From Ubaid to the Late Chalcolithic in South-Eastern Anatolia

The common narrative regarding the Chalcolithic of Eastern Anatolia is that related to the events of Mesopotamia, namely the "intrusive" expansion of Ubaid at the end of the 6th millennium and the following emergence of a local Late Chalcolithic in the mid 5th millennium BCE. However, recent work in Northern Mesopotamia has started to show that the relationship between the two phases is definitely less clear than it was thought before. At the same time, the development of the Late Chalcolithic cultures as local reactions to the Ubaid or as local forms of adaptation is being evaluated. Through the analysis of the 5th millennium levels of the Upper Euphrates site of Arslantepe and the North Mesopotamian site of Asingeran, our paper shall propose a chronological comparative phasing of the two regions, a characterization of the settlements in these periods, and a critical evaluation of the temporal subdivision in use (Ubaid-LC1-LC2). By drawing on data from other known Chalcolithic sites of the Upper and Middle Euphrates and Upper Tigris the networks of relation between these areas shall also be evaluated.