WORLD NEOLITHIC CONGRESS
SANLIURFA, TÜRKİYE
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Parallel Sessions (Sitting: 1)

G02 - Early Productive Behaviour, or the Regional and Global Problems with the Terms Neolithic/ Neolithisation

Session Organisers: Hans Georg K. Gebel
Category: Conceptual - Theory
Session Abstract:
The session invites us to test the term Neolithic and conventional understandings and models of Neolithisation processes from regional and global perspectives by reflecting on new findings (such as productive foraging) and confronting them with evidence not fitting. We always come up against the applicability limits of these terms when they inappropriately reflect the complexity and intricacy of phenomena or evoke misleading generalisations for their local, regional, supra-regional and global variabilities. "Neolithic" phenomena and processes also occurred before or after Neolithic "core periods", were polycentric and polycyclic in various ways and geographically shifting, reversible, failing, behaved acyclic/asynchronous. The tendency of research to prioritise individual stimuli and/or to negate multidisciplinary holistic approaches reinforces the conceptual problems with the terms. The session aims to open a global academic discourse to highlight the potential pitfalls of "reductionism" in Neolithic research and to discuss if the world's Neolithics share basic traits and a common nature in creating the new social phenotype characteristic for productive lifeways (as opposed to foraging lifeways). The productive use of natural and human resources - including the cognitive territories with their skills and dispositions created to serve these purposes – was aimed at control towards security, growth/reproducibility, and defence. Do these characterise all Neolithics to varying degrees, without foraging elements ever disappearing completely? Each contribution should attempt to give a brief outline of the relevant traits of the regional/ supra-regional Neolithic trajectories (Subsistence modes, Environmental technologies and adaptations, Built territories, Technologies and consumption, Social organisation, Belief/ Cognitive systems, Exchange networks) and outline which research approaches shaped these results. This is in order to approach the question of which interacting systems enabled the sustainable establishment and adaptation of productive environments, impaired them or caused them to fail. Was productive behaviour the common denominator and momentum of these processes, or do the globally different permanent transitions from foraging to producing - from taking to making - include substantially different human dispositions and ontologies? All these questions are intended to depict the polycentric and asynchronous panorama of early productive humans.
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Room: A

Start Time - End Time Authors Title
10:00 - 10:20 Alexander Wasse, Joanne Clarke Choice in the Face of Change. How 'Neolithic' Were Cyprus and the Greater Syrian Desert in the 7th and 6th Millennia BC?
10:20 - 10:40 Hamil Samira The Neolithic in north-west Algeria
10:40 - 11:00 Arkadiusz Marciniak The Central Anatolia Neolithic – a globalization perspective
11:00 - 11:20 Xiaoran Wang Reassessing Regional Economy During the Neolithization: Nevali Cori and Yumin from the Fertile Arcs of Western and Eastern Asia

G08 - Biomolecular and Stable Isotope Windows on Lifestyles, Environments and Evolution in the Neolithic

Session Organisers: Melanie Roffet-Salque, Richard Evershed
Category: Archaeometry
Session Abstract:
The most significant developments in the past 30 years in the study of Neolithic people have been the emergence of biomolecular and stable isotope proxies. The most widely applied approaches include stable isotope analyses of skeletal remains and lipids preserved in pottery vessels. The use of these proxies is underpinned by extensive investigations of reference materials and experimental studies, as well as analyses of thousands of finds from prehistoric cultures around the world. Likewise, ancient DNA is delivering important levels of understanding of human, animal and plant origins and relationships, and aspects of their evolution. Beyond these a number of new proxies are in the offing, notably proteins in pottery and dental calculus, which are set to add new dimensions to palaeodietary reconstructions. Even when used alone these biomolecular proxies have achieved spectacular new levels of understanding of Neolithic cultures. This conference session will explore the future potential offered by existing and emerging new biomolecular and isotope proxies for Neolithic studies. Contributions are encouraged that present new proxies, address the validation of existing proxies and demonstrate the integration of different lines of evidence. Multi-proxy studies, and the development of “big data” and statistical approaches to explore more deeply complex phenomena underpinning the adaptation of humans, animals and plants to new environments and the living of sedentary lifestyles are especially welcomed. We are particularly interested in receiving contributions presenting new biomolecular or stable isotope proxies for environment and subsistence stressors, such those related to crop failures, zoonotic diseases and climate change/deterioration.
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Room: C

Start Time - End Time Authors Title
10:00 - 10:20 Cheryl Makarewicz A Critical Assessment f Stable Isotopes As a Proxy for Neolithic Mobility: Lessons from the Tessellated Neolithic (Geo)environments of the Southern Levant
10:20 - 10:40 Adrià Breu Barcons, Hadi Özbal, Rana Özbal, Pınar Özükurt, Cafer Çakal, Ayla Türkekul Bıyık, Sidar Gündüzalp Tracing Anatolian Neolithic Foodways Through Isotopic And Biomolecular Proxies In Organic Residues From 7th And 6th Millennium Pottery Vessels.
10:40 - 11:00 Sidar Gündüzalp, Ayla Türkekul Bıyık, Adrià Breu Barcons, Rana Özbal Unveiling Neolithic Cooking Practises: Organic residue analyses of the Initial Neolithic pottery from the 7th Millennium BCE, Sumaki Höyük in the Upper Tigris Basin
11:00 - 11:20 Rana Özbal, Adrià Breu Barcons, Hadi Özbal, Laurens Thissen, Ayla Türkekul Bıyık, Fokke Gerritsen The Emergence and Evolution of Dairying in Neolithic Northwest Anatolia: Insights from Barcın Höyük

G09 - Putting Domesticates in their Place

Session Organisers: Melinda Zeder
Category: Domestication / Subsistence Economy
Session Abstract:
This session brings together researchers working in different areas of the world to explore the context of initial domestication of plants and animals and their subsequent dispersal. Participants will provide an overview of the ecological setting of domestication and dispersal, as well as the subsistence strategies developed in world areas from which domesticates either emerged or were merged into. Papers will explore questions of the richness and diversity of endemic plants and animals in these different settings, trade-offs between sedentism and mobility, the interaction of resident hunter-gatherers and migrant farmers, and the overall role of domesticates within subsistence strategies of groups with both emergent and introduced domesticates.
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Room: B

Start Time - End Time Authors Title
10:00 - 10:20 Xinyi Liu Conceptual bridges between biological domestication and early food globalization
10:20 - 10:40 Sarah Mcclure The social ecology of the spread of farming in the Adriatic: new insights from the Mesolithic to Neolithic transition
10:40 - 11:00 Peter Rowley-Conwy Voyagers in search of land and resources: the early agricultural colonisation of Britain and the West Mediterranean
11:00 - 11:20 Anne-Brigitte Gebauer, T. Douglas Price The northern Frontier of European farming, Evidence from Southern Scandinavia

G18 - The Impact of Neolithic Architecture – the Emergence of Human Built Environment

Session Organisers: Moritz Kinzel, Emmanuel Baudouin
Category: Architecture and Constructed Environment
Session Abstract:
This session aims to highlight the impact of the emergence of architecture in the Neolithic on human social behaviour, the changes in the perception of space and development of building technology. Neolithic architecture can be understood as a largescale laboratory for testing structural and spatial solutions; some of them are lasting until today; e.g. the right angle. However, no buildings codes were established; resulting in constructions built without structural safety coefficients - stretching occasionally far beyond nowadays limits. Locally available material sources defined building techniques and materials. Environmental conditions, topographical settings and social constraints influenced shape and structural designs. In addition, recent anthropological and archaeological discussions have shown how architecture can be seen as an important form of symbolic representation, a material expression of concepts, values and social orders. The socio-cultural factor may have have played a significant role in the diversity of building techniques or the dynamics of changes (invention, convergence, diffusion, etc.). In other words, Neolithic people modified buildings to adapt them to their traditions, changing needs and diversifying activities as well as responded to climate changes and destructive events, e.g. earthquakes, flooding or fire. We would like to invite colleagues to discuss continuity, change and discontinuity of Neolithic architecture (on a global scale); its impact on social behaviour as well as the formation of group identities. Furthermore, we would like to investigate how Neolithic buildings were perceived and if this perception may have differed from the intended impact as well as the changes over time. What are the differences in perception for domestic and communal (special) buildings?
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Room: H

Start Time - End Time Authors Title
10:00 - 10:15 Miroslav Kocic, Marija Kalicanin Krstic, Ana Kocic, Bryan Hanks Islands in the Land of Forest – Vinca Culture Transformations of the Šumadija Region
10:15 - 10:30 Ivana Vostrovská, Petr Kocár Domesticated water: multi-proxy analyses of Early Neolithic Water Wells from Czechia
10:30 - 10:45 Özlem Ekinbaş Can The Pre-Pottery Neolithic Architecture in the Upper Tigris Region according to New Data from Gre Fılla: Continuity and Change
10:45 - 11:00 Jean-Noël Guyodo, Audrey Blanchard The role of the island and coastal stone-walled enclosures of north-western France for the first connected seaways (4th-3rd Mill. BC)
11:00 - 11:15 Mariam Shakhmuradyan The Morphological Examination of Desert Kites: Results of Interregional Comparative Analysis and Fieldwork

G19 - Reading the Stones, Tracing the Changes: Lithic Technology during the Paleolithic - Neolithic Transition

Session Organisers: Andrey Tabarev, David Kilby, Yoshitaka Kanomata
Category: Technology
Session Abstract:
The transition from the Paleolithic to the Neolithic brought about profound changes in human behavior and adaptations, including changes in mobility, social organization, settlement patterns, and subsistence practices. These changes are directly reflected in lithic technology, both in the development of new tools and technologies and the fundamental reorganization of technological systems. In some regions of the World this is manifested in the decline of the Paleolithic blade/microblade technologies, in the shift from the heavily curated to more expedient strategies, in the additional emphasis on prestige items (lithic caches,) etc. This session brings together presenters from around the World (Eurasia, Americas, Africa, and Australia) to review and examine the lithic technological developments that accompany the Paleolithic-Neolithic transition in their respective regions. The goals of this session are to survey the variety of patterns and perhaps identify cross- cultural regularities during this era of significant technological transitions. Technological analysis, use-wear studies, and experimental archaeology are among the effective approaches to understanding these changes and topics for discussion in the session.
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Room: M

Start Time - End Time Authors Title
10:00 - 10:20 Metin Kartal, Gizem Kartal Körtik Tepe Chipped Stone Assemblage
10:20 - 10:40 Zeynep Beyza Agirsoy Chipped Stone Artefacts and Human-Environment Dynamics: Insights from Gre Fılla during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A.
10:40 - 11:00 Liubov Golovanova, Vladimir Doronichev, Ekaterina Doronicheva Changes in lithic industry during the Epipaleolithic to Neolithic transition in the North Caucasus: based on materials of the Alebastroviy zavod rockshelter
11:00 - 11:20 Antonella Minelli, Maria Rosaria Belgiorno The lithic industry of the archaeological site of Pyrgos Mavroraki: new data for the reconstruction of the human presence on the island of Cyprus

G23 - The Neolithic in Art. Iconography and Society in the First World Agricultural Communities of Eurasia.

