The Settlement Pattern in Central Anatolia and Aşıklı Höyük

Abstract

Early sedentary villages in Southwest Asia emerged approximately 11 thousand years ago. Permanent buildings replaced temporary structures. Through time building materials, construction techniques and settlement organizations formed, evolved and improved contextually, due to the cultural and physical geography of the settlement. The case in this paper deals with the earliest settlement of Aşıklı Höyük, located in south Central Anatolia. The region today is known by its historical name as Cappadocia. Aşıklı Höyük was first inhabited temporarily, probably seasonally, prior to the permanent settlement during the mid-9th millennium BCE. The long habitation sequence, between mid-9^th to late 8^th millennium BCE, displayed the development of specific building techniques, building plans, architectural features, use of space and space organization, where similar patterns were also observed in some of the succeeding sites in the region. Thus, horizontally and vertically developed characteristics of the settlement pattern, can be considered as Central Anatolian settlement model where Aşıklı Höyük presents its earliest example. The 2020 campaign at Aşıklı Höyük aimed to protect and display this settlement model through the reconstruction of part of the 8^th millennium BCE settlement, in an area of 10 x 20 meters.