The Diffusion of Neolithic Practices from Anatolia to Europe: A contextual study of residential construction, 8,500-5,500 BC cal.

How did farming spread into Europe, from its origins in the Near East? And what remained of the original Neolithic, once it spread beyond its initial boundaries, to Western Anatolia, Greece and the Balkans? This book looks at the content of the Neolithic pattern of existence that spread into Europe 8,500 years ago, and specifically at practices, defined by reference to the theories of social action as normative acts or ways of doing. Beyond farming practices - this book argues - the Neolithic witnessed the inception of a new set of residential and construction practices, pertaining to the way in which houses were built, lived in and discarded at the end of their use-lives. The argument is substantiated by a detailed review of Neolithic house forms and settlement structures during the interval 8,500-5,500 BC cal. in Anatolia and the Aegean Basin, combined with a re-examination of the absolute chronology for the arrival of the first farmers.

Table of Contents:
List of Tables List of Figures Introduction Chapter 1. A Fast-Tracked Revolution? The Neolithic Transition in Europe as Seen from the East 1.1 The Neolithic: a changing de?nition 1.1.1 The Neolithic stage of culture 1.1.2 Food-gatherers and food-producers 1.1.3 The Neolithic "Revolution" 1.1.4 More than one Neolithic? 1.2 The two Neolithics of Anatolia 1.2.1 Anatolia, a land of two continents 1.2.2 The two thousand year lag: introducing the 14C Backbone 1.2.3 A fault-line between Central and Western Anatolia 1.3 Statement of the hypothesis Chapter 2. Approaches to the Spread of the Neolithic into Europe 2.1 A brief history of the research question 2.1.1 The search for the missing link 2.1.2 Regionalisation of scholarship? 2.1.3 Reviving the grand narrative 2.2 Current approaches of the spread of farming 2.2.1 When did farming spread to Europe? 2.2.2 Who spread farming? 2.2.3 Along which routes did farming spread? 2.2.4 What was spread? 2.3 Statement of the aims Chapter 3. A Method Based on Practices 3.1 Beyond similarities in material culture 3.2 Theoretical basis 3.2.1 A theory of action without agency 3.2.2 Practice and habitus 3.2.3 Change of practice 3.3 Outline of the approach 3.3.1 Practices with a material expression 3.3.2 Residential and construction practices 3.3.3 Contextual evidence 3.3.4 Interrelationship of practices 3.4 Data collection 3.4.1 Fieldwork 3.4.2 Nature of sources 3.4.3 Scope and terminology 3.5 Structure of the results Chapter 4. House "Closure" 4.1 House in?lling 4.1.1 Deliberate in?lling and utilitarian levelling 4.1.2 Types of in?ll deposits 4.1.3 "Closure" and renewal 4.2 The case of Building 80 at Catalhoyuk and the dynamics of change 4.3 House burning 4.3.1 The intentionality of burning 4.3.2 Burnt houses in Central and Southwest Anatolia 4.3.3 The destruction of entire horizons of houses 4.3.4 Why "close" houses with ?re? 4.4 Summary Chapter 5. House Replacement 5.1 Building on a tell 5.1.1 Tells and non-tells 5.1.2 On the distribution of tells 5.1.3 Mound formation and social practices 5.2 Vertical superimposition of houses 5.2.1 Re-cut houses and the onset of sedentism 5.2.2 Walls upon walls in Central Anatolia 5.2.3 Building plots in the Eastern Marmara region 5.2.4 Building continuity in the Aegean Basin 5.3 Horizontal displacement of houses 5.3.1 Shifts in the focus of occupation in Catalhoyuk V-IV 5.3.2 Horizontally drifting villages: Hacilar IX-I 5.4 Summary Chapter 6. Residential Burial 6.1 Sub-?oor burial 6.1.1 Burial under the ?oor of an active household: an archaeological de?nition 6.1.2 Living with the dead in Central Anatolia 6.1.3 Burial under ?oorboards in Northwest Anatolia? 6.2 In-?ll and inter-dwelling burials 6.2.1 New burial forms on the Anatolian Plateau 6.2.2 Intra-settlement burial: context of deposition and methodological implications 6.2.3 Communal burial grounds in the Eastern Marmara region 6.2.4 A conspicuous absence of burials: accounting for the exception 6.3 Summary Chapter 7. Spatial Organisation in the Rectangular House 7.1 Large room with an open ?oor plan 7.1.1 Near Eastern origins of the rectangular plan 7.1.2 Multi-roomed buildings in the Northern Levant 7.1.3 Scale up of the main room 7.1.4 Incorporation of domestic features in the fabric of the building 7.2 Division of the space into two ?ooring areas 7.2.1 The Catalhoyuk East house 7.2.2 The Ilipinar house 7.3 Axial orientation of the oven and the main doorway 7.3.1 Changes at Catalhoyuk 7.3.2 The Hacilar VI house 7.3.3 The "big house" at So? a-Slatina 7.4 Summary Chapter 8. Agglutination 8.1 Cellular house pattern 8.1.1 Contemporaneity on a horizontal plan 8.1.2 Radial boundaries 8.1.3 Terraces 8.2 Courtyard-house complexes 8.2.1 Emergence of courtyards at Catalhoyuk 8.2.2 Defended "farmsteads" in Southwest Anatolia 8.2.3 Houses and courts in Middle Neolithic Greece 8.3 Row houses 95 8.3.1 "Boundary" houses in the Eastern Marmara Region 8.3.2 Anatolian in?uence in Thrace? 8.4 Summary Chapter 9. Synthesis and Discussion: The Di?usion of Neolithic Practices from Anatolia to Europe 9.1 Chronological trajectories 9.1.1 A Neolithic frontier between Central and Western Anatolia (8,300-6,500 BC cal.) 9.1.2 Two pathways of Neolithic expansion (6,600-5,500 BC cal.) 9.2 Sorting practices into habitus of practices 9.2.1 The older set of practices 9.2.2 The younger set of practices 9.3 Step by step 9.3.1 From Central Anatolia to the Aegean Basin 9.3.2 From Central Anatolia to Thrace 9.4 Implications of the work for other aspects of the Neolithic Conclusion References Appendix A. Attributes of Neolithic Sites Appendix B. Attributes of Neolithic Buildings Appendix C. Quantitative Distribution of Neolithic Burials Appendix D. Geographic Distribution of Southwest Asian and European Sites

About the Author :
Maxime Brami was educated in the UK at the Universities of Bristol, University College London and Liverpool. Since completing his PhD in 2014, he has held two postdoctoral fellowships at the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna. He has worked on several Neolithic projects in Turkey, including Catalhoyuk, Barcin, Boncuklu, Cukurici and Ulucak.0pt;mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri;mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri'>

Review :
"[Brami's work] makes a substantial contribution to our understanding of the spread of the Neolithic across Anatolia and into Europe." Anonymous Reviewer "Deeply knowledgeable archaeological scholarship from someone who really knows the sites, material and issues he's talking about . [Brami] makes a very significant contribution by bringing together data from regions that are usually the sphere of separate specialists and synthesising it in a novel and productive manner." Prof. S.J. Shennan, Institute of Archaeology, UCL5pt;line-height: 105%;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;mso-bidi-font-family:Verdana'>