Before the Revolution: Epipaleolithic Subsistence in the Western Taurus Mountains, Turkey

The author investigates changes in local hunter-gatherer adaptations during the Terminal Pleistocene in the Western Taurus Mountains of Turkey, a crucial but largely unknown portion of the Near East. A comprehensive zooarchaeological analysis of archaeofaunas from two cave sites in the Mediterranean Region of Turkey provides insights into the social and economic transformations of the societies living in the region before the emergence of agricultural economies. The book presents an analysis ofarchaeofaunal assemblages from Karain B and Öküzini caves encompassing the part of the Epipaleolithic period that extends from approximately 20,000 to 14,000 calibrated years BP. This period covers the end of the Last Glacial and is marked by the intensified exploitation of resources and the emergence of a series of significant changes in the hunter-gatherer lifestyle. Thus, a period of rapid cultural and environmental change forms the interpretive context.