Late Pleistocene and early Holocene finds from the 2020 trial excavation at Girmeler, southwestern Turkey

Abstract

This paper represents a preliminary report of the results obtained from a sounding at the mouth of the Girmeler Cave in 2020. In addition, it also re-evaluates the data derived from the trail trenches previously opened in the same area. Girmeler is the only site in Western Anatolia that elucidates the transition from the late Pleistocene to the early Holocene. In Girmeler, radical changes were determined in the chipped stone industry between the late Pleistocene and the early Holocene, which reveals differences from the Antalya region and Central Anatolian. The late Pleistocene layers, characterized by geometric microliths, were replaced by a flake and bladelet based industry without geometric microliths and bears general similarities with the chipped stone industries from the Aegean islands sites of the early Holocene. The cave was likely inhabited by semi-sedentary hunter groups engaged in selective gathering and some agriculture, which lived in wattle-and-daub huts with lime plastered floor. © Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten / Peeters. All rights reserved.