The Early Neolithic in east Central Anatolia has been under investigation for more than six decades. Some of the sites were excavated as far back as the 1950s, followed by a long break in the research history. The recent research at Aşıklı Höyük and at new sites under excavation now present unique developments in fine tunings our understanding of the Neolithization process of the region. Balıklı, a newly discovered late 9th and early 8th millennium BCE site, displays distinctive characteristics that we can contrast with its contemporaneous neigbour, Aşıklı Höyük.