Ergun, Müge

İstanbul Üniversitesi

Research Topic: Communal versus Household Aspects of Plant-Based Activities at Aşıklı Höyük: An Archaeobotanical Approach

Dr. Ergun is an archaeobotanist who holds a PhD from Istanbul University Prehistory Department and Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University Doctoral School of Archaeology (co-tutelle, 2016), and an MA from Istanbul University Prehistory Department (2009). Since her first encounter with archaeobotany in 2005, she has been investigating people-plant interactions and their effects on the economical and socio-cultural lives of communities with a special interest in the beginnings of agriculture. Her project at ANAMED considers this pivotal transition process and focuses on a key Aceramic site, Aşıklı Höyük (8500–7400 cal BC), which represents the beginnings of sedentary life and agriculture in Central Anatolia through its long and uninterrupted occupation sequence. The project’s aim is to explore the plant-based activities involving food preparation and consumption throughout 9th-millennium Aşıklı, by focusing on the plant remains from buildings that reflect communal or special uses, and comparing them with buildings that represent a more household aspect. Alongside contributing to our understanding on the communal and household activities and their evolution, the project intends to provide new insights to the socio-cultural life of Aşıklı community which is crucial for assessing the adoption of an agricultural way of life and Neolithization process, both in local and regional contexts.