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Frédéric
Gérard and Laurens Thissen (editors), The Neolithic
of Central Anatolia. Internal Developments and External Relations
during the 9th-6th Millennia CAL. BC., Proceedings
of the International Central Anatolian Neolithic e-Workshop
Table Ronde, Istanbul, 23-24 November 2001: Istanbul
2002, Ege Yayinlari, ISBN 975-807-052-5, Paperback, 348 pages.
Distributed by Ege Yayinlari (30 EUR) and by Oxbow Books (33.95
GBP).
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“CANeW, however, is an
interesting sort of conference. Unlike the annual
symposium in Ankara for instance, where the body
of knowledge gets its passport picture taken,
so to speak, in order to be presented to the bureaucracy
along with its official I.D. card, CANeW is more
like a family picture. Yet, not a snapshot. It
is a formal family dinner let’s say, where the
young and the old, uncles and aunts and cousins
meet, speaking within the family, yet not necessarily
all too sincerely. The gathering is among people
that are closely related, but it is not necessarily
a cozy one. The less so, perhaps, for this dinner
party is a first of its kind – gathering around
the same table, the young and the old, the youthful
and the wise, the closer and the more distant,
the joyful and the resentful, and so on.”
(Oguz Erdur, p. 285).
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It all began after a discussion among a
few archaeologists travelling to a common destination, in
a hot summer day of June 2000 on the way from Istanbul to
Aşagi Pinar, in Turkish Thrace. Taking into account the
new data gathered from vast researches started at the end
of the ‘80s and the beginning of the ‘90s (for instance,
Ufuk Esin at Aşikli Höyük, Ian Hodder at Çatalhöyük), they
decided to initiate a project dedicated to the Neolithic
in Central Anatolia. Consequently, in November of the same
year Frédéric Gérard and Laurens Thissen formed a closed
discussion group, made up of 12 researchers (Americans,
English, Dutch, French, Italians and Turks), who, via the
Internet, were supposed to exchange opinions, ideas and
data likely to contribute to a new understanding of the
Central Anatolian Neolithic societies from the 9th-6th millenia
CAL. BC. At the same time with the discussion group, an
flexible and dynamic website was created also, open to all
those interested in the theme proposed, where were published
the preliminary results of the project: syntheses of the
online dialogues, geo-archaeological maps with the site
distribution, radiocarbon databases, etc. (www.chez.com/canew/).
A year since the project started, the initiators have decided
to transform the discussion group into a free debate in
which anyone who wishes can take part. That resulted in
the organizing on the 23rd-24th of November 2001 of a round
table in Istanbul. It was not by chance that a city in Turkey
has been chosen for the event, as the organizers wished
all the students and researchers in the country about which
they speak to be present. At the same time, in order to
make it easier for all the participants to attend this round
table admission was free, while the cheapest accommodation
as well as the best transport offers in Istanbul were shown
on the website. Due to this policy, the number of the participants
was very high (over 100, 50 of whom Turks) and varied (Americans,
Australian, Belgian, British, Bulgarians, Germans, Greeks,
Israelis, Italians, Japanese, Dutch and Polish). Best represented
was the young generation of British, Dutch, French, German,
Italian and Turkish archaeologists. In order to prevent
this event from becoming a formal one, enhancing the participants’
bibliographical list (namely to strengthen their professional/social
status), the organizers decided to lay emphasis not on the
presentation of the papers (for which 20 minutes were allowed),
but on the debates brought about by each paper separately
(for which 40 minutes were allowed). Meanwhile, only those
papers tackling really important matters were accepted,
not the excavations report type. The topics approached were
varied, encompassing the following themes: proposals regarding
the absolute chronology of the Central-Anatolian Neolithic
(Craig Cessford; Peter Ian Kuniholm and Maryanne Newton),
the importance of geo-archeological maps related to the
distribution of Neolithic sites (Catherine Kuzucuoglu),
methodological discussions regarding the fieldwalking in
the region (Douglas Baird; Geoffrey Summers), the creation
of a useful regional terminology (Mihriban Özbaşaran and
Hijlke Buitenhuis; Jean Perrot), new perspectives regarding
the man-environment relation in Neolithic societies (Eleni
Asouti and Andrew Fairbairn; Louise Martin, Nerissa Russell
and Denise Carruthers; Henk Woldring), hypotheses regarding
the origin of the Neolithic in Central Anatolia (Didier
Binder; Güneş Duru), aspects of the cultural and homogeneity
and transformations of social systems in the region (Bleda
Düring; Frédéric Gérard; Roger Matthews; Laurens Thissen),
ethnicity (Isabella Caneva), the evaluation of the extent
and intensity of contacts between Central Anatolia and the
contiguous regions: South-East Anatolia, northern Levant,
Cilicia, the Lakes Region, the Egeean Sea and north-western
Anatolia (Harald Hauptman; Clemens Lichter; Mehmet Özdogan)
and an attempt at explaining the social representation by
analysing the symbolic repertoires from two important sites
of the Neolithic in Anatolia- Göbekli Tepe and Çatalhöyük
(Damien Bischoff). In the annex of the volume are published
two databases comprising the radiocarbon data (Laurens Thissen)
and, the Neolithic sites in Central Anatolia, respectively
(Frédéric Gérard).
Everyone was invited to join the debates, irrespective of
the hierarchy- students and teachers as equal participants.
Both for the papers and the debates only one international
language was used- English. All the debates were recorded
on tape, and then transcribed on paper, as later the texts
were presented on website in integrum. At the end of this
workshop the tapes were offered to Oguz Erdur for him to
make a “sociological evaluation” of the conference. His
evaluation materialized in one of the most intriguing articles
of the volume: Pages from the secret memoirs of a tape-transcriber:
a Nitzschean note on knowledge. This transcriptions were
also printed in a book only six months after the completion
of the project, owing to an independent publishing house.
For the printed volume, each participant was invited to
speak once again.
As well understood, while presenting this
volume I did not insist upon the “scientific” content itself
in the least. That not only out of competence reasons. I
just wanted to point out the story of this volume, the debates,
critical arguments and opinions, often contrary, that are
present in it. The papers, far from being simple statements
of solutions, become pretexts and starting arguments for
a type of debate understood as a series of questions whose
answers become questions in their turn expecting answers:
a number of readings of the past; a round table justified
by debates only, not the position in the academic hierarchy
or the appartenance to an age group.
After having read this volume one cannot fail to remark
that in Romania, unfortunately, we keep on showing the same
apathy towards the issueing of an archaeological work, lack
of interest in various archaeological issues, especially
those linked to the theoretical background of our discipline.
Today’s Romanian archaeology is a series of monotonous,
parallel discourses rarely intersecting.
I have red this volume with pleasure, as a play in which
one regrets being just a spectator gradually turns, while
reading, into the joy of taking part in a beautiful discussion
next to Frédéric Gérard, Laurens Thissen and their guests.
By Alexandru Dragoman
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