speakers) into Anatolia either ca. 2500 BCor ca. 3000 BC. Because the Anatolian
languages did not share with PIE the terms for a wheeled vehicle and its con -
stituents we must conclude that Proto-Anatolian and PIE had gone their separate
ways by the time, say 3300 BC, that wheeled vehicles were invented.^19 Moreover,
because by the time that wheeled vehicles made their appearance PIE had already
developed its distinctive lexicon, its feminine gender and its elaborate verb system,
we must say that the separation of PIE and Proto-Anatolian had occurred a very
long time before 3300 BC. The split between the Indo-European and the Anatolian
branches of Indo-Hittite could hardly have occurred any later than 4000 BCand
is more likely to have occurred by 5000 BC. That the Anatolian branch of Indo-
Hittite left a homeland in the north and migrated to Anatolia either ca. 4000 BC
or ca. 5000 BCis scarcely credible. Not only does the idea require the widely
discredited Volkswanderung, but it also conflicts with what archaeologists have
learned about Anatolian prehistory and the spread of a Neolithic economy.
Neolithic Anatolia was far from underpopulated. Quite to the contrary, when
we compare it to Europe and the Eurasian steppe we would have to say that its
Neolithic population was remarkably dense. Some of the earliest settlements
anywhere—whether in China, the Near East, or Sudan and Egypt—have been found
in eastern Anatolia. These settlements probably arose for the knapping of obsidian
(before metallurgy, obsidian was the most prized material for the making of cutting
tools and weapons) rather than for the production of food. Most important of the
sites is a village at Hallan Çemi, half way between Diyarbakır and Lake Van and
overlooking the Batman river, a tributary to the upper Tigris. The settlement at
Hallan Çemi has been dated ca. 10,000 BC, and the villagers may have produced
at least a small portion of their food (the excavators concluded that the villagers
kept domesticated pigs).^20 More certain than the pigs of Hallan Çemi is the
obsidian found at the site. The excavators found that obsidian was brought there
“from both the Van and Bingol areas and used extensively in all parts of the site.”^21
Down the Batman river from Hallan Çemi were two other settlements (Demirköy
and Körtik), which may represent relocations of the same community. Other very
early settlements stood along the upper Euphrates and its tributaries.
In the ninth millennium BCNeolithic settlements began appearing on the
plateau of central Anatolia. Possibly these were preceded by settlements in Cyprus,
where several sites dating to the ninth millennium BChave been found.^22 The
earliest known settlement in the Konya plain of Anatolia, where the annual
precipitation is rarely more than 300 mm (12 inches), was found under a small
mound at Pınarbaşi. Carbon dates indicate that the Pınarbaşi settlement lasted from
ca. 8500 to 8000 BC. The occupants of this village too were engaged in the knapping
of obsidian, and for their meat they depended on game animals.^23 In the Aceramic
and Early Neolithic periods the Konya plain had settlements large and small. In
the seventh millennium BCone of the largest settlements, evidently because of
the obsidian that could be collected on the slopes of Hasan Dağand knapped for
exchange, was the proto-city at Çatal Höyük, with a population of at least 5000.
More typical would have been villages like Hacilar, far to the west, with at most
a few hundred people. Mihriban Özbaşaran’s survey of the ninth to the sixth
6 Origins and spread of Proto-Indo-European