Muhammed Eyyub DALAR

Hatice Tosyagülü ÇELİK

Neolithic settlements of the Upper Tigris Basin, prehistoric human-animal and environmental relations provide very important data from past to present. Zooarchaeological studies have been carried out in the Upper Tigris Basin from the 1980s to the present, at various times and for various purposes. Among them are the settlements of Körtiktepe, Hallan Çemi, Gusir Höyük, Hasankeyf Höyük, Demirköy, Çemka Höyük and Boncuklu Tarla from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic (PPN) Period, while the settlements of Çayönü from the Pottery Neolithic period (PN), Next to Salat Mosque, referee Use, Sumak Höyük and Kerkuşti Höyük. The faunal remains of which zooarchaeological studies were carried out in these Neolithic settlements are approximately 55,046. In addition to the faunal remains, there are micro and macrobotanical remains that provide an understanding of the environmental conditions of the period, housing structures showing their social organizations, stone tool industries related to hunting factors and symbolic products showing the forms of belief, nutrition. The fauna, flora, architecture, tomb, symbolism and stone tool remains found in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic and Pottery Neolithic settlements allowed the human-animal-environment relations of the Basin to be reconsidered and examined. This study focuses on the nutritional habits of the first inhabitants of the Upper Tigris basin, as well as the development of their relations with animals in the transition from hunting to pastoralism. In addition, ethnographic, ethno-archaeological, ethno-zoo-archaeological and anthrozoological data were used to support human-animal relations of prehistoric Neolithic societies. In general, in this study, it is aimed to contribute to the prehistoric literature by presenting a new perspective on the Anatolian Neolithic, especially the West Asian Neolithic.

Keywords: Southeastern Anatolia, Pre-Pottery Neolithic, Pottery Neolithic, Anthrozoology, Zooarchaeology, Ethno-zooarchaeology