Abstract

POSSIBLE CONTACTS BETWEEN UPPER MESOPOTAMIA AND CENTRAL ANATOLIA DURING THE EARLY NEOLITHIC

Harald HAUPTMANN
Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Karlstrasse 4, 69017 Heidelberg, DE.
adw.kkh@gmx.de

Upper Mesopotamia, defined as the region of the Taurus piedmont around the Euphrates and Tigris, played a key role in the neolithisation process of the Near East. The view to regard Upper Mesopotamia merely as a peripheral zone to the Levant has become obsolete. Sites such as Göbekli Tepe, Gürçu Tepe, Nevali Çori, Çayönü, Urfa-Yeni Yol and Karahan Tepe, in fact the whole Urfa Region, provide us with a different perspective of the Upper Mesopotamian Early Neolithic.

This recently exposed archaeological evidence, including the pre-Neolithic settlements in the eastern part of Upper Mesopotamia and in the Sinjar area, would postulate an independent development for the Early Neolithic throughout the region. That it would derive from a 'nuclear zone' located in the Levant is no longer acceptable. On the contrary, Upper Mesopotamia constitutes an original and still hardly appreciated core area by itself within the neolithisation process, and it seems also to have influenced certain cultural concepts in Central Anatolia. In this respect, it is likely that the special Upper Mesopotamian buildings used for congregation and initiation rites found their equivalents in Central Anatolia (e.g., HV and T buildings in Asikli Höyük). Still, and despite the fact that Central Anatolia and Upper Mesopotamia show some clear analogies, both regions would suggest in the structures of their respective settlements, for instance, and partly in their symbolism and art, evident local origins for each of them, ultimately giving proof of belonging to different traditions.