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The Late Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age (EBA) 1 are dynamic prehistoric eras, encapsulating crucial political, social and economic developments in western Anatolia and the adjacent regions. Although recent fieldwork and synthesis on this transition in western Turkey provide a general framework for this important transitional period, we still lack a holistic understanding of settlement types, subsistence patterns and socio-economic interaction zones. Discovery of the coastal site of Kababurun during surveys on the Karaburun Peninsula enhances understanding of the Late Chalcolithic–EBA 1 transition by providing data on settlement characteristics, material technologies and subsistence strategies. Kababurun is currently the only absolutely dated prehistoric site in the Karaburun Peninsula, offering a reliable chronological basis for comparisons in the region and beyond. In this article, we first introduce and then contextualise the Kababurun data within the eastern Aegean and western Anatolian research problems, then discuss how that data might contribute to a more refined understanding of Late Chalcolithic to EBA 1 communities. In particular, we argue that the site of Kababurun represents a form of community that is vitally important but poorly understood for this period: a small-scale rural settlement, connected to local networks but without a specialised function.

Cattle traction was a technological innovation that made a significant impact on production, individual and household wealth, and social organisation. Despite ongoing debates regarding the origins and extent of the harnessing of cattle power among early agropastoral societies, only a few studies have attempted at addressing this matter systematically. In Neolithic catalho center dot yuk, several studies have explored the symbolism and domestication of aurochs and cattle, while the systematic investigation of Bos skeletal remains regarding the presence of cattle traction has been missing. This study focuses on Neolithic catalho center dot yuk in Central Anatolia, renowned for its cattle symbolism, to explore the possibility of cattle traction in the 7th and 6th millennium BCE. We studied the palaeopathological traces on the lower limbs of Bos from catalho center dot yuk East (Early, Middle, and Late) and West Mounds. Our results suggest that arthropathies are present on the Bos lower limbs (particularly anterior elements) in all phases of Neolithic catalho center dot yuk. Pathological and sub-pathological changes are on average more severe among the small cattle of catalho center dot yuk West than in the preceding periods at catalho center dot yuk East, a result affected by a few rather deformed specimens in catalho center dot yuk West. We did not observe any clear correlation between cattle survivorship, size, and pathology severity. Although an unequivocal association between pathologies and traction in prehistoric cattle remains challenging, we discuss plausible explanations for the changing nature and intensity of cattle pathologies at catalho center dot yuk throughout time. Furthermore, we discuss the implications of possible draught use of cattle for the socioeconomic shifts catalho center dot yuk experienced in the 6th millennium BC., University of Groningen, Acknowledgements This work was supported by the University of Groningen. Permission to study the material at the site was granted by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Turkey. Ilkem G?ngo?r assisted the Groningen zooarchaeological team in 2019. The specimens were pho-tographed by Mateusz Dembowiak. Jesse Wolfhagen and David Orton kindly answered questions about the ?atalho?y?k zooarchaeological database and chronology. We extend our thanks to each of these in-dividuals and institutions. Special thanks to our reviewer, Katheryn Twiss, and two anonymous reviewers for providing insightful comments on this manuscript.

Suids (Sus sp.) played a crucial role in the transition to farming in northern Europe and, like in many regions, in the Netherlands pig husbandry became an important subsistence activity at Neolithic sites. Yet little is known about wild boar palaeoecology and hunting in the Late Mesolithic Netherlands with which to contextualize this transition. This paper presents the first multi-proxy analysis of archaeological suid remains in the Netherlands. It explores human-suid interactions at the Swifterbant culture sites of Hardinxveld-Giessendam Polderweg and De Bruin (5450–4250 BC) through biometric analysis, estimation of age-at-death, and stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis. The results reveal targeted hunting of adult wild boar in the Late Mesolithic (5450–4850 BC), with a possible shift over time towards more juveniles. The wild boar in this period are demonstrated to be of comparably large size to contemporary northern European populations and exhibiting a wide range of dietary regimes. In the final occupational period (4450–4250 BC), small suids are present, possibly domestic pigs, but there is no evidence of pig management. This study demonstrates that the nature of human-suid interactions varied over time, which may have been connected to changing environmental conditions, human mobility, and wild boar behaviour. This study also contributes the first biometric and dietary baseline for mid-Holocene wild boar in the Netherlands.

