A Building Type of the Burdur Region From the Neolithic Period

Abstract

The bulding type discussed in this article is seen over a long period in the Neolithic Era, from the EN to the LN, at centres such as Bademağacı, Höyücek and Hacılar in the Burdur Region. It is usually rectangular and the door is in the centre of the long wall and has an oven opposite the door. The earliest examples of this building type with an oven in the Burdur Region in the Neolithic Period have been identified from the Early Neolithic 3 (EN 3) level at Bademağacı. One of the important characteristics of the building type under discussion is its rectangular plan which is a little distorted in the Bademağacı buildings but clearer with straighter sides in the Höyücek and Hacılar examples. Apart from the addition of a stone foundation at Hacılar VI, the building materials appear to be similar in all the settlements. The combined use of plano-convex and rectangular bricks is seen at Bademağacı, Höyücek and Hacılar. However, the technique of constructing a wall by spreading mud to form layers is only seen at Bademağacı. It has been confirmed that wood used in all three settlements for door thresholds and supports. The roofs of the houses are thought to have been flat, constructed by forming a frame from tree trunks and branches, which was then covered with clay. The architectural traditions of the neighbouring areas in the Neolithic Period, however, are somewhat different. The as yet only partially excavated pre-EN3 levels at Bademağacı could give some idea of the prototypes of this building type. Bademağacı is only 40-50 km, as the crow flies, away from Beldibi in the Antalya Region, where the first pottery making experiments took place prior to the Neolithic Period. It is very likely that people left the coastal strip of the Mediterranean, which was not suitable for agriculture, crossed over to the north of the Taurus Mountains and, finding the small plain on which Bademağacı is situated to be suitable for agriculture, set up the first villages.