Kömürcü-Kaletepe workshop P:
Early PPNB obsidian networks and the Neolithic transition in Central Anatolia
Didier Binder
After the pioneering work initiated by Colin Renfrew and Marie-Claire Cauvin in Anatolia and the Near East, obsidian has certainly been considered as one of the most emblematic revelations of Neolithic ideology and the complexity of its social forms and networks. The fieldwork and analyses we conducted with Nur Balkan Atlı in 1998-2005, totally changed the perception of the conditions under which obsidian was acquired and processed during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic period before being disseminated over long distances. In addition, this work has made it possible to discuss the identity of the craftsmen, both in terms of their level of specialisation and in terms of their cultural identity, which is very strongly articulated with the PPNB of the Levantine Corridor and the Mesopotamian High Valleys. The recent improvement of the 14C dataset made it now possible to highlight the coexistence of two technical traditions, EPPNB and Epipalaeolithic, in the middle of the 9th millennium BCE in Central Anatolia, at the origin of the emergence of a syncretic expression of the Neolithic in this region.