This course will examine regional developments in Anatolia and the Caucasus, from the first sedentary hunter-gatherers of the Pre-Pottery-Neolithic to well-established farming communities in later stages of the Neolithic, thereby emphasising innovations essential to Neolithization processes far beyond the geographical area covered in this course.

The introductory session will provide an overview of central topics and scholarly debates, highlighting the diverse innovations of the period. The next sessions will examine regional and temporal developments through key sites within the different regions. The regions covered in these sessions are the Neolithic in the Tigris and Euphrates Basin, Central Anatolia (with special focus on Çatalhöyük), Western Anatolia (with special focus on Çukuriçi Höyük), Northwestern Anatolia, the Marmara Region, and the Caucasus. The following sessions will synthesise thematic aspects of the Neolithic in Anatolia and the Caucasus – including architecture, material culture, funerary customs and symbolic aspects. Innovations of the Neolithic will be discussed in the last sessions of the course. For this, students will prepare and orally present their research on different Neolithic innovations, followed by a general discussion of the presented topic. Each student will then prepare a brief written essay on the topic of their presentation.