Session Organisers: Svend Hansen, Ianir Milevski
Category: Symbolism
Session Abstract:
In the past 30 years, a hitherto unknown pictorial world of the early Neolithic has become known in Urfa and the wider region. The transition from the Palaeolithic to the Neolithic was not only associated with a fundamental change in the way of life and economy, but also with a media revolution. Life-size sculptures made of stone were an extraordinary craft, artistic and social innovation. The material, themes and size of these sculptures were inextricably linked and represented permanence, masculinity and monumentality. In the further development of the Neolithic, images of humans, but also of certain animals, played an important role in the farming villages. On a larger worldwide scale, the question of whether the paintings and sculptures played a role for all or only part of the peasant societies will be discussed. The Neolithic period worldwide is not only a time in which plant and animal domestication occurred and agricultural societies represented a revolutionary break from hunter-gatherer lifeways. The question is whether the transition to the Neolithic was connected everywhere, not only in Eurasia, with a production of images that were adapted to the achievements of the new mode of production. The aim of this session within the World Neolithic Congress is to evaluate different iconographies and their material culture aspects from Pre-Pottery and Pottery Neolithic bearing communities and evaluate the ideological aspects of art against the background of the socio-economic basis of these communities and vice-versa.
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Room: E

Start Time - End Time Authors Title
10:00 - 10:20 Joanna Pyzel Turning Left or Turning Right? Temporal and Regional Variability in LBK Pottery Decoration in Europe
10:20 - 10:40 Rebecca Bristow Turning West: On the Disappearance of Figurative Representations in Neolithic West-Central Europe
10:40 - 11:00 Valeska Becker Headless Anthropomorphic Representations in the Course of the European Neolithic
11:00 - 11:20 Michael Müller Neolithic Anthropomorphic Figurines in Chalcolithic Contexts (Romania)

G24 - Treating Dead Bodies in the Neolithic: Exploring the Increasing Social Complexity

Session Organisers: Yılmaz Selim Erdal, Françoise Le Mort, Stéphane Rottier
Category: Anthropology / Burial Practices
Session Abstract:
Mortuary practices can be particularly enlightening on the evolution of behaviors during periods of transition. Along with the changes in lifeways that occurred during the Neolithic transition, a new type of bond was established between the living and the space in which the deceased left behind. The rich record of Neolithic settlements and burials in various space and time scales makes it possible to discuss the interferences between the attitudes of the societies facing death and the environmental and cultural context. A high range of practices, covering a large timescale, from the time of the death until the process of physical and immaterial transformation of the deceased is achieved, reflects the diversity of the attitudes of the Neolithic societies facing death. Burials vary in location, architecture, shape, size, type, number of dead buried, position and orientation of the dead, grave goods…. Specific treatments, that might be performed during or after the body deposit, or even the absence of burial have also been documented (e.g. manipulations, plastering the skull, cannibalism). This session aims to bring together scholars working on Neolithic mortuary practices in different geographical locations and in different timeframes to understand the diversity of the attitudes of the societies facing death at the local, regional, and interregional scales and to discuss their evolution through time. Presentations will focus on regional or micro-regional syntheses, interregional comparisons, diachronic studies discussing the evolution and/or diversification of practices through time and integrative interpretations. A large place will be given to discussion.
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Room: F

Start Time - End Time Authors Title
10:00 - 10:20 Eline M.J. Schotsmans An interdisciplinary forensic approach to understanding multi-stage mortuary practices and manipulation of the dead in the Neolithic Near East: experiments at the Australian Facility for Taphonomic Experimental Research
10:20 - 10:40 Argyro Nafplioti, Ioanna Serpetsidaki The Neolithic cemetery at Katsambas (near Knossos) on Crete in Greece: Shedding light onto complex mortuary practices
10:40 - 11:00 Anastasia Papathanasiou Ritual intensification and ancestral memory in Neolithic Alepotrypa Cave of Southern Greece.
11:00 - 11:20 Can Yümni Gündem A ritual ceremony with a very large crowd

G26 - On people, tools, and plant foodways: defining new proxies for the Neolithization(s)

Session Organisers: Laura Dietrich, Laure Dubreuil, Emanuela Cristiani, Caroline Hamon, Avi Gopher, Andrea Zupancich
Category: Technology
Session Abstract:
The Neolithic marks a major turning point in human history, leading towards dramatic changes in lifeways, ideologies, societies and economies. In this session, our aim is to establish a global forum for research exploring people and plant intricate relationships within the context of Neolithization(s), considering their multifaceted nature encompassing technological innovations, dietary practices, agents, networks, and lifeways. We invite contributions that focus on the identification of new proxies - defined here as agents and components - of Neolithization, in addition to those related to the domestication of founder crops. These could encompass a wide range of topics, including plant food processing technologies, foodways and dietary habits, plant-people interactions, and the identification of specific tools and recipes at the onset of the Neolithization, local and over regional dietary strategies and plant resource management, along with long-term evolutions and changes in plant consumptions patterns such as storage, grinding, and cooking, techniques. To facilitate discussion on these topics, we encourage worldwide interdisciplinary contributions to the study of human remains and material culture. This includes new methodologies in use-wear and residue analyses, the study of dental macro - and micro-wear on teeth, ancient dental calculus, isotope analysis, metagenomics, as well as experimental and theoretical approaches applied for novel high-resolution reconstructions of Neolithic diets and food technology.
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Room: G

Start Time - End Time Authors Title
10:00 - 10:20 Agustina Vazquez Fiorani, Julian Salazar, Valeria Franco Salvi, Ian Kuijt, Meredith Chesson, Jordi Lopez-Lillo A world up in the mountains: Neolithization and early villager lifestyles in the Southern Andes (Argentina, ca. 200 BCE-AD 900)
10:20 - 10:40 Sutonuka Bhattacharya, Kumar Akhilesh, Prachi Joshi, Naama Goren-Inbar, Gideon Shelach-Lavi, Shanti Pappu From Quarry to Quern: An Ethnoarchaeological Study of Grinding Stone Chaîne Opératoires in India
10:40 - 11:00 Weiya Li New insights into the Neolithic denticulate sickles from Central China
11:00 - 11:20 Julia Reis, Laure Dubreuil, Lisa Janz Investigating Plant Use Through Ground Stone Tools In The Gobi Desert, Mongolia

G28 - Geological and Tectonic Influences on Neolithic Societies: Interdisciplinary Insights into Landscape Evolution and Human Adaptation

Session Organisers: Çetin Şenkul
Category: Natural Environment
Session Abstract:
The critical interaction between geology, active tectonics, and geomorphology and their impact on early human communities has long been a significant area of study in the natural sciences. The Neolithic period marks substantial advancements in human settlement and agriculture, profoundly influenced by the geological and tectonic contexts of the time. This session aims to explore how tectonic activities and geomorphological processes, particularly from the Last Glacial Maximum to the warmer Holocene epoch, affected landscape evolution and resource distribution. We are particularly interested in examining the transition from cold and dry climates to warm and humid ones and their dynamics in river valleys. We invite interdisciplinary research employing advanced methods and technologies to elucidate these dynamics. Contributions will investigate the effects of seismic activities and landform changes on Neolithic settlements, agricultural practices, and socio-cultural developments. This session aims to enhance our understanding of the resilience and adaptability of Neolithic communities to geological transformations.
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Room: D

Start Time - End Time Authors Title
10:00 - 10:20 Şule Gürboğa, Çetin Şenkul, Yasemin Ünlü Geological Evolution of Southeastern Türkiye: in the concept of plate configuration and its recent effect on the human life
10:20 - 10:40 Mahmut Göktuğ Drahor, Ökmen Sümer, Necmi Karul Geology and earthquake phenomenon about the Epipaleolithic and Early Neolithic Hunter-Gatherer settlements located in the Eastern Taurus Foothills
10:40 - 11:00 Ökmen Sümer, Mahmut Göktuğ Drahor, Necmi Karul Gnammas; are phenomenal geological structures for Epipalaeolithic and Early Neolitich civilization?
11:00 - 11:20 Selman Er, Emre Güldoğan Geological, Geomorphological, and Geoarchaeological Investigations at the Sefer Tepe Excavation Site in Şanlıurfa

R07 - Epipalaeolithic and Early Neolithic Hunter-Gatherers in the Eastern Taurus Foothills

Session Organisers: Necmi Karul, Eleni Asouti, Joris Peters
Category: Near East
Session Abstract:
The foothills of the Eastern Taurus, including the Upper Euphrates and Tigris basins, contain some of the earliest and best-known habitation sites associated with the beginning of cultivation and herding in Southwest Asia. Since the mid twentieth century, archaeological fieldwork has revealed several late Epipalaeolithic and early aceramic Neolithic habitation sites dating from the 11th to the 9th millennia cal BC. Currently the region is witnessing a resurgence of intensive large-scale fieldwork in the context of the Tas Tepeler project, focused in the Urfa region, alongside ongoing projects in South-Eastern Anatolia generating increasing evidence for a higher density and diversity of settlement than previously thought. Despite some local differences, the available data suggest the existence of societies from the very beginning that were well organized and had a complex social life. The aim of this session is to query old and emerging data from different perspectives including settlement organization, the development of architecture, new technologies, the relationship of sites to the changing landscape and climate, plant and animal resource exploitation and management, and regional networks and symbolic expression, in order to explore the environmental, economic and socio-cultural dynamics that framed the motivation for the transition to settled life. Comparative perspectives with neighbouring regions including the Levant and northwest Zagros, will also contribute novel insights to our understanding of the diversity of the Neolithization process across Southwest Asia.
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Room: I

Start Time - End Time Authors Title
10:00 - 10:20 Emre Güldoğan Sefertepe Project
10:20 - 10:40 Mücella Erdalkıran A Neolithic Mega Village in the Harran Plain: Gürcütepe
10:40 - 11:00 Edward (Ted) Banning Searching for Answers: Identifying the Evidence we Need to Understand the Taş Tepeler Sites

R10 - From Zagros to Alborz and Beyond: Formative and Adoptive Neolithic Lifeways on The Iranian Plateau

Session Organisers: Hojjat Darabi, Hassan Fazeli Nashli
Category: Near East
Session Abstract:
Since the 1940-50s, the Neolithic period in Iran has been sporadically explored by a number of archaeologists. Following the pioneering work by R. Braidwood in the central Zagros in 1959-60, attention was given to question-oriented investigations, especially on the onset of domestication and sedentary life. Subsequent political instabilities put research in hiatus for about three decades. This severely limited our understanding of Iran’s Neolithic in comparison to other regions of Western Asia. In the last two decades, however, not only have some previously excavated sites or collections been re-evaluated, but new archaeological activities have also been undertaken. As recently suggested by aDNA data, an important approach to better understand the emergence and spread of the Neolithic lifestyle on the Iranian plateau is the inter-regional connections between the western and central parts of Asia. Current evidence points to a distinct pattern of Neolithic eco-cultural zones that interacted intensively with their neighbors via networks through which ideas, raw materials or commodities circulated and were transported. However, little is known about the possible impact of climatic or demographic factors on the development of the Neolithic lifestyle throughout Iran. Moreover, it remains unclear to what extent the secondary centers/learning or adoptive zones were influenced by the primary/formative ones. With the main goal of addressing the above issues, this session aims to bring together researchers to present the latest available data on the emergence and development of Neolithic lifeways in Iran, a region that encompasses a mosaic of diverse Neolithic cultures but is still only vaguely known. It is expected that the session can contribute to our better understanding of the extent to which Neolithic societies were in contact throughout the Iranian plateau and its neighbors, and how Neolithic lifeways are most likely to have evolved across this vast region linking the western parts of Asia with the central parts.
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Room: J

Start Time - End Time Authors Title
10:00 - 10:15 Tobias Richter Doing it Their Way: The Zarzian and Natufian Compared
10:15 - 10:30 Joseph Harris The Zagros in the Epipaleolithic to Neolithic Transition: The Braidwood assemblages from Asiab and Gird Chai
10:30 - 10:45 Yoshihiro Nishiaki Tell Seker al-Aheimar, Northeast Syria, in the context of the East Wing of the Neolithic Fertile Crescent
10:45 - 11:00 Arkadiusz Soltysiak Burial customs and social identity in the eastern part of the Fertile Crescent during the late Pre-Pottery Neolithic: a comparison of Nemrik 9 (Iraq) and Ali Kosh (Iran)
11:00 - 11:15 Julien Riel-Salvatore, Silvia Gazzo, Stéphanie Falardeau The funerary treatment of Burial 39 from Ganj Dareh

R16 - Anatolia and the Balkans During the Neolithization Process: Connections, Similarities and Differences

Session Organisers: Barbara Horejs, Sofija Stefanovic, Tanya Dzhanfezova
Category: Anatolia / Southeastern Europe
Session Abstract:
The extremely important role of Anatolia in the process of the Neolithisation is highlighted by recent discoveries and current research, as well as the important role of the Balkans in the spread of Neolithic achievements further across Europe. The mutual connections of these two regions, which were key to the process of the Neolithization and reshaped their worlds at that time, have been poorly researched until now. With this session, we want to open the possibility for young and senior scholars who have dealt with (western) Anatolia, the Aegean and/or the Balkans, to present their new data and theories about characterization, differences and similarities during the formation and establishing of the Neolithic. We believe that looking at new data and models on a site-based, regional and supra-regional level offers new insights into the diversity and complexity of the Neolithisation. All social, cultural, anthropological and economic aspects as well as their broader ecological contextualization are welcome to discuss for example the built environment, diet, funeral customs, production, technologies and innovations to contribute to a better understanding if or how these regions were connected in the early to middle Holocene. This session aims to bring together experts and young researchers of (western) Anatolia, the Aegean and the Balkans to discuss this key zone and its transformation during the Neolithisation within the ‘world Neolithic context’.
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Room: L

