Rapid Change versus Long-Term Social Change during the Neolithic-Chalcolithic Transition in Central Anatolia

the paper scrutinizes the process of cultural, social, economic and symbolic transition between the neolithic and chalcolithic in central anatolia as revealed at the atalhyk east and West Mounds. It will discuss both rapid change and long-term social and palaeo-environmental changes in the Konya plain and will examine how humans responded to the climate change that occurred during the "8.2k cal BP climate event". The key hypothesis is that the change in climate and environment caused people to move westwards into Western anatolia and across europe. atalhyk offers a microcosm that may help us unlock some of the key questions surrounding this time period. at atalhyk, settlement shifted from the east to the West Mound at exactly this time. the two tell sites sitting side by side offer the exceptional chance to analyse human responses to this event on a micro-scale and give us the possibility to answer the question of why and how does the shift from the east to the West Mound take place at this time. once we understand the regional process, we can widen our lens and try to determine the broader effects the shift had. the paper will also re-evaluate these changes within a framework of agency and materiality theories and contextualize the events at atalhyk at the turn of the 7 th -6 th millennium cal Bc with other sites in the near east.