Greece and Western Turkey: Transaegean relations during the Early Neolithic

It has become common good to view the Thessalian Early Neolithic as earlier and different from the western Turkish neolithic. The recent excavations at Ilipinar, Hoca �esme and Franchthi seem to confirm this view. It will be argued, however, that the earliest pottery-bearing sites in western Turkey and Thessaly were contemporaneous and had a common origin. At the same time, the cultural differences between Western Turkey and Central Anatolia (Konya Plain) during the neolithic will be used to disprove any direct dependence of Western Turkey from the latter area. The axiomatic link �atal H�y�k - Hacilar in the neolithisation process from east to west is argued to be spurious - indeed, the unidirectionalism of this process is questioned. Instead, lacking a direct cultural ancestor, Western Turkey (more specifically, its Aegean part) might be considered a "nuclear zone" in the neolithisation process in its own right.