Contextualizing Karaburun A New Area for Neolithic Research in Anatolia

Abstract

Recent surveys led by the author in Karaburun Peninsula discovered multiple prehistoric sites. This article introduces one of the Neolithic sites called Kömür Burnu in this marginal zone of coastal western Anatolia. The site offered various advantages to early farmer-herders including freshwater and basalt sources as well as proximity to agricultural lands, forested areas and marine resources. The plain slipped pottery from the site suggests a date between 6200-6000 cal. BC for the Neolithic occupation. P-XRF characterization of obsidian pieces from Kömür Burnu revealed that these were acquired from two different sources (Melos-Adamas and Göllüdağ). These constitute the first evidence for the participation of Karaburun early farmer-herders in the exchange networks that were active in Neolithic Anatolia and the Aegean. The differential technological features of these pieces concur well with the dual obsidian mobility model suggested by M. Milić for the western Anatolian Neolithic.