Contextualising Karaburun> a new area for Neolithic research in Anatolia

Abstract

– Recent surveys led by Ege University in the Karaburun Peninsula discovered multiple prehistoric sites. This article introduces one of the Neolithic sites, 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 material culture suggests that a local west Anatolian community lived here around 6200–6000 cal BC. P-XRF characterisation of obsidian pieces from Kömür Burnu revealed that they were acquired from two geographically distant sources (Melos-Adamas and Göllüdag). These constitute the first evidence of the participation of Karaburun early farmer-herders in exchange networks of Neolithic Anatolia and the Aegean. Notably, the different technological features of these pieces fit well with the dual obsidian mobility model suggested by Marina Mili≤ for the western Anatolian Neolithic.