Investigating the function of Pre-Pottery Neolithic stone troughs from Göbekli Tepe

An integrated approach

Starting from the Epipalaeolithic (c. 12,000–9600 BCE), but especially during the Early Neolithic of the Near East (Pre-Pottery Neolithic, PPN, 9,600–6,500 BCE), a wide range of stone vessels appear in site inventories (Wright, 2000). This period is linked to the Neolithization process, which included a fundamental change of human diet through the adoption of cereals as staple food (Bar-Yosef and Meadow, 1995; Bar-Yosef and Belfer-Cohen, 1989; Colledge, 2002; Harris, 2002; Kujit and Goring-Morris, 2002; Nesbitt, 2002; Akkermaans, 2004; Byrd, 2005; Willcox, 2005; Willcox et al., 2008; Zeder, 2011; Fuller et al., 2012; Asouti and Fuller, 2013; Arranz-Otaegui et al., 2016; Vigne, 2015; Weide et al., 2018, all with further bibliography).