Aşıklı Höyük
Aşıklı Höyük · Asikli Hoyuk · Aşıklı · Musular
Aceramic Neolithic (PPNB equivalent)·Central Anatolian Neolithic·🇹🇷 Aksaray Province, Cappadocia, Turkey
About
About Aşıklı Höyük
Pre-Pottery Neolithic tell (c.8200–7400 BCE) on the Melendiz in Cappadocia, earliest village with brain surgery (trepanation) and animal pen dung layers showing caprine management toward domestication. Ufuk Esin's long excavations uncovered agglutinative mudbrick quarters with no streets (roof entry like Çatalhöyük), obsidian workshops (from nearby Göllü Dağ), and 70 plastered burials under floors. Key to Central Anatolian Neolithization independent of Levant.
Why it mattersEarliest trepanation; dung evidence for pre-domestic herding; Central Anatolian Aceramic sequence.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Why trepanate — medicine or ritual?
- 02How dung-managed caprines became domestic?
Theories
- 01Obsidan trade created sedentism
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- c.8200–7400 BCE
- Period
- Aceramic Neolithic (PPNB equivalent)
- Culture
- Central Anatolian Neolithic
- Builders
- Cappadocian hunter-farmers
- Purpose
- Sedentary village, obsidian exchange, early herding
- Abandoned
- c.7400 BCE
- Rediscovered
- 1960s Ian Todd; 1989– Esin excavations
- Excavation
- Excavation ongoing
1989
Istanbul Univ. excavations begin
c.7600 BCE
First dung pen layers
On the ground
Structures & features
38.3480° N · 34.2260° E · 1110 m · 3 mapped features
HV communal area
houseAgglutinative quarter with burial floors
38.3482° N · 34.2262° EDung pen layer (Level 4)
middenLaminated caprine dung — herding evidence
38.3479° N · 34.2258° EObsidian workshop
workshopGöllü Dağ obsidian knapping
38.3481° N · 34.2261° E
Gallery