Barcın Höyük, a seventh millennium settlement in the Eastern Marmara region of Turkey

Recent excavations at the site of Barcın Höyük provide a detailed view of a settlement founded and inhabited during the early stages of the Neolithic of the Marmara Region of northwestern Anatolia. The occupation history of the site complements and extends further back in time the regional sequence as it had been established for the eastern Marmara Region on the basis of excavations at nearby Mentese, Aktopraklık and Ilıpınar, and Fikirtepe and Pendik in the Istanbul environs. The site of Barcın Höyük is therefore of critical importance for our understanding of the initial neolithisation of northwestern Anatolia. This paper summarizes some of the main findings of the Barcın Höyük excavations with regard to the Neolithic occupation phases.