Description : Ulucak Höyük lies 25km east of İzmir in west-central Turkey. The site is not only among the earliest Neolithic settlements in the region, but its well-preserved building sequences also span a period of more than 1000 years (6800–5700 cal BC). Material evidence from Neolithic layers at Ulucak, represented by levels VI–IV, suggests a strong continuity, although with the introduction of some new elements through time. From c. 6500 cal BC onwards, pottery increasingly became an integral part of life in the Ulucak Neolithic community. The recent discovery, however, of a pottery workshop in Ulucak IVc, dated to 5840–6005 cal BC, represents the first and earliest evidence for such a specialised pottery production area, not only in Ulucak itself, but possibly also in the Near East.
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