Page 20 - TINA Dergi Sayi 10

TINA

Denizcilik Arkeolojisi Dergisi

Fig.6: Fikirtepe kazısında bulunan balıklar.
Fig.6: The fishes recovered during the Fikirtepe Excavation.
In the case of Yarımburgaz, as well as at coastal the naviform-like blade core recovered at Küçük Çek-
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dunes, traces of Palaeolithic occupation seems to be mece, are from these scouting groups. How far north
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interrupted after Early Aurignacian. Nevertheless, they wandered is not clear, probably as far as indicat-
material assemblages typologically assignable to the ed by the earliest layer at Koprivets, almost up to the
Ağaçlı culture have been recovered at over 80 sites, shores of Danube. Whether these scouting groups
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almost all located on coastal terraces or estuaries. At had established permanent settlements or whether they
present, most of these sites are in the eastern part of were in tents is also not clear; at Aşağı Pınar we found
the basin, although there are sites yielding lithic as- only some pottery sherds from that initial stage, but no
semblages of the Mesolithic tradition also at Bandırma construction. Nevertheless, it seems evident that they
Plain, Gelibolu Peninsula, and Avşa Island. As has al- must have carried information back to core area, for the
ready been mentioned, due to a lack of excavated sites, reason that when a massive group of migrant farmers
it is not possible to establish a secure chronological arrived, they knew where they were going. They very
sequence of the Mesolithic communities. We consid- quickly established several settlements around the Bal-
er them to be later than most others along Mediterra- kans, always choosing the best possible location.
nean littoral; at the least, communities of Ağaçlı were First Permanent neolithic Settlements
in the region when Neolithic farmers arrived. Small Thanks to the increased number of excavated Neo-
blades, backed blades, cylindrical or prismatic cores, lithic sites, it became possible to differentiate among
micro-scrapers, and a few geometric microliths are Neolithic communities, each identified by the distinct
featured in Ağaçlı assemblages. composition of their Neolithic package. What be-
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Initial Stages Of neolithic Culture In the region comes apparent is that the Neolithic farmers arrived to
When Neolithic farmers began arriving in the Mar- the shores of the Marmara via two distinct routes, one
mara Region is not clear, however results from Barcın following the valley of the Sakarya River and the oth-
and Pendik indicate a date by the beginning of the 7 er coming through the Aegean littoral. It is evident
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th
millennium BCE. Nevertheless, it seems very likely that both are a consequence of the endemic movement
that there were some earlier random scouting groups of Neolithic farmers following the road from the core
wandering in the region. We surmise that the earliest area further in the east, probably triggered by informa-
pottery found at Aşağı Pınar and Barcın, along with tion the pioneer scouting groups supplied.

9 RUNNELS - ÖZDOĞAN 2001.
10 See especially GATSOV - ÖZDOĞAN 1994; ÖZDOĞAN - GATSOV 1998; ÖZDOĞAN 2013a
11 AYDINGÜN 2013; GERRITSEN et al. 2017; ÖZDOĞAN 2016, 2017
12 ELENSKI 2004; NİKOLOVA 2007
13 ÖZDOĞAN 2014, 2016, 2017.
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