Start Time - End Time Authors Title
10:00 - 10:20 Stella Souvatzi Ring-shaped Settlements in Neolithic Greece and Turkey: Social Significance and Diverse Habitation
10:20 - 10:40 Sabina Cveček, Sofija Stefanović, Yılmaz Selim Erdal, Rana Özbal, Fokke Gerritsen, Meliha Melis Koruyucu Infant Burials Associated with Houses in Central Balkans and western Anatolia during Neolithic: Similarities, Differences, and Exceptions
10:40 - 11:30 All Participants Final Discussion

R29 - Breaking the Neolithic in Asia: Questioning Tropes, Recentering Boundaries and Nuancing Lifeways

Session Organisers: Jennifer Bates, Matthew L. Conte, Yeji Lee, JungWoo Choi, Kim Pangyu
Category: Different Neolithics
Session Abstract:
That the Three Age system and the subdivisions of the lithic ages do not work outside Europe and Near East has been debated in many forums. However, beyond this easily cited trope, the age-old idea of a “Neolithic” continually raises its head within literature. We see the presence of agriculture as a way to ‘mark’ the Neolithic, the absence of microliths as a marker of change, and ceramics used to debate the validity of chronological boundaries. Nuances underlying what this meant for the lives lived by people and the diversity underlying this in different regions are often overlooked in the eagerness to ‘find’ the Neolithic. The Neolithic has in essence become an ‘archaeo-geological age’ - so stratigraphically bounded and ubiquitous we find it hard to break from its presence. Local narratives are peripheralized in favour of an all encompassing, un-nuanced and imported age. In this session we invite papers that explore diversity and break the homogeneity of ‘Neolithic’ life in Asia, moving away from mere tropes to how new lifeways were adopted, assimilated, rejected or replaced in different parts of Asia. Debates in the Neolithic of Asia (e.g.: use of aquatic resources, the adoption of pastoral and agricultural systems, domestication, changes in technology) are sought to explore the diversity of what it was ‘to have been Neolithic’. Through this session we ask: is there something about the ‘Neolithic’ as a concept and term that helps people to understand the diversity of lifeways and societies associated with it across regions within Asia?
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Room: K

Start Time - End Time Authors Title
10:00 - 10:20 Seiji Nakayama, Manabu Uetsuki Rethinking Neolithic from Jomon: Recent advances in archaeobotany and zooarchaeology
10:20 - 10:40 Mizanur Rahman, Amy Bogaard Bogaard, Michael Charles Charles Archaeobotanical evidence from Wari-Bateshwar for the emergence of agriculture in the Bengal frontier zone.
10:40 - 11:00 Tsenguun Ganbold The issue of Archaeology studies on related ancient mass hunting of Neolithic
11:00 - 11:20 Kalyan Sekhar Chakraborty, Manjil Hazarika, Deepak Jha, Thomas Larsen, Patrick Roberts Fish, Milk and Meat: An assessment of changing subsistence and human-environment interactions in Neolithic South Asia using lipid residue
Parallel Sessions (Sitting: 2)

G02 - Early Productive Behaviour, or the Regional and Global Problems with the Terms Neolithic/ Neolithisation

Session Organisers: Hans Georg K. Gebel
Category: Conceptual - Theory
Session Abstract:
The session invites us to test the term Neolithic and conventional understandings and models of Neolithisation processes from regional and global perspectives by reflecting on new findings (such as productive foraging) and confronting them with evidence not fitting. We always come up against the applicability limits of these terms when they inappropriately reflect the complexity and intricacy of phenomena or evoke misleading generalisations for their local, regional, supra-regional and global variabilities. "Neolithic" phenomena and processes also occurred before or after Neolithic "core periods", were polycentric and polycyclic in various ways and geographically shifting, reversible, failing, behaved acyclic/asynchronous. The tendency of research to prioritise individual stimuli and/or to negate multidisciplinary holistic approaches reinforces the conceptual problems with the terms. The session aims to open a global academic discourse to highlight the potential pitfalls of "reductionism" in Neolithic research and to discuss if the world's Neolithics share basic traits and a common nature in creating the new social phenotype characteristic for productive lifeways (as opposed to foraging lifeways). The productive use of natural and human resources - including the cognitive territories with their skills and dispositions created to serve these purposes – was aimed at control towards security, growth/reproducibility, and defence. Do these characterise all Neolithics to varying degrees, without foraging elements ever disappearing completely? Each contribution should attempt to give a brief outline of the relevant traits of the regional/ supra-regional Neolithic trajectories (Subsistence modes, Environmental technologies and adaptations, Built territories, Technologies and consumption, Social organisation, Belief/ Cognitive systems, Exchange networks) and outline which research approaches shaped these results. This is in order to approach the question of which interacting systems enabled the sustainable establishment and adaptation of productive environments, impaired them or caused them to fail. Was productive behaviour the common denominator and momentum of these processes, or do the globally different permanent transitions from foraging to producing - from taking to making - include substantially different human dispositions and ontologies? All these questions are intended to depict the polycentric and asynchronous panorama of early productive humans.
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Room: A

Start Time - End Time Authors Title
13:00 - 13:20 Mingjian Guo The Neolithisation in Northwestern Hebei Area, China
13:20 - 13:40 Yoshihiro Nishiaki Is the Jomon culture “Neolithic”?
13:40 - 14:00 Jian-Ye Han New Discoveries at Nanzuo Site and the Dawn of Early State in the Loess Plateau, China
14:00 - 14:20 Claudia Speciale, Domenico Lo Vetro, Carmine Collina, Vincenza Forgia, Maria Rosa Iovino, Domenica Gullì, Giuseppe Bazan, Enrico Giannitrapani New insights on the cultural, social, and economic domestication of Sicily

G08 - Biomolecular and Stable Isotope Windows on Lifestyles, Environments and Evolution in the Neolithic

Session Organisers: Melanie Roffet-Salque, Richard Evershed
Category: Archaeometry
Session Abstract:
The most significant developments in the past 30 years in the study of Neolithic people have been the emergence of biomolecular and stable isotope proxies. The most widely applied approaches include stable isotope analyses of skeletal remains and lipids preserved in pottery vessels. The use of these proxies is underpinned by extensive investigations of reference materials and experimental studies, as well as analyses of thousands of finds from prehistoric cultures around the world. Likewise, ancient DNA is delivering important levels of understanding of human, animal and plant origins and relationships, and aspects of their evolution. Beyond these a number of new proxies are in the offing, notably proteins in pottery and dental calculus, which are set to add new dimensions to palaeodietary reconstructions. Even when used alone these biomolecular proxies have achieved spectacular new levels of understanding of Neolithic cultures. This conference session will explore the future potential offered by existing and emerging new biomolecular and isotope proxies for Neolithic studies. Contributions are encouraged that present new proxies, address the validation of existing proxies and demonstrate the integration of different lines of evidence. Multi-proxy studies, and the development of “big data” and statistical approaches to explore more deeply complex phenomena underpinning the adaptation of humans, animals and plants to new environments and the living of sedentary lifestyles are especially welcomed. We are particularly interested in receiving contributions presenting new biomolecular or stable isotope proxies for environment and subsistence stressors, such those related to crop failures, zoonotic diseases and climate change/deterioration.
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Room: C

Start Time - End Time Authors Title
13:00 - 13:20 Chloé Stevens A Multi-Proxy Geoarchaeological Investigation of an Early Holocene Soil Feature at the Page-Ladson Site (Florida, U.S.)
13:20 - 13:40 Isabel Wiltshire, Charlie Maule, Iman Abdelgani, Timothy D. J. Knowles, Richard Evershed, Harald Stäuble, Caroline Hamon, Michael Ilett, Mélanie Roffet-Salque, Matthias Conrad, Matthias Halle, Isabel Hohle, Saskia Kretschmer, Germo Schmalfuß, Sabine Wolfram, Lamys Hachem Biomolecular approaches to investigating wild resource exploitation in Neolithic Europe
13:40 - 14:00 Peter Tóth, Miriam Nyvltová Fišáková, Johana Malíšková, Filip Ševcík Stable isotopes reveal animal management practices at the LBK settlement of Tešetice-Kyjovice, Czech Republic
14:00 - 14:20 Rosalind Gillis Into the woods: Exploring the use of wood-pastures in early European animal husbandry practices.

G09 - Putting Domesticates in their Place

Session Organisers: Melinda Zeder
Category: Domestication / Subsistence Economy
Session Abstract:
This session brings together researchers working in different areas of the world to explore the context of initial domestication of plants and animals and their subsequent dispersal. Participants will provide an overview of the ecological setting of domestication and dispersal, as well as the subsistence strategies developed in world areas from which domesticates either emerged or were merged into. Papers will explore questions of the richness and diversity of endemic plants and animals in these different settings, trade-offs between sedentism and mobility, the interaction of resident hunter-gatherers and migrant farmers, and the overall role of domesticates within subsistence strategies of groups with both emergent and introduced domesticates.
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Room: B

Start Time - End Time Authors Title
13:00 - 13:20 Andrew Somerville, Isabel Casar The Environmental Context for the Adoption of Agriculture in the Tehuacan Valley of Mexico
13:20 - 13:40 Francisco Javier Aceituno Other ""Neolithics"" were possible: the case of Northwestern South America (Colombia) in the context of the New World.
13:40 - 14:00 Natalie G. Mueller Considering plants as people in the process of domestication: A view from eastern North America

G18 - The Impact of Neolithic Architecture – the Emergence of Human Built Environment

Session Organisers: Moritz Kinzel, Emmanuel Baudouin
Category: Architecture and Constructed Environment
Session Abstract:
This session aims to highlight the impact of the emergence of architecture in the Neolithic on human social behaviour, the changes in the perception of space and development of building technology. Neolithic architecture can be understood as a largescale laboratory for testing structural and spatial solutions; some of them are lasting until today; e.g. the right angle. However, no buildings codes were established; resulting in constructions built without structural safety coefficients - stretching occasionally far beyond nowadays limits. Locally available material sources defined building techniques and materials. Environmental conditions, topographical settings and social constraints influenced shape and structural designs. In addition, recent anthropological and archaeological discussions have shown how architecture can be seen as an important form of symbolic representation, a material expression of concepts, values and social orders. The socio-cultural factor may have have played a significant role in the diversity of building techniques or the dynamics of changes (invention, convergence, diffusion, etc.). In other words, Neolithic people modified buildings to adapt them to their traditions, changing needs and diversifying activities as well as responded to climate changes and destructive events, e.g. earthquakes, flooding or fire. We would like to invite colleagues to discuss continuity, change and discontinuity of Neolithic architecture (on a global scale); its impact on social behaviour as well as the formation of group identities. Furthermore, we would like to investigate how Neolithic buildings were perceived and if this perception may have differed from the intended impact as well as the changes over time. What are the differences in perception for domestic and communal (special) buildings?
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Room: H

Start Time - End Time Authors Title
13:00 - 13:15 Şakir Can Intra-site Spatial Analysis during the Late Neolithic and Early Chalcolithic Periods at Kendale Hecala
13:15 - 13:30 Jane Mcmahon, Hugh Thomas, Melissa Kennedy Adaptation in the Arid zone: new perspectives on Neolithic occupation of the north Arabian hinterland
13:30 - 13:45 Ghania Hamane Megalithic monuments in eastern Algeria, archaeological and tourist significance
13:45 - 14:00 Ekaterina Girchenko, Oleg Kardash Architecture of the Neolithic Defensive-Residential Complex in the North of Western Siberia (based on materials of Kayukovo 2 site)
14:00 - 14:15 Aroa García-Suárez The architecture of daily practices: unravelling Neolithic lifeways from domestic building sequences at Boncuklu and Çatalhöyük

G19 - Reading the Stones, Tracing the Changes: Lithic Technology during the Paleolithic - Neolithic Transition

Session Organisers: Andrey Tabarev, David Kilby, Yoshitaka Kanomata
Category: Technology
Session Abstract:
The transition from the Paleolithic to the Neolithic brought about profound changes in human behavior and adaptations, including changes in mobility, social organization, settlement patterns, and subsistence practices. These changes are directly reflected in lithic technology, both in the development of new tools and technologies and the fundamental reorganization of technological systems. In some regions of the World this is manifested in the decline of the Paleolithic blade/microblade technologies, in the shift from the heavily curated to more expedient strategies, in the additional emphasis on prestige items (lithic caches,) etc. This session brings together presenters from around the World (Eurasia, Americas, Africa, and Australia) to review and examine the lithic technological developments that accompany the Paleolithic-Neolithic transition in their respective regions. The goals of this session are to survey the variety of patterns and perhaps identify cross- cultural regularities during this era of significant technological transitions. Technological analysis, use-wear studies, and experimental archaeology are among the effective approaches to understanding these changes and topics for discussion in the session.
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Room: M

Start Time - End Time Authors Title
13:00 - 13:20 Andrey Tabarev In the Shadow of Pottery: Lithics as one of the signals of Neolithisation (Siberia and Russian Far East)
13:20 - 13:40 Natalia Tsydenova Paleolithic – Neolithic transition in North Asia: the context of lithic technologies
13:40 - 14:00 Ekaterina Bocharova, Pavel Chystyakov, Ravil Zhdanov Evolution and Dissemination of Composite Slotted Tools in Eastern Siberia
14:00 - 14:20 Yoshitaka Kanomata Major changes in stone tool technology in the Japanese archipelago during the transition from the Paleolithic to the Jomon period

G23 - The Neolithic in Art. Iconography and Society in the First World Agricultural Communities of Eurasia.

