for the first time in Turkey. We imaged various stone, metal, clay, and bone objects
from different perspectives (LEDs in different positions and angles). Processing these LEDs images using
the RTI builder program produces a single 3D image that combines all of the obtained images. Altering the
light positions on the program allows for greater detail and increased depth perception. For example, by
analyzing the RTI images of clay artifacts we could distinguish the fingerprints left by the people who made
and used these objects. The RTI method has the potential to reveal new information about ancient societies.

In extension of the recently established ‘Rapid Climate Change (RCC) Neolithisation Model’
(Clare 2013), in the present paper we demonstrate the existence of a remarkable coincidence
between the exact (decadel-scale) entry and departure dates of the Neolithic into/from the Aegean
(~6600/6050 calBC) with begin/end of RCC-conditions.

Müzelerdeki kültürel mirasın ve arkeolojik araştırma sonuçlarının dijitalleştirilmesi ve eldeki verilerin internet ortamında erişilebilir hale getirilmesi, araştırmacılar arasında bilgi paylaşımının artmasına ve kültürel mirasın korunmasına yardımcı olur. Dünyada pek çok arşiv ve müze, verilerini dijital ortama aktarıp herkesin kullanımına açık hale getirmiştir. Türkiye’de de özellikle bazı özel müzelerde ve kimi arşivlerde bu konuda adımlar atılmaya başlanmışsa da, özellikle kazı ve yüzey araştırmalarından elde edilen verilerin dijitalleştirilmesi yeteri kadar ilgi görmemektedir. Verilerin dijitalleştirilmesi hem bilgiye daha çok kişinin erişmesini sağlar hem de Türk arkeolojisinin bilimsel tartışma ortamına akademik yayın ve çalışmaların sayısını ve kalitesini artırarak katkıda bulunur.

Anahtar Kelimeler: Dijitalleştirme, arkeolojik veriler, müze koleksiyonları, dijital kütüphane, açık arşiv

This chapter explores the local social connotations of styles that are inspired by distant regions. It uses Tell Kurdu, a 6th millennium cal. bce site located in the Hatay province of Turkey, as a case-study. Aspects of the ceramic assemblage and the architecture at Tell Kurdu indicate that the inhabitants maintained prolonged contacts with Halafian societies to the east, Levantine societies to the south and Anatolian societies to the northwest. This chapter deals especially with ceramics of supra-regional character like Halafian painted wares and Levantine-type pedestals, and aims to raise questions about their social uses at Tell Kurdu. In addition to a qualitative and quantitative assessment of wares and shapes, the ceramics are studied contextually. A context-based analysis helps to determine where such wares were concentrated and may ultimately provide insights regarding the social significance they carried. Aspects like vessel shape and possible functions are further used to infer how inter-regional styles were viewed.

Using the notion of the appearance of village life as a heuristic device, this paper assesses newly emerging evidence from the earliest levels at Neolithic Barcın Höyük. Occupation here began at or close to the time of the initial appearance of sedentary farming communities in northwest Anatolia (6600 calBC). The question is raised whether the first inhabitants at the site were recent immigrants, local adopters of farming practices, or a mixture thereof.

A decade of regional survey between 1995 and 2005 in the Amuq Valley in the Hatay province of southern Turkey, following seminal work done in the 1930s, has produced extensive datasets to study the history of human occupation and landscape development in the region. The main insights from the work done by the Amuq Valley Regional Project (AVRP) have been presented recently by Casana and Wilkinson, with significant earlier publications including the University of Chicago dissertation by Jesse Casana, and a multiauthored report on the 1995 to 1998 fieldwork seasons. Particularly important results of the project concern the complex interplay between human settlement and environmental history in the later first millennium BCE and the first millennium CE. These accomplishments of research and publication notwithstanding, ongoing research, including long-term excavation projects in the Amuq Valley at Tell Atchana and Tell Tayinat, continues to refine and alter our current understanding on many points, in particular concerning the Bronze and Iron Ages. There are good reasons, however, to present a synthesis at this point in time on the landscape and settlement history of the Amuq Valley, focusing on transformations in two separate periods, i.e. the pottery-Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods on the one hand, and the Hellenistic to Ottoman periods on the other. Our understanding of the nature and background of transformations in the settlement patterns in these periods has improved significantly in recent years. The current paper builds on the insights presented in said publications, but develops more detailed and differentiated models regarding the diachronic interactions between settlement, landscape, economy and society.

Some pottery forms have a typology that allows them to be inferred in specific functionalities. Evidently, these first approaches, widely studied by researchers, have been complemented with petrographic and organic residues studies to validate their possible uses and functions. In this session, however, it is proposed to start from the variable shape to limit, as far as possible, these uses, validating and expanding these typologies. Topics such as individualized morphology, profile, typology, and quantitative and qualitative data would be discussed. In this sense, those vessels with singular shapes beyond the anthropomorphic or zoomorphic type will be analyzed. To understand the role that this variable (shape) plays in the archaeological record, the inclusion of other materials (lithic, bones, wood) and types of support is considered where the form has also been the basic element of study. Chronologically this research aims to address the early Neolithic and Bronze Age in Europe and the Near East assemblage Deadline: 11 February 2021 More information at www.e-a-a.org/eaa2021/scientificprogramme