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Lithic analysis and the transition to the Neolithic in the Upper Tigris Valley: recent excavations at Hasankeyf Höyük

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 February 2018

Osamu Maeda Open the ORCID record for Osamu Maeda [Opens in a new window]
Osamu Maeda*
Affiliation:
Institute for Comparative Research in Human and Social Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba 305–8571, Japan (Email: maeda.osamu.gm@u.tsukuba.ac.jp)
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Abstract

The excavation of several structures at the site of Hasankeyf Höyük in south-east Anatolia has revealed evidence for the continuity of hunter-gatherer lithic technology into the early stages of the Neolithic in the tenth to ninth millennia BC. In particular, the Nemrik point, previously seen as a hallmark of the early Neolithic, can now be shown to have been in use in a local tradition of hunter-gatherer lithic technology. Overall, the continuity in time and space at Hasankeyf Höyük indicates a long-term persistence of lithic technologies, which contrasts with the pattern of change in the Levant and which suggests different pathways to the Neolithic in different parts of the Fertile Crescent region in the Near East.

Keywords

AnatoliaEpipalaeolithicNeolithisationlithicshunter-gatherers
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 92 , Issue 361 , February 2018 , pp. 56 - 73
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2018 

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