Session Organisers: Svend Hansen, Ianir Milevski
Category: Symbolism
Session Abstract:
In the past 30 years, a hitherto unknown pictorial world of the early Neolithic has become known in Urfa and the wider region. The transition from the Palaeolithic to the Neolithic was not only associated with a fundamental change in the way of life and economy, but also with a media revolution. Life-size sculptures made of stone were an extraordinary craft, artistic and social innovation. The material, themes and size of these sculptures were inextricably linked and represented permanence, masculinity and monumentality. In the further development of the Neolithic, images of humans, but also of certain animals, played an important role in the farming villages. On a larger worldwide scale, the question of whether the paintings and sculptures played a role for all or only part of the peasant societies will be discussed. The Neolithic period worldwide is not only a time in which plant and animal domestication occurred and agricultural societies represented a revolutionary break from hunter-gatherer lifeways. The question is whether the transition to the Neolithic was connected everywhere, not only in Eurasia, with a production of images that were adapted to the achievements of the new mode of production. The aim of this session within the World Neolithic Congress is to evaluate different iconographies and their material culture aspects from Pre-Pottery and Pottery Neolithic bearing communities and evaluate the ideological aspects of art against the background of the socio-economic basis of these communities and vice-versa.
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Room: E

Start Time - End Time Authors Title
13:00 - 13:20 Julia Luckner Living Fauna Made of Clay? A Comparison of Animal Bone Findings and Interpretations of Zoomorphic Figurines in Eastern Europe
13:20 - 13:40 Dina Shalem Continuity and changes in Zoomorphic Clay Figurines from the 7th and 6th Millennia in the Southern Levant
13:40 - 14:00 Arjun Rao Cattle (Bos indicus): Iconic Animal in the Southern Neolithic Rock Bruisings and Ashmounds with Ethnographic Signatures in India
14:00 - 14:20 Andrey Varenov Pairs of Deer Engraved on the Neolithic Pottery of China as a Reflection of Social Structure of Ancient Society

G24 - Treating Dead Bodies in the Neolithic: Exploring the Increasing Social Complexity

Session Organisers: Yılmaz Selim Erdal, Françoise Le Mort, Stéphane Rottier
Category: Anthropology / Burial Practices
Session Abstract:
Mortuary practices can be particularly enlightening on the evolution of behaviors during periods of transition. Along with the changes in lifeways that occurred during the Neolithic transition, a new type of bond was established between the living and the space in which the deceased left behind. The rich record of Neolithic settlements and burials in various space and time scales makes it possible to discuss the interferences between the attitudes of the societies facing death and the environmental and cultural context. A high range of practices, covering a large timescale, from the time of the death until the process of physical and immaterial transformation of the deceased is achieved, reflects the diversity of the attitudes of the Neolithic societies facing death. Burials vary in location, architecture, shape, size, type, number of dead buried, position and orientation of the dead, grave goods…. Specific treatments, that might be performed during or after the body deposit, or even the absence of burial have also been documented (e.g. manipulations, plastering the skull, cannibalism). This session aims to bring together scholars working on Neolithic mortuary practices in different geographical locations and in different timeframes to understand the diversity of the attitudes of the societies facing death at the local, regional, and interregional scales and to discuss their evolution through time. Presentations will focus on regional or micro-regional syntheses, interregional comparisons, diachronic studies discussing the evolution and/or diversification of practices through time and integrative interpretations. A large place will be given to discussion.
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Room: F

Start Time - End Time Authors Title
13:00 - 13:15 Stella Katsarou, Fotis Georgiadis, Anastasia Papathanasiou, Anastasios Siros, Andreas Darlas Burials and Caves: The Spiritual Aspect of Their Relationship
13:15 - 13:30 Paula Becerra Fuello, Gonzalo Aranda Jiménez, Marta Díaz-Zorita Bonilla, Miriam Vílchez Suárez, Sonia Robles Carrasco, Margarita Sánchez Romero Fire in Megalithic funerary practices in Southeastern Iberia
13:30 - 13:45 Yasemin Yılmaz, Aslı Erim Özdoğan, Françoise Le Mort Silent House: The Skull Building
13:45 - 14:00 Eline M.J. Schotsmans, Lily Canepari, Sacha Kacki, Christopher J. Knüsel Taphonomy and archaeothanatology of plaster burials: an actualistic study of the effect of lime and gypsum on human remains for a better understanding of Neolithic plaster burials in Western Asia.
14:00 - 14:15 Ali Akın Akyol, Emine Torgan Güzel, Recep Karadağ, Kameray Özdemir, Yılmaz Selim Erdal, Yusuf Kağan Kadıoğlu, Abu B. Siddiq, Vecihi Özkaya Archaeometric Analyses for the Characterization of Pigment and Textile Artifacts from the PPNA site of Körtiktepe, Diyarbakır, Turkiye

G26 - On people, tools, and plant foodways: defining new proxies for the Neolithization(s)

Session Organisers: Laura Dietrich, Laure Dubreuil, Emanuela Cristiani, Caroline Hamon, Avi Gopher, Andrea Zupancich
Category: Technology
Session Abstract:
The Neolithic marks a major turning point in human history, leading towards dramatic changes in lifeways, ideologies, societies and economies. In this session, our aim is to establish a global forum for research exploring people and plant intricate relationships within the context of Neolithization(s), considering their multifaceted nature encompassing technological innovations, dietary practices, agents, networks, and lifeways. We invite contributions that focus on the identification of new proxies - defined here as agents and components - of Neolithization, in addition to those related to the domestication of founder crops. These could encompass a wide range of topics, including plant food processing technologies, foodways and dietary habits, plant-people interactions, and the identification of specific tools and recipes at the onset of the Neolithization, local and over regional dietary strategies and plant resource management, along with long-term evolutions and changes in plant consumptions patterns such as storage, grinding, and cooking, techniques. To facilitate discussion on these topics, we encourage worldwide interdisciplinary contributions to the study of human remains and material culture. This includes new methodologies in use-wear and residue analyses, the study of dental macro - and micro-wear on teeth, ancient dental calculus, isotope analysis, metagenomics, as well as experimental and theoretical approaches applied for novel high-resolution reconstructions of Neolithic diets and food technology.
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Room: G

Start Time - End Time Authors Title
13:00 - 13:20 Wiebke Kirleis, Jingping An, Dragana Filipovic, Sara Krubeck, Lucy Kubiak-Martens, Tania Oudemans, Henrike Effenberger, Stefanie Klooß Multiproxy analyses of human-plant interaction in the southwestern Baltic around 3100 BCE: following the {chaîne opératoire} from the fields to the meals
13:20 - 13:40 Caroline Hamon Variability of grinding systems in neolithization contexts of the VIth millenium BC
13:40 - 14:00 Carlos G. Santiago-Marrero, Marianna Lymperaki, Efrossini Vika, Dushka Urem-Kotsou, Stavros Kotsos, Juan José García-Granero Insight into Neolithic cuisine: a holistic approach for investigating charred food crust and absorbed residues from cooking vessels from Neolithic Stavroupoli (northern Greece)
14:00 - 14:20 Ana Duricic If Ovens Could Talk: Bread Consumption in the Neolithic of the Central Balkans

G28 - Geological and Tectonic Influences on Neolithic Societies: Interdisciplinary Insights into Landscape Evolution and Human Adaptation

Session Organisers: Çetin Şenkul
Category: Natural Environment
Session Abstract:
The critical interaction between geology, active tectonics, and geomorphology and their impact on early human communities has long been a significant area of study in the natural sciences. The Neolithic period marks substantial advancements in human settlement and agriculture, profoundly influenced by the geological and tectonic contexts of the time. This session aims to explore how tectonic activities and geomorphological processes, particularly from the Last Glacial Maximum to the warmer Holocene epoch, affected landscape evolution and resource distribution. We are particularly interested in examining the transition from cold and dry climates to warm and humid ones and their dynamics in river valleys. We invite interdisciplinary research employing advanced methods and technologies to elucidate these dynamics. Contributions will investigate the effects of seismic activities and landform changes on Neolithic settlements, agricultural practices, and socio-cultural developments. This session aims to enhance our understanding of the resilience and adaptability of Neolithic communities to geological transformations.
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Room: D

Start Time - End Time Authors Title
13:00 - 13:20 Bülent Arıkan The Early Holocene (ca. 12,000-8000 BP) Paleoclimate of Anatolia: Assessing the Long-term Climate-Human Interactions
13:20 - 13:40 Maria Rosa Iovino, Giuseppe Moschella, Salvatore Chilardi, Beatrice Basile The impact of environmental changes on semi-submerged neolithic sites in eastern Sicily
13:40 - 14:00 Güven Eken, Burçin Yaraşlı, Şafak Arslan, Enes Taşoğlu, Ahmet Karataş The Ecosystems and Biological Diversity of Taş Tepeler
14:00 - 14:20 Mustafa Doğan, Ahmet Köse, Yunus Bozkurt, Seda Kaya Köse, Çetin Şenkul, Necmi Karul Geographical Characteristics and Transformations of Neolithic Settlements: A Spatial Analysis of Anatolia and the Taş Tepeler Complex

R07 - Epipalaeolithic and Early Neolithic Hunter-Gatherers in the Eastern Taurus Foothills

Session Organisers: Necmi Karul, Eleni Asouti, Joris Peters
Category: Near East
Session Abstract:
The foothills of the Eastern Taurus, including the Upper Euphrates and Tigris basins, contain some of the earliest and best-known habitation sites associated with the beginning of cultivation and herding in Southwest Asia. Since the mid twentieth century, archaeological fieldwork has revealed several late Epipalaeolithic and early aceramic Neolithic habitation sites dating from the 11th to the 9th millennia cal BC. Currently the region is witnessing a resurgence of intensive large-scale fieldwork in the context of the Tas Tepeler project, focused in the Urfa region, alongside ongoing projects in South-Eastern Anatolia generating increasing evidence for a higher density and diversity of settlement than previously thought. Despite some local differences, the available data suggest the existence of societies from the very beginning that were well organized and had a complex social life. The aim of this session is to query old and emerging data from different perspectives including settlement organization, the development of architecture, new technologies, the relationship of sites to the changing landscape and climate, plant and animal resource exploitation and management, and regional networks and symbolic expression, in order to explore the environmental, economic and socio-cultural dynamics that framed the motivation for the transition to settled life. Comparative perspectives with neighbouring regions including the Levant and northwest Zagros, will also contribute novel insights to our understanding of the diversity of the Neolithization process across Southwest Asia.
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Room: I

Start Time - End Time Authors Title
13:00 - 13:20 Joris Peters, Stephanie Emra, Nadja Pöllath, Özlem Sarıtaş, Necmi Karul Setting the stage for archaeofaunal comparison in the Taş Tepeler project: how different are Göbekli Tepe and Karahantepe?
13:20 - 13:40 Ceren Kabukcu, Ferran Antolín, Eleni Asouti, Hüreyla Balcı, Birgül Ögüt Archaeobotanical Research In the Taş Tepeler Project: Challenges And Prospects
13:40 - 14:00 Ferran Antolin, Birgül Ögüt Recent Advances in Plant Research at Göbekli Tepe: Evaluating Previous Findings and Introducing New Insights

