Take Me to Your Leader: The Power of Place in Prehistoric Anatolian Settlements

During the Early Bronze Age in central Anatolia (ca. 3000-2000 b.c.e.), a change in the residential location of houses belonging to elites and/or leaders occurred. In the fourth and early third millennia, various sites feature settlement plans in which village leaders, or higher-ranking residents, inhabited homes in close proximity to main gates. By the later third millennium the trend was to locate homes away from the gates, sometimes behind physical barriers. These changes are concomitant with several plateauwide phenomena, including increases in population and settlement size at emerging regional centers, and the establishment of international trade networks. The reasons underlying this residential adjustment lie in the need for protection against outsiders while also desiring to impress both outsiders and those living within the community. An additional motivating factor, however, was the erosion of trust between community members, i.e., a “fear of the insiders” factor as societies experienced internal changes.