What happened in Inland Southwestern Anatolia before 5500 BC? A review of the archaeological evidence from the Selcen-Örenarasi settlement

Abstract

The Upper Meander Basin qualifies as a region where one can follow the characteristics of the material cultures of two important cultural regions in the Neolithic and Early Chalcolithic periods and the changes they underwent. The settlement of Selcen-Örenarasi is strategically located at the pass connecting the plains to the mountains. Its location enables us to make an overall inference concerning the settlement pattern and cultural process of the settlements in this extensive region, which extends from the Lake District to the Coastal Aegean. The archaeological data shows that before the 6th millennium BC the settlements in the basin shared a cultural structure which was common in many aspects. The analogies which can particularly be followed via the monochrome pottery verify this relationship among the Lake District, the Upper Meander Basin in Central Southwestern Anatolia, and the Coastal Aegean. It is also clear that the cultural borders were reshaped and the above-mentioned common cultural structure underwent a change after the 6th millennium BC. Because of this process, the Upper Meander Basin culturally joined the Lake District, as indicated by the painted pottery. On the other hand, the tradition of monochrome pottery continued uninterruptedly in the Coastal Aegean settlements located in and around İzmir. There is no doubt that the mutual relations within the regions concerned did not completely end. However, after the 6th millennium BC, the Upper Meander Basin displayed a culture which was identical with that of the Lake District but differed from the Coastal Aegean. These changes and transformation can be followed via the settlement of Selcen-Örenarasi in the Upper Meander Basin. The systematic surveys in the region document that both the plains and the plateau leaning against the mountainous region were preferred as settlement areas in the basin throughout the Neolithic Period. The same surveys also shows that this settlement order changed at the beginning of the 6th millennium BC when settlements shifted towards the plain. In this paper, it is put forward that this change in the Upper Meander Basin not only reflected a transformation within the region but also affected the Coastal Aegean and even the regions located to the west of the Aegean Sea in terms of its consequences. Likewise, the new settlements which appeared concurrently in these last two regions seem to have been related to the changes in the Upper Meander Basin. It is likely that some of the settlements represented by the monochrome pottery tradition in the Upper Meander Basin in Inland Southwestern Anatolia withdrew towards the plain and integrated with the Lake District, whereas some communities from these same settlements must have dispersed and moved westwards.