R10 - From Zagros to Alborz and Beyond: Formative and Adoptive Neolithic Lifeways on The Iranian Plateau

Session Organisers: Hojjat Darabi, Hassan Fazeli Nashli
Category: Near East
Session Abstract:
Since the 1940-50s, the Neolithic period in Iran has been sporadically explored by a number of archaeologists. Following the pioneering work by R. Braidwood in the central Zagros in 1959-60, attention was given to question-oriented investigations, especially on the onset of domestication and sedentary life. Subsequent political instabilities put research in hiatus for about three decades. This severely limited our understanding of Iran’s Neolithic in comparison to other regions of Western Asia. In the last two decades, however, not only have some previously excavated sites or collections been re-evaluated, but new archaeological activities have also been undertaken. As recently suggested by aDNA data, an important approach to better understand the emergence and spread of the Neolithic lifestyle on the Iranian plateau is the inter-regional connections between the western and central parts of Asia. Current evidence points to a distinct pattern of Neolithic eco-cultural zones that interacted intensively with their neighbors via networks through which ideas, raw materials or commodities circulated and were transported. However, little is known about the possible impact of climatic or demographic factors on the development of the Neolithic lifestyle throughout Iran. Moreover, it remains unclear to what extent the secondary centers/learning or adoptive zones were influenced by the primary/formative ones. With the main goal of addressing the above issues, this session aims to bring together researchers to present the latest available data on the emergence and development of Neolithic lifeways in Iran, a region that encompasses a mosaic of diverse Neolithic cultures but is still only vaguely known. It is expected that the session can contribute to our better understanding of the extent to which Neolithic societies were in contact throughout the Iranian plateau and its neighbors, and how Neolithic lifeways are most likely to have evolved across this vast region linking the western parts of Asia with the central parts.
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Room: J

Start Time - End Time Authors Title
13:00 - 13:15 Michael Brandl, Hojjat Darabi, Christoph Hauzenberger, Peter Filzmoser, Barbara Horejs Tracing Lithic Resource Management: A Geochemical Chert Provenance Pilot Study at East Chia Sabz, Iran
13:15 - 13:30 Andrea Ricci, Ahmad Azadi, Daniele Moscone Neolithic in the Mountains: new evidence of early sedentism in Kohgiluyeh, southwestern Iran (HighStepLands)
13:30 - 13:45 Natalia Petrova, Anna Babenko, Hojjat Darabi, Tobias Richter The origins of pottery technology and its connections with house-building technology in the Central Zagros
13:45 - 14:00 Sanaz Shirvani Patterns of Deliberate Breakage in Zoomorphic Figurines from Ganj Dareh
14:00 - 14:15 Dlshad A. Marf Symbolism on the Upper Mesopotamian and Zagros Prehistoric Ceramics

R15 - The Neolithic of the Aegean and Beyond: Supra-Regional Networks and Local Communities

Session Organisers: Agathe Reingruber, Zafer Derin, Eylem Özdoğan
Category: Anatolia / Southeastern Europe
Session Abstract:
The Circum-Aegean world is at the same time part of the Mediterranean and separated from it by large islands. This interactive space that formed around the Aegean Sea offered many advantages to seafaring peoples since Mesolithic times or even before: a well-connected and authentic place where not only people and materials, but, above all, ideas circulated rapidly. Since the Mesolithic, and especially with the Neolithic way of life, interactions between its eastern and western parts resulted in a material and immaterial culture distinguishable from the surrounding areas. Nevertheless, the Circum-Aegean is far from being a uniform space, since there are numerous differences traceable between the various regions, such as the islands, the Anatolian coast and the Greek mainland. Through new research carried out in recent years in especially in the eastern Aegean area (in Anatolia) but also in the west (in Macedonia and Thessaly), another aspect has become even clearer: the possibility of defining inside the broader regions local styles in pottery production and material culture. In this session, we aim to discuss both the beginnings of the Neolithic way of life against the background of the Mesolithic, as well as the subsequent transformations culminating in the early/mid sixth millennium BC. Special attention shall be given to the internal dynamics within the Aegean and the exchange with the surrounding areas: on the Anatolian side with the Marmara region up to the Bosporus in the north and with the Lake District down to the Mediterranean coast in the south; on the European side via river systems with the north and northwest. The session welcomes contributions on material culture, chronology and terminology, various aspects of regional cultures and interregional networks. As it is not possible to adequately study the Circum-Aegean Neolithic without interdisciplinary approaches, we explicitly welcome presentations on environmental aspects, archaeometry and bioarchaeology. In this way, we aim to highlight the originality of Aegean Neolithic societies in their various aspects.
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Room: L

Start Time - End Time Authors Title
13:00 - 13:20 John Chapman, Bisserka Gaydarska Exotics: kick-starting the earliest hunter-gatherer - farmer networks in Anatolia, the Aegean and the Balkans
13:20 - 13:40 Deniz Sarı Short-term Hilltop and Cave Settlements during the Neolithic Period: The Case of Keçiçayırı and Gedikkaya Sites
13:40 - 14:00 Neyir Kolankaya-Bostancı, Erkan Fidan Bahçelievler Neolithic Chipped Stone Assemblage: Local Tradition and Interregional Contacts
14:00 - 14:20 Ivan Gatsov, Petranka Nedelcheva Lithic Technologies and the Raw Material Supply as an Adaptive Strategy in the Settlement Patterns of Marmara Sea Region During 7-6 mill BC

R29 - Breaking the Neolithic in Asia: Questioning Tropes, Recentering Boundaries and Nuancing Lifeways

Session Organisers: Jennifer Bates, Matthew L. Conte, Yeji Lee, JungWoo Choi, Kim Pangyu
Category: Different Neolithics
Session Abstract:
That the Three Age system and the subdivisions of the lithic ages do not work outside Europe and Near East has been debated in many forums. However, beyond this easily cited trope, the age-old idea of a “Neolithic” continually raises its head within literature. We see the presence of agriculture as a way to ‘mark’ the Neolithic, the absence of microliths as a marker of change, and ceramics used to debate the validity of chronological boundaries. Nuances underlying what this meant for the lives lived by people and the diversity underlying this in different regions are often overlooked in the eagerness to ‘find’ the Neolithic. The Neolithic has in essence become an ‘archaeo-geological age’ - so stratigraphically bounded and ubiquitous we find it hard to break from its presence. Local narratives are peripheralized in favour of an all encompassing, un-nuanced and imported age. In this session we invite papers that explore diversity and break the homogeneity of ‘Neolithic’ life in Asia, moving away from mere tropes to how new lifeways were adopted, assimilated, rejected or replaced in different parts of Asia. Debates in the Neolithic of Asia (e.g.: use of aquatic resources, the adoption of pastoral and agricultural systems, domestication, changes in technology) are sought to explore the diversity of what it was ‘to have been Neolithic’. Through this session we ask: is there something about the ‘Neolithic’ as a concept and term that helps people to understand the diversity of lifeways and societies associated with it across regions within Asia?
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Room: K

Start Time - End Time Authors Title
13:00 - 13:20 Mark Jonathan Beech, Kevin Lidour Insights into a Neolithic maritime economy: Recent archaeological research from Abu Dhabi’s islands, United Arab Emirates
13:20 - 13:40 Daniele Petrella The Japanese Neolithic: new research on the Jomon period through the study of the sea and its use
13:40 - 14:00 Neelima Vasudevan, Ajithprasad P The Neolithic lithic assemblage of Meghalaya plateau, North eastern India: An Appraisal
14:00 - 14:20 Yo Negishi, Daigo Natsuki Jomonization process in Northern Japan: emergence of pottery and sedentism
Parallel Sessions (Sitting: 3)

G02 - Early Productive Behaviour, or the Regional and Global Problems with the Terms Neolithic/ Neolithisation

Session Organisers: Hans Georg K. Gebel
Category: Conceptual - Theory
Session Abstract:
The session invites us to test the term Neolithic and conventional understandings and models of Neolithisation processes from regional and global perspectives by reflecting on new findings (such as productive foraging) and confronting them with evidence not fitting. We always come up against the applicability limits of these terms when they inappropriately reflect the complexity and intricacy of phenomena or evoke misleading generalisations for their local, regional, supra-regional and global variabilities. "Neolithic" phenomena and processes also occurred before or after Neolithic "core periods", were polycentric and polycyclic in various ways and geographically shifting, reversible, failing, behaved acyclic/asynchronous. The tendency of research to prioritise individual stimuli and/or to negate multidisciplinary holistic approaches reinforces the conceptual problems with the terms. The session aims to open a global academic discourse to highlight the potential pitfalls of "reductionism" in Neolithic research and to discuss if the world's Neolithics share basic traits and a common nature in creating the new social phenotype characteristic for productive lifeways (as opposed to foraging lifeways). The productive use of natural and human resources - including the cognitive territories with their skills and dispositions created to serve these purposes – was aimed at control towards security, growth/reproducibility, and defence. Do these characterise all Neolithics to varying degrees, without foraging elements ever disappearing completely? Each contribution should attempt to give a brief outline of the relevant traits of the regional/ supra-regional Neolithic trajectories (Subsistence modes, Environmental technologies and adaptations, Built territories, Technologies and consumption, Social organisation, Belief/ Cognitive systems, Exchange networks) and outline which research approaches shaped these results. This is in order to approach the question of which interacting systems enabled the sustainable establishment and adaptation of productive environments, impaired them or caused them to fail. Was productive behaviour the common denominator and momentum of these processes, or do the globally different permanent transitions from foraging to producing - from taking to making - include substantially different human dispositions and ontologies? All these questions are intended to depict the polycentric and asynchronous panorama of early productive humans.
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Room: A

Start Time - End Time Authors Title
14:45 - 16:15 All Participants (Peer-Moderated) Final Session Discussion: Lessons for Future Regional and Global Neolithic Research

G08 - Biomolecular and Stable Isotope Windows on Lifestyles, Environments and Evolution in the Neolithic

Session Organisers: Melanie Roffet-Salque, Richard Evershed
Category: Archaeometry
Session Abstract:
The most significant developments in the past 30 years in the study of Neolithic people have been the emergence of biomolecular and stable isotope proxies. The most widely applied approaches include stable isotope analyses of skeletal remains and lipids preserved in pottery vessels. The use of these proxies is underpinned by extensive investigations of reference materials and experimental studies, as well as analyses of thousands of finds from prehistoric cultures around the world. Likewise, ancient DNA is delivering important levels of understanding of human, animal and plant origins and relationships, and aspects of their evolution. Beyond these a number of new proxies are in the offing, notably proteins in pottery and dental calculus, which are set to add new dimensions to palaeodietary reconstructions. Even when used alone these biomolecular proxies have achieved spectacular new levels of understanding of Neolithic cultures. This conference session will explore the future potential offered by existing and emerging new biomolecular and isotope proxies for Neolithic studies. Contributions are encouraged that present new proxies, address the validation of existing proxies and demonstrate the integration of different lines of evidence. Multi-proxy studies, and the development of “big data” and statistical approaches to explore more deeply complex phenomena underpinning the adaptation of humans, animals and plants to new environments and the living of sedentary lifestyles are especially welcomed. We are particularly interested in receiving contributions presenting new biomolecular or stable isotope proxies for environment and subsistence stressors, such those related to crop failures, zoonotic diseases and climate change/deterioration.
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Room: C

Start Time - End Time Authors Title
14:45 - 15:25 Mark Thomas Plenary Talk: Integrating different data sources: A multi-proxy approach to understanding the evolution of lactase persistence in Europe
15:25 - 16:15 all participants Discussion

G19 - Reading the Stones, Tracing the Changes: Lithic Technology during the Paleolithic - Neolithic Transition

Session Organisers: Andrey Tabarev, David Kilby, Yoshitaka Kanomata
Category: Technology
Session Abstract:
The transition from the Paleolithic to the Neolithic brought about profound changes in human behavior and adaptations, including changes in mobility, social organization, settlement patterns, and subsistence practices. These changes are directly reflected in lithic technology, both in the development of new tools and technologies and the fundamental reorganization of technological systems. In some regions of the World this is manifested in the decline of the Paleolithic blade/microblade technologies, in the shift from the heavily curated to more expedient strategies, in the additional emphasis on prestige items (lithic caches,) etc. This session brings together presenters from around the World (Eurasia, Americas, Africa, and Australia) to review and examine the lithic technological developments that accompany the Paleolithic-Neolithic transition in their respective regions. The goals of this session are to survey the variety of patterns and perhaps identify cross- cultural regularities during this era of significant technological transitions. Technological analysis, use-wear studies, and experimental archaeology are among the effective approaches to understanding these changes and topics for discussion in the session.
Read More

Room: M

Start Time - End Time Authors Title
14:45 - 15:05 David Kilby The Reorganization of Technology: Trajectories of Change in Lithic Technological Organization in the North American Southwest
15:05 - 15:25 Ryan M. Parish Spatial patterning in chert source networks during the Pleistocene/Early Holocene transition in southeastern North America
15:25 - 15:45 Jon C. Lohse, Mike Mcbride, Sébastien Perrot-Minnot Paleoindian Origins of the Earliest Archaic Stone Tool Traditions in Mesoamerica: a Look at the Yucatan Shelf as Evidence for Cultural Diversity by 13,000 Years Ago

G23 - The Neolithic in Art. Iconography and Society in the First World Agricultural Communities of Eurasia.

