Conference: Contextualizing the Neolithic: Regional Approaches to Sedentism and Domestication in the Konya Plain,
Date: 8th-10th December
Place: Building V, Amfi 1,
HYBRID
Abstract
Intense and sustained research focussed on a well-defined, circumscribed region, across several decades and through numerous archaeological and palaeoenvironmental projects, has created a uniquely rich and well contextualised evidence base for understanding the Neolithic in the Konya Plain (central Türkiye). This provides an exceptional opportunity to analyse questions such as sedentism and domestication from different analytical perspectives and at different spatial scales, from the household to the interregional level.
The UNESCO World Heritage site of Çatalhöyük, first investigated in the 1960s, has in many ways acted as a catalyst in igniting scientific interest in the area, sparking some of the earliest interdisciplinary works in Southwest Asia, and sustaining the elaboration of cutting-edge conceptual and analytical models across 60 years. This has further stimulated the development of numerous excavations and survey projects that have in time provided a nuanced and complex understanding of communities caught up in the transition from Pleistocene to Holocene and forager to farmer. The resulting long-term commitment to studying a sequence of sites and sets of contemporary sites, in the same circumscribed area, through evolving approaches and methodologies, has generated an unmatched volume of research that has changed the way we look at prehistoric archaeology today.
This conference, co-sponsored and co-hosted by Bilkent University and the British Institute at Ankara, is therefore dedicated to celebrating this commitment, by highlighting the importance of this historical legacy and its connection to present and future collaborative research in the Konya Plain. It aims at assessing our current models of the development of the Neolithic for the area through the integrated perspective of excavation, survey, geoarchaeological and palaeoenvironmental research, and a range of analyses of animal, plant, human and material culture, often employing innovative scientific approaches. There has been a long-term commitment to public outreach and community archaeology and these aspects of work in the Konya Plain will also be highlighted.
For the detailed program and abstract booklet, please follow the link:
https://biaa.ac.uk/events/contextualizing-the-neolithic/