In this book, Bleda Düring offers an archaeological analysis of Asia Minor, the area equated with much of modern-day Turkey, from 20,000 to 2,000 BC. During this period human societies moved from small-scale hunter-gatherer groups to complex and hierarchical communities with economies based on agriculture and industry. Dr Düring traces the spread of the Neolithic way of life, which ultimately reached across Eurasia, and the emergence of key human developments, including the domestication of animals, metallurgy, fortified towns and long-distance trading networks. Situated at the junction between Europe and Asia, Asia Minor has often been perceived as a bridge for the movement of technologies and ideas. By contrast, this book argues that cultural developments followed a distinctive trajectory in Asia Minor from as early as 9,000 BC.
- Discusses Asia Minor as a cultural area rather than a periphery of Mesopotamia
- Bridges the gap between the Neolithic (rise of farming) and Early Bronze Age (hierarchical societies, international trace)
- Provides a critical assessment of existing interpretations of the prehistory of Asia Minor and introduces alternative ideas
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Awards
- A Choice Outstanding Academic Title, 2011
Reviews & endorsements
'[This book is] a significant contribution to a much broader effort in the pursuit of a better understood prehistory of Asia Minor … I have no doubt that this book regardless of the more recent publications which cover broader geographic and thematic expanses … will be inspirational to new research into the prehistoric and preliterate periods of Anatolia in the years to come.' Jak Yakar, Bibliotheca Orientalis

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Product details
- Date Published: December 2010
- format: Paperback
- isbn: 9780521149815
- length: 374 pages
- dimensions: 251 x 175 x 20 mm
- weight: 0.91kg
- contains: 62 b/w illus.
- availability: Available
Table of Contents
Introduction
1. The land of Asia Minor
2. Archaeology in Asia Minor
3. Hunter-gatherers of the Epipalaeolithic and Mesolithic (20,000–6,000 BC)
4. Early farmers of the southern plateau (8,500–6,500 BC)
5. Neolithic dispersals (6,500–5,500 BC)
6. Millennia in the middle (5,500–3,000 BC)
7. Elites and commoners (3,000–2,000 BC)
Conclusions.
Look Inside
Instructors have used or reviewed this title for the following courses
- Analysis of the Archaeological Record
Author
Bleda S. Düring, Universiteit Leiden
Bleda Düring is a postdoctoral research fellow and lecturer at Leiden University. He has done extensive fieldwork in Turkey and currently directs the Cide Archaeological Project, surveying the western Turkish Black Sea region. The author of numerous articles in edited volumes and journals, such as Anatolian Studies, the Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeological Dialogues, he is also the author of Constructing Communities: Clustered Neighbourhood Settlements of the Central Anatolian Neolithic.
Awards
- A Choice Outstanding Academic Title, 2011