Session Organisers: Svend Hansen, Ianir Milevski
Category: Symbolism
Session Abstract:
In the past 30 years, a hitherto unknown pictorial world of the early Neolithic has become known in Urfa and the wider region. The transition from the Palaeolithic to the Neolithic was not only associated with a fundamental change in the way of life and economy, but also with a media revolution. Life-size sculptures made of stone were an extraordinary craft, artistic and social innovation. The material, themes and size of these sculptures were inextricably linked and represented permanence, masculinity and monumentality. In the further development of the Neolithic, images of humans, but also of certain animals, played an important role in the farming villages. On a larger worldwide scale, the question of whether the paintings and sculptures played a role for all or only part of the peasant societies will be discussed. The Neolithic period worldwide is not only a time in which plant and animal domestication occurred and agricultural societies represented a revolutionary break from hunter-gatherer lifeways. The question is whether the transition to the Neolithic was connected everywhere, not only in Eurasia, with a production of images that were adapted to the achievements of the new mode of production. The aim of this session within the World Neolithic Congress is to evaluate different iconographies and their material culture aspects from Pre-Pottery and Pottery Neolithic bearing communities and evaluate the ideological aspects of art against the background of the socio-economic basis of these communities and vice-versa.
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Room: E

Start Time - End Time Authors Title
14:45 - 15:05 Goce Naumov The Neolithic Anthropomorphism and the Domestication of Human Body in the Balkans
15:05 - 15:25 Argyris Fassoulas Giving Meaning to the Technique: The Socio-cultural Dimension of Figurine-making in Neolithic Aegean
15:25 - 15:45 Stella Katsarou, Adamantios Sampson Human Representations and Farming Economy. Insights from the Advanced Farming Stage in the Aegean
15:45 - 16:15 All Participants Discussion

G24 - Treating Dead Bodies in the Neolithic: Exploring the Increasing Social Complexity

Session Organisers: Yılmaz Selim Erdal, Françoise Le Mort, Stéphane Rottier
Category: Anthropology / Burial Practices
Session Abstract:
Mortuary practices can be particularly enlightening on the evolution of behaviors during periods of transition. Along with the changes in lifeways that occurred during the Neolithic transition, a new type of bond was established between the living and the space in which the deceased left behind. The rich record of Neolithic settlements and burials in various space and time scales makes it possible to discuss the interferences between the attitudes of the societies facing death and the environmental and cultural context. A high range of practices, covering a large timescale, from the time of the death until the process of physical and immaterial transformation of the deceased is achieved, reflects the diversity of the attitudes of the Neolithic societies facing death. Burials vary in location, architecture, shape, size, type, number of dead buried, position and orientation of the dead, grave goods…. Specific treatments, that might be performed during or after the body deposit, or even the absence of burial have also been documented (e.g. manipulations, plastering the skull, cannibalism). This session aims to bring together scholars working on Neolithic mortuary practices in different geographical locations and in different timeframes to understand the diversity of the attitudes of the societies facing death at the local, regional, and interregional scales and to discuss their evolution through time. Presentations will focus on regional or micro-regional syntheses, interregional comparisons, diachronic studies discussing the evolution and/or diversification of practices through time and integrative interpretations. A large place will be given to discussion.
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Room: F

Start Time - End Time Authors Title
14:45 - 15:05 Yılmaz Selim Erdal Association with Mesolithic-related Ancestry or Demic Diffusion in Neolithic Northwest Anatolia
15:05 - 15:25 Ana Arzelier, Harmony De Belvalet, Marie-Hélène Pemonge, Pauline Garberi, Didier Binder, Henri Duday, Marie-France Deguilloux, Mélanie Pruvost Ancient DNA sheds light on the funerary practices of late Neolithic collective burial in southern France
15:25 - 15:45 Geigl Eva-Maria, Parasayan Oguzhan, Grange Thierry, Thevenet Corinne, Ilett Michael, Hachem Lamys, Dubouloz Jerome Unprecedented diversity of funerary practices in the LBK of the Paris Basin revealed through anthropology and paleogenomics
15:45 - 16:05 Melanie Pruvost, Vincent Ard, Ana Arzelier, Marie-France Deguilloux, Delphine Linard, Muriel Gandelin, Jérôme Rouquet Diverse funerary practices and genetic insights in Late Neolithic France: The LINK Project

G26 - On people, tools, and plant foodways: defining new proxies for the Neolithization(s)

Session Organisers: Laura Dietrich, Laure Dubreuil, Emanuela Cristiani, Caroline Hamon, Avi Gopher, Andrea Zupancich
Category: Technology
Session Abstract:
The Neolithic marks a major turning point in human history, leading towards dramatic changes in lifeways, ideologies, societies and economies. In this session, our aim is to establish a global forum for research exploring people and plant intricate relationships within the context of Neolithization(s), considering their multifaceted nature encompassing technological innovations, dietary practices, agents, networks, and lifeways. We invite contributions that focus on the identification of new proxies - defined here as agents and components - of Neolithization, in addition to those related to the domestication of founder crops. These could encompass a wide range of topics, including plant food processing technologies, foodways and dietary habits, plant-people interactions, and the identification of specific tools and recipes at the onset of the Neolithization, local and over regional dietary strategies and plant resource management, along with long-term evolutions and changes in plant consumptions patterns such as storage, grinding, and cooking, techniques. To facilitate discussion on these topics, we encourage worldwide interdisciplinary contributions to the study of human remains and material culture. This includes new methodologies in use-wear and residue analyses, the study of dental macro - and micro-wear on teeth, ancient dental calculus, isotope analysis, metagenomics, as well as experimental and theoretical approaches applied for novel high-resolution reconstructions of Neolithic diets and food technology.
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Room: G

Start Time - End Time Authors Title
14:45 - 15:05 Alexander Minnich How did bread come to Central Europe? Investigations into the role of the Neolithic settlement of Brunn am Gebirge near Vienna in the spread of the eating habits of Europe’s first farmers using grinding stones
15:05 - 15:25 All Participants Discussion: on pleople, tools and plants
15:25 - 15:45 Organisers Conclusion: on pleople, tools and plants

G27 - Neolithic clay tokens and other counting objects

Session Organisers: Karol Szymczak, Michal Leloch
Category: Population - Network
Session Abstract:
The aim of this session is to discuss the somehow forgotten lately problem of the Neolithic counting objects which probably reflect value of certain goods. Such artefacts appear in the very beginning of PPN A, and were in use till the Iron Age. If we agreed with an idea of the significance of tokens presented for the first time by L. Oppenheim in 1959, we would touch one of the far reaching consequences of neolithization. It led to radical changes not only in economic relations, food production, way of life, and beliefs, but also in social organization of the Neolithic societies. Exchanging goods with the use of tokens/counters needs acceptance of the whole token system by wide groups of people and create the special type of social ties, which after a few millennia led directly to urban and state civilizations. Reflection on this aspect of neolithization should help to understand better the far going importance of this process for further human history.
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Room: H

Start Time - End Time Authors Title
14:45 - 15:05 Karol Szymczak Neolithic Clay Tokens and The Eastern Boundary of Their Occurrence in Central Asia
15:05 - 15:25 Michal Leloch, Karol Szymczak Possible Neolithic Counting Objects Other Then Fired Clay Tokens
15:25 - 15:45 Sophie Juncker, Andreea ?erna Tracing the Transformations: The Role of Clay Tokens in Neolithic and Copper Age Societies of the Carpathian-Dniester Region
15:45 - 16:05 Bahar Kıvrak, Aslı Erim Özdoğan Clay Sealings from Neolithic Sumaki Höyük

R01 - Pathways of Pastoralism: The Dispersal of Herding Practices in Neolithic Southwest Asia

Session Organisers: Özlem Sarıtaş, Derya Silibolatlaz
Category: Domestication / Subsistence Economy
Session Abstract:
The dispersal of herding practices during the Neolithic period represents a significant milestone in human history, reshaping societies, and landscapes across Southwest Asia and beyond. This session aims to delve into the intricate processes and impacts associated with the spread of pastoralism, exploring the movement of herding practices and their profound influence on Neolithic communities. Through an interdisciplinary lens, we will examine the origins, trajectories, and mechanisms of herding dispersal and the socio-economic and environmental transformations it engendered. Key themes will include the routes of herding expansion, the interaction between herders and indigenous agriculturalists, and the ecological implications of pastoralism. These presentations will highlight the latest archaeological findings, genetic studies, and environmental data that illuminate the patterns and drivers of herding dispersal. Participants will gain insights into: • The initial domestication and management of livestock and their subsequent spread across Neolithic landscapes. • The role of environmental factors and climate change in shaping herding routes and practices. • The social and economic impacts of pastoralism on Neolithic communities, including changes in settlement patterns, trade networks, and cultural exchanges. • The adaptive strategies herders employ in diverse ecological zones and their interactions with sedentary agriculturalists. This session will provide a comprehensive understanding of how herding practices are disseminated across Southwest Asia, transforming human-animal relationships and ecosystems. Attendees will leave with a deeper appreciation of the complexity and dynamism of Neolithic pastoralism and its lasting legacies. Join us for an engaging exploration of the pathways of pastoralism and the critical role of herding in shaping the Neolithic world. This session promises to offer valuable perspectives for scholars and enthusiasts interested in the history of human-animal interactions and the development of ancient societies.
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Room: B

Start Time - End Time Authors Title
14:45 - 15:05 Louise Martin, Joy Mccorriston Cattle Cults, Social Symphysis and Pastoral Systems in the Southern Arabian Neolithic
15:05 - 15:25 Özlem Sarıtaş, Louise Martin Evolution of Herding Practices: The Dispersal of Sheep and Goats from the Epipaleolithic to the Neolithic in Anatolia.
15:25 - 15:45 Derya Silibolatlaz Exploring Pig Domestication During Pre Pottery Period B (PPNB) at Gre Fılla in the Upper Tigris Region, Southeastern Turkey
15:45 - 16:05 Gülçin İlgezdi Bertram, Banu Öksüz, Semra Balcı Human-Animal Relations at Sırçalıtepe

R10 - From Zagros to Alborz and Beyond: Formative and Adoptive Neolithic Lifeways on The Iranian Plateau

Session Organisers: Hojjat Darabi, Hassan Fazeli Nashli
Category: Near East
Session Abstract:
Since the 1940-50s, the Neolithic period in Iran has been sporadically explored by a number of archaeologists. Following the pioneering work by R. Braidwood in the central Zagros in 1959-60, attention was given to question-oriented investigations, especially on the onset of domestication and sedentary life. Subsequent political instabilities put research in hiatus for about three decades. This severely limited our understanding of Iran’s Neolithic in comparison to other regions of Western Asia. In the last two decades, however, not only have some previously excavated sites or collections been re-evaluated, but new archaeological activities have also been undertaken. As recently suggested by aDNA data, an important approach to better understand the emergence and spread of the Neolithic lifestyle on the Iranian plateau is the inter-regional connections between the western and central parts of Asia. Current evidence points to a distinct pattern of Neolithic eco-cultural zones that interacted intensively with their neighbors via networks through which ideas, raw materials or commodities circulated and were transported. However, little is known about the possible impact of climatic or demographic factors on the development of the Neolithic lifestyle throughout Iran. Moreover, it remains unclear to what extent the secondary centers/learning or adoptive zones were influenced by the primary/formative ones. With the main goal of addressing the above issues, this session aims to bring together researchers to present the latest available data on the emergence and development of Neolithic lifeways in Iran, a region that encompasses a mosaic of diverse Neolithic cultures but is still only vaguely known. It is expected that the session can contribute to our better understanding of the extent to which Neolithic societies were in contact throughout the Iranian plateau and its neighbors, and how Neolithic lifeways are most likely to have evolved across this vast region linking the western parts of Asia with the central parts.
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Room: J