Current understandings of the archaeology of second-millennium B.C.E. central western Anatolia are enriched by ongoing research at Kaymakci, located in the Marmara Lake basin of the middle Gediz River valley in western Turkey. Discovered during regional survey in 2001, the site offers a critical node of exploration for understanding a previously unexamined period in a well-traversed geography thought to be the core of the Late Bronze Age Seha River Land known from I finite texts. Here we present results from the first three seasons of excavation on the citadel of Kaymakci plus a study season (2014-2017), introducing the site's chronology, historical and regional context, and significance through presentation of excavation areas as well as material and subsistence economies. With reference to such evidence, we discuss the site's development, organization, and interregional interactions, demonstrating its place in local and regional networks that connected Aegean and central Anatolian spheres of interest., National Endowment for the Humanities; National Science Foundation; Institute for Aegean Prehistory; Loeb Classical Library Foundation; Merops Foundation; Boston University Vecchiotti Archaeology Fund; Koc University; Czech Science Foundation GACR; European Union (European Union); Horizon 2020; European Regional Development Fund

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Background Cattle domestication started in the 9th millennium BC in Southwest Asia. Domesticated cattle were then introduced into Europe during the Neolithic transition. However, the scarcity of palaeogenetic data from the first European domesticated cattle still inhibits the accurate reconstruction of their early demography. In this study, mitochondrial DNA from 193 ancient and 597 modern domesticated cattle (Bos taurus) from sites across Europe, Western Anatolia and Iran were analysed to provide insight into the Neolithic dispersal process and the role of the local European aurochs population during cattle domestication. Results Using descriptive summary statistics and serial coalescent simulations paired with approximate Bayesian computation we find: (i) decreasing genetic diversity in a southeast to northwest direction, (ii) strong correlation of genetic and geographical distances, iii) an estimated effective size of the Near Eastern female founder population of 81, iv) that the expansion of cattle from the Near East and Anatolia into Europe does not appear to constitute a significant bottleneck, and that v) there is evidence for gene-flow between the Near Eastern/Anatolian and European cattle populations in the early phases of the European Neolithic, but that it is restricted after 5,000 BCE. Conclusions The most plausible scenario to explain these results is a single and regionally restricted domestication process of cattle in the Near East with subsequent migration into Europe during the Neolithic transition without significant maternal interbreeding with the endogenous wild stock. Evidence for gene-flow between cattle populations from Southwestern Asia and Europe during the earlier phases of the European Neolithic points towards intercontinental trade connections between Neolithic farmers. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12863-015-0203-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Groupers (Epinephelidae) are ecologically, commercially, and culturally important carnivorous fishes found throughout the world’s tropical, subtropical, and temperate coastal marine waters. Due to various life history traits (e.g., late maturity, sequential hermaphroditism) and behavior (e.g., sedentary, small home ranges) groupers are susceptible to overfishing, including small-scale and recreational fishing (especially spearfishing), and their populations are declining worldwide. The eastern Mediterranean coast, home to some of the world’s longest continuously occupied urban settlements, hosts important but declining grouper populations. This paper investigates how grouper and comber (fishes in the Serranidae family with similar ecology and osteomorphology, but smaller in size) abundance and catch size changed in the eastern Mediterranean from the Middle to Late Holocene, coinciding with early coastal urbanization, by estimating their relative frequency and reconstructing their size. Size reconstructions have been done from a large sample of bones (Number of Identified Specimens = 1851) recovered from Kinet Höyük in Turkey, and Tell Fadous-Kfarabida and Tell el-Burak in Lebanon, habitation sites along the Levantine coast. Our results imply that groupers in the past reached >100 cm more often than is observed today in areas open to commercial fishing. Furthermore, the apparent lack of large groupers by the Hellenistic Period at Kinet Höyük suggests fishing efforts were intense enough to have either had an appreciable effect on the size structure of local grouper populations or brought about a behavioral change to the fishes of moving to deeper waters.