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breaking the monopoly of the nodal Pre-Pottery Neolithic sites and the Middle Euphrates route. Obsidian now reached the northern Levant, which hitherto appears to have been settled by Mesolithic forest foragers, through the plain of Cilicia and the coast.

Stoneworking technologies and crafts

Although technology in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic is first and foremost lithic, we should flag the extraordinary finds of native copper from Çayönü, 200 artefacts and fragments in all, which are the earliest known metal objects in the Near East.104 Quantity aside, it is the sustained nature of the metallurgical activity, showing the development from cold hammering to the earliest stages of pyrotechnology, that is so important. Copper tools in the form of solid needles and reamers, hooks as well as beads and rings, begin to appear at the end of the early Grill building subphase. Most objects were hammered from nodules of copper that occurred naturally. Some were annealed and hardened. Even before this we find malachite pieces worked into small beads among the deposits of the Round hut subphase. Several thousand of these malachite beads were found throughout the pre-pottery deposits. This precocious metal working no doubt had much to do with the settlement’s location only 20 km from the rich copper mines at Ergani Maden. Even so, the use of copper during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A implies a detailed understanding of the region and its resources. While obsidian sources are for the most part conspicuous, copper ores are less accessible and embedded in the mountainous terrain. Native copper was also worked at As¸ıklı Höyük for grave goods, although not with such precociousness.105

By the early Pre-Pottery Neolithic B, pressure flaking techniques are introduced at Çayönü such as those used on Byblos points, and there is a greater exploitation of obsidian especially for the production of “Çayönü” double-backed blades. Broadly similar techniques and procurement patterns in earliest levels at Cafer, where microliths are particularly popular and the Çayönü blades are absent, confirm architectural parallels (Figure 3.15). Connections still largely point to the Zagros sites (Jarmo, M’Lefaat, and Magzalia), but we see attempts to communicate with villages in the Middle Euphrates region of Syria (Mureybit IV and Abu Hureyra). The initial preference for flint over obsidian (from Bingöl), the technique of bipolar knapping on naviform cores, and the popularity of certain stone tools (Byblos point) are seen as evidence for extensive networking.106 Naviform core technology used to produce long, straight blades from opposed platform-prepared cores is particularly noteworthy. These blades were used to manufacture large projectile points, which, as we shall see, have implications for increased conflict in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B. Further insight into the nature of these technologies is gained by a flint workshop at Hayaz located downstream of Gritille, where flint is also favored.107

In central Anatolia, obsidian was favored for stone tool production. It was procured from the Kayırlı and Nenenzi sources, near Göllüdag˘ , and brought to As¸ıklı as nodules for fashioning, although workshops are also found near the sources themselves.108 Among the variety of tools,

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East.114 Their finale, termed the Final Pre-Pottery Neolithic B or Pre-Pottery Neolithic C, witnessed a marked decline in every category of material culture, ending with either the abandonment of sites or their reduction in size.

To understand this episode we need to be reminded of the trajectory of the aceramic Neolithic, which, put simply, is as follows:

1Early Pre-Pottery Neolithic (and/or late Epipalaeolithic): Small settlements, occupied year round by complex hunters and gatherers, with modest communal spaces and public structures used for feasting and related activities that bonded the community.

2Late Pre-Pottery Neolithic (the dénouement): Large settlements with monumental temples and art, reflecting an elaborate cult, which was sustained by an organized economy, requiring a significant investment of energy by a hierarchically structured society.

3Final Pre-Pottery Neolithic: A deterioration of cultural activities that lead to sites being abandoned or shrinking in size. Either way it reflects a flow of population away from large sites and the establishment of a network of small sites across the landscape.

While this trajectory fits the rise-and-fall paradigm, Michael Rosenberg appropriately reminds us that bigger is not necessarily better.115 That is, the benefits reaped by individuals living in a large community can be offset by the effort they invest in maintaining the infrastructure, surpluses, and networks. Conversely, smaller groups experienced less stress, yet maintained a manageable and flexible lifestyle.

Two mechanisms appear to have enabled the shift to a reduction of site size. First came the full domestication of sheep and goats that provided farmers with more flexible subsistence strategies, which permitted them to exploit new ecological niches.116 This flexibility, in turn, coincides with the peopling of areas beyond the boundaries of the original formation zone, including the plateau and the west Anatolian region.117 Some have argued that, in the Levant at least, deteriorating climatic conditions such as aridity may have triggered this movement into new lands.118 However, this seems unlikely for Anatolia, where the extensive suite of pollen diagrams (see Chapter 1) show forests reached their peak about 7000 BC. If anything, the full expansion of the forest cover, limiting as it would suitable grazing areas, might have prompted groups to seek areas more conducive to farming.

How, then, can we explain the Anatolian scene? Rosenberg has put forward a persuasive idea, based on observed changes in stone technology, that merits serious consideration.119 Towards the end of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic the lithic repertoire is distinguished by the utilization of naviform cores from which long, straight-sided blades were struck. Whereas smaller blades produced from earlier techniques could have been shaped into a variety of forms, only blades knapped from naviform cores were big enough to manufacture large projectile points that were attached to the shafts of spears or javelins. Given issues of balance and aerodynamics, these large points were not suited as arrowheads, but designed for accurate and forceful penetration at close range. Some points were also designed to snap once they had hit their target, so that

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