Start Time - End Time Authors Title
14:45 - 15:00 Mohammad Hossein Azizi Kharanaghi Southern Iran During Pre-Pottery Neolithic Period
15:00 - 15:15 Morteza Khanipour Development of the Fars Cultural zone during the Neolithic Period, Iran
15:15 - 15:30 Nasir Eskandari Look to the East: Southeastern Iran in the Pottery Neolithic Period
15:30 - 15:45 Jan Lentschke Holocene landscapes changing and his impacts of potential early farming grounds in the Beshahr area (NE-Iran)
15:45 - 16:00 Soudeh Eftekhari, Hassan Fazeli Nashli, Stefano Campana, Dimitrios Alexakis Landscape reconstruction of North Central Plateau of Iran during Neolithic period by integration satellite images, digital elevation model and gis

R15 - The Neolithic of the Aegean and Beyond: Supra-Regional Networks and Local Communities

Session Organisers: Agathe Reingruber, Zafer Derin, Eylem Özdoğan
Category: Anatolia / Southeastern Europe
Session Abstract:
The Circum-Aegean world is at the same time part of the Mediterranean and separated from it by large islands. This interactive space that formed around the Aegean Sea offered many advantages to seafaring peoples since Mesolithic times or even before: a well-connected and authentic place where not only people and materials, but, above all, ideas circulated rapidly. Since the Mesolithic, and especially with the Neolithic way of life, interactions between its eastern and western parts resulted in a material and immaterial culture distinguishable from the surrounding areas. Nevertheless, the Circum-Aegean is far from being a uniform space, since there are numerous differences traceable between the various regions, such as the islands, the Anatolian coast and the Greek mainland. Through new research carried out in recent years in especially in the eastern Aegean area (in Anatolia) but also in the west (in Macedonia and Thessaly), another aspect has become even clearer: the possibility of defining inside the broader regions local styles in pottery production and material culture. In this session, we aim to discuss both the beginnings of the Neolithic way of life against the background of the Mesolithic, as well as the subsequent transformations culminating in the early/mid sixth millennium BC. Special attention shall be given to the internal dynamics within the Aegean and the exchange with the surrounding areas: on the Anatolian side with the Marmara region up to the Bosporus in the north and with the Lake District down to the Mediterranean coast in the south; on the European side via river systems with the north and northwest. The session welcomes contributions on material culture, chronology and terminology, various aspects of regional cultures and interregional networks. As it is not possible to adequately study the Circum-Aegean Neolithic without interdisciplinary approaches, we explicitly welcome presentations on environmental aspects, archaeometry and bioarchaeology. In this way, we aim to highlight the originality of Aegean Neolithic societies in their various aspects.
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Room: L

Start Time - End Time Authors Title
14:45 - 15:00 Şengül Aydıngün Istanbul Lagoons Neolithic Finds
15:00 - 15:15 Fulya Dedeoğlu Looking the Aegean from Inner Southwest Anatolia: Ekşi Höyük and its relations and interactions
15:15 - 15:30 Harun Taşkıran A Late Neolithic Cave Settlement in Southwest Anatolia: Suluin
15:30 - 15:45 Aslıhan Beyazıt The Origin of Paint Decorated Pottery from the Neolithic Period in the Burdur-Antalya Region
15:45 - 16:00 Aysel Arslan Unveiling Community Identities: Tracing Clay Object Makers via Ancient Fingerprints

R29 - Breaking the Neolithic in Asia: Questioning Tropes, Recentering Boundaries and Nuancing Lifeways

Session Organisers: Jennifer Bates, Matthew L. Conte, Yeji Lee, JungWoo Choi, Kim Pangyu
Category: Different Neolithics
Session Abstract:
That the Three Age system and the subdivisions of the lithic ages do not work outside Europe and Near East has been debated in many forums. However, beyond this easily cited trope, the age-old idea of a “Neolithic” continually raises its head within literature. We see the presence of agriculture as a way to ‘mark’ the Neolithic, the absence of microliths as a marker of change, and ceramics used to debate the validity of chronological boundaries. Nuances underlying what this meant for the lives lived by people and the diversity underlying this in different regions are often overlooked in the eagerness to ‘find’ the Neolithic. The Neolithic has in essence become an ‘archaeo-geological age’ - so stratigraphically bounded and ubiquitous we find it hard to break from its presence. Local narratives are peripheralized in favour of an all encompassing, un-nuanced and imported age. In this session we invite papers that explore diversity and break the homogeneity of ‘Neolithic’ life in Asia, moving away from mere tropes to how new lifeways were adopted, assimilated, rejected or replaced in different parts of Asia. Debates in the Neolithic of Asia (e.g.: use of aquatic resources, the adoption of pastoral and agricultural systems, domestication, changes in technology) are sought to explore the diversity of what it was ‘to have been Neolithic’. Through this session we ask: is there something about the ‘Neolithic’ as a concept and term that helps people to understand the diversity of lifeways and societies associated with it across regions within Asia?
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Room: K

Start Time - End Time Authors Title
14:45 - 15:05 Weihong Wu Lingjiatan: An outbreak of prehistoric jade and stone artifacts wave in East Asia
15:05 - 15:25 Ekaterina Girchenko, Georgy Vizgalov, Oleg Kardash Kayukovo 1 – a new sample of defensive architecture in Northern Asia
15:25 - 15:45 Leping Jiang Paleolithic-Neolithic transition at the Shangshan site
15:45 - 16:05 Selvakumar Veerasamy, Veena Mushtrif-Tripathy, Abhayan G.S., Satish Shivaji Naik, Prabhakar V.N., Sharmila Bhattacharya, Gowrisankar S, Ravi Kant Prasad Recent Investigation at the Neolithic Site of Molapalayam and the Extent of Southern Neolithic Culture of India

R33 - Göbekli Tepe: State-of-the-art

Session Organisers: Lee Clare
Category: Near East
Session Abstract:
Archaeological excavations have been underway at Göbekli Tepe since the mid-1990s. Since 2009, these works have been supported by a long-term funding grant from the German Research Association (DFG). Originally directed by Klaus Schmidt, responsibility for this research project, "The Prehistoric Societies of Upper Mesopotamia and their Subsistence", passed to Ricardo Eichmann (DAI-Orient) in 2014. Since 2019, the project has comprised three main parts: Archaeology, archaeozoology and physical geography, with Lee Clare (DAI Istanbul), Joris Peters (LMU Munich) and Brigitta Schütt (FU Berlin) acting as primary investigators. In 2020, following the retirement of R. Eichmann, L. Clare took over as DFG project leader, with the site directorship passing to Necmi Karul (Istanbul University) in the same year. The last few years have witnessed great changes at Göbekli Tepe, not only due to UNESCO inscription in 2018, which has culminated in a visible increase in visitors, but also in the light of ongoing fieldwork, which has led to new insights around the function of the prehistoric settlement. This session brings together numerous experts who have been active in the scientific research at the UNESCO World Heritage Site over the last five years. Contributions will focus on many of the different sub-disciplines of the project, including building and landscape archaeology, physical geography, archaeobotany, archaeozoology, human anthropology, lithic studies and art and symbolism.
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Room: I

Start Time - End Time Authors Title
14:45 - 15:05 Lee Clare, Joris Peters, Brigitta Schütt The Göbekli Tepe project: history, organisation, and research strategies
15:05 - 15:25 Stephanie Emra, Nadja Pöllath, Joris Peters 25 years of archaeozoological research at Göbekli Tepe, and future perspectives
15:25 - 15:45 Nadja Pöllath, Stephanie Emra, Joris Peters Different strokes for different folks—diverse subsistence strategies at the transition to agriculture in the Upper Mesopotamia
15:45 - 16:05 Moritz Kinzel Göbekli Tepe - Architecture
Parallel Sessions (Sitting: 4)

G03 - Foraging to Food Production and The Consequences: A Global Review

Session Organisers: Peter Bellwood, Hsiao-chun Hung
Category: Domestication / Subsistence Economy
Session Abstract:
This session examines six major regions, located around the globe, of transition from foraging to food production. Presenters are asked to give their current opinions, for their regions of expertise, about the following basic issues: a) trajectories of animal and plant domestication; b) trends in settlement sedentism and patterning; c) changes in human population density; d) trends in human population history, acknowledging current debates in genetics and linguistics. Were the transitions driven mainly by indigenous enterprise, or did they involve contact with, or immigration by, food producing populations from external sources? Presenters should outline what we think we know at present, and suggest important goals for future research. The aim of the session is to generate broad multidisciplinary and comparative perspectives. Taking stock is important, and we will invite speakers both from the Scientific Committee and from beyond to express succinctly (in 20-minute bursts) how they perceive their region of expertise. Suggested regions: 1. Southwest Asia 2. East Asia 3. Africa 4. New Guinea 5. Mesoamerica 6. South America
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Room: A

Start Time - End Time Authors Title
16:30 - 16:50 Peter Bellwood, Hsiao-Chun Hung Introduction to Session G03: Foraging to food production, and the consequences: a global review and perspective.
16:50 - 17:10 Henny Piezonka, Natal’ya Chairkina, Ekaterina Dubovtseva, Lyubov’ Kosinskaya, Tanja Schreiber The world’s oldest forts? Amnya and the acceleration of hunter-gatherer diversity in Siberia 8000 years ago.
17:10 - 17:30 Joaquim Fort Interbreeding and demic diffusion in the spread of the Neolithic in Europe.
17:30 - 17:50 Jean-Denis Vigne, François Briois, Jean Guilaine The Southwest Asian Neolithic transition scrutinized from the island of Cyprus.

G19 - Reading the Stones, Tracing the Changes: Lithic Technology during the Paleolithic - Neolithic Transition

Session Organisers: Andrey Tabarev, David Kilby, Yoshitaka Kanomata
Category: Technology
Session Abstract:
The transition from the Paleolithic to the Neolithic brought about profound changes in human behavior and adaptations, including changes in mobility, social organization, settlement patterns, and subsistence practices. These changes are directly reflected in lithic technology, both in the development of new tools and technologies and the fundamental reorganization of technological systems. In some regions of the World this is manifested in the decline of the Paleolithic blade/microblade technologies, in the shift from the heavily curated to more expedient strategies, in the additional emphasis on prestige items (lithic caches,) etc. This session brings together presenters from around the World (Eurasia, Americas, Africa, and Australia) to review and examine the lithic technological developments that accompany the Paleolithic-Neolithic transition in their respective regions. The goals of this session are to survey the variety of patterns and perhaps identify cross- cultural regularities during this era of significant technological transitions. Technological analysis, use-wear studies, and experimental archaeology are among the effective approaches to understanding these changes and topics for discussion in the session.
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Room: M

Start Time - End Time Authors Title
16:30 - 16:50 Aouimeur Samia Indication of Capsian-Neolithic transition through the typo-technological complex of the lithic industry at the Medjez II site eastern Algeria
16:50 - 17:10 Douglas Sain Comparing reduction intensity of modified blades from the Topper Site, a Paleoindian chert quarry in South Carolina and Boncuklu, an Early Neolithic site in Turkey
17:10 - 17:30 Shane Miller, James Hardin, Stephen Carmody, Caleb Hutson East Meets West: Comparing the Origins of Agriculture in Eastern North America and the Fertile Crescent

G24 - Treating Dead Bodies in the Neolithic: Exploring the Increasing Social Complexity

Session Organisers: Yılmaz Selim Erdal, Françoise Le Mort, Stéphane Rottier
Category: Anthropology / Burial Practices
Session Abstract:
Mortuary practices can be particularly enlightening on the evolution of behaviors during periods of transition. Along with the changes in lifeways that occurred during the Neolithic transition, a new type of bond was established between the living and the space in which the deceased left behind. The rich record of Neolithic settlements and burials in various space and time scales makes it possible to discuss the interferences between the attitudes of the societies facing death and the environmental and cultural context. A high range of practices, covering a large timescale, from the time of the death until the process of physical and immaterial transformation of the deceased is achieved, reflects the diversity of the attitudes of the Neolithic societies facing death. Burials vary in location, architecture, shape, size, type, number of dead buried, position and orientation of the dead, grave goods…. Specific treatments, that might be performed during or after the body deposit, or even the absence of burial have also been documented (e.g. manipulations, plastering the skull, cannibalism). This session aims to bring together scholars working on Neolithic mortuary practices in different geographical locations and in different timeframes to understand the diversity of the attitudes of the societies facing death at the local, regional, and interregional scales and to discuss their evolution through time. Presentations will focus on regional or micro-regional syntheses, interregional comparisons, diachronic studies discussing the evolution and/or diversification of practices through time and integrative interpretations. A large place will be given to discussion.
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Room: F

