The time span between 5500 and 3000 BC in Asia Minor is one about which we know so little that it could be called a ‘Dark Age’ with some justification. This hiatus in our knowledge is a consequence of archaeological research agendas, on the one hand, and is determined by the nature of archaeological remains that have been dated to this period, on the other.

One of the central concerns of archaeological research from its origins to the present is the question of how past societies evolved towards those of modern times. This idea of social evolution has been conceptualised in archaeology mainly along the lines set out by Gordon Childe, who distinguished the following major transitions in Prehistory: first, the emergence of farming and sedentary life in the Neolithic; and, second, the development of urban communities, which started in the Early Bronze Age in Asia Minor.