Neolithic Turkey: investigating the transition to settled and farming lifestyles on the Konya Plain

Thanks to 64 years of sustained and intensive work, a small area in the western Konya Plain in the south-central Anatolian Plateau of Turkey now provides uniquely rich evidence for the study of the Neolithic of south-west Asia and the earliest transition from groups of mobile foragers to settled agricultural societies. Much of the work has been sponsored by the British Institute at Ankara (BIAA). This research was initiated by the BIAA’s survey in the area by Mellaart, French, and Hall, which identified the now-famous World Heritage Site of Çatalhöyük as Neolithic, and which Mellaart went on to excavate in the early 1960s. BIAA-sponsored projects have continued to identify, survey, and