Start Time - End Time Authors Title
16:30 - 16:50 Sabina Cvecek, Yılmaz Selim Erdal Ghost Children: A diversity of mortuary practices in Anatolia during the Neolithic
16:50 - 17:10 May Alhaek Child burials and associated ritual practices during the Neolithic period in Syria.
17:10 - 17:30 Anne Augereau The funerary gender treatment as a marker of social organization: from the Early to the Middle Neolithic in the Paris basin and its margins (France)
17:30 - 17:50 Victoria Gingley Leyri Materiality and the embodiment of the deceased: Rank, gender, and class as markers of identity

R01 - Pathways of Pastoralism: The Dispersal of Herding Practices in Neolithic Southwest Asia

Session Organisers: Özlem Sarıtaş, Derya Silibolatlaz
Category: Domestication / Subsistence Economy
Session Abstract:
The dispersal of herding practices during the Neolithic period represents a significant milestone in human history, reshaping societies, and landscapes across Southwest Asia and beyond. This session aims to delve into the intricate processes and impacts associated with the spread of pastoralism, exploring the movement of herding practices and their profound influence on Neolithic communities. Through an interdisciplinary lens, we will examine the origins, trajectories, and mechanisms of herding dispersal and the socio-economic and environmental transformations it engendered. Key themes will include the routes of herding expansion, the interaction between herders and indigenous agriculturalists, and the ecological implications of pastoralism. These presentations will highlight the latest archaeological findings, genetic studies, and environmental data that illuminate the patterns and drivers of herding dispersal. Participants will gain insights into: • The initial domestication and management of livestock and their subsequent spread across Neolithic landscapes. • The role of environmental factors and climate change in shaping herding routes and practices. • The social and economic impacts of pastoralism on Neolithic communities, including changes in settlement patterns, trade networks, and cultural exchanges. • The adaptive strategies herders employ in diverse ecological zones and their interactions with sedentary agriculturalists. This session will provide a comprehensive understanding of how herding practices are disseminated across Southwest Asia, transforming human-animal relationships and ecosystems. Attendees will leave with a deeper appreciation of the complexity and dynamism of Neolithic pastoralism and its lasting legacies. Join us for an engaging exploration of the pathways of pastoralism and the critical role of herding in shaping the Neolithic world. This session promises to offer valuable perspectives for scholars and enthusiasts interested in the history of human-animal interactions and the development of ancient societies.
Read More

Room: B

Start Time - End Time Authors Title
16:30 - 16:50 Can Yümni Gündem Unveiling Neolithic Dispersal: Early Cattle Herding in the Highlands of Central Anatolia, Tepecik Çiftlik
16:50 - 17:10 Saiji Arai, Farhad Guliyev, Azad Zeynalov, Yoshihiro Nishiaki Does the emergence of domestic animals coincide with pastoralization?: The rapid introduction and delayed development of livestock economy in the Southern Caucasus

R03 - Unravelling the Knot: Network Approaches to the Study of the Neolithic Transition in Southwest Asia and Beyond

Session Organisers: Camilla Mazzucato
Category: Population - Network
Session Abstract:
Over the past decade the study of the past has been increasingly influenced by network thinking, a period in which archaeological research has seen a sharp increase in the use of network concepts and formal applications across different scales and methodologies. Network methods offer flexible and effective concepts and statistical tools for describing, investigating and analyzing how entities relate to other entities within complex and integrated structures. The flexibility of network methods is manifested in the wide range of approaches that have been applied to archaeological data that span from studies drawing on physics and complexity theory to others inspired by sociology or by Actor Network Theory (ANT), assemblage and entanglement theory. Recent studies have revealed the Neolithic transition as a protracted and multi-centered process defined by a diverse landscape of social and subsistence strategies across Southwest Asia. Within this context, networks have been increasingly used as both conceptual devices and formal applications to model relations at different scales using diverse datasets. This workshop provides a venue for showcasing new research that applies network methods to the study of the Neolithic transition and for discussing how network representations and models can be of help in disentangling the way the Neolithization process developed in Southwest Asia and beyond.
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Room: H

Start Time - End Time Authors Title
16:30 - 16:50 Fiona Coward Multiscalar and multiply-material: archaeological networks are not the poor relative of social networks but key to understanding the Neolithic transition in Southwest Asia.
16:50 - 17:10 Fiona Pichon, Juan José Ibáñez Modeling Obsidian Exchange Networks during the Establishment of Neolithic in Southwest Asia
17:10 - 17:30 Damase Mouralis, Çiler Altınbilek Algül, Orkun Kaycı, Semra Balcı Cilicia between Central Anatolia and the Levant: Evidence of obsidian exchange from the Epipalaeolithic to the Neolithic period
17:30 - 17:50 Camilla Mazzucato, Michele Coscia Using network variance to investigate social relations at a micro-scale. Socio-material archaeological networks and biological ties at Çatalhöyük

R10 - From Zagros to Alborz and Beyond: Formative and Adoptive Neolithic Lifeways on The Iranian Plateau

Session Organisers: Hojjat Darabi, Hassan Fazeli Nashli
Category: Near East
Session Abstract:
Since the 1940-50s, the Neolithic period in Iran has been sporadically explored by a number of archaeologists. Following the pioneering work by R. Braidwood in the central Zagros in 1959-60, attention was given to question-oriented investigations, especially on the onset of domestication and sedentary life. Subsequent political instabilities put research in hiatus for about three decades. This severely limited our understanding of Iran’s Neolithic in comparison to other regions of Western Asia. In the last two decades, however, not only have some previously excavated sites or collections been re-evaluated, but new archaeological activities have also been undertaken. As recently suggested by aDNA data, an important approach to better understand the emergence and spread of the Neolithic lifestyle on the Iranian plateau is the inter-regional connections between the western and central parts of Asia. Current evidence points to a distinct pattern of Neolithic eco-cultural zones that interacted intensively with their neighbors via networks through which ideas, raw materials or commodities circulated and were transported. However, little is known about the possible impact of climatic or demographic factors on the development of the Neolithic lifestyle throughout Iran. Moreover, it remains unclear to what extent the secondary centers/learning or adoptive zones were influenced by the primary/formative ones. With the main goal of addressing the above issues, this session aims to bring together researchers to present the latest available data on the emergence and development of Neolithic lifeways in Iran, a region that encompasses a mosaic of diverse Neolithic cultures but is still only vaguely known. It is expected that the session can contribute to our better understanding of the extent to which Neolithic societies were in contact throughout the Iranian plateau and its neighbors, and how Neolithic lifeways are most likely to have evolved across this vast region linking the western parts of Asia with the central parts.
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Room: J

Start Time - End Time Authors Title
16:30 - 16:45 Hassan Fazeli Nashli Report of the recent excavations of Mesolithic and Neolithic Caves in the southeastern of the Caspian Sea
16:45 - 17:00 Mozhgan Jayez Lithics: From Mesolithic to Neolithic in the southeast of the Caspian Sea
17:00 - 17:15 Seyyed Kamal Asadi Ojaei, Rahmat Abbasnejad Seresti New Insights After Seventy Years: From the Mesolithic to the Pottery Neolithic in the Northern Iran
17:15 - 17:30 Fatemeh Naderi, Roger Matthews, Judith Thomalsky, Hassan Fazeli Nashli, Mojtaba Safari The Emergence of Complex Ritual Systems during the Mesolithic Period in the South-eastern Caspian Sea
17:30 - 17:45 Xinying Zhou, Hassan Fazeli Nashli, Mojtaba Safari Early Holocene cereal consumption and climatic influences on the southern coast of the Caspian Sea

R15 - The Neolithic of the Aegean and Beyond: Supra-Regional Networks and Local Communities

Session Organisers: Agathe Reingruber, Zafer Derin, Eylem Özdoğan
Category: Anatolia / Southeastern Europe
Session Abstract:
The Circum-Aegean world is at the same time part of the Mediterranean and separated from it by large islands. This interactive space that formed around the Aegean Sea offered many advantages to seafaring peoples since Mesolithic times or even before: a well-connected and authentic place where not only people and materials, but, above all, ideas circulated rapidly. Since the Mesolithic, and especially with the Neolithic way of life, interactions between its eastern and western parts resulted in a material and immaterial culture distinguishable from the surrounding areas. Nevertheless, the Circum-Aegean is far from being a uniform space, since there are numerous differences traceable between the various regions, such as the islands, the Anatolian coast and the Greek mainland. Through new research carried out in recent years in especially in the eastern Aegean area (in Anatolia) but also in the west (in Macedonia and Thessaly), another aspect has become even clearer: the possibility of defining inside the broader regions local styles in pottery production and material culture. In this session, we aim to discuss both the beginnings of the Neolithic way of life against the background of the Mesolithic, as well as the subsequent transformations culminating in the early/mid sixth millennium BC. Special attention shall be given to the internal dynamics within the Aegean and the exchange with the surrounding areas: on the Anatolian side with the Marmara region up to the Bosporus in the north and with the Lake District down to the Mediterranean coast in the south; on the European side via river systems with the north and northwest. The session welcomes contributions on material culture, chronology and terminology, various aspects of regional cultures and interregional networks. As it is not possible to adequately study the Circum-Aegean Neolithic without interdisciplinary approaches, we explicitly welcome presentations on environmental aspects, archaeometry and bioarchaeology. In this way, we aim to highlight the originality of Aegean Neolithic societies in their various aspects.
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Room: L

Start Time - End Time Authors Title
16:30 - 16:45 Zafer Derin Yeşilova Höyük and the Neolithic “Coastal Aegean Culture”
16:45 - 17:00 Ahmet İhsan Aytek, Alper Yener Yavuz, Erhan Tarhan Lion King and the others: Preliminary results of faunal analysis of Yeşilova Höyük, İzmir.
17:00 - 17:15 Ali Ozan, Haluk Sağlamtimur An overview of the Neolithisation of Western Anatolia: What does the Ege Gübre settlement tell us about the Neolithisation of the coastal Aegean?
17:15 - 17:30 Aydın Cura Spread of Round Shaped Objects identified as Sling Missiles in the Aegean during the Neolithic Period
17:30 - 17:45 Simona V. Todaro Red Ochre and Seafaring? Some implications for connectivity in the southern Aegean during the Neolithic

R33 - Göbekli Tepe: State-of-the-art

Session Organisers: Lee Clare
Category: Near East
Session Abstract:
Archaeological excavations have been underway at Göbekli Tepe since the mid-1990s. Since 2009, these works have been supported by a long-term funding grant from the German Research Association (DFG). Originally directed by Klaus Schmidt, responsibility for this research project, "The Prehistoric Societies of Upper Mesopotamia and their Subsistence", passed to Ricardo Eichmann (DAI-Orient) in 2014. Since 2019, the project has comprised three main parts: Archaeology, archaeozoology and physical geography, with Lee Clare (DAI Istanbul), Joris Peters (LMU Munich) and Brigitta Schütt (FU Berlin) acting as primary investigators. In 2020, following the retirement of R. Eichmann, L. Clare took over as DFG project leader, with the site directorship passing to Necmi Karul (Istanbul University) in the same year. The last few years have witnessed great changes at Göbekli Tepe, not only due to UNESCO inscription in 2018, which has culminated in a visible increase in visitors, but also in the light of ongoing fieldwork, which has led to new insights around the function of the prehistoric settlement. This session brings together numerous experts who have been active in the scientific research at the UNESCO World Heritage Site over the last five years. Contributions will focus on many of the different sub-disciplines of the project, including building and landscape archaeology, physical geography, archaeobotany, archaeozoology, human anthropology, lithic studies and art and symbolism.
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Room: I

Start Time - End Time Authors Title
16:30 - 16:50 Benny Waszk Entrance to the built environment – Perception of space at Early Neolithic Göbekli Tepe
16:50 - 17:10 Julia Gresky, Necmi Karul, Lee Clare Un-intentional modifications of the human bone fragments from Göbekli Tepe.
17:10 - 18:00 All Participants Final Discussion